Ohe ning phase of the match came to an end, Yuel left Trever alone in Bot Lane and roamed around the map. At this point of the game, the Support’s role became simir to that of the Jungler’s: he traveled across the jungle and ganked nes. Except, as a Support, Yuel didn’t have the burst damage of a real Jungler, so his job was to set up kills with his CC.

  “Their Warlock is going to rotate to Top after clearing this wave.” Yuel said. “Aron, you help me gank him?”

  “And you’re sure he’ll rotate?” Aron asked. “He may try pushing the ne.”

  “Deduct points from my grade if I’m wrong.” Yuel answered boldly. That was his new way of dealing with Aron’s interrogations. Attempting to expin his reasoning iime only made him needlessly nervous and fused. So, instead of dealing with that stress, he decided to sidestep that problem.

  “Very well.” Aron ihe enemy juo cut off the Warlock’s predicted rotation path.

  Just as Yuel said, the Warlock showed up. Yuel pulled the Warlock close with Nature’s Grasp, then Aro on the victim a him asunder.

  An enemy has been killed!

  Fwless execution. Time and again, Yuel proved his ability to predict the enemies’ movements and to strike their weakest spots. What started off as Yuel harassing the enemy Pirate soon developed into him terrorizing enemies all across the map. The ones who actually scored kills and made impressive pys were his teammates, but the mastermind behind many of these pys was her than Yuel.

  Aron told everybody to follow Yuel’s suggestions as part of the test, effectively turning Yuel into the team’s shot-caller. Aron still hahe big strategic decisions, but everybody were obligated to follow Yuel’s tactics as well. This allowed him to easily move his allies around as he saw fit. Of course, it also came with the pressure of being graded for each important decision he made, but he got used to that by now... sort of. For the most part. Yeah, no problem. Gulp.

  With his authority as the shot-caller, he made his teammates catch predictable enemy gankers off guard and turables on them. In additioold his allies to ambush enemies who farmed jungle camps at predictable times. And, on top of all that, he predicted the escape routes of injured enemies and pulled them through walls with Nature’s Grasp.

  He didn’t simply punish mispys, he also exploited the predictable habits of his ehe higher he climbed in Rahe less and less obvious mistakes his enemies made. Therefore, only punishing “mistakes” was no longer enough. He had to analyze and destruct every little move his enemies made, all for the sake of catg them off guard in one important py.

  As expected, his current oppos were as bulletproof as the enemies he met at high ranks online. In fact, they were possibly the stro oppos he had ever faced so far. Catg them it an ht mistake was nigh impossible, but exploiting the weaknesses in their pystyles was still within Yuel’s expertise. As long they were humans, he could find fws in their pys.

  “Wow! You rock, bro!” Trever grinned as he scored yet another kill off the Pirate thanks to Yuel’s advice. At some point, Trever promoted Yuel from “Rookie” all the way to “Bro”. That was the top respect title, apparently.

  After killing the Pirate three times, Trever gained a huge advantage in Bot Lane. He was two levels ahead of the Pirate and the enemy’s Turret was about to crumble. But, that’s all. Despite the huge advantage in the hat’s as far as he progressed.

  It was uandable, sidering Ranger was, at its core, an assassin css meant for jungling. “Ranger Carry” was an unventional built, which worked retively well because of the Ranger’s basic attacks: led arrow shots befitting a real Carry.

  When built with enough attack speed and critical ce, Ranger funed simirly to a Carry. heless, its ability to push ill didn’t quite live up to that of a real Carry css. That’s one reason why Yuel picked Druid.

  “Let’s take dowurret.” Yuel advaoward the eurret. The Pirate was dead and the Padin was off helping another ne, so the Turret was defenseless. However, there were no allied minions in rahanks to the Pirate’s efforts, so attag the Turret was suicide. That is, uhey somehow “created” minions to tank the Turret’s shots. The Druid’s ultimate ability did exactly that.

  Yuel activated Awakes, summoning a giant living tree. With the closest “enemy” in sight being the Turret, the Ent fearlessly ihe Turret’s area and smmed it with giants fists. Naturally, the Turret retaliated against the invader and shot back at the Ent. While the Turret was focused o, Yuel and Trever approached the tower and attacked it.

  Since he ying Druid Support, Yuel built defeems which raised HP and defehe Ent’s stats scaled based on the Druid’s stats, so the Ent beed from simir increase in HP and defense. As such, the Ent didn’t deal much damage to the Turret, but it could tank shots for a while, just long enough to allow Trever to take the Turret down.

  Aurret has beeroyed!

  With this, Bot Lane was oep closer to being dominated by Yuel’s team. From pig a synergistic Support css and up to outwitting enemy pyers - Yuel showcased his skill all across the board. As hard as Aron tired to nitpick, he found virtually no faults with the way Yuel pyed.

  If there was ohing that could be called a “weakness”, it’d be Yuel’s meical skill. During some chaotid uable situations, he struggled to nd his skill shots. He missed more than a couple crucial Nature’s Grasp shots during team fights, putting the whole team at a great disadvantage. heless, his meical skill was overall at a satisfactory level, especially since he had enough brains to make up for it. He knew how to avoid difficult situations and how to create favorable ones, ensuring that his medieical skill wasn’t going to be a hindrance.

  In addition to Yuel terrorizing the eeam with his tactics, Aron and Trever also put on a strong performance.

  To make up for being an inferior Carry, Trever took advantage of the Ranger’s true purpose as a Jungler. He roamed across Bot Jungle and stole camps from the enemy’s side of the map. Thanks to his passive, Beast Hunting, he dealt +20% damage to jungle camps with his basic attacks. On top of that, the multi-purpose skill, Wolf panion, allowed him to summon a wolf that cwed a group of creeps with an AoE e attack. Thanks to these factors, he cleared jungle camps swiftly and effectively,

  In addition, Trever used Ranger as an assassin. After Yuel predicted that the enemy Warlock was about to head toward the Ogre Camp, Aron and Trever both darted to the destination. Aron got there first a on the Warlock, but he failed to finish the job and allowed the Warlock to escape into the jungle.

  However, that was actually part of the pn, sihe Warlock was forced to flee a in dire which led straight to Trever. It itack. Trever easily deleted what little remained of the Warlock’s HP.

  Despite the stant bickeriween Aron and Trever, they cooperated surprisingly well. They barely exged any words te that pitack.

  “I’ll scare him from above.”

  “Roger.”

  That’s all. With just that short exge, both of them kly what to do. It was clear they had plenty of experience pying this unusual “Two Junglers” position. Each of them farmed on a different side of the jungle in order to maximize total farm, but they still often ganked ogether from opposite dires. It was a truly high level teampy.

  With Yuel’s precise predis and the strong bo of Aron and Trever, their team domihe flow of the game. The momentum Yuel started by setting up two kills on the Pirate hadn’t waned sihen.

  “Shit! Why it’s always me!?” Mark smmed oable. It was already the fourth damn time he died this match! His KDA (Kills/Deaths/Assists) stood at a lousy 0/4/0, he was a goddamn feeder at this point! He was making the worst impression possible on the examiners!

  He thought pig Pirate would allow him to py safely. His pn was to freeze enemy progress on the ne by quickly clearing minions, so he could then farm nearby jungle camps at leisure. With the gold bonus from Plunder, he pnned building his items faster than his oppos and start murdering everybody at te game. It’s not like he had any ce beatierans from the club on even grounds, so it was best to avoid fights until he got the stats advantage.

  As, all he achieved was a terrible 0/4/0 score. Not only that, but many of his ces to farm jungle camps were stolen from him. The enemy Ranger ter-jungled way too damn hard, clearing most of the camps on Mark’s side while Mark was dead. It was bullshit.

  Based oats, the rest of his team wasn’t doing much better. None of them was feeding as hard as him, but they all had ive KDA scores. Only the Padin, pyed by Howard, had a passable 0/0/2. They were getti so hard it wasn’t damn funny!

  “Is this match even banced!?” Mark cursed. “You sure you didn’t put the best pyers on that team? This shit is unfair!”

  “Chill.” Howard anded. “Being tilted will only make you it more mistakes, right?”

  “Yeah, but...” Mark cmmed up in front of Howard’s icy gre.

  “I get where you’re ing from. You think you gonna leave a terrible impression by feeding so much, right?”

  “Yeah, exactly! How am I supposed to show my skills when my whole team is getti!?”

  “You’re right, this match feels kinda skewed, doesn’t it? Maybe the way we decided the teams wasirely banced.” Howard smiled wryly, then his eyes turned sharp. “Anyway, are you really gonhis situatioo you? Like it or not, but you gonna py on the losing team many times iure. Hundreds of times, maybe even thousands. What you gonna do about it? Cry like a little bitch each time?”

  “Eh!? I... I... no.” Mark trembled. Why did he deserve any of this? He was trying his best this whole match, yet everything crumbled around him. Nobody was there to tell him “It’ll be alright” or “It’s not your fault”. The full weight of the responsibility ced on him, his poor performance directly tributed to the whole team’s downfall.

  But, precisely because of that. he wao win! He wao pass this damn exam and py petitive Cssmancers! He wasn’t some whining little bitch! He’s suck it up and keep fighting! “No matter how shitty things get, I’ll try to win!”

  “Good, that’s the spirit.” Howard smiled and smacked Mark on the back. “Pying from behind is also an important skill to have. You still make plenty good impressions by showing us how good you’re at that. Heck, maybe you even help us make a eback!”

  “Right! I'll do my best!” At some point along the versation, Mark’s frustration was repced with a burning fighting spirit. So what if he died four times? He could still do it! He just had to farm jungle camps faster and to push Bot Lao recim it!

  “I only hope you aren’t pnning to farm more camps or to aggressively push your ne.”

  “Wha...?” Mark was dumbfounded.

  “W toward a eback is fine and dandy, but don’t fet ying behind by three levels already. I’m sure you hate math as much as the guy, but you ’t argue with numbers.”

  “Wait, so you’re tellio hug the Golem?”

  “Don’t get killed, defend the ne and farm enough to stay relevant in team fights. How you gonna achieve all that is up to you.”

  “Okay, got it.” Mark ched the mouse auro h renewed determination. He wasn’t passionate about pying defense, but that’s what he had to dht now to score points. “I’ll hug the Golem for a while and slowly push forward. I outclear the Ranger, so I should be able to overtake the ually.”

  “I trust you.” Howard hough, try as you may, I don’t see you passing this exam.

  Horovided airtight Support the whole time, but Mark still somehow got himself killed four times. The first two times were real shockers, even Howard was caught off guard. So, he didn’t t them against Mark. However, the wo deaths were clearly Mark’s own fault.

  After dying twice, Mark should had pyed more cautiously. The enemies figured out his greedy mi as a Pirate pyer, so he should had steered clear of jungle camps while enemies were still around. In addition, he should had avoided direct frontations with the fed Ranger.

  As, Mark kept repeating these same mistakes. It took him two more deaths to finally wake up and start thinking about his situation. And what was his clusion? The match was rigged! The teams were unbanced! He didn’t do anything wrong!

  Yeah, that rookie was no good. All Howard could do now was give him advid pointers, in hope he’d learn from them and bee a better pyer iure. But, as it stood, Mark didn’t cut it.

  That Druid, though. Howard squinted his eyes as he went over the match’s stats. The Druid had a 0/1/6 KDA score. The eeam had 8 kills in total, so it meant the Druid was involved in 6 out of 8 kills. On top of that, as expected of a Support, he didn’t steal any kills from his teammates and only scored assists.

  He sure pys airtight Support. What was his name again? “Yuel”, I think? Now that Mark was no longer of any importance for the exam, Howard shifted his attention to the other rookie. In fact, he had been waiting for Mark to be rendered irrelevant for quite a while now, ever sihe two shog kills Trever scored on Mark in uhree minutes.

  Pg a bear trap in that jurao trap Mark wasn’t Trever’s idea. Howard could cim so with fidence, he had pyed numerous games with Trever by now. Even though Trever had det deaking skills, he wasly what one would call “smart”. There was no way he’d ever go for such a roundabout py. In fact, he must had been baffled by these pys himself, even though he was the one who teically executed them.

  In other words, somebody else advised him to py that way. Was it Aron? Possible. Aron was good at nitpig others’ mispys, so he could had arrahat kind of move to punish the rookie. After all, he knew Mark was an examinee.

  But, that couldn’t be right. Even though Aron often came off as cold and merciless, he wouldn’t bully an examinee like this, especially not in the early game. After all, that’d kill the whole purpose of testing rookies in the first pah, it wasn’t Aron.

  But then, who came up with that impressive bear trap py? There weren’t any other club members on the eeam who fit the bill. As such, only oion remained: Yuel, the other exami was unthinkable, but there was no other option.

  “Man, they’re wreg us!”

  “Them traps, yo! Since when Trever is so smart!?”

  “He and Aron are seriously tryharding! It’s like they fot this is an exam.”

  The whole team was in a disarray. They were struck at ued times from ued dires and were overwhelmed.

  None of them even realizes what’s going ht now. Howard rubbed his eyes. The only oryharding is that rookie over there. He’s totally running over us. It’s not even funny anymore.

  Mark was wrong in his earlier accusations. The 4 veterans on each team were carefully picked to bance each other out, while taking into at the role each rookie pyed. Therefore, the teams were banced. Or rather, they should had been banced, provided the two rookies were roughly of the same skill level and banced each other out.

  Despite all that, the current match was almost like a one-sided massacre. Howard’s team looked like a bunch of noobs pying against pros, it was beyond humiliating.

  That rookie must be full of himself right now. Time to teach him a lesson or two. Howard smirked. I’m sure Aron has seen enough by now, this exam is as good as over. He wouldn’t mind if I get a little serious, would he? Right? Yeah, let’s just do it.

  The two teams were meant to be bahat is, as long as Howard didn’t exhibit the full extent of his power. Until now, he was nothing more than a “det Support” for his teammates. He didn’t make any obvious mistakes, but her did he make any impressive pys. Now, this was going to ge.

  “Heh, you’re right, guys.” Hrinned as he addressed his teammates. “Aron and Trever are tryharding too much, so let’s return the favor. I’ll get serious now.”

  “That’s alright? It’s just an exam.”

  “No problem.” Howard said. “Besides, we ’t host a proper exam unless both teams are banced, we? I’m sure Aron and Trever are just trolling us, trying to make us look bad in front of the newers.”

  “Damn, these two!”

  “Let’s get them back, yo!”

  The team switched gears. Their irritation was repced by a burning desire to crush their ehis ge in atmosphere was soon going to bee apparent for the other team as well.

  “The Warlock is rotating to Bot.” Yuel pihe mini-map to show the route he predicted. “Trever, you cut him off?”

  “Roger!” Trever activated Wolf panion, summoning a wolf mount, and rode to the destination at full speed. It was going to be yet another easy kill for sure! Yuel’s predis rarely missed the mark, ead every one of his pns was amaz-

  “Gah!? The heck!?” Trever jumped. He fhe Warlock as pnned, but the Warlock wasn’t alo some point, the Pirate stopped hugging his Golem aered the jungle as well. Instead of ambushing the Warlock, Trever somehow found himself ambushed by both Warlod Pirate!

  “Shit shit shit agh!”

  An ally has been killed!

  Despite being overleveled, Trever couldn’t hahis 1v2. It was the first time the Pirate scored a kill on him. Gah, so frustrating!

  “Don’t fuss so much over it.” Aron said. “Just get him ime.”

  “I know, I know. Grrr.” Trever growled and tapped oable, watg his respawn ter sloooowly tig down. He made that oh look like the worst catastrophe that ever befell humanity.

  “Sorry, it was my miscalcution.” Yuel said. “I didn’t expect the Pirate to be there, he should had been busy clearing the minion wave.”

  “Nah, don’t worry, bro. That shit was impossible to predict.”

  It was indeed... strange. Yuel couldn’t his head around that py. His tactics were certainly not without fws, but he was very fident about that specifiking py. There shouldn’t had been any factors that could had foiled that py, yet there was...

  Why did the Pirate ge his mind all of a sudden? He had been hugging the Golem for a while, defending the ne and avoidihs. Yet, for some reason, he headed deep into the ju the worst timing possible.

  Was it a fluke? Perhaps the Pirate went for a jungle camp and actly ran into Trever. No, that didn’t make sense. sidering he wasn’t spotted by any of Yuel’s Wards, it meant the Pirate skipped all the good camps on his way. Nobody saw him ing.

  Maybe the eeam saw Trever’s movements via a Ward and prepared an ambush? Impossible. Yuel warded that whole area with Sentry Wards, which exposed all nearby enemy Wards within its field of vision. There shouldn’t had been any enemy Wards anywhere along Trever’s fking route.

  Then how!? How did that absurd py came to pass!?

  “What are you doing? Retreat!”

  “Eh? Ah!” Yuel failed to rea time. He was surrounded by multiple enemies, but he was totally out of it. That cost him dearly.

  You have been killed!

  “What’s wrong? That was a noobish mistake.” Aron said with a stern voice.

  “Sorry, I just...” Yuel bit his lip. First, Trever died because of his miscalcution. Now, he himself died due to not paying attention. Ugh, one disaster after another. His team started losing the momentum it had maintained for so long.

  Calm down. Overthinking this won’t get me anywhere. Yuel took a deep breath. He wasn’t pletely over it, but he had to move on. He’d just have to make up for his mistakes with the py.

  The opportunity to redeem himself sooed itself. Aron fhe enemy Viking, but failed to finish the job. The Viking escaped at the nick of time with almost zero HP. Chasing him into eerritory seemed hopeless at first gnce, but Yuel thought otherwise.

  “I’ll pull him through the wall.” Yuel annouhere was an allied Ward along the Viking’s escape route, so his movements were visible even through the jungle wall. Grabbing him would be-

  “Eh!?” Yuel blinked. Suddenly, that area of the map went bck. The Ward should had had one more minute left, so it didn’t vanish because it ran out of time. No, it was actively destroyed by an enemy pyer, right at this critical time.

  “Seems like grabbing him isn’t going to happen now.” Aron shook his head.

  “Yeah, sorry...” Yuel bit his lip. Due to his shot-call, Aron rushed over there instead of pushing the defeop Lahey could had taken dowurret if not for this wasted time. By the time they returo Top, the enemy Warlock was already there to defend it.

  How did this happen? Why would they go out of their way to destroy a Ward in such a niche spot? Yuel couldn’t his head around it. He purposely pced that Ward in a very iive location to avoid dete. The Ward’s sole purpose was to expose fleeing foes, allowing Yuel to grab them and pull them back.

  Yet, despite how he Ward was, the eeam went out of their way to deploy a pricey Sentry Ward, just so they could destroy Yuel’s Ward. It was absurd, he didn’t uand anything anymore. It’s like somebody was trolling him.

  And, that wasn’t the end of it. Weird things kept happeni and right, throwing Yuel’s predis off . Enemies didn’t rotate as he expected, didn’t push where he expected and didn’t go for jungle camps when he expected. It felt as if all the pieces on the board were breaking their rules. All the data Yuel accumuted about the enemies until this point was rendered useless.

  “There’s nobody here, bro!” Trever announced as he arrived in Bot Lane, following Yuel’s advice. “Oh, shit! Look, they’re all pushing Mid instead! Damn!”

  “Why...” Yuel couldn’t believe it.

  An allied Turret has beeroyed!

  Why was this happening?

  An ally has been killed!

  Nothi Yuel’s way. The few weaknesses he discovered in his enemies were no longer effective, he couldn’t pierce through their defenses anymore. Did he lose his touch? Or, did the eeam transform into airely differe? He couldn’t tell.

  “Hey, what’s wrong, bro?” Trever asked. “You ran out of brain juice or something? Haha.”

  “I... I don’t know.” Yuel bit his lip. Everything was going so well until retly. What ged? He now looked like an idiot spouting nonsense, none of his predis came true.

  “Brain juice? Don’t be stupid.” Aron sneered. “Nothing ged. At least, nothing on his side.”

  “Then, something ged in the eeam? Please, tell me!” Yuel begged. He couldn’t bear this situation any longer. What was going on? Why was this happening? Where did he g? It drew him mad!

  “It seems that bastard decided to get serious.” Aron stared at his s with a plicated expression. He sidered his words for a while, but ultimately decided to share the information. “It’s Howard. The one who ged the team’s rhythm and shut down your tactics, it must be all Howard’s work. That’s what happens whes serious.”

  “Eh? But it doesn’t make any sense! I’ve been targeting each pyer individually!” Yuel cried. “I’m making my pns based on each pyer's individual patterns, but that stopped w now. Sure, sometimes the Padin just gets in my way out of nowhere. But, most of the time, the pyers themselves outpy me!”

  “Put yourself in the enemy’s shoes for a sed. Tell me, do you think they realize that, most of the times, they get royally screwed because of your tactics?”

  “That’s...” Yuel never bothered to think about that. What did the eeam think of this match? Did they realize Yuel called most of the shots? It never mattered before.

  “The way they see it: they’re getting outpyed by all pyers from our team, especially me and Trever who scored the most kills.” Aron expined. “But, in practice, there’s only one main shot-caller on our team. Sounds familiar?”

  “Then, you’re saying my feeling of being outpyed by the whole eeam is wrong? That I’m only being outpyed by Howard? But that’s... absurd.”

  “You thought you’re special?” Aron sneered. “A good shot-caller is necessary in every serious team. I have to admit, you’ve showcased ability that goes beyond standard ‘shot-calling’, but you’re not the only in the world with such talent.”

  “Then, you’re saying Howard is like me...?” Yuel trembled. It was the first time he ever faced a pyer like that.

  “Yes, he’s a lot like you.” Aron nodded. “But, at the same time, he’s nothing like you. He’s like your antithesis, if you will.”

  “Antithesis...” Yuel mumbled as he stared at the Padin on the s. Suddenly, his uanding of the map ged entirely.

  Above the map itself, there was another invisible yer. It was a yer only Yuel and Hoyed on, a chessboard which decided the fates of both teams.

  Until now, Yuel had been toying with the chessboard as he wished. However, now he had a fearsome oppo sitting oher side. Their true battle had just begun.