Spoiler Actually this makes perfect sense. The MC star is meteoric and hes becoming untouchable so they resorted to the only thing they had left - brute force. I loved the direction it took as it IMO is clearly a plot device to create future storylines but also going to be pivotal for Damien redemption. Your talking a fight that we saw through MCs eyes but its the word of you, Ardyn, Bella, Skye and Harper (the latter three missed most of it so cant verify why it started) as well as of course the mom who almost killed several people lol vs Ryker, Gorg, piece of shit Shinji, random black dude and Damien. Your gonna get conflicting statements about who started what but we do know that well... they ended up worse off in the scuffle and if there are two potential influencers with axes to grind then this is a good chance to introduce them into the fore.
The story was too wishy washy with a guy who could do no wrong, no fucking way was that gonna continue with Ryker a clear and not hiding his intent threat to said winning in life. All of a sudden lines have very clearly been drawn, more side characters have been developed and your looking at a much more unified team as the likes of Skye and Ardyn came out guns blazing for you (i assume Dibuki, Lee etc will also be onside) so going forward there is a foundation to make the basketball team story work without the likes of Kenji and Ryker around who would sabotage every game. Damien now has been exposed for being around these tosspots so his GF all of a sudden sees you in more sympathetic light (and becomes another LI) and well weve got the mother fully integrated and in the story too. Only question marks i have are the newest characters and where they will stand... Bella is obvious enough but random masked guy? the rainbow girls? not sure if i trust any of them yet but you gotta leave more mystery for future storylines.
This was actually IMO the best update BD has done yet. He even mocked his own 100 miles an hour storytelling and development i tease him often enough about here via Rachel dialogue but this was well paced, well written, believable and honestly has me hyped for the next update... far more than potential of fucking some tiny princess did last time which was also IMO things maybe getting a bit too loose storywise and all over the place. Things are back on track and converging now and as such great work BD, amazing work here (and ive not even mentioned the sex scenes... finally more Liz and friends no less!)