Yuel and Lars fialking to Julia auro the waiting room.

  "You're one smooth criminal, Lars," Luke grinned and smacked Lars on the back. "You old us you got such a cute girlfriend!"

  "Haha, she ain't my girlfriend," Lars ughed. "She's a good friend and one heck of a pyer. She gonna be on StormBlitz's first-string this year."

  "Whoa, for real!? Such a cutie!?” Luke’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets. “Man, and here I thought all the girls who py video games are-” He gnced around the room and noticed Kai and Nia were among the listeners. “Ahem. Anyway, cool stuff, bro.”

  "So, she came to spy on us?" Kai asked.

  "Yes, among things," Yuel said. "Don't worry, we haven't told her anything."

  "I hope you didn’t," Kai gave them a look. For some reason, she seemed rather antagonistic about the whole affair.

  "So, shall we resume our secret meeting?" Vi cut in. "We were in the middle of discussing our oppos' strengths and weaknesses."

  "I said pretty much everything I had to say," Yuel admitted.

  Right before Julia arrived, Yuel shared intel about the various major fws he discovered in their oppos. Most of Taurus' pyers didn't e across as high-level and their craft was unpolished in many ways.

  There was only one oppo who stood out from the rest. The captain of their team, Nirvana. The guy pyed solid Mid, enough to give Lars trouble. Yuel couldn't find any gring weaknesses in Nirvana’s pystyle.

  "What about you?" Yuel asked Vi. "Did they have any 'abilities' that stood out?" His skin crawled as he asked the question.

  Did I seriously just ask that with a straight face? Yuel cracked a weird ugh. After months of iion with Vi, Yuel cluded this was the best method for inquiring about the ’s findings. Vi definitely had the knack for spotting others' strong points, but the way he id out his findings always made Yuel lose brain cells.

  "Very well, so my turn has finally e," Vi brought up his tablet. As soon as the game was over, he wrote down all the data he absorbed with his Information Bckhole, to make sure none of it will escape the gravitational pull. "Now, let me share the mysteries of the world with you!"

  "Didn't you say there was barely anything important?" Yuel asked.

  "Well, yes. However...!" Vi insisted with a dramatie, just to make a se.

  "Cut to the chase already," Kai ordered. "We don't have time for this."

  "Yes, iime is of an essence," Vi nodded. "If I don't speak fast, the casualty of time and space will colpse and the world will implode into a bck hole!"

  "......................." Everybody gave him a cold, silent stare. The invisible pressure felt like a knife pressed against his throat.

  "A-Alright, alright! I'll speak! Just don't torture moi!" Vi waved his arms. "As I reported previously, I couldn't find much. It appears our current oppos don't have any specific talents."

  "So, basically, they're scrubs?" Luke ughed.

  "They totally are," Kai nodded.

  "heless!" Vi tinued. "My Information Bckhole picked up a few things. Firstly, TheLegend, the enemy Carry. I’m vinced his Fury Inducer skill extends beyond real-life Even ihe game, he ofteends to be almighty and that ihe urge to smite him down. Even I nearly aggressed on him a couple of times when his pys showed no respect for our strength."

  "So, you’re saying he's good at being a scumbag" Kai summarized. "That's some ‘talent’ right there."

  "Hmm," Yuel sidered this seemingly useless information. "So, it's like a taunt ability?"

  "Indeed!" Vi nodded. "It alters causality to make his foes seek vengeance against him! Though, as far as causality-alteration skills are ed, it's definitely on the weaker side."

  "I see," Yuel nodded. In other words, TheLegend acted like a natural scumbag and that invited hatred from his foes. It wasly a talent to be proud of, but it was indeed a “skill”, in the sehat it could hihe enemy’s performance.

  It was like a taunt effect that clouded judgment. It might cause ao jump the gun and recklessly aggress on TheLegend, digging their own grave in the process. Kai was especially susceptible to things like that.

  "So, here’s what we should take from it," Yuel summarized. "Always think twice before you target TheLegend. Make sure you're not being reckless just because you want to see the guy dead." Everybody nodded in uanding.

  " on the list," Vi scrolled on his tablet. "Nirvana, the enemy Mid Laner. He has been lying low for the most part, but his performance was very strong."

  "That's true," Yuel agreed. Most of the eeam came across as half-baked, except for Nirvana. Stratus easily gained an advantage in Top and Bot, but not in Mid. It was a big part of why they couldn’t the game for a while.

  "As for his talents," Vi tinued. "It has to be the Silent Backer!" He shouted iement, as if this random bination of words meant anything. Everybody hit him back with the Silent Treatment attack.

  "Alright, I shall expin," Vi cleared his throat. "Nirvana has been lying low during the first half of the game, despite being one of the more skilled pyers. Naturally, one reason for that was how Gunz gave Nirvana a hard time in ne."

  "Yeah, I totally rekt that guy.” Lars gave a thumbs up. "Dude was strong, tho. He didn't attack much, but his defense was on point."

  "Yes, he came across as a defensive pyer," Yuel agreed. Nirvana almost never actively initiated attacks, but he skillfully deflected ining attacks.

  "But, there was a shift in Nirvana's attitude during mid-game, was there not?" Vi asked everybody.

  "There was?" Yuel frowned. He didn't remember such a thing. Based on his analysis, Nirvana remained a defensive pyer from start to end. Even during the team-fighting phase, the guy didn't show muitiative. That was one of the reasons it was so difficult to uncover any weaknesses in his py. Nirvana's biggest "weakness" was his ck of initiative, that's all Yuel mao gather.

  "Nirvana tinued pying defensively during the mid-game as well," Vi tinued. "However, there was something amazing about his performance. He was almost always at the right pce, at the right time, ready to help his teammates in moments of peril. He backed up his allies from the shadows without expeg any gratitude. The ler, Silent Backer!"

  "Yeah, dude retty cool," Lars nodded with a grin. "I've been trying to get a kill on him fes, so I was watg his every move. No matter where we attacked, that Nirvana dude was always there to defend."

  "Yes, I suppose he was," Yuel thought ba all the major assaults they mounted on the enemy during mid-game. And truly, Nirvana was there to defend against many of them. It didn’t stand to Yuel at first, because he already branded Nirvana as a “defensive pyer” early on. However, it was indeed impressive.

  Nirvana didn't just py defensively. He was often an active part of the defense force during critical moments. He often found his way to the se of i, as if predig where Stratus will strike .

  He's like Howard. Yuel shuddered. Or rather, a mini-Howard.

  It didn't seem like Nirvana was responsible for making defensive shot-calls the way Howard did. However, his ability to always reinforce the defense in the right pce at the right time was very much like Howard's. This type of oppo was guarao be a pain in the neck.

  So, I should always sider the possibility of Nirvana being there to defend unless I distract him first. Yuel cluded.

  "Anything else?" Yuel asked Vi. Putting aside that 's theatrics, his observations were proving to be valuable. They helped Yuel focus on pieces of information he didn't pay enough attention ting new facts to light.

  "Unfortunately, that's everything my Information Bckhole absorbed," Vi said. "I tried, I really did. I dug into the deepest yers of their subsciousness, trying to unravel something of great importance. As, I failed to find anything else." His shoulders slumped. He probably wao e up with more silly talent names.

  "Don't worry, man," Luke enced. "If you couldn’t find much, it just means these guys are wack, haha."

  "I agree with Luke's assessment," Yuel said. "Taurus doesn't seem to be a strohis year."

  "Or, maybe we're just to!" Lars fshed his teeth. "We trained a lot, so we're DA BEST, yo!"

  "Heh, perhaps," Yuel chuckled. That's right, they trained plenty and improved tremendously over the past couple of months. They were no lohe infamous bottom tier team.

  That's why Julia's criticism irked so much. She cimed Stratus won only thanks to Taurus being a weak team. And, supposedly, the victory wasn’t “decisive” enough. Seriously, what was she on about? Stratus utterly crushed Taurus.

  Well, Yuel did, in fact, take his time carefully ering Taurus into submission. Stratus had an overwhelming lead, so he didn't want to take any risks that might make them lose their winning position. Therefore, he focused on safe and steady shot-calls that didn't harbor any risks.

  As a result, the game dragged on a little and they didn’t deliver the finishing blow until the very end. They won via sieging their enemies.

  But, was there anything wrong with that approao, there wasn't. Siege was a famous military tactic for a reason. It was an effective method for quering and it definitely worked in Cssmancers.

  “You got an early lead, but instead of attag you just sat there doing nothing. That’s not like you.” That's what Julia said. Acc to her, pying siege in that situation was uncharacteristic for Yuel. And, she was right. Or rather, she would have been right if they held this versation a few months ago.

  Back during the seleatch against Howard, Yuel was still stu the mentality of going for a quick kill after exploiting the enemy’s weaknesses. Striking fast and hard was his preferred way of peting. Not only in Cssmancers, but in Chess as well. It was the pystyle he learned from his dad and the ohat came most naturally to him.

  However, this very pystyle betrayed him. It led Yuel to his doom during the seleato matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t crack Howard’s unbreakable defense.

  Thus, the clusion was obvious: this approach didn’t work on the highest level of py. Cssmancers offered many ways to bat early-game aggression and Howard knew how to utilize them. That’s why, no matter how Yuel attacked, Howard always deflected the blows.

  Therefore, something had to ge. Yuel had no choice but to face his defeat and analyze it. From that, he cluded his aggressive strategies won’t cut it against the stro oppos. It was impossible to pee through Aegis via brute strength.

  On top of that, the currea didn’t favor early offeher. Acc to statistics, most pro teams in A-League relied on defensive or banced lineups. Few went with aggressive lineups.

  Therefore, Yuel had to adapt. If he truly wao defeat Howard, he couldn’t keep relying on a suboptimal game pn. He had to rei himself and his strategies. That was the only way to advance.

  heless, a part of him opped asking. “Was there a way to defeat Howard with a rushdown tactic? Maybe I just couldn’t find it?” Such pointless questions haunted him.

  During matches, something in him ofteed him to ramp up the aggression. Even when he ying with caution, he couldn’t stop himself simuting what would happen if he were to suddenly switch to offe’s as if his instincts were screaming at him, asking him to strike as hard as possible at the enemy’s weaknesses.

  But, he had to keep such desires on a leash. It was tempting to strike every weakness in the enemy’s formation, but it often harbored risk. It was enough to fail ond the team will pay dearly. That was especially true against Howard, the captain who knew all about his teammates’ weaknesses. Anything Yuel tried to exploit backfired at him.

  That’s why Yuel reduced the frequency of such pys. They were tempting, but he stayed his hand. The risk was too high.

  But, Julia didn’t know about any of that. For her, Yuel remained a strategist who relied on aggressive tactics. He began straying from that path a little toward the end of the seleatch, but it wasn’t enough.

  At the very end of the match, Yuel was tempted to tihe offense Julia started. A fatal mistake. Instead of f Julia to retreat, Yuel was stuck mulling over the options. As a result, he didn’t order Julia to retreat in time, and then...

  I ’t repeat that mistake. Yuel promised himself. I have to adjust my strategies so they don’t fall prey to temptations like these.

  heless, Julia was expeg him to put on an aggressive show today. And, by extension, that’s what everybody in StormBlitz was expeg too. Even though gathering intel probably wasn’t Julia’s top priority today, she was still a spy from the eeam. She came here to observe the way Stratus pyed a back to Howard.

  We could feed them with a little misinformation. Yuel smirked. If they shift to an aggressive pystyle and domihe game, it'll vince Julia that Stratus had every iion to py aggressively, the way Yuel always did. Naturally, this information will be reyed to Howard and he'll draw the same clusion as well.

  As a result, StormBlitz will clude that Stratus was an aggressive team and that’s the kind of matchup StromBlitz will be preparing for. However, it’ll be a grave mistake on their part. It might allow Stratus to catch them off-guard during their first game.

  It’s probably nothing more than wishful thinking. Yuel smiled wryly. Still, I’d take any leverage I get, no matter how small.

  It was settled. He’ll try rushing down Taurus in the game. Worst case, they’ll lose one game and learn from their mistakes. They gained some leeway by winning the first game, so it was fio experiment.

  Of course, this wasn’t Yuel’s decision alone. He had to vihe eeam to follow this strategy. But, he had a strong feeling the captain will like this suggestion...

  DarkestCymore