The match gradually transitiooward the mid-game. Yuel's team was leading with a 2-0 in terms of kills, one kill by Lars and one kill by Roi. The kill t alone usually didn’t tell the eory uhere was a huge lead but, in this case, it was a fairly accurate representation of the game’s state: Yuel’s team was in a superior position.

  Not enough. Yuel knitted his brows. It's great they scored two kills during the early-game, but the pace slowed down ever since.

  Howard and Ellen fortified their defenses and Yuel couldn’t find another opportunity to set up a kill. The Impulse Bomb py worked splendidly for the first time, but it won’t wain. Likewise, Gregory turtled up in Top Laer his first death. As a result, Roi couldn't score any additional kills.

  To be absolutely sure the team will dominate mid-game, Yuel wa least one more kill. The damage outputs of both Trickshooter and Dark Knight dropped off during mid-game, so another kill by Lars or Roi was o pensate for that. It was especially important in Dark Knight's case, which er early-game css.

  But, how to get this one more kill? The enemy's defense was tight, as expected from a team led by Howard. With Hoying in Bot, it was a given that killing Ellen would be difficult. However, even Gregory did a spectacur job staying alive while maintaining minimal ne trol, despite pying oher side of the map.

  Was Gregory always this good at defense? No, it must have been Howard's influence. Howard khat Roi would destrory if they cshed on the ne, so he must have trained Gregory to turtle effitly. Though, it was unclear why Gregory didn't employ this defensive pystyle right from the start. Did he think he could beat Roi in 1v1 and that made him go against Howard’s orders?

  Either way, Top was sealed against kills. Yuel sent Dan to gank the ne a few times, but that approach didn’t see much success. Venomancer wasly the best at finishing off weakened oppos, his specialty lied in demolishing tanks. Therefore, even though Yuel coordinated Dan’s ganks to strike at the best timing possible, Gregory always slipped away.

  Is that also Howard’s work? Yuel pondered. Gregory’s defense improved leaps and bounds during this short week, but that wasn’t enough time to develop such acute deaking. Howard must have been the one issuing the timely retreat orders fory.

  It seemed unlikely anybody would be able to score any kills in Top any time soon. Likewise, getting another kill in Bot seemed like a lost cause as long as Howard was there. Thus, only Mid Lane remained.

  While Gregory was turtling, Roi rotated to Mid a few times. That was one of the most effit responses against overly defensive oppos. While Gregory was busy clearing the remains of the minion wave, Roi had the freedom to leave the ne aher steal camps ank other nes. Mid Lane was the closest, sanked Gilbert.

  Unfortunately, it never led to a kill because Gilbert was alrepared. One moment, Gilbert was aggressively pushing against Julia, but the moment he was already retreating. As a pyer who boasted a great bance of offense and defense, Gilbert was capable of quickly switg gears from offeo defense and vice-versa. It’s like he just pressed a button and his entire pystyle did a 180.

  So, it was virtually impossible to catch Gilbert off-guard without some eborate trick. Yuel had a few ideas in mind.

  “Roi, let's try the Recall Feint.”

  “Lol, starting the mind games? Ok, ok. love this one.” Roi dialed his aggression up to eleven and pressured Gregory with everything he had. It wasn't a very effective approach against a turtling oppo, but the goal wasn't to kill Gregory. Roi just had to exhaust his own resources.

  “Julia,” Yuel pihe map. “Pce a Sentry here and see if they got any Wards.”

  “Just a sec,” Julia did as she was told and pced a Sentry Ward. As Yuel suspected, there was an enemy Ward there. Julia cleared it with a single basic attack.

  Good, the “Recall Feint” was ready to go. The preparations for this py were on the costly side, but it’ll be worth it if Roi score another kill.

  “Okay, I'm ready,” Roi called out. “Let's see if this works.” He retreated just enough to stay at the edge ory's field of vision and formed a magical circle. It was the familiar animation for the Recall skill which sent pyers back to base.

  “Roi is recalling,” Gregory announced and sighed in relief. That ret hyper-aggression from Roi was nothing to s. Even while turtling like some wuss, Gregory found himself pressured by Roi's relentless attacks. That was some scary shit, it might even keep Gregory awake at night, kek.

  But, that's behind him now. With Roi gone from the ne, Gregory could also recall now. At least, after he clears all these pesky enemy minions...

  “Wha!?” Gilbert excimed a moment ter. A thuorm formed in Mid Lane! Bolts struck from the sky!

  Her ult!? Why now? But, I get away. Gilbert rolled out of the range of Thuorm after two bolts struck him. “Julia's ult is down. Not sure why she eve for it, maybe a misclick.”

  “Iing,” Howard narrowed his eyes. Julia has been pying defensively until now, so why cast Thuorm out of blue? Gilbert wasn’t low enough to get killed by two hits of Thuorm and Julia wasly in a great position to follow up with atack. Sure, she dealt det damage with this py and Gilbert will have to py more cautiously for a while, but that wasn’t a good payoff for spending such a powerful AoE ult.

  Did she want til out of position? Howard sed the area around Gilbert's escape path. Maybe it wasn’t a very importaail, but Julia cast her Thuorm at the bottom half of the ne. As a result, the top half was the most logical pce filbert to flee towards.

  Was there anything around Top Jungle? A Ward revealed Dan in Bot Jungle just retly, so there was no way he’ll gank from Top Jungle. Yuel and Lars were right in Howard’s fa Bot Lane, so they had nothing to do with this situatioher.

  And the st suspect, Roi, just recalled to base. He already bought Blink, so it's extremely unlikely he could afford Teleport on top of that. Therefore, Roi had no way to... wait.

  “Gil,” Hoihe map. “What happeo the ward over there?”

  “Julia took it out a short time ago. I didn't have the ce to repce it yet.”

  Julia pced a Sentry over there? On top of all the other wards, she has been spreading everywhere? Howard found this odd.

  The Sentry Ward iion was close to Top, in an area which should have been outside Julia's jurisdi. The Ward which Gilbert inally pced there was supposed to warn him against rotations from Top that may catch him off-guard from behind. However, for Julia, having a Ward over there didn't severe much purpose. Knowiendency to ward every nook and y, she must have already pced better wards all over the pce.

  Hrm. Between this odd Sentry Ward op Lane and Julia's sudden aggression which pushed Gilbert toward Top Jungle... Wait, it couldn't be! Was this one of Yuel's tricks!?

  “Gil, retreat! I think Roi is rotating.”

  “But, I told ya,” Gregory intervened. “Roi recalled to base”

  “Did you see him actually finish the recall?”

  “Yep, I saw him vanish and all.”

  “From what distance?”

  “Huh?”

  “From what distance did you watch him!?”

  “Um, he was kinda far away...” Gregory adjusted his gsses. What was this about anyway?

  “Then,” Howard's expression turned grim. “There's a ce he blinked instead of finishing the recall. From far away, you won't hear Blink’s sound and it won't look any different from vanishing because of Recall. Gil, retreat!”

  “Already started,” Gilbert was in the middle of dashing toward his side of the ne. As, the response was too slow - Roi was already here! As the feared, he didn't recall after all. It was a Recall Feint!

  “Tai,” Howard called out. “Get to Mid and help Gil deal with Roi.”

  “Gotcha, fam!”

  This will be rough. Gilbert grimaced in front of the Dark Knight. Roi only had 30% HP and 20% MP, which was a believable reason for recalling to base. However, at the same time, it was also more than enough resources for a Dark Knight to finish off a squishy mage during the early game.

  Gilbert absolutely couldn’t die here. Feeding the Dark Knight even a little would spell doom for the eeam. He had to get out. Now.

  Unfortunately, Gilbert hasn’t bought Bli. Until now, he had been keeping himself alive through timely retreats and Eldritightmare. The good news: Eldritightmare was out of cooldown. The bad news: Gilbert didn't have enough MP to cast it.

  Darn it, that’s what happens when I spam invocations too much. I really o get Blink soon. As, that realization didn’t help Gilbert right now. He didn’t have Blink and he failed to retreat in a timely fashion, so he HAD to cast Eldritightmare no matter what.

  Therefilbert cast it. The Warlock's passive, Life Tap, allowed him to cast spells by paying HP instead of MP. The cost for Eldritightmare was especially steep, shaving off 25% of Gilbert's HP. However, that wasn’t a big price to pay if it’ll guarantee his survival.

  Darkness erupted from Gilbert and enveloped the entre ne, robbing the enemy's vision. As long as Gilbert doesn't get too close, Roi won't be able to see him in the darkness. At least, that should have been the case...

  I came prepared this time! Roi dumped a Stealth Ward! Yeah, just like that, in the middle of the ne!

  Eldritightmare didn’t actually make enemies blind, it was the other way around: it gave stealth to allies ihe darkness. Therefore, a Stealth Ward cut through the darkness and exposed Gilbert’s position for everybody to see!

  He won’t see it ing, lol. Now, that Roi kly where to aim, he unleashed Dark Bst. Gilbert didn’t even try dodging because he was sure he was stealthed. Lol, too bad! It was a hit! Dark Bst erased 40% HP in one fell swoop!

  Lol, DK is broken alright. Roi couldn’t help but ugh at this absurd damage. Just o and almost half of Gilbert's total HP went bye-bye. Gilbert just barely made it out alive with 5% HP, but he was as good as dead.

  How did he nd that!? Gilbert nearly lost his entire HP bar! “Damn, I think they got me-”

  “Heeeeeeere es Taison!” Lancer leaped onto the ne from the jungle. “I’mma save ya, bro!”

  “Wait, he see-”

  “GAE BOLG! LET’S GOOOOOO!” Taison thrust his spear. Ihe darkness, he gonna nd his ult for sure! Roi won’t even know what hit him, khaha!

  But, Roi saw everything. His Stealth Ward revealed Taison, so he saw where the attack was ing from. Roi rolled to the side to dodge the deadly spear and simultaneously to close in on Gilbert, all in one move! A 200 IQ py, lol!

  Darn it, he’s catg up. Gilbert was running slowly due to the Thuorm hits from earlier. Julia built s of Infinity, which applied a sloith eastance of damage. Thuorm struck Gilbert twice, so he carried two stacks of the slowdown effect. That must have been the main goal behind spending Thuorm in such a ckluster situation, it was all for this very moment!

  Roi easily outpaced that turtle and sshed.

  You have killed an enemy!

  Ez. There was a all. Taison’s gank startled Roi for a moment and the Gae Bolg was dangerous, but Taison failed to staween Roi and Gilbert. As a result, the gank didn’t pose a threat. In fact, it added aarget for Roi to prey on.

  After killing Gilbert, Roi restored all the way to 55% HP thanks to his passive. So, he was more than prepared for anht!

  “Shit!” Taison cursed. “How did he dodge my Bolg!?”

  “I tried to warn you,” Gilbert sighed. “Either he or Julia pced a Stealth Ward on the ne.”

  “Damn, my Bolg went dowoilet.”

  “Which resulted in my death,” Gilbert added.

  “I’ll avenge you, bro!”

  “You wouldn’t have to if you just ganked properly,” Gilbert jabbed. “Why did you fnk him? You should’ve stepped iween us to stop him from chasing me.”

  “I went for the kill, yo.” Taison thrust his spear into the Dark Knight’s shoulder while expining. “If I just hat damn Bolg, Roi would have been totally screwed! I could’ve finished him off on the spot!”

  “I believe I asked you to help Gil,” Howard said. “I didn’t ask you to go Mid to kill Roi.”

  “Um, yeah, like,” Taison’s attention span lit between maintaining the versation and stabbing Roi.

  “Retreat,” Howard ordered. “You don’t want to feed him another kill, do you?”

  “Yeah, guess I better get the heck out.” Taison was finally vinced when Roi booted his damage refle cloak. What a freakin’ nightmare of a skill It was. Taison turned around and darted from there.

  “Tai,” Howard spoke up again after Taison made it out. “You were supposed to get between Roi and Gil in that situation, not to attack. Your job was to protect him, not to get a kill.”

  “I was gonna protect him by getting a kill! I snuck up to Roi like a ninja and struck from the shadows! It was supposed to be perfect, yo!”

  “You do realize that, by going around to fnk Roi, you took the longer route and deyed your arrival? As a result, you gave Roi more time to close in on Gil.”

  “Ah, well, if you put it that way...” Taison shifted his eyes and smiled awkwardly.

  “The Jungler’s job isn’t just to get kills, I believe we went over this. You also o sider how your presen the ne ge the situation. If you just got there earlier, there’s a ce Roi would have decided to retreat right away without chasing the kill any further. You could’ve resolved the euation without lifting a finger, just by being there.”

  “Yeah, I gotcha,” Taison sighed. “Sorry, bro, I’m gonna pay more attentioime.”

  “That’ll be great.’ Gilbert said.

  Alright. Howard o himself. This failure will hopefully sti Taison’s head for a while and will point that rascal in the right dire ime.

  Taison was a skilled pyer, but he was rough in maments. Half of the problem was that Jungler was his sedary role, and the other half was his attitude toward the game: he always sought glory through sg kills.

  In some situations, that mentality was a great strength. But, in many others, it was a gring fw. Even though Junglers were only associated with ganking aing kills, that was a shallow uanding of the role. The Jungler’s mere presence was an important on in its ht. A good Jungler knew when to appear on the o scare enemies away without even lifting a finger.

  Unfortunately, Taison cked su-depth uanding at the moment. Despite Howard’s best efforts, a single week wasn’t enough t Taison to that high level. No matter how many times Howard expihe importance of a Jungler’s presehe knowledge just refused to sink in.

  However, there were some occasions when Taison finally got the message and started pying more effitly. After careful observation, Howard noticed that happened wheaison messed up big time and was called out on it, just like this situation with Gilbert.

  Based on Taison’s rea, he genuinely felt bad for letting Gilbert die. Either that, or his ego was hurt because everybody was bming him for a terrible mistake. Anyway, this mistake lingered on Taison’s mind. That was already way more effective than any lessons Have him because those always went in one ear and out the other.

  Taison wao stand out and hated being criticized, so whenever he itted a mistake and was called out - he dialed down the gas and started thinking more carefully about his as. As a result, he transformed from a hungry beast to a more reasonable Jungler.

  Alright, this should take care of Tai’s problem for a while. At least, half the problem. Howard khis wasn’t over yet. Taison was a more skilled pyer than Gregory, but he also had mring fws. While Gregory’s biggest problem was resolved after Roi destroyed him on 1v1, Taison required more babysitting.

  Still, that was one more problem resolved. Howard hoped to resolve the other one by the end of this throwaway game.