Por Júlia Abrahão
“Neil opened his eyes again, looked at the court, and knew he’d made the right decision,
The risks didn’t matter, the consequences would be worth it.
He had to be here.
He had to play on this court at least once.
He had to know if the crowd screamed loud enough to blow the roof off. He had to smell the sweat and overpriced stadium food. He needed to hear the buzzer sound as a ball slammed inside the white goal lines and lit the walls up red.
“Oh,” Nicky said, leaning against the wall a short ways down from Neil. “No wonder he [Kevin] chose you.”
Sakavic, 2013
The first book of the All for the Game trilogy, The Foxhole Court, was published as an ebook back in 2013 by author Nora Sakavic. The trilogy follows the story of Neil Josten, the runaway son of The Butcher, a vicious crime lord working for the Japanese mafia. He joins the palmetto state university exy team despite the risk of being found by his fathers men. Exy being the fictional sport played in the books, it’s also Neil’s one and only passion in life, though as he finds his place in the team he slowly starts to reopen himself to others.
Now, the curious thing about these books is it’s self sustaining fandom. The books were released only digitally, with their prices below a single dollar. They were written by an unknown writer at the time without even having cover arts. However, when looking the series up, there is a strong cult following that keeps growing by the day. The All for the game fandom is wide and thriving even though it came from such a humble beginning and hasn’t had new official content since 2014 when the last book was published. And how is that? Well, the fandom is self sustainable, something that has been seen more and more the past decade. This phenomenon happens when the fandom takes it in their own hands to promote the original content, while also creating new content and debating it, constantly keeping the community alive despite the lack of official releases. For illustration, I’ll compare The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins , an incredibly well know and beloved book series with widely successful movie adaptations, to the All for the Game books that do not have the same success or reach, in the ambit of the quantity of fanfiction available today on one of the main fanfiction platforms of the last decade, Archive Of Our Own(AO3). The Hunger Games trilogy was published in 2008, making it 5 years older than All for the game, with its adaptations going from 2012 to 2015, and has about 13.500 fanfics in AO3.all for the game has about 10.200 fanfics. When accounting only the year of 2021, All for the Game contains a significantly bigger amount of fanfictions than The Hunger Games. There are two conclusions to be taken from this data; one that Sakavics series is currently more relevant in the fandom community than Collins iconic trilogy, despite being over for longer and not having the same consumer attention; and two that data is the fruition of 100% fan labor. I personally think that’s freaking awesome since it perfectly shows the power of online fandoms in the modern world.
Now, if that doesn’t make readers curious enough about this particular series, then I shall discuss one of the reasons I believe the books are so beloved in the fandom community in general. It is undeniable that fanfiction is one of, if not the most relevant type of literature today. Despite the bad reputation it holds, when looking beyond the stereotypical misconception that fanfiction equals bad written overly dramatic parodies of the official content, you will find that fanfiction is one of the biggest pillars in fandom maintenance. Fan generated content is a powerful marketing tool for any form of entertainment in the XXI century, especially good quality fan generated content. First it’s important to remember many of the big names in YA literature today were once fanfiction writers, like The Shadowhunters World’s Cassandra Clare, so to say fanfiction doesn’t have high quality writers is nothing more than a grand misconception. But how does it tie into the triumph of All for the Game? It’s simple, all for the game embraces every factor of fandom culture, especially fanfiction.
For starters, Nora Sakavic is active in social media platforms like tumblr, where a big chunk of her consumers are, providing answers to the fandom debates and incentivizing fan generated content. However, that’s just a bonus, the main detail in Sakavic’s work that lures readers so much is it’s extensive use of fanfiction tropes. While there are a lot of plot points common in storytelling in all media, fanfiction has been in the forefront of the rise of quite a few of the tropes people love today, while also keeping its set of favorites within the community. Sakavic is not scared to utilize fanfiction techniques in her work to its full potential. Others have tried this to the result of clichê cringy narratives, such as the Wattpad phenomenon After by Anna Todd, but Sakavic skillfully constructs her story in such a way that attends to all the wishes fanfiction readers could have while maintaining the content polished for the average reader. Furthermore, it leaves a desperate need for more, which is available in the rich fandom culture, creating the perfect consumer trapping machine, making sure you not only consume the original content but remain active in the fandom after the fact.
“We’re not all bad, just so you know,” Matt said […]. “Dan hated that your first impression of us would be the do-nothings [Andrew, Aaron, Nikcy and Kevin]. She was pretty sure you wouldn’t stick around long enough to meet the rest of us. […]”
“They’re interesting,” Neil said.
“Interesting,” Matt repeated. “That’s the tamest description of them I’ve ever heard.”
Sakavic, 2013
Let’s take a look at what I believe are the three main tropes that serve as base for the All for the Game series: Found Family, Hurt/Comfort and LGBTQ+ main character. Found Family, family of choice, team as family etc.. are all fanfiction tropes that are extremely beloved by the fandom community. Found Family occurs when a group of non biologically tied individuals create a safe relationship among them generating the feeling of home that biological families should. To feel more connected to friends than to family is a common human experience that speaks to the masses, specially those with complicated domestic situations such as the LGBTQ+ community. In all for the Game, the Exy team is composed of talented teens and young adults but with messy backgrounds, the “screwups”. The emotional connection forged between them while figuring out how to fit the new teammate in the group dynamic is heartfelt and incredibly interesting to read.
The second trope to be discussed is the Hurt/comfort trope, also represented by its similar counterparts such as Angst, Angst and fluff, Angst with happy ending and etc… This is the moment I advise the readers to check the trigger warnings before reading this series, since it contains serious topics such as self harm and ptsd. The hurt/comfort trope characterizes stories that have painful or sad plot points but that are satisfactorily softened later on. That combined with Found Family, create a common duo in fanfiction that revolves around characters supporting each other through unfortunate events and trauma recovery. To be cared for and loved is a natural human need that gets exploited in the All for the Game books. The last trope doesn’t need much explanation, considering the lack of representation of the LGBTQ+ community in all forms of entertainment that the fanfiction culture tries to make up for. All for the game also gains extra points for depicting one of the lesser known sexualities: the demisexuals.
All in all, All for the Game is a contemporary YA with heavy topics and good comic relief. The sport theme is well crafted without being overbearing, allowing the non sport lovers to understand and even enjoy that aspect of the story. The characters are lovable and imperfect in the most human ways possible and the storyline is dramatic with a sad realism to it. I’m not gonna lie and say that this series is for everybody because it’s not, however despite the conflicting opinions, I believe it is actually a good quality contemporary narrative that will surely satisfy readers that find interest in it. As always I finish it off with my favorite quote from the trilogy and my own fanart.
“Andrew was watching him, still perched on the edge like he had a death wish. Neil wasn’t sure why he did it, but he plucked Andrew’s cigarette off the sidewalk and stuck it between his lips. He tipped his head to meet Andrew’s unwavering gaze and tapped two fingers to his temple in Andrew’s mocking salute.”
Sakavic, 2013
