Both sides finished posing their teams and the match began loading. At this point, everybody could already see what the others picked.

  "Say what!?" Trever roared. "Yo, Lars! Where's your Shooter at!?"

  "My Elf is more than enough for ya!" Lars shouted back across the room.

  "Heh, a cheeky brat like always," Trever’s eyes glinted dangerously. "Guess I have to spank that kid real hard this match."

  "Calm down," Aron said. "Don't let such a small thing trigger you."

  "But, he's totally taking me lightly! He should know better than anybody that only his Shot any real ce against me."

  "Don't let them tilt you before the match."

  "Wait, you think they're doing this on purpose?"

  "I wouldn't put it past Yuel," Aron said. "Anyway, there's a good reason he went for Elf. Just look at the rest of their line up."

  "What about it?" Trever tilted his head.

  "It's anti-Lion," Alex pointed out. "Somebody got their ass ter-picked."

  "Indeed," Aron frowned. Everybody in StormBlitz knew he favored Lionfolk, so he expected some ter-picks and calcuted the payoff accly. But, even for Lars to ter-pick? That wasn’t in the siderations.

  It threw a wren Aron’s pns but it was alright. It just meant he'll have to work a little harder to secure kills, that's all.

  "So," Trever started. "You’re saying Lars wussed out because of your Lion? Dodge me with that shit."

  "Yuel must be the one behind the wheel. Holy, I'm also surprised by how defensively Yuel chose to approach this match. Pretty sure a couple of months ago these two would've had gone all out against us without batting a appears they’ve learned a lesson or two sihen."

  "Heh, I bet losing Howard’s 'seleatch' burhem pretty hard."

  "So it seems," Aron nodded. After learning about the whole situation with Yuel and Lars's transfer, Aron asked Howard for repy footage of that seleatch.

  There were many things to say about that match, but one of the biggest causes of Yuel's defeat was the team's reckless offense. Lars kept falling for Ellen’s baits, Julia went on a rampage and Yuel's shot-calls cked on the defensive front.

  Judging by their picks this match, it appeared as if they’ve learned a hard lesson from that match. This time, they didn’t o fortify their defehough, the way they were doing it almost felt as if...

  "Gotta say," Alex started. "That's one heck of a defensive lihey got there. It might work for them once we fight on nes, but if we go for an early 3v3? What they gonna do about it?"

  "You suggest an invade?" Aron asked.

  "Just w what’s your take on this. It feels like we got the upper hand here by a mile."

  "Hm, true. I see the setup." Aron ran a couple of simutions in his head. The enemy's lineup was indeed ill-suited for tering an early invasion. Yuel desighat lineup primarily around tering Lionfolk, not much else.

  Actually, that's not quite true. I give Yuel a little more credit than that. Aron smiled thinly. That peculiar Lumimancer pick was most certainly an attempt at ter-pig Alex's Warlock. So, it doubled both as a Warlock ter and a Lionfolk ter.

  Unfortunately for Yuel, Alex saw that ing from a mile away. He was no lohe same orick pony he used to be in high school; he had options now. His Sorcerer pick was most likely going to walk all over the Lumimancer.

  On top of that, Lumimancer wasn't a burst damage mage, especially not in the early-game. That was a huge factor when sidering an ihe enemy's only dangerous DPS pyer was Lar, but even he wasn't much of an immediate threat in the early-game. Elf was a Carry who specialized in shooting targets from afar, not killing oppos from point-bnk

  So, the one and only dangerous pyer for cle bat was Yuel with his Viking. His ult summoned a gang of mobs, who were strong enough to make up for the power differen early- game. He most certainly made this pick specifically to cover up the ck of offense in his lineup.

  Unfortunately for him, this was only relevant for Lv.5 onwards. The 3v3 mode started at Lv.3, so Yuel didn't have access to Unstoppable Raid right away. So, even though this ult will eventually bee a strong tool, at game-start it simply did in the equation.

  "Hm, I believe we really do it," Aron cluded. "They don't have mu the way of tering an aggressive team at game start."

  "Wow!" Trever jumped. "We invading!?"

  "Keep it down."

  "ht. Ahaha," Trever ughed awkwardly and g the enemy camp. Phew, nobody heard him. "So, we really gonna do it?"

  "What do you think?" Aron turo Alex. "Are they going to be prepared for it?"

  "If I had to guess: no, they won't be. Their lineup makes me feel like they're already too scared of your presence alohey’re too busy quaking in their boots to even sider an invade."

  "I see," Aron nodded. "Your read says they're not prepared and my analysis says their ter options are limited. Let's give it a shot."

  "Woohoo!" Trever pumped a fist. "Sick, let's do it! I'mma show Lars he gotta respect his elders and pick his best stuff against me!"

  Meanwhile, iher camp...

  "This sucks," Kai ranted. "So much for that 'Warlock ter-pick' idea."

  "Yes, that didn't turn out well," Yuel frowhe Lumimancer pick was supposed to be a hard ter to Warlock, but Alex went for Sorcerer instead of all things.

  It'd still be ohing if Freezer just went for any other css that wasn't Warlock. But no, Freezer went specifically for Sorcerer, a css that hard tered both Pyromancer and Lumimancer if pyed correctly. It’s like he was expeg these ter picks a for a ter of his own.

  Is that Aron's work? No, he shouldn't remember the sed-string's scrimmage that well. Yuel frowned. Even though Aro over the repys of that scrimmage, surely he didn't remember miails like this.

  Oher hand, Alex himself had a good ce of figuring out something like this. If he anticipated Yuel to be the type who goes for hard-ters, it wouldn't be odd for him to hard-ter the hard-ters. This felt like that time during the scrimmage, when the Leopards hit StormBlitz hard with their “mixup” strategy. Back then, they also used Yuel's smart drafting against him.

  Was Alex the one behind that trick as well? If so, this guy might be more dangerous than I gave him credit for.

  "So," Kai lifted her . "How are you gonna pensate me for this terrible pick? It was your idea."

  "I agree it’s a bad matchup, but it’s not the end of the world."

  "Do I o remind you that Sorcerer reposition minions like nothing?"

  "I know."

  "And, you know what's very important for a Lumi to be able to farm well?"

  "Minion positioning..." Yuel sighed. "Look, I get it. This be a tough matchup, but no use g over spilled milk. We don't know yet how good he actually is with Sorcerer. As I said, st time, he seemed like a potential orick pony who could only py Warlock. Maybe something has ged sihen, maybe it didn’t.”

  "So?" Kai made a face. “How we gonna deal with this?”

  "I'll make sure to gank your en if you struggle. How does that sound?"

  "Better than nothing."

  The team headed toward the Wraith Camp op Lahe pn was for all three of them to assault the camp and quickly get the blue buff for Kai. Then, Yuel and Lars will tio the Ogre Camp below ahe red buff for Lars. This was the meta opening in Csh mode. Or, at least it was as meta as it could get for a mode that wasn’t truly deemed petitive.

  There was still time before the wraiths spawn, so Yuel used this time window to scout the jungle and pce two wards in key locations. He pced the first ward close to Bot Lahis ward kept wat the Wolf Camp for any ter-jungling and also covered one of the on gank routes when targeting Bot.

  “I’m warding the route to Bot,” Yuel informed Kai. “I’ll ward the griffins with my other ward, so you have to take care of warding Top if you think it’s necessary.”

  So, you’re saying our Bot Laner is more important than our Top, huh. Kai gave him a look. “I po ward Top myself anyway.”

  “Okay,” Yuel nodded.

  Yuel pced his sed ward he Griffin Camp at the ter of the map. This was a ral camp that’ll surely be tested by both sides, so it was important to keep tabs on it. On top of that, the camp id on a tral path that early the entire jungle in half, making it a great route for rotating from one side of the map to the other.

  Aron isn't pg one? Yuel wondered. He expected to run into Aron somewhere out here but there were no enemies in sight. Aron should know how the meta of Csh worked, so it'd be odd for him to not pce a ward here.

  Maybe Aron was running te? Or, maybe he has already pced a ward here before Yuel? It ossible, sidering Yuel was slowed down by his bickering with Kai.

  No signs of an invade so far. Yuel o himself after examining the area. To effitly i game start, the invader had to pass through one of the areas Yuel warded, for they covered the shortest paths both horizontally aically. However, there was not a single soul in sight. Good.

  Yuel returo the Wraith Camp and took the frontline against the wraiths that were about to spawn. Three. Two. Ohe tdown hit zero. Minions spawned on both nes and so did the wraiths

  However, as soon as the wraiths emerged, a magical tune resounded nearby. An ominous bck sphere appeared out of thin air in the middle of their formation. It was the Sorcerer's Magia Orb!

  An invade!? Yuel jumped.

  "Crap-!" Even Lars wasn't fast enough to dodge. As soon as the orb appeared, it imploded into a bck hole and pulled everybody in. The eeam, and one of the wraiths, got sucked in and crashed into each other at the ter of the gravity pull!

  It was the beginning of a very disadvantageous game-opening...

  DarkestCymore