From the first time Lars touched a basketball he got hooked on the sport. Learning how to dribble, breaking through defenders and sg goals were the most exg times of his early childhood. He picked up the basics way faster than other kids and always established himself as the best pyer on any team.

  “Haha, you like it?” His dad grinned while showing some cool dribbling moves. “I used to py basketball back at school, we eveo nationals! Think you got what it takes to beat me, young man?!”

  “Heh, I won't lose to some old dude!” Lars grinned and charged at his dad. He had always stolen the ball without breaking a sweat against other kids, so he was clearly the best pyer in the world! He wouldn’t lose against any- “Gah!?”

  “Haha, too slow, kid!” His dad dodged without any trouble. He dribbled the ball from side to side to keep it out of Lars’s reach. “What’s wrong? That’s all you got?”

  “Just you wait!” Lars charged again, but his fingers didn’t even touch the ball. He tried over and over, but the result was the same. How the heck was that possible!? That’s not the basketball he knew! He was supposed to be awesome at this sport, but he was so me right now.

  “Need a break?” His dad asked.

  “Hah, ugh, no...” Lars panted. He was about to colpse any moment now. yet he was smiling and his eyes were locked on the ball. Despite how many times he was beaten, he wao fight some more! His dad looked way too cht now, so he had to bee even cooler! “Just a little more! I almost got you!”

  “Good, that’s my boy!”

  They kept pying until Lars could barely stand on his feet anymore. He wobbled all the way home, but he was grinning. Even if it was a fluke, he did it. Just once, he stole the ball from his dad! “ime I’mma get the ball on the first try!”

  “Haha, I’d like to see that, young man!”

  Sihen, Lars pyed basketball every day. He pyed with his cssmates during school time and practiced with his dad iernoon. His dad also taught him various advaeiques, which he absorbed like a sponge.

  Before long, he became an uable ao matter what team he pyed on, his teammates always relied on his strength. Their job was to pass him the ball and his responsibility was to scoals. Ohe ball was in his possessioed through enemy defenses like an typhoon.

  “Great pass there, dude!” Lars gave a thumb up after sg a goal.

  “Cool shot!”

  “Good work, as always.”

  His teammates smiled and it felt awesome. They fulfilled their part by getting the ball to him and he carried them to victory with his own two hands. Basketball was a bst when the whole team came together for a on goal like that!

  The more Lars pyed with his dad, the more used he became to the physical abilities of adults. He alushed himself beyond his limits to match his dad’s swift moves. Even though he ruly matched his dad’s sick skills, he came closer and closer with every passing month.

  His agility, rea speed and coordination evolved far beyond that of an average grade student. That became especially clear wheried out other sports at school. In soccer, his tricky yet accurate shots always caught the enemy goalkeeper off guard. In volleyball, his powerful spikes broke through the enemy’s wall of defense.

  Everybody praised him as an insa in every sport, he was the a all of them. As such, it became his role to carry the team in whichever sport he pyed. It was a duty he was expected to fulfil at any cost.

  But, Lars wasn’t the only one growing up. As the years passed by, his cssmates also showed great progress. Ohey began grasping more advaeam strategies, they developed ways to pressure Lars.

  “No way!” Lars was sure only two oppos marked him, but once he broke through them... a third blocker appeared! He wasn’t fast enough to react to this ued development and lost the ball. From there, the eeam delivered a fast attad scored a goal.

  “Gah, my bad.” Lars smacked himself on the forehead. That was so me! It all happened because he failed to break through the enemy defenders, the bme for these scored points fully id with him. Gah!

  “You should have passed to me instead to break through all these guys.”

  “Yeah, I en too. They all marking you, so it was suicide to charge in. Even you ’t get through that many blockers.”

  “Nah, don’t worry!” Lars waved his hand. “I was just a little careless. ime I’ll break through for sure!”

  “Just remember that we’re here.”

  “Got it!” Lars gave them a thumb up. That stolen ball was just a tiny careless mistake, he was sure he could evehrough the whole eeam if he had to. It was just a fluke! Yeah, a mistake that wouldn’t happen again! This time, he was going to break through-

  “Gah!?” He failed again. Just whehought he was safe after passing three enemies, a wild fourth blocker appeared! The heck was going on!? Hard as he tried, he couldn’t protect the ball against so many people. It was bonkers, yo!

  You ’t stop me! Lars tried again. And again. And again. Each time he successfully broke through, he was blocked during the wo attempts. Oep forward and two steps back. Gah!

  The heck was he doing!? His buddies worked so hard to secure the ball for him, yet he gave it up so easily. That was beyond me, yo!

  He was the stro pyer on court and his teammates trusted him to carry. As, he betrayed their trust by surrendering the ball they worked so hard to secure. And with each attempt to make up for his past mistakes, he ended up making things ever worse. Gaaaah! It was maddening!

  “Lars! Over here!”

  “I’m open too!”

  His teammates waved for a pass. Yet again, the whole eeam ganged up on him. Jeez, these guys were sure fun.

  As much as he wao believe in his strength and that this time he’d make it through, he had to admit... it’d hard. Like, super duper freakin’ hard. He’d most likely lose the ball again if he charged in. Gah.

  Should I... pass? He gritted his teeth. Passing er important aspect of the game, he uood that much. And it’s not like he sucked at passing or anything, his passing teique was top-notch like the rest of his basketball skills. When there was no good opportunity to score a goal, he’d pass the ball to others like any other pyer.

  But this situation was different, it was a great opportunity to score, Lars merely had to defeat the blockers in front of him. Just a little further and he’d score for sure! Passing to somebody else meant giving up on this golden opportunity.

  What would happen after the pass? Would the dude be able to keep the ball safe? Would he get the team closer to sg? It’s not like Lars didn’t trust his teammates, it’s just that he wasn’t as fident about their ability as he was about his own. He had a 200% ce of sg a goal from this position, but there was no telling what’d happen if he ran away from the challenge and opted for a pass.

  No, there was no way in hell he’d pass here. He was the ace, the one carrying the team. He had to settle this with his own strength, or otherwise he was meaningless.

  If I ’t break through, then I’ll shoot from here! Lars raised the ball over his head and aimed at the basket. He was standing behind the 3-point litempting a 3-pointer shot.

  The basket was far, too freakin’ far. For most kids his age, that kind of shot would be impossible. He only ever saw high schoolers and adults pulling it off reliably.

  heless, he had to do it. Right here, right now. He carefully took his aim and threw the ball.

  The blockers were all fazed by this development, none of them reacted in time to the ballsy throw. The throw was untouched, so it’d nd ihe basket for sure!

  ... but it didn’t. The ball didn’t even reach the basket, as if this throw wasn’t a shot attempt at all. What a joke, Lars missed yet anreat opportunity. Yet again he failed to score for the team and put their hard work to waste.

  Luckily, one of his teammates caught this random ball and fihe job. Lars’s team won by a mere 1 point thanks to that final goal. It was a close call, but the whole team celebrated the victory all the same... except for one pyer who just stood there petrified.

  “Man, that pass was slick!” The sg boy gave Lars a thumb up.

  “Huh? Pass...?”

  “Yeah, you totally fooled them into thinking you were going for a 3-pointer! But then it was like ‘You got pranked, yo! It ass all along!’ Haha!”

  “Ah, haha... I told you I’ll find a way to break through.” Lars forced a smile and hid his trembling fists.

  Pass? What freakin’ pass!? There was no pass. He just failed, miserably so. He couldn’t carry the team at all. Rather, he only dragged it down. He had never felt so useless in a match before.

  But, nobody bmed him. They kept trusting their “ace” to the very end, even after he had failed them so many times. As such, he had her the time nor the right to sulk. As the ace, he had to keep doing his best and live up to their expectations. Even though he fared poorly in this oext time he’d surely make up for it!

  As, simir is kept happening and not only in basketball. Whether it was soccer or volleyball, the defenders focused on Lars and blocked his attempts to score. He couldn’t single-handedly break through the enemy defenses anymore. His status as the all-powerful ace was crumbling apart.

  “Gah, give me a break already, will ya?” Lars slowed down in front of the enemy defeo keep the soccer ball out of their reach. Damn, it was bad. These scums had blocked him tless times today. Just thinking ba all the golden opportunities he had missed gave him a headache.

  Breaking through them was as likely as winning the lottery. Shooting toward the goal oioo, the goalkeeper would easily block it from this distance. Everything was hopeless, he couldn’t do shit here.

  There’s no other way, is there? Lars ched his fists and go his left. There were two teammates he could pass to, both of them were left unmarked. Passing to them would be easy. So easy. Yeah, easy. He just o pass and they should be able to score, probably.

  We’re going to blow this game if I don’t do it now... He hit the ball and hung his head. There was o watch, really. With his coordination, he was 200% sure the pass would reach its destination.

  Based on the cheers that followed, the pass led to a goal. It seemed like Taison got the job done, or maybe he passed to somebody else along the way. Whatever.

  “Yeah, we tied it up!”

  “We still win this one!”

  Yay, we scored... While everybody rejoiced, Lars just stood there with his head hanging. His time had stopped. From the moment he passed the ball, he was pletely disected from the game. He was unnecessary, there was nothing else for him to do once he let go of the ball.

  It’s not like he insisted to score ead every goal. Sure, that was his favorite part of every sport, but he was fih helping his teammates to score. But not like this, not when he should had been able to get the job done himself. Making that pass was as good as admitti.

  Why did it have to be this way? When Lars faced the defenders, why couldn’t his teammates help him somehow? Why couldn’t they distract the defenders? Or stun them? Or bst them away? Or temporarily buff Lars so he could break through?

  All these cool things were possible in video games, but not in any of the real life sports he pyed. When he pyed shooters with his dudes, everybody stayed active throughout the whole match. When Lars charged into a swarm of enemies, he knew his teammates could support him. They’d either provide cover or fnk the enemies.

  Granted, most of his dudes were uncoordinated derps and weren’t around when he hem the most. He often died from taking on multiple enemies alone and looked like a reckless idiot, but that’s beside the point. At the very least, his teammates always had a way to help him and he had a way to help them. Everybody maintained an active role throughout the match.

  pared to that, all the sports he pyed had only one ball. The only pyer who mattered at any given time was the one holding the ball, as only he could score points. It was like only one pyer on the field carried a gun, so only he could shoot. If he couldn’t shoot down the objective, he had to toss the gun to a teammate before it got stolen.

  Basically, sports were like some sun Tossing Online nonsense. Once you tossed yun, you were left empty-handed. You had nothing. It was freakin’ annoying.

  Lars was forced to accept this reality for soccer and volleyball and started passing around more often. However, in basketball he refused to give in. It was the first sport he had gotten into and the one he had pyed the most. If only in basketball, he desired the strength to pull through any situation no matter what.

  I’ll get as far as I and then shoot. It’s just you and me, basket! 1v1 me, bro! Lars raised the ball and threw it from the 3-point line. He missed. He threw again. He missed. He threw. He missed. Threw. Missed. Threw. Missed.

  “Yes! Nailed... it...” He raised his fist in triumph, then his body buckled over. At some point it became night time. Just how long had he been at it anyway? He started right after school ended and had been throwing sihen without rest.

  Well, who cared. There was only one important fact: he did it! He actually scored five 3-pointers in a row! He started getting the hang of it!

  The euphoria robbed him of all his strength. His stomach rumbled like a freakin’ helicopter on steroids. Gah, maybe it was a good time to head home. He somehow got up and dragged himself all the way home.

  That was just the beginning. After practig 3-pointers from different positions, he simuted real game sarios. He asked some dudes to act like blockers while he tried to score 3-poihrough them.

  He maintaihis interaining regime for over a week, without taking a single day off. By the end of it, he was a master of 3-pointers.

  “Heh, try to stop that, dudes!” Lars grinned in front of the enemy blockers. He couldn’t possibly break through them, but what of it? Before any of them could attempt a steal, he threw the ball toward the basket

  It smoothly went in. Woohoo, three points! A piece of cake! These defenders were nothing!

  “You kidding me...”

  “Khaha, what a lucky shot...”

  “Heh, lucky shot you say?” Lars smiled. “Okay, okay. Keep thinking of it as a lucky shot while I score three million points of ya!”

  They soon realized it wasn’t a joke. The 3-pointers kept ing without end. For the rest of the match, Lars trampled all over the enemy blockers with fwless 3-pointers. There was nothing they could do against that sick stuff!

  The unstoppable ace was bao matter how many defenders marked him, his 3-pointers pierced though. Nobody in css, or even in the whole freakin’ school, was a match for him.

  With Lars’s strength, the school’s basketball team made it all the way to the finals of the elementary schionals. But, that was the end of the road.

  “Are these dudes even the same age as us...?” Lars’s smile twitched. Most of the enemy lineup was filled with absurdly tall bck pyers. These dudes could easily pass fh schoolers, yo! This match was bonkers!

  Despite their size, they were unbelievably agile as well. Breaking through even a single blocker was freakin’ hard even for Lars. He had to rely on his 3-pointers more than ever.

  As, even that didn’t quite wainst these titans. bining their height and agility, they blocked over half of his throws. It was like trying to throointer over the freakin’ Everest.

  What the actual heck? All the matches he had at school looked like toddler league pared to this. These dudes were on a whole different level, yo!

  Still, Lars robably a little better than most of them. With just a little bit of help, he could break through their defenses and score his prized 3-pointers. As, such help was o be found. HIs buddies had their hands full with just getting the ball to him.

  Once Lars got the ball, it was him alone against a gang of giants. If only somebody could shrink them a little, or slow them, or bst them away. But no such magic existed on the basketball court. He had to face all of them by himself. No matter how much he perfected his 3-pointers, it was impossible to do shit when he was ered by this many giants.

  In the end, his team was stomped 21-86. Could he had pyed that match better? If he passed the ball instead of going for desperate 3-pointers, would his team had scored more points? Nobody knew and so the questio eating away at him.

  Ever sihat defeat, Lars stopped his one-man show. No matter how much he itched to take on the enemy defenders, he passed the ball instead of fag multiple defenders.

  However, at the same time he also started drifting away from basketball. It was no lohe same. He was no lohe uable ace who could carry a team, he was just a nobody.

  Instead, he got more and more into video games, mainly the a-packed ones like shooters. His good muscle memory, quick rea speed and pinpoint aim all shined in these games. Same as in sports, he was a wild beast in shooters.

  TRIPLE KILL!

  “Whoa, you seriously took them all out!?”

  “Holy moly, that was a 1v3 there!”

  “Haha, these guys are nothing!” Lars grinned. “We got this game in the bag, yo!”

  Video games somewhat filled the void left by basketball. He pwned enemies nonstop, without ever letting go of his gun. There was no “ball” to pass arouween teammates. They all actively fought toward the same goal and everybody stayed relevant throughout the whole match. That’s how he wanted all games to be.

  As, none of these games sted long for him. Once he mastered all the meical depth a shooter had to offer, there wasn’t much for him to do there. He became so powerful he could stomp literally anybody, but that’s all. There wasn’t anything else there, it felt hollow.

  “Gah! dudes, where are you at?” Lars facepalmed after getting killed. He faced multiple enemies believing his friends would cover him, but somehow each of these derps was on a pletely different part of the map. Gathering ammo, chasing a low HP enemy ac. They were painfully far from an aeam.

  That didn’t really surprise, since most of them got into these games via the solo mode. Pying solo geared them to think only about themselves. Everybody just wao do sick pys and score a shit ton of kills, that’s where the fun was at.

  Therefore, they had no idea how to really py as a team. Even though Lars uood all of that, he had no idea how tanize his teammates. He wasn’t much of a strategic. Down to it, he was one of them dudes who just enjoyed shooting enemies.

  These games were sure fun, but they weren’t real “team games” for him. That’s probably the only reason he kept pying seriously in the basketball club. It was the only pce where he could get his “team game” fix.

  ’t some game just force us to py like a team? He tried a couple reendations, mainly MOBA games, but he a hard time getting into them. He had no idea how the heck to py these games.

  Killing enemy pyers should had been the key to victory like in any ame, but chasing them down in a MOBA only got Lars killed by Turrets. Grinding exp in the jungle seemed important, but meanwhile his overtaken. Regaining trol over his ne was his job, but meanwhile the rest of his team was eliminated oher side of the map.

  No matter what he did, it was wrong and screwed his whole team. None of his buddies wao py such punishing games, so he had nobody to learn with. These MOBAs had the potential to be some sick team games, but they were literally unpyable for him.

  That ged when his css went through special Cssmancers lessons. Not only did they teach the overall strategy of the game, but they also covered the game’s meta and objectives. Finally, Lars felt like he had some idea how to py MOBAs. Cssmancers was a fun and iing game, designed purely as a team game. That’s exactly what he wanted!

  The lessons exposed everybody to Cssmancers, so Lars found some dudes to py with. Now that they all uood the basics, MOBAs didn’t look as scary anymore. It’d be the bst of his life! He’d finally get to py a team sport which had the sick features of a video game! ... or so he thought.

  None of his dudes actually uood the game’s tactics. Well, he was no different himself. They picked up the basics from the lessons, but these basics mostly covered the first part of the match, known as the Laning Phase. Ohe match got to mid game, it transitioned into its Team Fighting Phase and that’s where everything started falling apart.

  Same as in all previous games, they were hiriously uncoordihey were destroyed like a bunch of scrubs when they pyed online. After giving Cssmancers a few shots, most dudes gave up on this harsh game.

  heless, Lars believed they’d figure things out... eventually. Someday. Hopefully. Anyway, he kept pying Cssmancers whenever he could. He spent all his lunch breaks pying with friends, mainly with Taison, Gregory and Julia.

  Taison was actually a hel smooth pyer, probably because his bro was a petitive Cssmancers pyer at high school. He hanged out a lot with Gregory, sory also picked up some stuff from him. They were really good, but even they didn’t py online much. Guess they had more fun stomping cssmates than they had getti online.

  Julia was the only one willing to sistently py oh Lars, but she was... welp, anyway he pyed online alone most of the time. It was a rough experience, but things should get smoother in Ranked mode. Cssmancers was the one game he didn’t want to give up on.

  But, everybody had a limit and he was no exception. The more he pyed ohe more it wore him out. He reached all the way to Lv.26,, but the people he pyed were still terrible. Instead of w together, they found it more fun to bme each other for random crap. Where was their sportsmanship? Where was their burning desire for winning the match!?

  Meh, maybe that’s as far as these video games get. He had to admit that the much simpler ball games made it easier for the team to e together. Taking possession of the ball and sg a goal were intuitive pys to uand. Only one pyer at a time could do any of that, so everybody knew where to focus on.

  That was a whole world apart from a plex game like Cssmancers, where each pyer had his own ne and everybody worked simultaneously across the map. There was elling where the ter of attention would be, where the team should focus pushing or evehey should group up. It’s like each of them possessed a piece of the ball and they had to bihese pieces to form the real ball that could scoals.

  That was as far as he saw himself getting. He had mostly stopped pying online and only dueled with cssmates from time to time. He was about to give up on the game altogether... until he met Yuel.

  “Woohoo! We did it! You’re awesome Support, dude!” Lars shook Yuel like crazy. They did it! They actually freakin’ did it! It was bonkers how easily they won that team fight, yo!

  Taison and Gregory were the stro pyers in css, yet Yuel pletely shut them down. And it wasn’t like he showcased any pro teiques. He didn’t execute any cool dodges or nded any sick shots.

  Nah, it wasn’t anything fancy like that. Dude just pyed them for fools with some genius pys. It was awesome!

  “Haha, we sure owhem! Let’s push Golem while we have the ce!”

  “No. It’s too early for that. Let’s take the power buff instead.”

  “Sounds good! Let’s go!” Lars followed the order like a good soldier. It was clear that Yuel khe game way better than him. He was the type to charge at the first shiny opportunity that preseself, so it was great Yuel could stop him from derping.

  Yuel also methodically lowered the HP of enemy minions, so that Lars could easily secure st hits with a sirickshot. On top of that, Yuel persistently body blocked shots to deny the Pirate’s farm. And if all that wasn’t enough, Yuel tered ead every enemy skill: Aegis against Kraken, Justice Strike against Arise and Divine Shield against Backfire on.

  In short, dude took care of all the pesky stuff that got in Lars’s way before. Lars felt as if the perfect stage repared for him. The enemy no longer held any advantage over him in terms of numbers or synergy.

  He only had to fight his best to secure kills, that was his job this match. There was o worry about sedary stuff anymore. He charged in and annihited his enemies with his polished shooting skills!

  DOUBLE KILL

  “Woohoo!” It was a freakin’ bst! That’s exactly what he had been missing all this time! With this sick support, he could break through any defense!

  VICTORY

  Cssmancers was a sick game after all! He loved every part of it! He decided, he’d keep pying it until he became the best!

  “Yo, dude! You and me!” Lars grinned and poi Yuel. “Let’s quer the world of Cssmaogether! We’ll form the stro Carry and Support duo!”

  “Quite the ambition for somebody who still uses Auto-Buy.” Yuel shrugged and averted his eyes. He refused to admit it, but he was overwhelmed by Lars’s enthusiasm. He also wao py more with Lars, that guy was the god of meical skill. With such a powerful Carry by his side, Yuel was sure he would py his best Support ever.

  “There’s still a lot you o learn, but fi’s do it, heh.” Yuel ended up showing a smile. That day, a terrifying Cssmancers duo was born.