It started so innocently. A few people at work got really into this one multiplayer game, I forget exactly when, sometime last winter. They'd talk about it constantly during lunch, in the group chat, after meetings. At some point someone asked if I played and instead of just saying no I said "yeah a bit, not seriously though". I don't even know why I said it. It just came out.
That should have been the end of it. Except then they kept bringing it up and I kept nodding along and adding vague things like "yeah that update was rough" or "I haven't had much time lately" and it just kept working. Nobody questioned it. Turns out if you sound mildly bored about something people assume you're experienced enough to be over the hype.
So I started actually reading about the game online. Patch notes, subreddits, YouTube videos. Not to play it, just to maintain the lie. At this point I probably knew more about it than some people who actually played. I knew the meta, I knew which characters were broken, I knew the drama around the last season. I was a fraud with genuine expertise.
Then someone organized a team thing on a Friday evening. Casual, just for fun, bring your laptop. I said I had plans. The next time they did it I said I was tired. Third time I ran out of excuses and showed up with a laptop and zero actual hours in the game.
I installed it that afternoon. Spent about two hours watching beginner guides. Showed up, got absolutely destroyed every single round, and my coworker who'd been playing for eight months looked at me and said "I thought you said you played this". I told him I mostly played a different mode. He seemed to accept that. I still don't fully understand why.
I quietly uninstalled it the following week and haven't mentioned it since. Nobody has either. I think we all just agreed without words to never speak of it again.