It's not an arcade game—there is no crack of the bat or roar of the crowd or even much in the way of a screen display—but for the true fan, there is the excitement of mathematically structured matchups of real current and past teams with a more-than-passing resemblance to real-life outcomes.

A narrow mail collar defends the knight's throat. […] while the passe garde on the left shoulder is higher, so as to protect the neck from a sweeping […]

How should he know or guess or what?

Van got a really bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, Dallas was right, he should have 'noped-out' of the whole situation. Such thoughts were simply moot at this stage however.