The match revieproag its end. Yuel fialking about the three main troublemakers, so only Vi and Lars were left.

  “, Vi,” Yuel tinued. “All in all, you pyed well. There are many things I say about your performance as a Support, but I believe that’s not so important for us going forward. After all, you’ll be pying Top from now on.”

  “Indeed, I will.”

  “So, if you want to hear my criticism regarding your supp, we discuss it in private ter. I don’t want t out this matalysis any lohan it o be.”

  “Mhm, a reasonable decision indeed.”

  “As for your performan Top, you did well overall. DragonMaster overwhelmed you a little at first, but you successfully turhe tables on him with Luke’s help.”

  “All thanks to yenius advice.”

  “I did throw you a bone,” Yuel said. “But, it was you who successfully anized and pull off that strong py. So, it’s your aplishment.”

  “My, you ftter me.” Vi waved his hand as if embarrassed.

  “With that said, you made a couple of mistakes.” Yuel made sure to state that before Vi got carried away. “I’d like to briefly go over them now.”

  The video showed pys in which Vi itted a small mistake or didn’t perform as optimally as he could have had. But, all in all, none of the pys received any harsh criticism.

  “There’s only one py I sider very questionable.” Yuel paused on the final se. “It happened when the enemy rotated to push Top as a group. You and Kai were defending the the time.”

  “Oh, that intense moment is burned into my memory!” Vi made noise. “It was such a nerve-wrag situation! I could feel the Bermuda Triangle of Certain Doom closing up ohe end was nigh!”

  “It was a difficult situation, that’s true,” Yuel agreed. “But, the way you respoo it only made it that much worse. Instead of retreating immediately, you stayed behind to stall the enemy. That was a mistake.”

  “But, wasn’t it thanks to my noble sacrifice that Kai made it out alive?” Viook pride in that sacrifice. By stalling StormMonster just enough, Kai successfully escaped from the clutches of death! What’s more, she gathered the ce to stand up to that evil and turhe tables on her pursuer, killing him in the process! It was a glorious moment!

  “You’re using hindsight to justify your as,” Yuel said. “Kai nearly died despite your sacrifice. The situation was down to the wire. You couldn’t know for sure whether she’ll survive.”

  “heless, I believed in our valkyrie!” Vi procimed proudly. “I khat if I keep her alive, she’ll bring about greater results than me. And indeed, she did not disappoint!”

  “It’s hat you have faith in your teammates, but it was blind faith in this case. You had no reason to believe Kai will make it out alive. You knew all too well how good of a pursuer StormMonster is. A little bit of stalling won’t stop him from catg up to his target.”

  “Very well, I cede.” Vi gave up. “Indeed, it wasn’t one of my brightest ideas. I must’ve falleo ay.”

  “I assumed as much,” Yuel said. “ime you find yourself in a tight situation, make sure to ask yourself twice whether your pnned course of a is sound. Maybe share the details with somebody else to get more opinions. You might notice you were about to it a mispy due to being nervous.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Aside from that, all in all, you’ve aplished everything I requested from you in Game 5. It was a solid performance.”

  That’s all Yuel had to say about Vi. The guy wasn’t overly talented and didn’t have anything special going for him skill-wise, but he was a solid banced pyer, simir to Gilbert.

  So, even though Vi didn’t aplish anything great by himself, her did he it any grave mistakes. There wasn’t much for him to “fix”. He simply had to polish his existing skills and gain more experience.

  , it was Lars’s turn on the chopping block. At least, that’d normally be the case, but...

  “Lastly, Lars...”

  “Oh boy, here it es!” Lars gulped and smiled awkwardly.

  “There’s not much to say.”

  “Wut?” Lars almost slid off the chair. “Nothing to say? Okay, who are you and what did you do Yuel?”

  “I know this is rare, but that’s how it is,” Yuel said. “You didn’t py Carry in games 1 to 4, so these aren’t relevant. As fame 5, you pyed a solid game from start to end.”

  “No way!” Lars excimed. “Did I just score a hundred on a test!?”

  “No, not a hundred.” Yuel was obligated to deny that on the spot. “There are many things I say about your performan Mid and we’ll review all of that ter today.”

  “Oh noes...”

  “Fortunately, those problems aren’t important for the team going forward. After all, yoing to py Carry from now on.”

  “You betcha!”

  “So, to keep this review short and cise, I’ll skip discussing your performan Mid.”

  “Heh.” Luke snorted. “‘Short and vince’ my ass. It feels like we’ve been sitting here listening to this lecture the whole day. Shit is more tiring than studying, word.”

  “In that case, I’m sure you’ll be happy to know this cludes the match review.”

  “For real? That’s it? Are we finally free!?” Luke jumped from his chair and stretched his arms. “YAAAAS! FREEEEEEDOM!”

  “Or, is it really the end? Huhuhu.” Vi smiled meaningfully. “I believe I prepared one more treat funz.”

  “Oh, that’s right.” Yuel remembered. “You had more footage prepared for Lars, didn’t you?”

  “Indeed, indeed! Footage that showcases our ace’s glorious achievements like her!”

  “Okay, okay.” Yuel sighed and turo Lars. “Since Vi insisted so much, we included some footage of your best pys from Game 5. Do you want to watch them?”

  “Oh!?” Lars jumped like aed puppy. “Show me, show me!”

  “Okay, here they are.” Yuel pyed the video.

  The footage showed how Lars dominated against Renegade during the ning phase, how he defeated DragonMaster while pushing the Golem, and how he killed Renegade with Kai’s help at the very end, which was the py that essentially sealed the fate of the game.

  “Yooooo! This is sick!” Lars jumped iement. “ ya run it one more time? Pretty please!?”

  “If that’s what you want...” Yuel rewound the video and run the segment again. He had nothing else to show anyway, so he might as well let the goof enjoy the show. The other club members seemed eained as well, so there was no harm in running it one more time.

  “Maaaan.” Luke nodded repeatedly. “This mad d makes pro pys look easy. This is a ‘Top 10 Pys’ pition videht there.”

  “Indeed, indeed” Vi agreed. “The superb performance of the Insa of the Apocalypse is a sight to behold! My one and only regret is that I didn’t have the time to narrate over all these pys. I’m terribly sorry for that!”

  “No worries, dude,” Lars said. “This video is awesome. I wanna show it to my folks too. They keep saying I should’ve focused on basketball and stuff, but I’mma show ‘em how ancers be!”

  “In that case,” Vi said. “I absolutely must add narration ara effects. If you give me but a couple more days, I shall deliver you a far superior version of this showcase!”

  “Really? Isn’t it a lot of work?”

  “Indeed, it is quite an ordeal. But, worry not. I also do this for my owertai and to practice my craft. It’s no hassle at all.”

  “Okay, then I’mma wait.” Lars nodded. “I bet you gonna make it a thousand times more epic!”

  “I shall do my best to live up to these expectations!”

  This one video invoked a lot of chatter in the clubroom. Even though the long match review should have worn everybody out and they all showed signs of losing focus, they instantly became eic the moment Yuel pyed this positive video.

  It’s amazing what a showcase of a few good pys do to the atmosphere. Yuel thought.

  If he went ahead with his inal pn and focused only on everybody’s mispys, he’d be dealing with a room of drowsy zombies by now. Most of the audience wouldn’t have been able to maintain their tration all the way to the end.

  Fortunately, the few positive clips revitalized the entire audien the spot, helping them regain their tration. In fact, these positive parts even gave everybody the iive to discuss the topic among themselves, something they barely did during the rest of the meeting.

  Looks like mixing in some positive clips during match review is the winning formu. Yuel cluded. It sounded like a waste of time on paper, but it had amazis in practice.

  Humans wereirely logical creatures, so the most “effit” method didn’t always work the “best” for them. As such, even though fog on the important mispys should’ve been the most effit way to review the match, it didn’t necessarily work the best in practice. Sidetrag to show a couple of “good pys” proved to be exceptionally helpful too, as wasteful as it sounded.

  The more you know. Yuel took a mental note of these results. The art of unig with people and veying information was endlessly deep. It felt like he still had a long way ahead of him before he masters it.

  As the chit-chat died out, Yuel took the opportunity to say o thing about Lars’s performance.

  “As I said, you did great in Game 5,” Yuel repeated. “I have no real pints there.”

  “Praise me more, teacher!”

  “Don’t get carried away. You definitely made a couple of pys that weren’t optimal, so we’ll discuss those ter today. Don’t even worry about it.”

  “Oh boy, sounds like I’m in for a day full of lectures...” Lars smiled wryly.

  “Anyway,” Yuel tinued. “There’s one important fact to keep in mind regarding Game 5. You pyed Gunslihat game, which is one of your two best csses.”

  “Yep, Shooter and Slinger for days, yo!”

  “You made a lot of impressive pys that game. Pys that you could’ve only made with these two csses.”

  “Hey, you never know! But yeah, some of these situations would’ve beey dang tough if I wasn’t pying Slinger.”

  “Right. And, as you all saw, there was an audieg the scrimmage, most certainly filled with scouts from other teams. So, from this point on, we expect all our future oppos to know how good Lars’s Trickshooter and Gunslinger are.”

  “Oh, dang!” Lars jumped. “We got exposed!? That ain’t fair, yo! We gotta find all them spy dudes ahem tet what they saw!”

  “Too te. I’m sure they already showed the repys of the scrimmage to their teams.”

  “Wait, repys?” Lars cocked his head. “I know we got them because we actually pyed the games, but why would dudes from the audience have them? You think they recorded some stuff with their phones or something?”

  “No, they could simply purchase them.”

  “They buy the repys!? Is there a bck market selling our stuff!?”

  “Yes, there is. It’s Proter itself,” Yuel expined. “They allow visitors to purchase the repys of the games they watch.”

  “Yo, that’s shady as heck! It’s like they’re selling all our secret tech!”

  “The fact they charge money for it is a little questionable, but otherwise there’s nothing strange about it. Scouting is something you’ll find in any petitive sport. Even for basketball, I’m sure your club had people who went to scout and record other teams’ games.”

  “Oh, now that you mention it...” Lars was struck by a sudden realization. “We sometimes watched videos of rival teams before pying them. Coach usually gave us pointers about the enemy pyers and all that.”

  “And, where did you think these videos came from? Surely, you didn’t think the enemy recorded the video a it to you as a gift?”

  “To be ho, I never really thought about it, haha.”

  “Somebody from your club went to record it, either the staff or fellow club members. Or, maybe they purchased the videos from somebody else. Either way, there was some spying involved.”

  “Man, so much spying in this world.”

  “That’s aable part of any sport,” Yuel said. “Information is power. The more you know about the eeam, the more termeasures you e up with. It’s only natural for serious teams to iigate each other.”

  “Yep, makes sehough, I still dunno how I feel about Proter selling our repys. I thought it was just a nice pce for dudes to get together and py games, but turns out it had some shady business running on the side.”

  “I think it’s a nice service,” Yuel said. “It would be nicer if Proter gave out the repys for free, but they already sell each repy cheaper than it’d cost you to buy a soft drink from a vending mae.”

  “Oh, really? That’s practically nothing.”

  “Right. You eve a dist if you buy the entire bundle, so it’s really nothing. It’s more like a ‘good faith deposit’ than anything.”

  “You make it sound nid all,” Luke interjected. “But, it’s still a shady practice. It’s like paid DLC for stuff that should be free. Like, do they even legally own these repys?”

  “The repys are recorded while we py in Proter, so yes, I’d say they have a right to them. I don’t know much about the legal side of it, but I’m sure they’re covered.”

  “But, they ’t make any repys without us, the pyers. So, where is our cut in all of this?”

  “Well, we do get the repys for free.”

  “Heh, how nice of them. Imagine you were an actor for some big movie but, instead of paying your sary, they’d only let you watch the finished movie for free. Big stonks.”

  “Except, it’s not a movie and we’re not professional actors. I agree that the service could’ve been more er-friendly, but it’s actually an amazing serviall teams like ours.”

  “Why so?” Luke tilted his head.

  “Think about other sports,” Yuel said. “Teams have to send trained scouts to manually record the games of other teams, right?”

  “Yep, I knew a few guys who hahat job in the soccer club. They always pi ain in the neck, haha.”

  “Right, it’s not easy work,” Yuel expined. “They have t a camera and manually rotate it around to capture the flow of the match. It get especially difficult in a sport like Soccer which has very a wide court. You ’t just leave su important job to anybody. You o train these scouts and provide them with appropriate equipment.”

  “Yeah, sounds abht,” Luke nodded. “I heard they usually do this in groups, too. Like, one dude hahe camera, the others take notes and discuss things, etc.”

  “Yes, it’s quite the operation. Not to mention, the club also has to finance all the equipment used for scouting, on top of finang all the regur club equipment. So, you probably imagihat any small soccer club will find it difficult to get all the right equipment for scouting. And, they probably won’t have as many free hands to send people to scout all the time, not to mention the problem of training such scouts in the first pce.”

  “Dang, sounds rough.” Luke nodded. “But, why are we pitying low-budget clubs, again?”

  “Maybe because our club is one of them?”

  “Oh snap, you’re right!” Luke held his head. “This is terrible! Unfair! Capitalism at its fi!”

  “That’s reality for you,” Yuel said. “Fortunately for us, none of that applies to Cssmahanks to the Proter service you pined about a moment ago.”

  “How so?”

  “Think about it. We’re a small team, right? It’d be difficult for us to scout other teams in a professional manner.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think the school gonna give us a pro camera for it.”

  “Right. But, thanks to Proter’s services, we just pay a small amount to get ourselves the full in-game repy of the entire scrimmage. It’s the best rec you could ever ask for, with zero rec mistakes and lots of built-in analysis tools. Nobody get better game footage than that, so we pete against rich powerhouses like the Leopards on equal grounds when it es to information gathering.”

  “Dang, hought of it that way.” Luke nodded. “Alright, maybe that paid DLC they provide isn’t that bad after all. Though, I still say they should give us a cut of the profit.”

  “Or, they could just hand them out for free,” Yuel suggested. “Anyway, bay initial point. As you all uand by now, the scoutia is very strong in this petitive se, seeing as everybody got easy access to repys. So, Lars.”

  “Yes?”

  “Make no mistake, all our future oppos will know about your Trickshooter and Gunslihey’ll most certainly ban them, so don’t expect to get any more easy opportunities like you had against Taurus.”

  “Weeeelp, that’s a bummer.”

  “It’s not just a bummer, it’s a serious issue. If we want to make it far iour, we’ll need your overwhelming strength as a Carry.”

  “Leave it to me!” Lars gave a thumbs up. “I’mma carry you dudes all the way to the moon!”

  “Yes, you will. That is, if you py your best csses. Unfortunately, those will be banned.”

  “No problem! I carry with any marksman!”

  “In Ranked maybe, but definitely not in the petitive se. I’m sure you uand that too by now.

  “Heck yeah.” Lars grinned. “They got some serious dudes over there. That Nirvana dude was tough as heck! I even had some trouble against him with my Gunslinger.”

  “That’s why it’s important to not rex just yet,” Yuel said. “Even though I said you performed well against Taurus in Game 5, it doesn’t mean you don’t have anything to improve on. It’s just that Taurus wasn’t prepared for us, that’s all. Our future oppos will ban your best csses for sure. So tell me, what will you do then?”

  “Beat them with my sed-best csses!”

  “It won’t go that smoothly,” Yuel objected. “You know better than anybody how big of a skill gap there is between your best csses and the rest. If we want to keep on winning, the team will he power of your best csses. Ahan that won’t cut it. And, unfortunately, you only have two such csses. You need more.”

  “No problem!” Lars gave a thumbs up. “I’m already w on my Elf. Dude is getting stronger by the day, yo!”

  “Good.” Yuel nodded. “Please focus on it for the uping weeks. Make sure your Elf is ready by the time we face the Leopards.”

  “Okey-dokey. I’m w on it almost every day.”

  “Make it every day,” Yuel insisted. “You told me before that you practiced Trickshooter and Gunslinger every day t them to this level, right? Then please put the same amount of effort into your Elf as well.”

  “Okay, I’mma give it some more love,” Lars promised. “But, I still gotta maintain my Shooter and Slinger, or I’mma go rusty.”

  “I’m sure that’s important too, but it’s far more important to get a third css up to par in time. Even if the skill levels of your Trickshooter and Gunslinger drop a little, it won’t affect things too much for the scrimmage because these two will most certainly be banned.”

  “I get what you’re saying, but I ’t just my Shooter and Slinger,” Lars insisted. “There are all sorts of strong dudes peting out there. If I ever get a ce to fight them with Shooter or Slinger, I have to be able to beat them!”

  “You’re right, but that’s only relevant for the far future. We first have to reach the point where we force our oppos to leave these csses unbanned. Until then, you won’t get any ces to py your main csses. So, please prioritize your Elf.”

  “Okay, will do.” Lars scratched the back of his head. I get what Yuel is saying about Elf, but I ’t just drop my daily routines with Shooter and Slihem dudes gotta be in top shape, ready to be deployed at any time. Welp, it sounds like I hafta train more hours every night to polish all three csses. Ez, yo!

  Lars will master Elf while als hard on his Trickshooter and Gunslinger, such was his resolution. He definitely had to add new scary ons to his arsenal, but he also had to make sure that none of his existing ons rusted. Night training was going to bee even more intehan ever!

  On that he long match review finally covered every sieam member. Or, at least, every member that resent...

  All that was left was to discuss the future of the club as a whole and the uping oppos, the Leopards.

  DarkestCymore