The team pyed a few more ranked matches together. They retaihe same positions across all games: Yuel as Top, Lars as Mid, Luke as Jungler, Kai as Carry, and Vi as Support.

  The mames Lars pyed, the more natural he became as a Mid Laner. He no longer had to ask how many wards to buy or where to pce them. At least, not every five minutes.

  He still often turo Yuel for advice, but there was nothing wrong with that. Yuel had much mame knowledge in that area, so it made perfect seo sult him.

  “Hey, Chessmaster,” Vi called out. “I think they got a Sentry Ward around here. Where did they pce it? What do your Mystic Eyes see?”

  “I’m not an oracle, you know,” Yuel made a face. “Based on how the enemy has been moving, I’d say it’s somewhere around here.” Yuel drew a rough circle on the mini-map.

  “Alright, sounds promising,” Vi pced his Sentry Ward in the ter of Yuel’s circle.

  “Yep, it’s right here, alright” Vi cut down the enemy’s exposed Sentry Ward. “The Mystic Eyes of Weakness Perception never fail! They reveal all the wards ience!”

  “It was just an educated guess,” Yuel retorted. He didn’t appreciate his dedus being associated with some nonsensical superpower.

  It was all dedu, really. Yuel remembered the few occasions when the eeam reacted to ining ganks ahead of time and matched that data against the positions of the gankers at the time. No mystic powers were involved.

  But, Vi wasn’t the only oo frequently sult Yuel.

  “So, tell me, man,” Luke said. “What are the power levels of these guys? Who should I be fog?”

  “The game just started a few minutes ago,” Yuel retorted. “How do you expect me to know?”

  “, don’t keep secrets,” Luke grinned. “I know ya got all these guys figured out. Who is the weakest link?”

  “You think too highly of me,” Yuel made a face.

  Ever since Yuel advised Luke to gank the Lancer in their first game, Luke developed the impression Yuel had some godly powers to destruct the entire eeam in an instant. That gank was just one occasion of notig that the enemy Lancer might be less skilled than the rest of the eeam, but Luke thought it was some sort of superhuman read. Sigh.

  “I did notie thing,” Yuel said. “Their Vampire seems to hang much longer in Bot Juhan in Top Jungle. Maybe he’s waiting for an opportunity to gank Bot, so he hangs out nearby for a while.”

  “That all ya got?” Luke made a face.

  “I told you I don’t have anything solid yet.”

  “I mean, I guess that’s something,” Luke shrugged. “Alrighty then, I’mma go see if I surprise the guy.”

  Half a mier, Luke indeed found the Vampire hanging around in Bot Jungle. He snuck up to the Vampire while ih and delivered a surprise attack which almost led to a kill. Unfortunately, Vampire escaped i moment by turning into a bat and flying away.

  “Welp,” Luke shrugged. “Couldn't kill the guy but at least he’s out of the game for a while and his ult is down. Okay, time to steal some of his camps!” He fearlessly ventured into eerritory and attacked jungle camps.

  That was impressive judgment. Yuel thought.

  Luke took a small piece of information and verted it into a strong py. The idea of ganking the Vampire in Bot Jungle crossed Yuel’s mind several times but he wasn’t sure Luke will be able to execute such a py. After all, Luke ying Rogue again. However, Luke had full fidend his own skill and almost ripped the Vampire asunder with that surprise attack.

  With that sidered, did Yuel mispy by not this gank earlier? He wasn’t the official shot-caller of the team yet but he heless carefully observed everybody’s performand called the shots as necessary. So, he should’ve been the oe the gank on the Vampire but he failed to do so.

  Is there any way I tell for sure when this kind of py will work out? Yuel was at a loss. If he could always fidently order such attacks, the team would win so many more exges.

  As, Yuel didn’t know how to calcute the oute of such fights because he couldn’t measure Luke’s skill. There was no telling whether that memer would be able to give the Vampire a fight in a 1v1 situation.

  Yuel could only predict the oute of such fights when there was a big skill gap betweewo pyers. For example, Lars was much strohan the majority of the pyers they met in Ranked. So, Yuel could trust Lars to win 1v1s against virtually any oppohey entered. However, the same couldn’t be guaranteed for Luke.

  I better find a way to measure pyer ability for both allies and enemies. Yuel cluded. He had no idea how to go about this at the moment but it was an important side project for the future. If he finds a way to accurately estimate the oute of such fights, it’ll push his shot-calling quality through the roof.

  However, for now, Yuel could only rely on the knowledge he had at hand. It to Luke to make use of the info Yuel provided. Sometimes, things worked out great and Luke made a strong py. Other times, Luke overestimated himself and things blew up in his face.

  “Ah, shit!” Luke cursed as the enemy Viking turhe tables on him. He followed Yuel’s predi regarding the Viking’s position in the jungle and snuck up to the enemy while stealthed.

  Yuel’s predi was on point and Luke approached the enemy carefully, so all the odds were in their favor. With all that sidered, the gank was definitely going to be a success, right? Wrong. The gank blew up in Luke’s face.

  The Viking was aware of Luke’s position and struck first. The Viking grabbed Luke with Takedowe Luke’s stealth. There must have been a Stealth Ward somewhere in that area. Yuel failed to take that possibility into at.

  The Viking smashed Luke into the ground and summoned a group of warriors through his ult. The warrianged on Luke and ripped him apart.

  An ally has been killed!

  “One does not simply gank a Viking,” Luke sighed and shook his head.

  “That’s why I didn’t want to suggest it,” Yuel said. “It wasn’t an impossible kill to score but there wasn’t enough data to determine whether you’ll succeed.”

  “Meh, at least your info was on point,” Luke said. “You never know what gonna happen, so I just went ahead and gave it a shot. Didn’t quite turn out like I hoped but hey,: no pain, no gain.”

  That's ly a healthy approach for petitive py. Yuel mentally retorted. In a serious petitive match, a single misstep like this could spell defeat. There would be no time to run experiments like this to gather information.

  Therefore, it would be ideal if Yuel could predict such outes ahead of time. Naturally, it was impossible to correctly predict 100% of the outes. However, if he get it right at least 80% of the time, it'll bee a on. He'll gain access te variety of new options and will be able to mobilize his teammates much more effitly.

  What did Yuel o asd to that level? At the moment, he had no idea. It was obvious he needed a deeper uanding of his teammates’ mettle but that was easier said than dohere was er example than Luke to illustrate the biggest problem at its fi.

  Luke ying meme csses and had an overall g petitive spirit. heless, in the first match, he exhibited a profound uanding of how to py Rogue even against high-level pyers. He practically geed the team's entire momentum on his own, to the point Rogue looked like a strong css.

  However, in the seatch, things were different. This eeam was much better prepared for dealing with a Rogue. They pced Stealth Wards in more secluded areas which were harder to guess, which made them hard to clear with Sentry Wards.

  Yet, despite their obscure locations, these Stealth Wards did a fine job exposing Luke’s gank attempts. Only a few of his gank attempts went smoothly. Most of the time, the eurhe tables on him before he got to try anything.

  So, in this match, Luke's performance was in tuh the fact he ying a meme. Uhe first game, he didn't e across as a reliable Jungler and Yuel didn't feel fiderusting this memer with big pys. In fact, over time, Rogue became a liability this match because Luke fell behind and couldn’t do his job as a Jungler.

  DEFEAT

  The oute was only natural. A Jungler who couldn't get kills or help on the ne was like a waste of a pyer slot. The rest of the team pyed well, so this defeat was mostly thanks to Luke’s Rogue. Once he got shut down, he had a hard time catg up. Such was the harsh life of a Rogue pyer.

  However, Luke’s Rogue was only one reason for the team’s defeat. In theory, with fwless godlike shot-calling, Yuel should’ve been able to guide Luke toward making pys that would’ve salvaged the situation. Even a simple Pawn could threaten the Queen if the board state was arranged appropriately.

  So, what Yuel could’ve done differently te more favorable situations for Luke? Unfortunately, this wasn't a petitive match so Yuel didn't have any data on the enemy in advance. But, even if he had the data, could he have drawn any smart clusions to that end? Could he have successfully estimated how Luke will fair against these oppos?

  Could Howard do it? Yuel pondered.

  Howard definitely had a deeper uanding of his own teammates, that's how he mobilized them so effitly. To be able to defeat Howard, Yuel had to reach the same level of uanding. Only then, his shot-calling would truly rival Howard’s. But, how could Yuel reach that level? He couldn’t begin to tell.

  Either way, based oe of this match, it was clear Luke's Rogue, as amazing as it was, had a limit. It worked against some teams in Ranked but the truly petent teams will eat him alive. Therefore, it was best for him to drop his memes and switch to a proper meta css. A...

  LegendaryMemer picked Rogue

  “Again?” Yuel asked. “You saw how hard the previous team tered yue. You still want to py it?”

  “Of course,” Luke answered without batting an eye. “I like pig a css and stig with it the whole day. Makes it easier to git gud.”

  “I feel ya, dude,” Lars said. “Practig one css the whole day is hel fun. Really makes ya feel like yettier.”

  “Yep, exactly,” Luke nodded. “I feel like I fiune my game after every match. By the end of the day, it's like I'm the number one pyer with that css!”

  “Totally!”

  Maining one css a day, huh. Yuel smiled meaningfully. It wasn't a bad practid Lars really loved it.

  In fact, Lars was doily that right now. Yuel only advised pig Aeromancer for the first mat order to get Lars used to Mid. However, Lars stuck with Aeromancer for the following matches as well. It seemed he wao keep polishing his Aeromancer skills until he was satisfied.

  And, truly, Lars's Aeromancer became better aer with every game. During the first game, Lars's ning was impressive but his teamwork during team fights was on the weaker side. However, after the game, Lars figured some things out thanks to a healthy dose of criticism from Yuel. In the game, Lars properly did his job as an Aeromancer during team fights.

  But, Lars still had many other fws he had to iron out. For example, his ck of rotations. Aeromancer could rotate quickly so Lars should do that more often. That was the bit of criticism Yuel gave Lars.

  “Yo, my dude, I came to help,” Lars rotated to Top Lane and gahe enemy Knight from behind. The gank was a little too predictable and the enemy slipped away, but at least Lars showed an initiative to rotate. This was a big step-up pared to the previous games.

  Truly, Lars has been showing great improvement with every match. It was impressive.

  I know this is in part because Aeromancer isn't one of his main csses, but still... Yuel found this gradual p up iing.

  Lars had plete mastery over Trickshooter and Gunslinger so, with those two, he could draw out his maximum power from the get-go. Oher hand, with sedary csses like Aeromancer, Lars’s initial performance was shabby and he first had to “get into the zone” with the css.

  This had big implications for petitive py. It implied Lars would greatly be from pying multiple games in a row with the same sedary css. And, on the flip side, it also meant Lars usually couldn't draw out his full strength right away with such a css.

  Even back during the seleatch against Howard, this robably a big factor. I match, Lars went with Seraph, a css he pyed almost as rarely as Aeromancer. It was a css that could barely even called “sedary” for Lars, so Yuel didn't expect a mind-blowing performance.

  But, what if Lars could have pyed Seraph better back then? Even if just a little? If Yuel made Lars warm-up as Seraph before the matd gave the goof more pointers, perhaps Lars would have performed slightly better. That extra bit of powerup might have made all the differeween victory a.

  I have to keep this in mind for the future. Yuel made a mental note.

  Unfortunately, all this line of thought proved to him was how plicated this topic was. He wanted a way to gauge his teammates’ skills to mobilize them more effitly during a match, but there were tless parameters in this formu. He had to take into at how skilled the teammate was in general, how much experiehey had with every css, how warmed up they were with each css, and the list went on. It was like an unsolvable math problem with too many variables.

  An enemy has been killed!

  “Great job!” Vi excimed. “I told you, you should always trust the Meme Force, Luke.”

  “Haha, damn right,” Luke grinned. “Didn't think I could take that guy from 80 to 0 like this but he really wasn't a big deal.”

  “It’s because he wasn’t dedicated enough,” Vi stroke his imaginary beard as if he was a sage. “That guy was just pying top tier, I could sehat in each of his pys. But you, my boy, are different. You’re pying a meme but you’re dedicated to it in flesh and soul. That’s why yned supreme!”

  I guess that’s one way to gauge skill, Yuel rolled his eyes. Maybe I should also start ing up with silly skill names and gauge pyers based on their list of ‘talents’. Yeah, right. Not going to happen.

  And thus, the question of gauging teammates’ skills remained unresolved. If Yuel could find a way to better estimate the abilities of his allies and pare them against their oppos, his shot-calling will improve by at least ten times. He’ll be able to optimize the fights his teammates pid to predict ahead of time how most battles will py out.

  As, this seemed like an impossible task to solve. It required some sort of deeper uanding that Yuel couldn’t quite grasp at the moment. Was this challenge even possible for a human being? How did Howard do that?

  Unfortunately, nobody was there to ahese questions. For now, Yuel had no choice but to stick with the usual tactics. He pnned his shot-calling around weaknesses in the enemy's formation and struck where it hurt the most. This approach was always effective, aside from when he was fighting Howard.

  The ime Yuel cshes with Howard, will it be enough to only target enemy weaknesses? Will he be able to break through Aegis with just that? Probably not. Yuel had to up his game for the fight and he felt like the answer id in optimizing the way he mobilizing his teammates.

  But, how to improve in that area in a meaningful way? At the moment, he couldn’t begin to tell...