What I'm looking forward to about the tournament, besides that it's been built up as a potentially crucial moment for Ian, is a brief change of pace. A hefty amount of attention has been paid to Ian's book nerd side, and it'll be nice to give more attention to the gym rat side.
Personally I don't mind the occasional mini-game in a VN, and Eva's have been fine imo. The pool games could get Ian a little extra money early on, the drug trip was amusing if not particularly useful to the plot, and the sparring with Jeremy was helpful to get me a little more keyed into what MMA involves, as it's not a sport I've encountered before. I actually really like the lyrics mini-games with Lena, and it's nice to get stats out of them.
I'm guessing the tournament will be a little different, because I'm guessing there will be more plot involved, and maybe also more turn-based choices, kind of like the pool games but not as light-hearted as those were.
And I'm interested to see who Ian's opponent(s) will be. We've all been speculating about that here for a long time now...
I agree it would be fun to have Ian's female friends - of whatever relationship status - in the audience. You can already see it, right? Holly would be hiding under her seat, Lena would be cheering Ian on enthusiastically, Cindy would be distracted because she just broke a nail, Emma would be screaming for Ian to clock the other guy, Alison would be screaming at the other guy, threatening his life if he touches one hair on Ian's head, Ivy would jump to the side of the ring and drop her top at the right moment to distract the other guy so Ian can roundhouse him...
