The club activity went on. Ben tinued pying Top for three mames so that gave Yuel more insight. It didn’t ge the fact Yuel will have to go over repys as well. But, at least, pying alongside Ben gave him a rough idea of Ben’s level.

  As Vi implied, Ben was very good at freezing nes. In every match, Top ne was locked in a status qu the early-game. Sometimes, even during the mid-game.

  Even ganks didn't take p Top because the situation was never inviting. Junglers from both sides occasionally tried to set something but that rarely went anywhere. Truly, Ben had the Eternal Peacemaker ability!

  Ugh, I feel like I'm losing brain cells from thinking ierms. Yuel shuddered. Why did Vi's analysis always have to be so accurate a so dumb at the same time? Sigh.

  Of course, it wasn't like Ben had any superpowers the way the suggested. From what Yuel could tell, Ben just pyed carefully and peacefully, so it established a fortable status quo in the ne. her side wao it to any risky pys so they maintaihe stalemate. As a result, the ne remained frozen.

  As expected, this pystyle didn’t wainst every type of oppo. During the third match, Ben faced aremely aggressive ne oppo. It was clear the guy was out for blood because he picked Dark Knight. There was no ce a Dark Knight pyer would ever agree to a tru the ne during the early-game because that’d be equivalent to losing.

  Therefore, the Dark Knight didn't py nice. He aggressed o every opportunity and fished for a kill.

  “Ah, oh!” Ben flinched as the Dark Knight pushed him back to the Turret. It took Ben a while to react to the Dark Knight's sudden aggression, so he lost a lot of HP befetting away. It seemed like the thought of fighting back didn’t even cross Ben’s mind, which made sense in a Vanguard vs. Dark Knight matchup. So, Ben did well to retreat.

  Unfortunately, his retreat was too slow and he lost unnecessary HP in the process. On top of that, he was forced into defending under his Turret and the enemy was about to i.

  Ben had to make a difficult decision: should he stay to defend the h just 30% HP and risk getting killed? Or, should he recall to base ahe Dark Knight push the Turret for free?

  “Um, I,” Ben mumbled something but Yuel couldn't make it from across the room. They weren't pying with headphones like in a tour, so Yuel couldn't pick up that low voice.

  “I see, I see,” Vi nodded repeatedly as he approached Ben's seat. “You need some help over here, right?”

  “Um, yes,” Ben nodded. “A gank could help. Or, maybe someone could defend the ne while I recall. Oh, but only if you're free, of course. Don't want to bother you...” His voice went from quiet to plete silence. However, Vi was going to make up for it with his loudness.

  “Everybody, you heard the man!” Vi's voied. “Beernal Peacemaker was shattered! The oppo is wielding the Dark Anti-Peace Sword of Doom! He's going ham on the ne and pns to pressure Ben into submission! So, what will Chessmaster's call be!?” He stretched a hand toward Yuel as if shoving a microphone in Yuel’s face..

  “A gank won't work here,” Yuel said. Since Luke was stig to his Druid Jungler meme, he was still a “set-up” type of Jungler who could only set up a kill for the ner. So, Luke didn’t have the strength to scare away the Dark Knight. On top of that, Ben pyed a defensive css, so he won’t get a kill even with Luke’s setup.

  “Luke, you defend Top for a bit?” Yuel asked.

  “No problemo,” Luke gave a thumbs up. “On it, pal.”

  “Then, I...?” Ben asked sheepishly with a gnce. He probably had the right idea in mind but didn't voice it for some reason.

  “You should recall to base,” Yuel said clearly to avoid any random misuandings.

  “Alright, will do,” Ben began recalling as soon as Luke approached the ne.

  Do I really have to say every little thing out loud? Yuel wondered.

  Ben didn't e across like a dumb pyer so he must have uood what Yuel had in mind when asking Luke to defend Top. heless, Ben waited for extra firmation. Why?

  Frankly, this indecisiveness was a tad annoying. Ben couldn't even properly ask for help when the enemy overwhelmed him in the ne. Instead, Vi ended up doing all the unication work for Ben.

  It felt like Ben became a high-maintenance pyer ohe enemy interrupted his “peaceful” game pn. In other words, he felt at home while the ne was frozen and pyed well in this climate. However, once aggression came from the enemy side, Ben started losing himself. He'll definitely have to work on this if he wants to bee a petitive pyer.

  For now, Yuel had to think of Ben as a timid pyer who didn't always speak his mind evehe situation was rough. Yuel pyed with some kids like that ba grade school, so he had some experience dealing with that. He simply had to pay extra attention to Ben and make the right calls in Ben’s stead as needed. ly fun but it was what it was.

  “Ben, you're been pressured again,” Yuel pointed out. The Dark Knight aggressed again and pushed Ben back to the tower.

  “Um, sorry,” Ben shrank.

  “You need help, right?” Yuel asked.

  “It'd be great, but it's my fault it came to this, so...”

  “That's irrelevant,” Yuel stated. “You should request help when you need help.”

  “But, I don’t want to bother you with my problem...”

  “Let us decide for ourselves whether it’s a bother or not. Somebody may be avaible to help you out. If not, they’ll just dee the request. But, if you never inform us you need help, we’ll definitely not be able to help on time.”

  “You're right...” Ben nodded but then fell silent like a statue. He still wasn't going to call for help? Sigh.

  “Luke,” Yuel called out. “ you defend Top again?”

  “On it, chief,” Luke rotated to Top and defe in Ben's stead again.

  “Thank you very much,” Ben threw a g Yuel and theed his eyes again.

  “Rather than thanking me,” Yuel said. “It'd be great if you start calling for help yourself.”

  “You're right. I...” Ben paused and his voice became quiet like a mumble. “I'll try my best.”

  “Please do.” There was no way Yuel would be able to pay attention to the Top Lahe whole time during the early-game. It’d be like remote babysitting.

  No, that won’t work. Ben had to step up his game and start asking for help of his own accord. The guy was bming himself too much for everything as if he was carrying the entire world on his shoulders. This had to stop.

  Yuel also had fidence issues at times regarding his pys but he felt like the most fident person in the world pared to Ben. It was unfortunate because Ben gave the impression of a promising pyer aside from that

  Though, at the same time, Ben's IGN sounded uncharacteristically bold: Fatty. There was a good e kids made fun of him for being obese, yet the guy went ahead and plugged that into his IGN. What an absolute mad d. It was so odd.

  Either way, Ben was quite the handful as a teammate at the moment. He had the right mi of putting himself on the line as a tank and his pystyle of freezing nes was quite impressive, but the rest of his game p average at best and unpolished at worst. So, overall, he was alright but not amazing. There were still many areas Ben had to polish before he'd be ready to be a petitive pyer.

  Hopefully, Vi was better prepared as Top for the petitive se. He switched pces with Ben after three matches so it was time to see him in a. Will this loud do a better job? He was dumb but also surprisingly sharp. It was hard to tell what to expect from him.

  “Hey, Chessmaster,” Vi called out during the drafting phase.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask, why are you always using niames?” Yuel raised an eyebrow.

  “Because it's cooler!” Vi pumped a fist. “Wheer a serious match, we transd our outer selves and bee oh our virtual selves!”

  “Oooooooh!” Lars excimed. “Yeah, I'm feelin’ it! When I py, I bee oh my guns!”

  “Yeah,” Luke nodded. “And I bee oh my memes! We transd humanity itself!”

  “You got it, dude! Evolution, yo!”

  “Sce, bruh!”

  Is it too te to transfer schools again? Yuel felt like facepalming into a wall.

  “Anyway,” Yuel turo Vi. “What did you need?”

  “Huh? Oh, I fot.”

  “You did, huh.”

  “No, wait! I remember now!” Vi raised his voice again. “It was a request of utmost importah the bance of the universe at stake!”

  “Just spit it out already.”

  “Right. So, I want to pick Spellbde first, if you don't mind.”

  All that noise for something small like that!? Yuel felt like choking the guy. “Sure, Spellbde is good for an early pick.”

  “Marvelous! Then, I'm log in”

  trary to the entire spectacle surrounding it, Vi's Spellbde pick was very normal. In fact, pig Spellbde early was one of the css’s few strong points. It wasn’t a particurly strong css in the currea but it was a versatile pick that could be pyed as either Top or Mid, so it gave the eeam very little information when picked first.

  The rest of the drafting phase proceeded acc to schedule. Lars picked Eleancer because that’s the css he ractig today. Luke picked Druid again because that was his “meme of the day”.

  Kai picked Pirate, a solid tier A css. Thinking of it, she has been pig a different css for every sich. Impaler, Trickshooter, Elf and now Pirate. She was a versatile Carry and she pyed all these csses at roughly the same level. That was a great quality for a petitive pyer.

  I wish Lars could py this many csses with his full power. Yuel thought.

  Right now, Lars could only py Trickshooter and Gunsli an insane level. He was so good with these two that he probably could rival some pros. However, the rest of his csses weren't nearly as intimidating. The day Lars brings most of his Carry csses to that level, he'll transform into a real monster. But, that day was still far away.

  For now, Kai's sistent performah so many different csses was one of the few advantages she had over Lars as a Carry. On average, across all Carry csses in the game, she might eveter than Lars. Unfortunately for her, being sistently good with many csses didn't make her a superior Carry. Her flexibility was great but it had nothing on Lars’s explosive strength that carried games.

  Am I pying favorites too much? Yuel wohe Lars vs. Kai debate could wait for ter. Right now, he was Kai's Support so he had to py alongside her. What will go along with her Pirate pick?

  Yuel found himself asking this question every game. Even though Kai started cooperating more with Yuel and eve him initiate from time to time, their teamwork was far from perfect. Heck, far from det even. Kai still acted indepely way too often and forced Yuel to adapt to her i moment. Holy, it ain.

  Like this Pirate pick, for example. Kai didn't exge a single word about it with Yuel. She went ahead and picked it just because. Worst of all, it wasn't even a bad pick or anything. Pirate indeed had det options against Gunslinger so Yuel couldn’t say anything.

  Is this how they alyed Bot in this club? Yuel threw a g Kai and Vi. These two seemed to have experience as a Bot duo, yet Kai has been pying selfishly the eime. Has Vi never brought this to her attention? If so, he wasn’t a dedicated Support pyer.

  I give up. Yuel sighed. This wasn't his business anyway. He didn't join this club to work on his supp skills for a new Carry. Even though he wao win matches and improve the club’s teamwork, there was no point in stressing over oroublemaker.

  Thus, Yuel picked Padin. It was a solid css he liked so he was fortable with it and that's all that mattered. Kai was no longer part of the equation for him. Not at all.

  Justice Strike bos well with Kraken, though. Yuel smiled wryly. No matter what he told himself, he still sought the option that plemehe Carry. After all, as the Support, he couldn't carry the team to victory himself. Therefore, he had to do everything in his power to help out his teammates instead, especially the Carry. This mentality was so deeply rooted in his mind that it became as natural as breathing.

  But, he wasn't going to stress over bo pys anymore. They'll pull those off if they ma he wasn't going to work hard with that blockhead to make every py t.

  “If I stun the Carry with Justice Strike,” Yuel said. “You may want to follow up with Kraken to make sure we stun him long enough to seal the deal.”

  “Sure,” Kai replied. As always, it was hard to tell much from her bnk expression. Did she agree with this suggestion? Did she think it was a good bo? Was she going to cooperate to make it happen? Who knew.

  “In general,” Yuel tinued. “If I initiate with Justice Strike, you should follow up on it.”

  “Who died and made you boss?”

  “I'm just stating the obvious. If I successfully initiate, we have to capitalize on that. You got a bad habit of not participating sometimes for no reason.”

  “Yeah, when the initiation is ass. I'm not gonna follow up on a crappy initiation that may lead nowhere.”

  “It'll definitely lead nowhere if you don’t follow up on it.”

  “I'll follow up on whatever looks good to me. It's my follow-up so I do whatever I want with it.”

  “I see,” Yuel made a face. “So, if it's not some amazing initiation with a thousand pert success ce, you won't even bother.”

  “Wouldn’t go that far but, basically, yeah. It better look promising or I don’t care for it.”

  “Gotta say, you're one heck of a spoiled princess.”

  “Excuse me?” Kai turned around. “What did you just call me?”

  “Spoiled?” Yuel answered with a question.

  “A spoiled what?”

  “... princess?” Yuel said relutly.

  “Is that so,” Kai returo her tablet. “Please don't talk to me ever again, ktnx.” She took out her earplugs and repced them with huge headphohese headphones were so big she probably wouldn’t even hear an atom bomb going ht beside her.

  “Um,” Yuel found himself gaping like a fish. Okay, this was sudden. Did she find it THAT insulting?

  Was it the word “spoiled”? Or, the word “princess”? Or, something about the bination? Yuel couldn't even begin to tell.

  “Hey, Chessmaster,” Vi called out with a wry smile. “It's not cool to bully the cap.”

  “I wasn't bullying anybody.”

  “Well, you made her activate her Soundproof Reality Marble, so you must have said something. She be difficult like that sometimes.”

  “You don't say,” Yuel sighed. If Kai were a css in Cssmancers, her difficulty would definitely be rated “Difficult”. No, probably even “Challenging”, the rare difficulty that only a select few csses had.

  “She won't pay any attention to you while she’s in her Soundproof Reality Marble,” Vi expined. “Just do what you to support her.”

  How about I just quit and go home? Yuel really wao throw the match but that'd be bad sportsmanship. No matter roblems his teammates posed, he was a petitive pyer and he had a role to fill oeam. Therefore, even if Kai was going to treat him like air, he'll py to the best of his ability until the bitter end.

  “I'll give you some pointers about her ter,” Vi said. “So, just bear with her for now.”

  “o worry so much. I've dealt with worse.” This reminded Yuel of the time he paired up with Trever in the scrimmage against the Leopards. Back then, he had to bear through a lot of bullshit. It was a terrible experie it toughened him up. Therefore, Yuel was only mildly irritated with Kai's entire duct. Yeah, only mildly. No problem at all. all...

  Why are girls always so difficult to deal with? Yuel sighed. Seriously, every girl he ever dealt with has been a handful. Julia, Ellen, Ignis and now Kai. It's like he had the worst possible affinity with females. Vi could’ve easily given him an ability like “Zero Pheromone Affinity” and it’d be hard to ugh it off.

  Well, it is what it is. Yuel will just have to get this over with. He was more ied in Vi's performan Top anyway, so Kai's sulky attitude only gave him more iive to focus on that.

  On this he fourth match the day began.