The end of the professional tennis season was coming. The Burke Cup for men ended the season. The League Cup opened it up for the women. Breaca was offered one of the slots to compete if they included the boys. Lots of people worldwide had seen the way the Idut brothers dominated the courts in the Futures Tour. They also did very great in their IPTB 250 debuts. So much so, they launched themselves into the top 500 of the world. It was a bit of a liberal agenda to include these omega males in this context. If they did well here, they could be seen as figures representing their nation as omegas. They would also be representing omega males all over the world. It would be good to see them in this event for the first time. Even in the most liberal and progressive countries, those omega pros got blown out by alpha semi-pros. There was something to be said about the differences in biological strength between them. In sports, that really meant a lot. The boys were the strongest in the world. Breaca's initial response was very conflicted. The alphas did not want this. Not at all.
Omegas playing on a national level as representatives would risk the social order they wanted to maintain. However, alphas only made up 19% of the global population in the game. It varied from country to country, but it was largely stable between most states. While alphas naturally rose to the top of society, there was a matter of sheer numbers of people affected. Betas made up 70% of the population. Omegas made up another 10% of the population of the country. Breaca was a relatively small and unknown entity on the world stage. They sent people to this world's version of the Olympics, but no one ever expected much. People wanted something to be proud of. It was something that could not be denied. National identity was important, but so was national pride. This was the first time that Breaca was chosen by the IPTB to compete in the cup. It was as a wild card, but that was still amazing. They only chose the best 16 nations each year and they were usually pretty static. The 16th ranked nation was pissed. The idea of pissing off 80% of the nation was untenable.
News spread really fast. The Breaca national tennis committee had to make a big choice. That was whether to accept or reject the invitation. It put them in a bind. The all alpha committee members would rather die than ask 4 omega males to join the team. Obviously, they wanted to reject it. But it was not just up to them. The IPTB was an international organization of tournaments, players, referees and interested fans from all over the world. If they refused here, it would be a PR nightmare. People would call them bigots. That was bad for their image. Boycotts and protests could happen for other sports. The IPTB certainly would never give them any other opportunities or favors in the future. It was team tennis. That meant the 4 would form 2 doubles teams. It was just like in their high school national tournaments. They could handle that. It led to a flurry of public discourse. People either wanted them to play in the cup or not. Petitions going both ways were sent into the national committee and the federal government. After a debate, it was mandated by law that they be accepted.
