in line, Beat’s profile appeared on the s.

  Roles: Mid/CarryCss Variety: Average

  Meical Skill: 9/10Deaking: 6/10Game Knowledge: 7/10

  Pystyle: An insistent pyer. Quite strong at her highest, but very weak at her lowest.

  After a couple of seds, Sonya started the usual summary. "Overall, Beat is an insistent pyer. She has very high meical skill as shown on a few occasions, but she ’t output it sistently. Sometimes she looks very strong, other times very weak.”

  Sonya presented clips that showed both sides of Beat’s performance.

  Sometimes the girl took obvious baits, got into unnecessary fights, or pyed too defensively in ne. But, other times, she overwhelmed oppos in bat, dodged shots by a hair’s breadth, and eveed a plicated Resonance Ignitioup on the brink of death.

  “Dang, that explosion was sick!” Ronald excimed. “This girl is wild!”

  “Yes, she sure is,” Sonya agreed. “Holy, it’s difficult to get a proper read on her. Sometimes she es across as a brainless hot-headed, but other times she methodically executes high-level pys.”

  “A woman of many moods, it seems,” Cato said.

  With how insiste was, she didn't pose a clear threat to the Leopards. But, that vagueness was a curse in its ht. It was harder to vihe team to be on guard against an oppo who wasn't sistently strong.

  That's where I e into the picture. Cato thought. As the captain, it was his job to make sure the team stayed on its toes. Babysitting his teammates like this was one of the more iing, albeit tiresome, aspects of team sports.

  As the overlord, it's my duty to keep my minions in line. Cato giggled to himself. Without order, world domination will remain naught but a dream!

  "About Beat," Cato started. "Her insistency probably stems from her emotional state. In other words, she's a pyer whose performance will greatly depend on how she's feeling on a particur day, or even in a particur game.”

  “Which makes it difficult to properly evaluate her,” Sonya added.

  “Right. So, whe is going to py against us, she might be one of the best pyers in the region on that day. Or, she might be a Bronze pyer. OR, anything iween. There's no saying for sure."

  "Man, that’s sure a wide spectrum of skill levels,” Ronald said. “Them emotions this girl got sound hel wack.”

  "Hmph. Women." William scoffed.

  "Well excuse me." Sony made a face. "But yes, I overall agree with that assessment. Beat is probably aional pyer, or at least mentally unstable in general."

  "As such," Cato added. "Make sure you never let down yuard around her. If you do, you might end up like this guy."

  Cato repyed the clip of a critical moment from Game 5. There, Beat was fleeing from StormMonster, a savage predator who always caught up to any prey.

  Realizing she had no ce of esg, Beat turned around and mounted a terattack. It was a desperate st stand that should have failed by all ats. At best, Beat was only going to iormMonster a little with her feeble resistance.

  StromMonster must've assumed as much since he relentlessly assaulted Beat without paying ao his surroundings. And, that was his downfall. At that critical moment, he uimated Beat.

  The girl was never pnning on dying there. In a st-ditch effort, she surrouormMonster with Magia Orbs and snapped her fingers. And so, the predator vanished from existence.

  "I'm sure you don't want to end up like this guy," Cato repeated. "So, don't uimate her, no matter how poorly she performs."

  Everybody nodded in agreement, even Mattheas half distracted by his phohe message got across, which was a good start.

  Of course, theory and practice were two entirely different things. Iual match, some of them might be tempted to lower their guard. But, that was alright. If any of them strays off the path, Cato will be sure to kick them ba track.

  "O thi's pystyle," Sonya said. "She seems to have a lot of 1v1 experience. In particur, her juking skills are hy. Though, I find it difficult to expin what exactly she excels at. Sometimes she dodges very difficult shots, but other times she fails to dodge attacks that look far easier.”

  "I think she reads patterns," Matthew spoke up, as rare as it was. His eyes were still partially glued to his phone, but he aying attention to the discussion all along. "If you mix up the timing of your attacks, she'll have a hard time adapting."

  Matthew rarely voiced his opinion unless he believed it was at least 99% correct, so his words had weight. Especially, because he was also a master of dodging attacks.

  "Wait, so," Ronald started. "What does that mealy?"

  "She gets used to people’s patterns, I think. For example, if you slow down your attacks, you might catch her off-guard."

  "Slow down?” Ronald raised an eyebrow. “But, my guy. If I slow down, I give her a bigger window for dodging."

  "That's true. You have to ba out somehow."

  "Ba? Hmm." Ronald crossed his arms and gave it a long thought.

  "It’s like going for a drop shot to throw your oppo off," William said.

  "Ooooh! I see!" Ronald excimed. "So, it's like dealing with somebody who hugs the baseline all day aurns all your shots, no matter how hard you strike?"

  "Yes, pretty much."

  "Okay, gotcha."

  Huh. Cato raised an eyebrow. So, THAT’S the kind of example this kid uands? Seriously, I feel like I should start learning Tennis terms to better unicate things to this goof.

  The discussion about Beat came to an end. As a whole, the team regarded her as a potentially formidable pyer who was bogged down by her insistency.

  If she performs well against us, we’ll have to rile her up. Cato cluded. She looks like a typical emotional pyer, so we’ll just have to push her buttons.

  It might have sounded cheap, but riling the enemy up to make them it mistakes was a valid tacti any petitive game. Everybody khat, but some liked to pretend it was “unsportsmanlike” or any other suonsense.

  Worst case, I’ll do it myself. Cato snickered. He already imagined himself poking at Beat’s sides until she shes at him with all the anger she could muster. That would be her downfall. It would make for such a nice se~

  The discussion moved on. It was time to address the two biggest elephants in the room, the ex-StormBlitz members: Chess & Gunz. Cato saved the best for st on purpose.

  “Let’s start with Chessmaster,” Sonya said.

  “Man, you’re really drawing this out, aren’t you?” Ronald pouted. “Who cares about that guy? Let’s talk about the real star of their team!”

  “My, how impatient.” iled meaningfully. “Trust me, you should care a lot about Chessmaster. Your puny brain might not be able to prehend it yet, but Stratus owns much of its success to Chessmaster.”

  “Huh? Really? You aren’t pulling my leg, are you? I mean, the guy pys a pretty op and his Support is solid, but that’s all I saw.”

  “He’s also the team’s shot-caller.”

  “Oh, so he’s the bossy dude who tells everybody what b pys to make?”

  “My, are you implying something here?” iled, but his eyes pierced through Ronald like spears. “As the captain, I have major influence over whether yoing to stay oeam or not. I hope you’re aware of that~?”

  “H-Haha, yeah! Thanks for having me!” Ronald responded with a fake smile.

  The two locked into a gring test for half a miil somebody finally interjected.

  “Are we running a kindergarten here?” William asked.

  “No no, of course not.” Cato waved his hand with a smile. “The only child we got over here is that youngling over there.”

  “Say what!?” Ronald excimed. “You wanna throw hands, dude!? First-to-ten me, let’s go!”

  “Pipe down already.” William pced his hand on Ronald’s head and rubbed it wildly.

  “Okay, okay.” Ronald pouted as he looked away. Then, he shot o thing at William. “Just you watch. By the time we get to the regionals, I’ll bee this team’s captain!”

  “Big dreams, kid.” Cato scoffed. “For starters, if you really want to bee a captain iure, you better start by actually listening duriings. I saw you sneaking peeks at your phone here and there.”

  “Geh.” Ronald’s expression made it obvious he was guilty as charged. “Man, that’s not fair. Why are you chewi when Matt has been on his phohe entire meeting? Look at him! Bruh is literally glued to it! You only give him a free pass because he’s your best homie. I call discrimination!”

  “My, what a wild accusation,” Cato said. “I just trust him to listen to the important parts. Unlike you, he focus on two things at once. If anything, I learned his tration improves when he distracts his hands with something.”

  “Whoa, for real?” Ronald blinked. “Hey Matt, what were we talking about just now?”

  “About your pipe dreams of being the team’s captain this year,” Matthew gave it straight.

  “Daaamn, the burn!” Ronald ughed. “Okay, fine. Here.” He pulled out his phone and pced it oable near his brother. “Bro, if I grab the phone again this meeting, you’re legally allowed to punch me!”

  “Gdly.” William cracked his knuckles.

  “H-Haha, spare my hough!”

  “Tch, that’s the first target I had in mind.” William smirked unily. Knowing the guy, it might have beeruth.

  After the short distra, the discussiourned on track. It was time to discuss Chessmaster. As the niame implied, he was Stratus’ strategist.

  Roles: Support/TopCss Variety: High

  Meical Skill: 7/10Deaking: 10/10Game Knowledge: 10/10

  Pystyle: The team’s shot-caller. His meical skill is only det, but everything else is top-notch.

  This was the segment Cato and Sonya worked the hardest on. Out of all roles, shot-caller was the hardest oo profile.

  Oftentimes, it wasn’t clear which pys the shot-caller orchestrated. Any deade throughout the game could be either the shot-caller’s work or a pyer’s individual idea.

  Fortunately, the team had extra footage to work with as far as the Chess & Gunz were ed. That gave them a better perspective on how the duo pyed, including more details about the style of shot-calling Chessmaster had.

  “I’ve summarized everything we know about Chessmaster from both scrimmages,” Sonya expined. Even though her expression seemed as even as ever, there was a faint hint of pt mixed into her tone.

  This is personal for her. iled meaningfully. I’m sure she wants revenge for how things turned out st year.

  The sed-string led by Jennifer suffered a rather brutal defeat st year. For Sonya, it must’ve felt like a personal attack. She wasn’t directly involved ich itself, but she was ied in it for other reasons. And, Cato was the same as well.

  It was a beautiful match. iled impishly. I feel a little guilty toward Jenny, but I’m actually gd StormBlitz won that one.

  Under Chessmaster’s lead, StormBlitz’s sed-string successfully toppled the Leopards’ powerful sed-string. It was a delight to watch because it showcased Chessmaster’s shot-calling talent.

  It’s funny running into Yuel again like this. iled meaningfully. I thought I’ll never get to py him again, but here he is, ing at me with the most ueam ever.

  It was su odd script. On one hand, Cato had a pete against Yuel, who proved himself as a worthy adversary the same way he was in chess. Oher hand, Yuel ying on the weakest team in the region.

  I’ll admit, Stratus is lookier thahis year. But, I wouldn’t even put them in the region’s Top 4 just yet. It’s really a shame. I would’ve liked to see what Yuel do with a det team.

  As, beggars couldn’t be choosers. If Yuel stayed in StormBlitz, then Cato probably wouldn’t have gotten the ce to py him pretty much ever. After all, this was Cato’s st year of middle school.

  It makes me feel like an old man, even though I’m not even that much older. Cato pouted.

  His birthday just barely satisfied the requirements for being a senior. If he was born just a couple of weeks earlier, then he would’ve been a juniht now. In that parallel universe, he could’ve faced Yuel year, as a senior vs. a senior. As, the current timeline had different pns for them.

  Well, at least I’ll get my re-run. Cato had to promise on whatever he was given.

  For the loime, he wao challenge Yuel again. Their one and only chess matded in a way that was far from satisfactory. Ever since, Cato was hoping for a serious rematch.

  What kind of pyer was Yuel? How did his brain work? How strong was he, really? The match didn’t really satisfy any of that curiosity.

  I wonder what our dear ‘Princess’ will think of this development. Cato snickered as he imagihe young dy’s stoic expression t with a mixture of shod disgust. Ah~ It’ll be a pleasure to see for sure. I better tell her today, hehe~

  While Cato was having fun with all these plicated thoughts, Sonya finished going over Chessmaster’s strengths and weaknesses as an individual pyer.

  “Overall,” Sonya summarized. “He seems to be a strong theoretical pyer. He py a variety of csses and all of them are well optimized in terms of deaking. His only ‘weakness’ so to speak is his retively weaker meical skill, which is still above average anyway. But, at the very least, he isn’t much of a threat to any of us in a 1v1.”

  “In other words,” Ronald said. “I gonna mop that guy easy!”

  “Yes, that’s a fair assessment.” Sonya touched her gsses. “The best way to eliminate Chessmaster is by catg him alone and applying brute force. I believe William and Ronald are best suited for this task.”

  “Leave it to me!” Ronald thumped on his chest.

  “Sure,” William replied indifferently. There was nothing rewarding about crushing pos, so he didn’t particurly care either way. He’ll just get the kills he get, that’s all there was to it.

  “Well, you see?” Ronald asked. “It’s like I said. Nobody really cares about Chess. Dude sure py, but that’s about it. o worry about him. Let’s move on to the juie!”

  “Oh, how green you are.” Cato shook his head. “You’re right that Chessmaster doesn’t stand out too much as an individual pyer. But, once we get to discussing Stratus’ tactics, you’ll uand what makes him deserve our attention.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Ronald waved his hand. “ we move on to the big fish already? I’m literally going to fall asleep at this rate.”

  “My, should I prepare a bucket of cold water?”

  “VERY funny.” Ronald shuddered.

  “Don’t worry, we’re doh Chess for now.” Sonya flipped through her notes. “The st member we have to discuss is Gunz.”

  “Yeah boy!” Ronald rubbed his hands. “Here it es!”

  Everybody perked their ears, even Mattheas absorbed in mobile games until now. The entire room uood the importance of this oopic.

  Gunz was the biggest elephant in the room, which was why Cato left this topic for st. Lazy bums like Ronald hat kind of hook to stay awake throughout the rest of the meeting. They had to know that something iing will happen further down the road, or else they'll lose their motivation.

  You're but a puppet dang to my tune! Cato snickered. Your motivation is entirely under my and! Bow before the overlord!

  Jokes aside, it was time for one of the most critical parts of today’s meeting.

  DarkestCymore