This is an iing board position. Yuel examihe mini-map.

  At a ghings were looking grim for Stratus. The split-push in Bot fell through, so the enemy successfully maintaiheir map trol. Stratus had lost trol in Top and Mid, whereas the enemy only had to worry about Bot for a moment.

  Getting Bot Golem all the way down to 30% HP surely put a lot of pressure on the enemy, but it wasn’t enough to make them crack. All they had to do was to defend Bot until the rest of their teammates revive, then to initiate a decisive push as a team.

  Such a push would either make or break the game. And, unfortunately, the odds favored Taurus, especially with the infamous Triangle on board.

  We have to make a move before it es to that. Yuel cluded. Fortunately, there was some leverage to work with.

  Even though the enemy put a stop to the push on Bot, Lars achieved something ued in the process. He killed DragonMaster, which turhe current situation into a 4v3.

  Not to mention, thanks to Kai’s efforts, StormMonster was also dead. In other words, the enemy’s fearsome Triangle was out of ission for a while.

  In short, the eeam had fewer pyers and they were missing their greatest on. If this wasn’t a golden opportunity to make something happen, then when would it be?

  I better get something dooo. Yuel felt like he was left behind.

  Kai scored a difficult kill on StormMonster, whereas Lars took a great risk to get a kill onMaster. Meanwhile, what did Yuel achieve? Nothing that was worth mentioning.

  If anything, Yuel nearly bluwice this game. He was slow in rotating to Top, barely getting there in time to save Kai. And, his ck of fidence almost made him stop Lars from fighting DragonMaster. So, rather than achieving anything great, Yuel almost ruihe team’s ces twi a row.

  I better make up for it somehow. Yuel thought. My teammates worked so hard to create these great opportunities, so how I call myself a shot-caller if I don’t capitalize on them?

  As it stood, the enemy was more than likely going to be on the defensive for a while. They’ll band together to defend Bot, and wait it out until their eeam revives. They were uo split up or to it to any risky pys.

  Okay, think. How I draw them out? Yuel racked his brain.

  Taurus was currently g in manpower but they had no reason to rush anything. Stratus were the ones losing in terms of map-trol, so they had to make the first move to get something moving.

  Holy, this was tough. Taurus pyers were maintaining their cool even uhese circumstances, so it’ll be hard to crack their defehere were no obvious openings to strike.

  If only I could force them to split up, then we could hahem individually. This sounded like wishful thinking. The enemy will definitely stick together for now. They uood the importance of traveling together as a group at this stage of the game. They won’t spread themselves thin for no reason.

  But, what if they suddenly get such a reason? I e up with one?

  If the enemy splits up and Stratus scores one more kill, it’ll bee the decisive blow they o turn the game around. A 4v2 situation would give them tremendous leverage. In fact, it might even propel them all the way to victory.

  Question is, how do I split them apart? Is there any way to bait them out? Yuel overclocked his brain.

  All in all, it seemed impossible. heless, as the shot-caller, Yuel had to find a way. He couldn't let Lars and Kai’s effo to waste. Those two created a great opportunity to mount a ter-attack, so Yuel had to follow up on it.

  Okay, let’s take a step back. What do I know about these three pyers? Nirvana, Renegade, and Lapce. Who had a weakness Yuel could exploit?

  Nirvana was a strong all-rounder, whose only weakness was his ck of assertiveness. But, even that one fw disappeared during this game. The guy started aggressing hard and delivered great results, without showing any new weaknesses in exge. In short, Yuel had nothing on this guy.

  Lapce was an elusive pyer who didn’t stick out too much, simir to Nia. He didn’t have any notable weaknesses either. The guy came across as a calm pyer who relied mostly on game knowledge and deaking to carry himself, simir to Yuel. These types of pyers were usually the hardest to bait out sihey uood the value of tactical thinking.

  So, the only optio was Renegade, the ringleader of the famous triahe one Vi dubbed as the “God les”. He robably something of a leader for that trio. From the moment they subbed in together, their Triaeampy had been terrorizing the game.

  But, the Triangle was out of issiht now thanks to Kai’s efforts. So, besides being the Triangle’s leader, how did Renegade perform as an individual pyer?

  He was good, no question about that. His meical skill and deaking were both impressive. As a whole, he came across as an all-rounder.

  The only thing so far that could t as a “weakness” was Renegade’s occasional petitiveness. For example, like the way he picked a fight with Lars during the early-game. If not for Lapce’s support, Renegade would’ve died right there and then.

  But, Renegade learned his lesson. Ever sihat i, he hasn’t challenged Lars alone even once. In fact, it even looked like he was overpensating for that trauma by keeping his distance from Lars.

  Most likely, Renegade was hoping to win this game without directly taking Lars down. It was simir to how Yuel ying around the enemy’s Triangle because it was too difficult to defeat.

  What else do I know abade? Yuel wondered. Not much, unfortunately. The st two games eoo fast, so I haven’t learned much. And, it’s not like I’ve ever met the guy before... oh, wait. I DID meet him.

  It struck him only now. Yuel dismissed that bit of info at the time, but it came rushing to him all at once.

  “My IGN is Renegade. You better remember it!” someone from Taurus said this before. It was the boy who came to speak with Yuel and Lars after the sed game. That guy was Renegade.

  But, that still doesn’t tell me much. Yuel frowned.

  The only thing he learned from that exge was that Renegade held some i in Yuel and Lars. And, said “i” came into py at the beginning of this game, in the form ade challenging Lars in ne. However, Lars quickly extinguished that “i” by stomping Renegade.

  So, there’s nothing else left? Really? Yuel bit his lip. All this thinking and thinking, yet he had nothing. But, I feel like I’m on the right track here. Renegade seems like the one who is most likely to have an exploitable fw. But, where is it!?

  Was there any other information abade? Anything at all? There got to be something.

  For example, Renegade’s css picks: Gunslinger and Pirate. What story did they tell? Not a particurly informative one, unfortunately.

  No, that’s not it. Yuel frowned. I o dig deeper, try to uand his patterns and quirks. The answer has to be in there somewhere.

  Who was Renegade as a person? The type of guy who’d e up to his oppos and boldly decre his name, implying he’d beat them in a match. A fident pyer, but not an overly cocky one. He simply sought to challehe stro pyers, that’s the impression he was giving.

  Hmm. A pyer who wants good petition. Yuel mulled over that point. Also, the type to openly express his dissatisfa if he doesn’t like the petition... Wait, how do I even know that one?

  iece of information helped Yuel reach that clusion? It wasn’t anything from the ret games, so it had to be something that happened before that.

  Was it from the time he talked to me and Lars? No, I don’t think so. Yuel knotted his brows. It has to be something else. But, did I even i with him before that? No, I didn’t. But, I saw others iing with him!

  There was one more se involving Renegade, buried at the back of Yuel’s head. It seemed irrelevant at the time since Renegade wasn’t even part of Taurus’ opening lineup. Yuel assumed the guy was just a sub at best, so there was no point w about him just yet.

  But now, with Renegade actually participating, that brief se from before turned into an important piece of evidence!

  “Stratus is a joke team firmed,” Renegade said something to that effect back wheeams were greeting each other. His ent came in respoo learning that Stratus’s captain was a girl. Like many others on Taurus, he scoffed at Kai and assumed she was a yer.

  As the vice-captain, Yuel stood a short distance behind Kai at the time, so he saw these events from up close. He kept quiet and didn’t say anything back then, but he closely listeo the unfolding versation and analyzed the eeam.

  That’s wheiced something peculiar. Renegade, an unknowhey were supposedly meeting for the first time, was brimming with hostility toward Kai.

  Uhe rest of Taurus, that guy wasn’t just crag a joke at Kai’s expao make his peers ugh. No, it wasn’t anything i like that. His sharp gre was filled with genuine malice.

  I remember it weirded me out back then. Yuel recalled.

  The reas of the Taurus pyers were immature, but they were in lih being bratty middle-schoolers. They ughed at Kai for being a girl and thought she couldn’t py well, a on belief amoistical boys who couldn’t imagihe possibility of losing to a girl in a video game.

  If that’s hade acted as well, that would be fi’d dedue points from his maturity, but at least it’d make the guy easy to uand.

  However, Renegade’s beef with Kai seemed much deeper, much more personal. He was emitting clear hostility toward her as if she was his sworn enemy.

  It’s odd because Kai didn’t seem to know the guy. Yuel recalled Kai’s fused rea. She also noticed this hostility and had no idea what to make of it.

  So, it robably safe to assume Renegade wasn’t familiar with Kai. heless, he treated her like trash from the moment they met and directed a lot of malice toward her. Why?

  Maybe he wasn’t hating on Kai per se. Yuel guessed. Could it be he has a beef against female pyers in general? Or, at least something close to that?

  It was a leap in logic, as there wasn’t enough evideo support this theory. However, it’s the only way Yuel could expin Renegade’s peculiar behavior on stage. The guy had something against female pyers, so seeing a female captain triggered him. He evehe stage after that, refusing to watch the game.

  He didn’t strike me as immature back when he was talking to me and Lars. So, whatever problem he has with female pyers must be running pretty deep. It actually reminds me of a certain boy-hater from our team...

  In short, Renegade possessed the “Girl Hater” special ability! At least, that’s how Vi would’ve presehis quirk. But, the didn’t mention anything about this. Why?

  Because it’s not a positive trait. It’s a fw. Yuel deduced.

  Vi’s insights were great, but they only ever presented one side of the . He only raved about the strengths of pyers, never about their weaknesses. It was Yuel’s job to figure out those.

  If I think ba it… Yuel recalled the previous two games, the ones in which Kai fought Renegade in ne. He was clearly targeting her. Well, Kai was targeting him too, but Renegade accepted her invitations way too easily. He was eager to defeat her.

  In addition, it felt like the Triaargeted Kai quite often this game. They gathered in Mid during the early-game to kill her and ter rotated to Top together to gank her once more.

  It felt like Renegade, as the leader of the Triangle, was trying to send a message. He most likely viewed Kai as the “weakest link” in Stratus and po kill her over and over, to show everybody how “bad” she was.

  In fact, it was very much possible that StormMonster chased Kai in Top due tade’s orders. Or, at least, he received Renegade’s approval for that dangerous act.

  No matter how great of a chaser StormMonster was, chasing an enemy aloo their owory harbreat risk. It wasn’t the kind of py anybody would make uhey were vinced Kai was a “yer” with no ce of turning the tables around.

  Clearly, they were looking down on her. Especially, Renegade was looking down on her. And, that gave birth to an ued opportunity.

  By a stroke of luck, Kai recovered from her slump and mounted a magnifit eback at StormChaser. She outperformed herself and turormChaser’s chase into a grave overextension.

  But, I doubt that was enough to ge Renegade’s impression of Kai. Someone who looked down on female pyers so openly wouldn’t ge his mind after seeing a sirong py. Renegade definitely still saw Kai as a “yer” who’d lose to anybody from Taurus, especially to him.

  That’s it! That’s the fw I’ve been looking for. Yuel realized. He had to make a fes of logic to arrive at the current clusion, but he was vihe majority of his dedus were on point.

  So, I wonder... Yuel thought. What would Renegade dht now if he saushing a ne alone?

  Maybe nothing will happen and Renegade will be smart enough to see through this bait. Or maybe, his hatred will blind him and will draw him toward Kai like a moth to a fme.

  “Kai, you please buy a Checkpoint Ward?” Yuel requested in a hurry.

  “Huh? Why?” Kai asked.

  “Just buy one before leaving the base, please,” Yuel insisted. There was no time to expin. Kai was about to leave the base, so this was her st ce to get a Checkpoint Ward before returning to the frontline.

  “Okay, sure.” Kai shrugged and purchased the requested ward. “Where do you wao pce it?”

  “I’m thinking about that now.”

  “Huh??? You made me spend gold on a ward without a pn?”

  “ly, but...” Yuel pursed his lips. A pn was already ing together in his head at this very moment, but the board situation ged rapidly while he was taking his sweet time to destruct Renegade.

  Lars finally escaped far enough from Nirvana and started recalling. At the same time, Luke was defending Mid by clearing minions, and he was no doubt pnning to push ahead because nobody was there to stop him. They were both about to do something irreversible that’ll pletely ge the board state!

  I’d like to properly expin the pn to them a some opinions, but there’s no time. It was now or never. If he wastes any more time, the pn he had in mind will no longer be feasible.

  “Lars, don’t recall just yet,” Yuel requested.

  “Oh?” Lars took a step to cel his recalling animation. “I know that look. I know it! You got some sick game-winning pn for me, right? Right!?”

  “Something like that,” Yuel said. “For now, don’t recall. Go take the Dragon instead. Luke, you please tank the Dragon for him?”

  “Sure, but what about Mid?” Luke asked.

  “Kai, you please ha?” Yuel asked. “I’ll be clearing Top.”

  “Sounds good.” Kai left the base, with a Checkpoint Ward in hand, and headed toward Mid.

  “Alrighty then.” Luke left Mid aered Bot Jungle. “I’m on my way to the Dragon.”

  “Waiting for ya,” Lars replied.

  As odd as these shot-calls seemed at first gnobody objected to them. Going after the Dragon instead of reg ne trol seemed like a bad movie, but this was actually the best time to pull something like this. The eeam was uaffed at the moment, so Stratus had an opportunity to steal some gold.

  Besides, I know that look. Lars grinned. Dude is cooking something up. I dunno what, but I know he’s doing it. This gonna be good!

  With everybody following Yuel’s instrus, the pn was ready to be set in motion.

  Okay, all the pieces are in pce. Yuel sighed in relief. He made all the necessary calls before it was too te.

  Luke and Lars will be on the Dragon, from where they’ll be able to quickly get to Bot. Meanwhile, Kai will be pushing Mid alohis was the required board state for exeg Yuel’s pn.

  However, came the hardest part. Yuel’s pn demanded Kai do something she definitely won’t like. Basically, she’ll have to bee bait.

  How was he going to vince a prideful pyer like Kai to it to such a py....?

  DarkestCymore