Lars started the match off on the wrong foot. It seemed the goof has pletely fotten what it meant to be a Mid Lao the point he wasn’t sure whether he should buy a ward at game start. On top of that, he wasn't sure where to best pce his ward and had to sult Yuel on that as well.

  All of this created a very ed image. There was no doubt the goof will mess something up really bad, or so Yuel thought. Surprisingly, once Lars actually arrived on the ne, he was like a ged man.

  Lars cast Whirlwind at the perfect spot to make it hit both the enemy swordsmen on the front and the enemy bowmen on the back. The whirlwind was just barely wide enough to cover the entire minion wave but Lars pced it almost perfectly. His aim was slightly off on the first minion wave and one bowman escaped the reach of his whirlwind, but Lars corrected his mistake right away on the following wave.

  Not only that, but he always cast Whirlwind preemptively before the two minion waves cshed in the middle of the ne. Normally, pyers waited for the minion waves to assume their bat positions and theheir Whirlwind accly. That ehey could properly summon the whirlwind in the right area.

  But, not this guy. Lars summohe wind just briefly before the minions arrived and made sure the whirlwind will hit the entire wave o grows to its full size.

  By doing so, Lars optimized his wave clearing speed. It made his wave clearing about one sed faster. That didn't sound like the most impressive thing in the world but, on high levels of py, such a difference could be huge. Clearing the ne just a couple of seds faster than the oppo opehe door to many opportunities.

  However, Lars didn't stop there. He followed up on his Whirlwind with quick basic attacks and didn't drop a single shot despite moving around to juke enemy shots, as expected from the “200% accuracy” sniper. He was shooting nonstop without ever lifting his finger from the left mouse butto ead every shot ected. If Yuel attempted such a stunt, he'd undoubtedly miss at least 70% of the shots.

  And that’s why I don't py Carry. Yuel smiled wryly. He had more than arouble nding one “quick shot” without lifting his finger, so many of these in a row would probably even miss against a stationary target.

  Not to mention, Lars wasn't just shooting fast without a pn. He made sure to mix up his targets to not miss any st-hits. He fired at every swordsman t them all low and the-hit each of them in order. The ongoing ticks of damage from whirlwind helped him secure the st hits oire wave.

  All in all, this was an amazing dispy of how to do ning right as an Aeromancer. Yuel roud. Nowadays, everybody naturally expected Lars to be this effit with his st hits while farming, but it wasn’t always like this.

  It took Yuel a long time to drill the importance of effit farming into Lars. It almost felt like verting a non-believer. But, once Lars FINALLY developed the correct mihe result was nigh fwless execution.

  At some point, Lars no longer had to “think” about st-hits anymore. He just practig farming routines until it became sed nature for him to deliver st-hits to all minions. He became a terminator.

  This strong dispy of fwless farming pletely dispelled Yuel's initial worries. Perhaps Lars a monkey who didn't uand the fiails about warding and smart tactical decisions, but his execution was godlike. His execution alone was strong enough to carry him as a Mid Laner even against Diamond and Challenger ranks.

  However, if a css had a tool with some advanced some tricks to it, those didn’t always register in the goof’s brain right away. If Lars pyed a css regurly, he eventually nailed all the high-level tricks Yuel taught him. As, Lars could be trusted tet all about them after two weeks if he didn’t touch the css.

  “Don’t fet to use Jet Stream,” Yuel said. “It’s important to not let Eleand basics.”

  “ht,” Lars nodded. He didn’t ask what Yuel meant by this advice, so at least he remembered the gist of it.

  Just as the enemy Eleancer was about to fire another beam of electricity, Lars cast Jet Stream between the Eleancer and his swordsmen. Just like with the rest of Lars’s execution, the timing and pt of Jet Stream were perfect.

  The Eleancer’s bullet of electricity passed through the trail of wind and slowed down until it vanished entirely. The attack failed to reach Lars’s swordsman.

  That was one of the great advantages of Jet Stream during the ning phase. Jet Stream slowed down enemy projectiles that went through it and made them dropped off earlier.

  Even though Eleancer’s basic attack was a shot of electricity, that was was just animation. In practice, the Eleancer’s shot rojectile like any other ranged basic attack. Therefore, Jet Stream slowed it down and reduced its range.

  This put the Eleancer in a tough spot. The Jet Stream was like a wall that stood between him and Lars’s minions. In order to make his shots reach Lars’s minions, the Eleancer had to somehow py arouream’s slowdown.

  Oion was to rotate to the other side of the he Eleancer has been firing at minions from the bottom side of Mid Lane, so Lars created the Jet Stream accly to block shots from that dire.

  Therefore, if the Eleancer rotates to the top part of the ne, his shots will reach the minions from there. However, such rotation required time. Especially, with Lars’s Whirlwind still raging in the middle of the he Eleancer would have to go all the way back to his side of the o go around the whirlwind, which would be a huge waste of time. His entire minion wave will be gone in the meantime.

  Therefore, the Eleancer couldn’t rotate all the way from the bottom to the top. Instead, he advao the frontlie the risk. From there, his shots traveled far enough to reach the minions even after passing through Jet Stream.

  However, that put him in a dangerous position. He was right within Lars’s reach. While Jet Stream reduced the range of enemy projectiles, it extehe range of allied projectiles. Therefore, as soon as Lars wiped out all enemy minions, the Eleancer became the prey!

  Let’s go, yo! Lars fired Squall without warning. The huge gust of wind ted as a projectile, so passing through Jet Stream boosted the heck outta its speed and range. And, it even increased Squall’s power because Squall was best pals with Jet Stream. In other words, this was one heck of a powerful shot, yo!

  Bam! The gust of wind crashed into the Eleancer like a truck! It took out a nice 20% HP ahe guy staggering. It was time to go for a kill, yo!

  Lars darted forward and fired at his slowed prey. He totally gon some heavy damage in there and- Oh, the dude vanished. What a party pooper.

  The Eleancer bailed the heck out of there by blinking away. Man, that escape skill was so cheap. Why none of Lars’s main csses had a blinking ability? Lame.

  But okay, this was a good start. The Electro dude was down to 80% and this was just the sed round. Lars just gotta keep pressing hard like that during every minion wave and he’ll crack that dude eventually.

  “That was some hard pressure,” Luke ented. “You totally owning that guy in Mid.”

  “Heh, thanks,” Lars fshed his teeth. “Too bad I don’t have a way to finish the job, though. Dude gonna blink away every time like this. Where’s my anti-blinking ability at?”

  “Haha, I feel ya,” Luke chuckled. “Happens every siime. You about to kill the guy but he just goes NOPE and blinks away. Ruins my day every time.”

  “Feels bad, dude.”

  “But hey,” Luke smirked. “If the guy doesn’t have blink, I end his whole career. Think you force him to retreat with blink again during the wave?”

  “Yeah, no problem.”

  “Cool. You don’t mind if I sneak up to the guy after he blinks and kill him, right?”

  “Sure,” Lars gave a thumbs up. “Get dat cheap blinking dude.”

  “Haha, will do.”

  The minion wave arrived and Lars repeated the same routine. He summoned a whirlwind to take care of the minions and pced a Jet Stream to block off the Eleancer’s shots.

  And so, the Eleancer advao the frontline again and put himself at risk. The poor dude had no choice, really.

  Lars hoped dude will get sick of this and pick a fight with him, but that Eleancer acted posed. Meh, what a b dude. Avoiding fights in this position robably the smart thing to do but where’s the fun in that?

  Just like st time, Lars cleared the ne first. Then, he fired Squall!

  Oh! Dude actually tried to blink away before I shot. Lars grinned.

  The Eleancer saw Lars’s Squall from a mile away and tried to blink preemptively. But, too bad! Lars fired Squall right after st-hitting the st enemy minion. It was an instant follow up with zero deys! Ain’t nobody fast enough to dodge that stuff on time.

  Lars barely had any time to aim but his Squall nded on the Eleancer without trouble. That’s a given because he had 200% Accuracy! Also, he was that... Eh, how did Vi call that special ability, again? The Gungun Sniper? Something like that. It was da stuff!

  The Eleancer was already down to about half HP. But, dude ain’t gonreat or something me like that, right? Half HP was still plenty so that Electric Boogaloo dude should keep trying to test the ne. Who knew? Maybe dude will e up with a good ter pn to Lars’s shenanigans. That’s when things gon fun for real.

  “Ahoy there,” Luke greeted. At some point during the entire exge between Lars and the Eleancer, Luke snuto Mid Lane while stealthed. Right as the Eleancer finished his blinking, his back was wide open to be wrecked by Luke!

  “Got ‘em!” Luke dropped a smoke bomb in front of him. The smoke only hindered enemies so Lars could clearly see the sughter that followed.

  Ssh! Ssh! Ssh! Luke ran his dagger all across the Eleancer’s back. The strikes were swift a a crapton of damage because they came from behiromahere was screwed!

  Without his blinking ability, the Eleancer didn’t have any other escape tools. His only optioo either stand and fight or to run for his life. Naturally, dude chose to get the heck outta there. Nobody gonna bme him because what kind of crazy mage dude wao deal with a Rogue at cle? That’s like asking to be brutally executed.

  But, esg wasn’t that easy. The smoke from Smoke Bomb slowed down the Eleancer and Rogue was a naturally fast runner. So, Luke stuck to the dude’s back like glue. It was over.

  An enemy has been killed!

  “Executed!” Luke pumped a fist. “How ya like my meme now, huh? Pretty , right?”

  “It’s just one kill,” Yuel was quick to ruin the party. Just because Luke scored one kill with a Rogue didn't suddenly make Rogue a good pick.

  “Man, you're so hard to please,” Luke made a face.

  “Yeah, he really is,” Lars chuckled. “He won't praise ya unless you wiire game. And even then, he gonna make sure it doesn't sound like real praise.”

  “Sounds like a tough er.”

  “Yeah, dude is a hel tough er, haha,” Lars nodded. “But, I think that kill was sick, yo! You rekt that dude!”

  “Danke, danke.”

  They're making too big of a deal out of it, Yuel thought. It was just one kill under ve circumstances. Anybody with det execution could’ve pulled that off.

  heless, Yuel had to admit that Luke surprised him for the better in this py. Yuel's first impression of Luke was that of a memer who didn't know any of the meta ventions. However, so far, Luke roving to be a solid pyer. Well, aside from the fact he picked a low tier css for memes.

  Rather thaually kill itself, what impressed Yuel was the way Luke ahat gank. The idea behind this entire py came from Luke. It was Luke who pced a Sentry Ward to secure himself a ganking route for Mid and it was Luke who asked Lars to exhaust the Eleancer’s blink.

  So, Luke was no amateur, that's for sure. Maybe Yuel could even trust Luke to execute even tougher pys.

  “Well,” Luke started. “I'mma go steal their hyenas. Looks like their Lancer gonna e to defend Mid, so that camp gonna be free.”

  “Wait,” Yuel said. “Do you mind waitihe ne for a little while? Say, around the er in the jungle.”

  “And why would I wanna do that?”

  “There's a good ce the Lancer will think yone and that might make him overextend. If he does, you gank him a another kill.”

  “Sounds cool, but how do you know he'll overextend? He's io defend the ne, so I don't think he's going to take any risks.”

  “This Lancer seems a bit inexperienced,” Yuel expined. “He might it that kind of mistake.”

  “How do you figure? You know the guy?”

  “No, it's based on what I've seen of him so far.”

  “Wut. Dude, the game started like a few minutes ago. You telling me you already figured out that guy? Are ya an ESPer?”

  “I know it may sound a bit far-stretched and I may be wrong, but...” Yuel pursed his lips. This was a familiar barrier. Every time he pyed with eammates he ran into this issue.

  Feels like this hasn’t happened in ages. Yuel smiled wryly. Everybody in StormBlitz got used to way Yuel analyzed things, so he hasn’t justified himself in a long time. But, with this new crew, he had to prove his worth again from scratch.

  “You should give it a shot,” Vi joihe versation out of nowhere. “You may not believe it, but Chessmaster got the Mystic Eyes of Weakness Perception!”

  “Mystic Eyes?” Luke asked. “No idea what that does but, not gonna lie, sounds cool.”

  “It goes like this,” Vi expined. “You see, everything ience has a weakness. Humans, air, will and especially oppos.”

  “Not sure I get it but sounds deep so I'm digging it.”

  “Right? That's the spirit,” Vi nodded. “In short, his eyes see the weaknesses of things. As long as somethis, he’ll reveal you all of its ots!”

  “Savage!” Luke bandwagohe silly hype train. “Alrighty then, you just wao wait behind a wall he ne, right?”

  “Yes,” Yuel said.

  “You got it, fam,” Luke gave a thumbs up. “Still not sure about the ehing but let's give it a shot, why not. If it fails, you own me one.”

  “Sure,” Yuel nodded. If his quialysis of the Lancer’s skill was off, then this py won't vert into a kill and Luke will lose the opportunity to steal the Hyena Camp. However, it was such a low-risk high-reward opportunity that Yuel just had to go for it. These are the kinds of pys he should prioritize from now on when shot-calling.

  Luke left the hrough the jungle, making it look like he’ll be gone food. However, once he was sure nobody on the eeam could see him, he rotated around a nearby jungle wall and id in wait. Uhe enemy had a ward nearby, they had no way to know Luke was lurking over there. Therefore, as far as the Lancer was ed, only Lars was in Mid right now.

  As Yuel suspected, the Lancer did more than just defend. After clearing the remains of the minion wave, the Laayed on the o clear the following wave. He even approached the frontlio execute a sweep atta Lars's swordsmen. The mad d had no fear in him.

  “Looks like you were right on the money,” Luke grinned. “So, I'm up?”

  “Just a moment,” Yuel said. “He still hasn’t used his leap. It'll be tough to chase him down.”

  “Nah, it'll be super easy, barely an invenience. I'mma just teleport behind him with my ult and be like ‘Nothing personal kid’, haha.”

  “That may work, but...” Yuel had to choose his words carefully.

  Rogue's ult, Phantom Strike, was a great tool for chasing. The Rogue blitzed in a straight line and struck the first enemy pyer in his path. If the strike hits the target's back, it’ll also stun them and allow the Rogue to follow up with additional sshes from behind. Those hits dealt extra damage thanks tue's Backstabber passive. So, it was a solid tool for chasing dopo and finishing them off.

  However, the success rate of such a py heavily depended on the pyer's execution. Luke will have to properly nd his Phantom Strike in the heat of the moment and kill his oppo as fast as possible. The st part of this frontation might take p the enemy's Turret area, so if Luke takes too long - he'll wind up dead instead.

  It wasn't like this py demanded crazy meical skill, but Yuel didn't have a full grasp of Luke's skill level yet. So, entrusting this memer with such a py invited some risks. Instead, Yuel wao secure this py more tightly.

  “To make sure we definitely get the kill,” Yuel expined. “It's better if we bait out Lancer’s leap before you gank. That'll make it easier for you to secure the kill and should allow you to keep your ult.”

  “Sounds tight,” Luke nodded. “So, watcha got in mind, Mystic Eyes?”

  Mystic Eyes? Yuel made a face. “Lars, scare the Lancer with your ult. Go to the jungle and unch Hurrie from there.”

  “Oh!” Lars excimed. “So, it gonna be like a Sniper Hurrie?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Sick, yo! I'm on it.” Lars snuck away from the oward the nearby jurance.

  From this position, the Lancer shouldn't be able to see Lars's as. He was busy clearing miniht now, so he ignored Lars’s peculiar activity. That was a mistake, yo!

  “Okay, I'mma go for it,” Lars began casting Hurrie. It took the wind a couple of seds to gather, but oned - this bad boy was gonna travel through the wall and wreck everybody on the gonop-level shenanigans!

  “Alrighty, I'm ready,” Luke got closer at the ne. He was ready to assault the La a moment's notice. All the chess pieces were in pow, it was just a matter of exeg this kill.

  Lars unleashed Hurrie on the hrough the wall. The raging winds expanded as they traveled across the ne and sucked everything in like a bck hole. Even though the Lancer saw the tornado ing, he couldn't simply outrun the gravitational pull of Hurrie. His only option was to leap away Lunge unless he wao get sucked in and receive heavy damage. Either oute would be a win for Yuel's team.

  The Lancer picked the smarter choid leaped away with Lunge. Little did he know that Luke was awaiting him oher side of the ne. Just as the Landed, Luke popped out from the jungle and sshed the Lancer in the back for heavy damage.

  For a moment, it looked like the Lancer was sidering giving Luke a fight. As a Lancer, It wasn’t unreasoo expect to win against a Rogue in a 1v1 situation. However, he immediately abahat idea when Lars returo the he Lancer must have realized that if he stays and fights, he’ll run into a nasty 1v2. So, retreat was his only option.

  The Lancer darted toward his Turret. But, Luke was hot on his trail and sshes at his baonstop. With each ssh dealira 30% damage thanks to Backstabber, the Lancer couldn’t bear this pressure for long.

  An enemy has been killed!

  “Got ‘em!” Luke raised a hand.

  “Ez!” Lars high-fived.

  “Not bad,” Yuel said.

  “I swear,” Luke made a face. “ this guy even praise anybody? Like, ever?”

  “Gotta work super hard for that,” Lars ughed.

  “Gotta say, though,” Luke went on. “These Mystic Eyes are some cool shit. Dunno if it was a good guess or whatever, but you read that Lancer like a book. Kinda scary, to be ho.”

  “You call it ‘educated guessing’,” Yuel said.

  “Heh, then you call my pystyle ‘educated memeing’.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “Or,” Vi barrage in. “You call it the Meme Force!”

  “I’d rather not,” Yuel dehat nonsense on the spot.

  By opening the game with three kills, the team created a rather uable position. Kai and Vi performed well on their ne as well and got a couple of kills with the help of Luke’s ganks. The team was destroying the opposition across the entire map.

  trary to Yuel’s initial s, their first match as a team ran smoothly. Luke was a memer but he knew how to py the game. If he starts using higher tier csses, he’ll bee a solid Jungler for the team.

  So far, the team seemed promising. There was still one member Yuel hasn’t met yet and the club will recruit one freshman this year. So, trary to its reputation, Stratus was looking like a solid team right now.

  At first, Yuel was ed about the fact this team has never passed the first round of the regionals. However, now, he was much more fident about this team’s ces to reach far at the tour. Will Yuel and Lars mao pull this team all the way to nationals? Only time will tell, but Yuel absolutely had to make it happen.