“Hey! Break a leg, dude!”

  “Huh?” Yuel examihe audience, spotting Lars and Julia. Everybody else went to watch the first string match, but Lars said he’d be here to root on Yuel. Julia probably just tagged along.

  “From the moment you accepted your spot oeam, you’re no longer pying just for yourself. You’re obligated to put on your best performance for those who didn’t make the cut.” Yuel recalled Howard’s words.

  Even though he and Lars both wao py in the petitive se, right now Yuel was oage while Lars was in the audience. Only Yuel made it this time. It was merely the fault of circumstances, it just so happehe Carry role was occupied by a talented senior and the Support role happeo be avaible. heless, as the oanding oage right here and now, Yuel had the responsibility to put on his best performao make it up for those who couldn’t py here today.

  Ironically, even though Lars came here to support Yuel, he only made Yuel more nervous. And, it didn’t help there were some other unfamiliar faces in the audience. What were these people doing here? The scrimmage matches were open to the public, so anybody had the right to e and watch. Still, even if they were ied in watg a scrimmage between middle schoolers, why didn’t they head to the first string’s stadium? Did they e here to ugh at the sed string or something?

  All these random thoughts occupied his mind, refusing to give him rest. His body felt like lead as he wobbled across the stage. He finally got to rex a little when he dropped on his chair and focused on the monitor in front of him.

  Following Trever’s instrus, he sed the QR code on the monitor. After firming the login, all his at data was carried over to the P front of him. This included key bindings, skins and, of course, his IGN: Chessmaster. Ugh, he still couldn’t believe Howard roped him into pig that nick. Sigh.

  “Ehe practi.” Trever said. “You gotta warm up before we begi used to the trols and everything.”

  “Got it.” Yuel nodded and did as he was told. Even though his key bindings were carried over via the logiill was going to operate unfamiliar mouse and keyboard. From his experien the club at the beginning of the year, he already learhe importance of getting used to the equipment.

  Fortunately, the equipment here was top notch, uhe reli their club. The keys struck perfect baween being hard enough to feel every press, yet responsive enough to make pressing effortless. The mouse was fortable to grip and the mousepad was smooth. Truly, this was equipment suitable faming, uhe poor excuse in their club.

  After a few minutes of warming up, the “referee” annouhe beginning of the match. Like, that young man announced himself the “referee” and everything, but he looked like a regur staff member in the ter. He didn’t look like some qualified expert or anything of the sort. A bit disappointing, but not surprising. Unlike real life sports, Cssmancers was a video game, so all the rules were already enforced by the game itself. There wasn’t much for a “referee” to do here.

  The drafting phase proceed smoothly, with Yuel and Gilbert handling it from start to end. Trever was the captain on paper, but his respoo everything was “Just pick your best csses and we gonna win!”. A very Lars-esque attitude, sigh.

  “Wait, they have no Carry?” Trever cocked his head, as if only now realizing he should maybe pay some attention to the drafting.

  “It’s most likely going to be Carry Pyromancer.” Yuel expihe eeam didn’t piy marksmen, the led DPS csses meant to be pyed as Carry. Instead, they had two damage dealing mages: Pyromancer and Warlock. Out of the two, only Pyromancer had the aptitude to be pyed as a Carry. In fact, upon release, Pyromancer was a broken tier S Carry who domihe meta, Yuel watched some older videos c that.

  Fortunately, Pyromancer was hammered by nerfs multiple times sihen. It retaihe qualities which allowed it to be pyed as a Carry, most notably its high attack speed, but that build fell out of favor ia. While Mid Pyromancer was sidered tier B, sometimes even tier A, Carry Pyromancer ut around tier ost tier lists. Based on Yuel’s brief experimentation and theorycrafting, these tiers seemed fairly reasonable. Carry Pyromancer had its niches, but it was a rather risky pick. Their Carry must had been very fident in their skill to make this pick.

  Then again, Yuel’s team didly have a standard Carry either. Trever picked his favorite Ranger, a Jungler who only passed as a Carry thanks to his led basic attacks. Carry Ranger was also along tier C, but at least it was much more on ia than Carry Pyromancer.

  To cover up for the Ranger’s early weaknesses as a Carry, Yuel picked Druid. It was the same duo position they pyed during Yuel’s entry exam. For the sed time now, he was heading into an important match with Trever as his ne partner.

  On one hand, he was disappoi wasn’t Lars by his side. But, oher hand, he was gd he didn’t have a partner who required high maintenance. Both Lars and Trever were goofs, but Trever was the more knowledgeable and experienced one, Yuel didn’t o hold Trever’s hand much during practice matches, so he could focus on doing his job as a Support. This was very reassuring when pying on such a grand stage.

  As arranged: Gilbert pyed Mid, Dan pyed Jungle and Roi pyed Top. Ohe drafting phase ehe real battle began. They started off by clearing the Ogre Camp and Wolf Camp together with Dan, then Yuel and Trever headed to Bot Lane.

  As expected, their ne oppos were Pyromancer and ancer. Pyromancer yed by boBreaker, the female captain they met during the team greeting. Her demotivated panion from that time, Freezer, pyed Warlo Mid.

  Siheir team is full of seniors, I better take my time studying them. Yuel was wary of rushing things. He thirsted faining an advantage as early as possible, but such desires could lead to disaster, he learhat on his flesh in practice matches. If the eeam had at least one fox like Ellen, Yuel’s tactics could easily backfire.

  Therefore, he id low for the first minutes of the matd quietly observed his foes. He provided by-the-book support, without making any risky shot-calls. By the end of the first five minutes, he got a rough idea of how the enemies carried themselves.

  The Pyromancer, boBreaker, was an all-around strong pyer, as expected of a captain. She showcased det meical skill by nding most st hits on minions and elegantly blog most of Trever’s attempts at aggression. Also, she maintained great positioning through the ning phase, standing far enough to avoid being puoo easily, yet close enough to punish her enemies if the opportunity preseself. This attesting to her solid deaking and experience. On top of that, she seemed to have acceptable game knowledge, based on her Carry Pyromancer build, which properly bined power and attack speed.

  All in all, she was a tough cookie. Trever couldn’t get an edge on her, no matter how many time they exged blows. Her parthe ancer, was also tributed to that, showg impressive meical skill for a Support. In particur, the way he swiftly and accurately cast his Ice Coffin put a lot of pressure on Trever. Even while protected by the Druid’s shield, Trever didn’t have much leeway when going on the offensive. Getting too close to the ancer would result in Trever being frozen in pce, being a sitting duck for the Pyromancer.

  To make things worse, the ancer bought Blink to expand his reach. He could now instantly teleport forward and freeze his target. It’s a popur arick, which Yuel had trouble exeg in real matches.

  At one point, the ancer caught Trever off guard by blinking through a wall and freezing him. This almost resulted in Trever’s death. Yuel barely saved the day with a timely Nature’s Grasp pull on Trever, getting the goof out of danger.

  “Man, I swear this Cryo is after my ass.” Trever excimed. Ever since, evetle-hungry beast became cautious of going aggressive. He was pletely zoned by the ancer’s mere presehat’s how much pressure Blink + Ice Coffin could apply in capable hands. This ancer definitely warranted a ba game.

  The rest of the eeam was posed of solid pyers as well, giving both Roi and Dan a ran for their moheir Top Laner cshed face-to-face with Roi, refusing to give in. They were like two beasts fighting for territory. It was a brute and unsophisticated face-off to Yuel’s taste, but it’s undeniable both pyers exhibited impressive meical skill.

  As for jungling, the enemy Jungler farmed and ganked about as effectively as Dan. They were both textbook pyers and It didn’t feel like either team had a superior Jungler.

  All in all, the forces seemed quite evenly distributed across the board. The only one who had an easy time was Gilbert. His enemy was Freezer, the unmotivated fellow they met during the team greeting. It was difficult to properly dis Freezer’s pystyle while he ushed back, but it seemed he was a very defensive pyer. He rarely ever advao the frontline, preferring to bait the oppo into overextending.

  Unfortunately for Freezer, Gilbert was a rational ahodical pyer. He wasn’t some aggressive beast hungering for blood, so he had no problem slowly grinding his oppoo dust. Therefore, instead of falling for Freezer’s baits and pushing further along the ne, Gilbert rotated out of o farm ank whenever he gained ne advahat put Freezer’s defensive pys to waste and turhem into a weakness.

  It’s difficult to judge whether Freezer was a retively weak member of the Leopards or he simply had a terrible matchup against Gilbert. Either way, he was the enemy’s weakest link right now. As a result, Gilbert outleveled Freezer via farming jungle camps between waves and helped other nes gain the upper hand. Thanks to repeated ganks from Gilbert, the deadlo Top was broken and Roi mao push the eop Laner all the way to the Turret.

  That’s about all the information Yuel gathered so far about the match from the mini-map and others’ monitors. Was this enough? Did he properly figure out his oppos and was ready to ter them? He wao shout “Of course!” and go ahead, but he hesitated.

  His oppos were seniors, they trained for the the st two years to get this far. There’s no way some newbie could destruct them this easily, right? Or, maybe he was overthinking it? Bitter memories of being outsmarted by Ellen pyed over and over in his head, warning him.

  I’ll wait just a little more. Yuel o himself for about the millionth time this match. He was going to begin soon, real soon. He just o observe his foes a little loo be 100% sure about their pystyles.

  “Man, this chick is sure a hard nut to crack.” Trever sighed as he exged blows with boBreaker. “Got any idea how to take her out?”

  “I’m not sure yet.” Yuel answered as he cast Gaia’s Prote on Trever, granting enough shield to soak all the damage from this fight.

  “You know, you’ve been awfully quiet this match. Wait, I know. You’re still nervous, ain’tcha?”

  “Maybe a little, but that’s not it. I’m not sure I got all the data I need about our enemies, so I don’t want to pull anything reckless.”

  “Data? You sound like Aron.” Trever ughed. “Well, I dunno how you ‘data people’ do yic, but don’t leave us hanging until te game like Aron does. Dude doesn’t tell us anything until it’s too te, haha.”

  “Got it.” Yuel nodded. His increased caution was defihe result of Aron’s influence, but he had no iion waiting until te game. “I almost got them figured out, I just need a little- wha!?”

  The battle between Trever and Breaker took an ued turn. The ancer blinked forward and froze Trever with Ice Coffin, turning Trever’s Ranger into a cube of ice.

  It was an ued assault, but wasn’t it a waste? Trever still had the shield he got from Yuel, so it was going to soak some damage. The freeze of Ice Coffin retty short on low levels, so there’s no way the Pyromancer would have enough time... eh?

  An ally has been killed!

  It happened in an instant. Fmes engulfed Trever’s Ranger and wiped him out of existence. He was at 70% HP + shield, yet he was eliminated in an instant.

  “hat the actual heck?” Trever stared at his s with a dumb face. “What did I just see? What the hell happened!? You saw that shit!?”

  “Yeah, I saw it.” Yuel frowned as he was forced to retreat back to his Turret, esg the 1v2 situation. “I believe it was a bo py. Yes, Spellbook of Doom, as I thought.”

  Until this point, Breaker’s build followed the standards of a Carry Pyromancer build. However, over the st couple of mihere had been a missing item slot in her build. She should had had enough gold to buy one more item by now, probably even upgrade it to Lv.3. Yet, nothing showed up ihird item slot. That is, until now.

  That fourth item was a Lv.3 Spellbook of Doom, whiabled a niche “bo” pystyle. She must had purchased it a while ago, but kept it “cloaked” all this time. Then, after finding the right moment, she equipped Spellbook of Doom in the heat of battle to strike with the element of surprise.

  Ugh, such a high level of py was ued from middle schoolers. If they knew she built Spellbook of Doom ahead of time, they could had pyed around it. She caught them pletely off guard here.

  “So, she’s going for a bo build? Chick is crazy.” Trever ughed.

  “That’s really rare.” Yuel nodded. He didn’t expeeet a bo pyer in an official match of all pces. It was mostly sidered a meme in the Cssmancers unity, despite having some representation in the pro se, primarily in Asia. DimensionShift was a well-known Korean bo pyer and was sidered among the top pyers in the world. So, calling bo a “meme” didn’t do it justice.

  heless, it was an unpopur pystyle, especially in the west. It revolved around building a at: Casting Speed. The same way Attack Speed raised the speed of basic attacks, Casting Speed increased the speed of skill animations. It sourong on paper, as it allowed to quickly multiple spells in succession. However, in practice, most items with Casting Speed had subpar stats and paled pared to other meta options.

  The one exception among them ellbook of Doom, which had an iing passive: after nding a hit with a spell, all subsequent spell hits within the 2 seds dealt +100% damage. The effect could only be activated once every minute, so it was uo proc it more than on a fight.

  In other words, it was a gss on effect at its fi. It provided a tiny window of time to dish out tremendous damage via ing spells. +100% damage sounded absurd on paper, but it was difficult to take full advantage of this effect within mere 2 seds.

  First, it was necessary to hit an enemy with a damaging spell, so that Spellbook of Doom could be proc’d. After that, they had to quickly dish out their other spells and nd them oarget within the span of less than two seds, all the while taking into at the spells’ casting animation, the skillshots’ travel time and the enemy’s movements. The execution bar was maddening.

  Yet, boBreaker perfectly pulled that off and killed Trever from 70% HP + shield, in uwo seds. First, during her fight with Trever, she lowered his defeh basic attacks thanks to Demonic Arm. Then, she opened her bo with Pilr of Fme, a low damage spell which proc’d Spellbook of Doom. For the finishing blow, she ed Bze of Inferno into Fme Wave, taking advantage of her increased Casting Speed. So many fiails were squeezed into a matter of seds, it was astonishing.

  Regardless of how the bo pystyle was viewed ia, it was a terrifying on in Breaker’s hands. After witnessing Trever’s instantaneous defeat, everybody in StormBlitz now khey had to be extremely cautious around Breaker. Just one kill put the whole team ooes.

  Was she going to sistently dish that bo? Or, was it a oime fluke? There’s no telling until they saw more of her pystyle.

  Ugh, just when I thought I got them figured out. Yuel bit his lip. He took so much time during the early game to carefully analyze his oppos, only for everything to crumble during the mid game. Did other pyers in the Leopards also hide such surprises? No wonder Aron always waited until te game before drawing any clusions.

  Was there even a way for Yuel to foresee that bo pystyle ahead of time? If it were Howard, could he had predicted this possibility and found a way to protect Trever? There was no way to tell, but the thought didn’t give Yuel rest.

  After boBreaker got rid of Trever and pushed Bot Lane forward, she left the ne. Did she head to Mid? That’s the most likely sario, sidering Freezer struggled against Gilbert there. Taking into at her cooldowion and how long had passed since she st used her bo, everything except her ult was definitely out of cooldown by now. Ohe one minute cooldown on Spellbook of Doom were to end - she could dish out tremendous damage yet again.

  I better rotate to help Mid, but... Yuel frowned as the ancer insisted on zoning him. His hands were tied, all he could do was call missing. “The Pyromancer left Bot, most likely heading to Mid.”

  “Got it.” Gilbert nodded and begareating. However, that’s when the ued happened. Freezer, who had been pying defensively until now, went on the offensive! He chased after Gilbert and activated his ultimate: Eldritightmare.

  Darkness erupted from Freezer’s Warlock, spreading throughout Mid Lane. Gilbert’s s was ed by bess, painted by visages of eldritch abominations. While within the range of Eldritightmare, Gilbert’s Eleancer was slowed and disoriented, wobbling as he ran. That’s on top of Gilbert being robbed of his vision, uo tell what was happening around him.

  However, it wasn’t fatal. Eldritightmare had a limited range, so everything was going to be fine once Gilbert were to step out of it. He activated Thundercp, dissolving into a could of electricity and crashing from the sky a short distance away. That created enough distaween himself and Freeze, or so it should had been.

  For some reason, that wasn’t enough. He was still suck within the darkness, uo tell his position.

  “Jesus, just how much did he level his ult?” Gilbert ranted. “You’re pying Mid, not Support.”

  Was Gilbert already back at his Turret? Was it still ahead? Did he pass it? It was impossible to tell with his vision robbed. None of his teammates could help him either, as Eldritightmare staiheir mini-maps with bk. He had to brave through this darkness all by himself.

  “I think the Turret is still a little ahead.” Yuel said, restlessly shifting his attentioween his and Gilbert’s monitors. It’s frustrating, because he should had beeo suppilbert. Yet, he was studer tower in Bot, dealing with minions and the ancer. All he could dht now was throw some advi Gilbert's way, to at least somewhat make up for the ck of proper support.

  “Man, I really ’t tell anymore.” Gilbert frowned. Was the Turret really still further ahead? Even though he already blinked forward with Thundercp? Well, there’s no way to tell. He simply kept running, hoping he hadn’t reached the Turret yet.

  “You sure he didn’t pass it already?” Trever also peeked at Gilbert’s s, bored while waiting for his respawn. “He even blinked and everything, so I say he totally passed it.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure.” Yuel said. “Look at the range of that ult, he leveled it up quite a bit and the slowdows stronger with each level. He also built s of Infinity, which slows down even more.”

  “Holy shit, s actually stacks with that? Shit is nasty as heck.”

  “Heh, just look at us. Three pros sitting here and ’t solve this thing.” Gilbert chuckled. “Well, with that much slow, I’m probably screwed anyway if that bo Pyro is ing for me. I’ll just roll dice here.”

  Gilbert activated his ult, Thuorm, and randomly targeted the area to his left. He couldn’t see anything there, but that’s the dire the Pyromancer was bound to appear from. With some luck, he might scare her off.

  Thuorm turned a big area intet practice fhting strikes. Any enemy stepping into the area was going to be repeatedly struck by lighting, receiving massive damage. On top of that, these strikes applied Electric Charges, which Gilbert could detonate for further damage.

  This electriger zone was an effective zoning tool, as one would have to think twice or thrice before even sidering to chase somebody through it. Unfortunately, in this darkness, it was effectively a die roll. There’s no telling whether Gilbert even cast the ult in an area which truly threatehe Pyromancer. In fact, it was arguably a waste of an ult. However, Gibert knew all too well the importance of not feeding this Pyromancer so early into the game. Wasting an ult was a small price to pay for surviving through his gank.

  But, it didn’t work. Fireballs came flying at Gilbert from within the darkness, shredding his protes. Then, the ground under his feet was set abze. Pilr of Fire, it was the signal that the Pyromancer’s bo was about to follow.

  In a span of a sed, his 90% HP dropped to 5%. Just as death was about to cim him, the darkness of Eldritightmare finally cleared up. He now saw boBreaker clearly, with her 20% HP and multiple Electric Charges. Gilbert’s gamble ot on, Thuorm hit Breaker multiple times. But, even that wasn’t enough scare off this mad bo chick. She pushed forward for the kill, despite the immense danger.

  Wait, maybe I ...! Gilbert pressed Q, activatirical Explosion. Breaker was at 20% HP with three Electric Charges on her, so there’s a good ce he’d be able to-

  You have been killed!

  Too te. His Eleancer colpsed by the time he hit the Q button. If he just reacted a spit sed earlier, he might had turhe tables on his assaulter. As, it wasn’t meant to be. Oh well.

  “In hindsight, I probably should have just aggressed on the Warlock.” Gilbert said.

  “Yes, that might have ended better.” Yuel hen turo Trever. “By the way, I was right. He still hasn’t reached the Turret.”

  “Heh, cheeky brat.” Trever sneered. “If you’re so smart, how did you let both of us die without doing shit, eh?”

  “Ah, that’s...” Yuel hung his head and ched his mouse. He felt so powerless during both situations, he failed to provide any support. Just where did he mispy in all of this? What was the wrong move he itted that led to this disaster? Was there any way to defend against Breaker’s pys? Could Howard had done so?

  “Hey, rex, bro. I’m just kidding.” Trever smacked Yuel on the back. “They pulled some serious shit outta nowhere, of course you couldn’t see that ing.”

  “He’s right.” Gilbert agreed. “The bo chid the Support-like Warlock were quite ued. They were probably going for that surprise element from the get-go, so no much you could do about it. Now we know what aces they got, so we gotta figure how to beat them. Don’t hang up on past mistakes, or you’ll blow the rest of the game.”

  “You’re right, thanks.” Yuel took a deep breath. It didn’t matter what he could or couldn’t had done iwo unfortuuations. Whatever happened, happened. Right now, his job was to figure how to deal with these enemies from here on out. He wasn’t going allow these terrible mispys repeat themselves.

  The team had shaky start. However, now that the enemies pyed their hands, Yuel started preparing his termeasures.