Percy Eskridge

Percy Eskridge was a defender on the Zwangzug national football team in World Cup cycles 68 and 69. He played for Spenson Suburbia at domestic level, and would later become manager of Ephesian FC. Unfortunately, his spirited leadership in the football world would be marred by his later life, as his anti-government "resistance" sentiment gave way to violence in the Anniversary Incident.

Eskridge's tenure on the national team was relatively sedate; he did not crack the starting lineup, although he did engage in speculation about the potential for werewolves. After World Cup 69, Zwangzug temporarily ceased to exist; they returned later, with various cities having been plagued by bizarre, and potentially board game-related, crises. Accusations of lycantrophy ran high in the FTC; anti-establishment "resistance" feeling was common in Zwischen, and Eskridge was praised as prophetic. Though Spenson were only thirteeth in Season 11 (the first after the hiatus), he became an icon among fans. By season 13, Spenson were qualifying for UICA play. A season later, he would move to Zwischen and become a coach. Season 15 saw Ephesian come fourth, defeating Spenson on the final day but still trailing them on goal difference.

On what may have been the tenth anniversary of Zwangzug's emergence into the international community (time dilation is hard), a group of seven members of Parliament began a furtive series of missions that pitted resistance members fighting to expose the government's secrets against spies battling to preserve them. Ultimately, the "spies" prevailed, though further developments during later World Baseball Classics would see some of the resistance's hopes of transparency realized as well. Things came to a head at the landmark Ziggurat, where the spies took two of the resistance parliamentarians captive. Eskridge got wind of the plot in time to try to rescue them, alongside Javi, a mysterious ally from the Shell Shock Troop Clan. Despite the tense circumstances, Javi chose to save the life of loyalist representative Virginia Tosla; Eskridge, furious at what he saw as a betrayal, retaliated by murdering Javi with a crossbow. He then reset the bomb that had been disabled by the spies, hoping to single-handedly detonate the Ziggurat. However, this was identified as a threat to the capital by the sophisticated Project Zeitnot technology, which had the effect of dumping him back in time so that it, and he, exploded simultaneously with the Lilliputian Freedom Fighters terrorist attack of some time prior. (The existence of this time-altering technology, of course, was one of the secrets the loyalists were trying to protect.)

The football federation of Zwangzug wishes to assure you that we respect the Narrative Desensitization Quota and that the vast majority of our players will not have silly plotlines like this, but every once in a while, stuff happens.