After the 2v2 was over, everybody gathered at the ter of the basement room.

  “Good game,” Vi gratuted everybody with a smile that looked a little forced.

  “Yeah, good game, my dudes.” Lars followed up.

  “Good game,” Yuel followed the protocol even though that wasly what he'd call a “good game”. He and Lars should’ve pletely stomped their oppos to prove their skill but none of that happehis match.

  “Bad game,” Kai was the only oo speak her mind. “I got bodied pretty hard there. Good spag and defense, bastards.”

  Nobody retorted to these words. Everybody shifted their eyes away to not deal with this statement. It pretty much summarized how everybody felt about this match. It was one-sided aggression from Kai and Vi. Meanwhile, Yuel and Lars just pyed defeil the oppo made an obvious mistake which was easy to punish.

  But, these were details. The fact was: Yuel and Lars won. They proved they were the stronger Bot duo. That should be enough to vince Kai.

  “sidering we won,” Yuel started. “Don't you think it's better if Lars and I py Bot oeam?”

  “Not at all,” Kai shrugged. “It was just one game. You were alright, but nothing outta this world. I'm sure I get you ime.”

  “, dude,” Lars objected. “We totally domihat game. We’re the best duo!”

  “Not really. We just lost at the sele s, that’s all. You did a good job ter pig, I'll give you that.”

  “Hey, that's rude,” Lars insisted. “We totally pyed better.”

  “Didn't feel that way to me,” Kai stuck tuns. “But yeah, you're not bad. If you py other roles this well, you gon spots on the main team for sure.”

  “But, that's shit, yo!” Lars exploded. “We're one of the best Bot duos you'll ever see! We gotta be pying-”

  “It's fine,” Yuel pced a hand on Lars's shoulder. “We also py Top and Mid, but Support and Carry are where we're at our best.”

  “Okay then,” Kai nodded. “Then, our current formation will look something like this: Me and Vi in Bot, you guys in Mid and Top and... I guess Luke will do as a Jungler.” Kai had a difficult expression for a moment but then sighed like she accepted reality.

  “Anyway,” Kai tinued. “Let's it up for today.”

  “Yeah, I sed that,” Vi nodded repeatedly. “Man, I’m done from all that ing. I'm telling you, the human race wasn't made for such bor. We’re intellectuals, we're born to sit in fy chairs all day. That's the destiny of our species!”

  “That's just you being a zy ass,” Kai remarked.

  Everybody left the basement clubroom and Kai locked up.

  “Club activities only officially start week,” Vi expined on the way to the surface. “So, we don't have a real schedule for now.”

  “How about we meet after school every day?” Yuel suggested.

  “Every day? That may be a stretch for some...”

  “I like that,” Kai said. “We gotta train hard if we wan past the first round.”

  “Or to win the regionals,” Yuel raised the bar. Passing the first rou nothing. He didn't care Stratus was a low tier team with a weak history. Yuel had to win the regionals no matter what, or else his Cssmancers career will be in danger.

  “By the way,” Kai said. “About the roles, I don't mind trying Yuel as Support.”

  “Huh?” Everybody replied with a puzzled expression.

  “I mean, you saw how this pys Support, right?” Kai poi Vi. “No initiative at all.”

  “Hey, hey, hey,” Vi objected. “I ying it smart to not get us killed. It was the ultimate pn!”

  “The ultimate defeat pn, yes.”

  “Geh, that’s mean...” Viwisted his lips. “But holy, you got a point. Yuel is the Elite Support here, so if you form a duo and practice I think you make a better duo than we are right now. And, I'll get to py Top so I won’t have to babysit anymore.”

  “Are you implying something?”

  “Nothing, nothing,” Vi whistled ily. “Okay, so it's decided then! Kai and Yuel will be the Bot duo.”

  “Let's not jump to clusions,” Yuel objected. It was undeniable that Yuel would tribute the team much more as a Support than as a Top Laner, regardless of whom he aired with. But, if he just goes and accepts this offer...

  “What?” Lars asked.

  “No, nothing,” Yuel shifted his eyes away. This was a sticky situation. Yuel wao py Bot with Lars more than with anything, but if push es to shove and the captain refuses to hand over her precious Carry role...

  “We o test the various arras first,” Yuel said. “After we py some Ranked, we'll get a better idea how to pose the main team.”

  “Sounds reasonable,” Vi nodded. “As expected from Chessmaster, always the logical one! I'll make sure to py like Broier so I get switched out of Support, haha.”

  “I'll kill you,” Kai shot a gre. Everybody ughed.

  They parted ways with Kai at the gate but Vi stuck around for a while longer.

  “About that match,” Vi started. “You guys pyed fine, but I'll be ho: it wasn't that inspiring.”

  “What's that supposed to mean?” Yuel raised an eyebrow.

  “When I watched you py against the Leopards, you guys kicked some serious ass. You were the Golden Duo! The unstoppable force! The young athletes who'll ge this town forever! But, in this game? You were just ‘alright’. Like, still good, but not really amazing, know what I mean?”

  “No idea,” Yuel scoffed. “We pyed in a way that secured victory while minimizing risks. If you think that's not the right way to py, then you simply don't uand how the game works.”

  “That's not what I mean, but... Hmm...” Vi produced some thinking noises. “Alright, let's leave it at that. I'm turning here, so see you guys tomorrow.”

  They parted ways with Vi and headed toward the bus station. The eime, the loud goof hasn't uttered a single word. Even now, that they were alohere was nothing but silence.

  “You okay?” Yuel asked.

  “Yeah,” Lars answered. “Except, I don't get it, dude. Why the heck did ya give up on our roles so easily? What was that shit?”

  “I didn't give up on anything. I'm still going to push so that both of us py Bot together.”

  “Then, why not give it to them straight? We hafta make Kai ge her mind a us py.”

  “Yes, we'll do that. But, I figured there's o rush it,” Yuel expined. “After today's match, Kai reizes that our Challenger rank isn’t for show. That earned us guaranteed spots oeam, which is already more than we had in StormBlitz.”

  “Yeah, but these spots ain't Bot roles.”

  “Yeah, for now,” Yuel said. “Kai really wants to py Carry and she’s a tough nut to crack. But, if we keep showing her what we do, eventually she'll have to give in. She wants the team to win at the regionals, so we’ll have to prove her it's absolutely necessary for the two us to py Bot if she wants the team to keep advang.”

  “Oh, so we pying the long game here,” Lars nodded. “Okay, gotcha. Basically, we gotta keep kig butts and show off how good we are.”

  “Yeah, basically.”

  “This feels so unfair, tho,” Lars pouted. “Why everybody y Bot so much? Like, , there are five roles in the game, ya know?”

  “Carry is a special role, it's all in the name,” Yuel said. “In a way, Carry is like the ace of the team. Isn't that the reason you py it too?”

  “Nah, I just like shooting stuff.”

  “You ‘shoot stuff’ as Mid too.”

  “Yeah, but your shots don’t do much. You ’t just walk into somebody fad go like BANG BANG BANG in their face. Ya only got a couple of spells that deal super damage and those are savage, but the basics are kinda me.”

  “I see,” Yuel nodded. In other words, Lars liked pying marksmen the most because they made the game resemble a shooter. While there were some selfish pyers like Taison who were mesmerized by the “ace” status of Carry, Lars just wao have fun with the role that worked best for him.

  “Not gonna lie, tho,” Lars added. “Being able to quickly take dowowers and push for the win is hel cool too. So yeah, I love that feeling of powah too.”

  “Uandable,” Yuel nodded. It was a simir but still very different from what Yuel was talking about. Lars probably didn't care as much about the social position that came with being the Carry because he was always in the ter of attention anyway.

  Lars used to be the ace of his basketball team too, so it’s like he was born into pying such roles in every game. He always got that position without even going out of his way to pursue it. It's like being born into a rich family and never being ed with earning money because it’s always avaible.

  Oher hand, Kai felt like a poor person who stumbled upon a treasure chest and wao keep it to herself no matter what. Her obsession with the Carry role reminded of Taison. But, hopefully, her motivation wasn't fueled by a cheap desire to show off.

  Either way, the fact remaihat Kai was standing in the way of Yuel and Lars's ambitions. She was the captain and she was hellbent on being the Carry.

  The initial impression from the 2v2 was that Kai was a solid pyer without any gring weaknesses. However, she wasn't as skilled as Lars. So, she might outdo the goof in terms of game knowledge and occasional deaking, but she didn’t have enough overwhelming strength to rival the wild beast.

  In time, Kai will surely e to accept that. Ohe team starts losing in official scrimmages, Kai will e to uand the extent of her skill and that Lars was better suited to be the team’s Carry.

  “But,” Lars started. “What if Kai gonna insist on being Carry? Whatcha gonna do then? Py Support for her?”

  “That's...” A question Yuel didn't want to deal with. Especially, because there ossibility of that happening with how stubborn Kai was.

  Objectively, Yuel should py Suppardless of whether his ne partner was Lars or Kai. He was fident he'll tribute to the team much more as a Support than as a Top Laner. Even Vi, the current Support, agreed 100% with that se.

  However, subjectively, this was a nasty decision to make. It felt like betraying his partnership with Lars. They talked before about how each of them should always aim to be the best in his own role evehe other wasn’t around, but this just felt wrong.

  “I don't know,” Yuel admitted. “We'll just have to make sure it doesn't reach that point.”

  “Yeah, sounds abht,” Lars thrust a fist. “ dude, let's do it! We gonna win our spots and win the revech against Athena and Aegis! After that, we gonna bee da best in the world!”

  “Shooting far, huh,” Yuel smiled wryly and bumped fists.

  They made a small step today but a very important ohe circumstances surrounding the transfer and the club were far from ideal, but at least their situation was far better than before. In StormBlitz, they would have spent this entire year being stu the bench. Meanwhile, in Stratus, they have already secured themselves spots on the first-string on day one.

  All there was left to make this perfect was getting their Support and Carry roles. Then, they'll be in a position to win matches against other teams from the region aually reach the revech against StormBlitz. This time, Yuel and Lars will defeat Howard and Ellen!

  At first, there was doubt about how far Yuel and Lars will be able to pull a weak team like Stratus. But, surprisingly, the team members Yuel met so far were rather petent.

  Kai was a solid Diamond quality pyer who clearly didn't get to that rank from being carried by others. For the first half of their match, her positioning and deaking were airtight, to the point Yuel couldn’t find a single weako exploit.

  And, despite being a total , Vi exhibited sharp judgment and careful pnning. Such high quality was far from how Yuel imagiratus, the “lowly team” that always got eliminated during the first round of the regionals.

  With Yuel and Lars added on top of these two, together they’ve already formed a solid four-man team. They needed just one more skilled member and their team will have a real ce of aiming to the top!