If I have Xander out, but played varsity training on him, can I play AFIN?
Assuming Xander was your only companion, you should now have no companions in play and you can play AFIN. Ascending companions If you made Jenny a Hero with varsity training and then the rest of your companions got Circle of Kayless-ed, then you could use “A friend in need” to get Jenny’s Lv.2, because the Level 2 card says it’s a companion. It wouldn’t change into a Hero until after you had played the L2 onto the L1 Jenny and the varsity training started to affect it.