Fory, this stupid “starter seleatch” came out of left field. And holy, it didn’t even feel like it was meant to “select” anybody. The positions for the first string were already pretty much set in stone: Hilbert, Dan, Roi, and Ellen.

  In truth, this match was nothing but a farce. It’s just gonna be a shitshow in which everybody beat the crap outta Yuel and Lars. After all, there's no way these losers carry the team better than Howard. And even if they somehow win this seleatch, there’s no way Honna be like “Yep, I’m totally fih this” and step down from his precious captain position.

  This ehing is just one big joke, kek. Gregory didn’t want to delude himself for even a moment. But still, Howard sold this as a “starter seleatch” tory and Taison, he eve as far as suggesting they could make it into the first string if they perform well today. Yeah, fat ce. They'll never bee starters this year... or, maybe?

  Holy, there's never knowing for sure with Howard. Back when he was saying it, he sounded genuine enough. Horobably didn't really believe any of them could best the first string pyers, but he'll surely take them into sideration if that happens. After all, Howard was a straightfuy in that sense. He wao win, so he wahe stro pieces he could get.

  In other words, if Gregory proves he’s strong, he'll be picked. Simple as that.

  But, of course, there had to be a catch to such a sweet deal. Due to how Howard arrahis stupid seleatch, he had to give Gregory the Solo role instead of Support. ly the most fitting role for DaBestSupport, kek.

  Or, maybe it was fate? Maybe God dropped this trial ory? After all, he had been sidering switg to Solo for some time now.

  Back when Gregory joihe club, he had a strong rivalry with Yuel. He was totally pnning to kick that snotty guy's ass and steal the Support spot oeam. He even procimed himself DaBestSupport, topkek.

  But then, Howard happened. A strong, fident, skilled, experienced and knowledgeable pyer, and also a great leader if all that wasn’t enough. Gregory figured right away he was no match to that top dog, so should fet about pying in tours until his third year. He accepted that shit because there's literally nothing he could do about it.

  But, Yuel didn't get the message. That mofo kept challenging Howard time and again, aiming for that sweet starter spot. What a dumbass. Yuel must have had a fetish for embarrassing himself, kek.

  What's real dumb, though, was Howard's special treatment of Yuel. Even though Howard always took jabs at Yuel and criticized that scrub, he also paid a lot of attention to Yuel for some reason. When Yuel made a weak shot-call during practice, Howard debated it with him over the break. When Yuel proposed a crazy pn of attack with a shit ton of holes in it, Howard suggested how to make it safer. No matter what Howard cimed, he stantly paid attention to Yuel.

  But wait wait wait, wasn't there another amazing Support pyer in the club? Ya know, a certain DaBestSupport? Hello? Anybody? No? Okay.

  Gregory po beat Yuel ihird year to get the starter spot, but he wasn't even on these guys’ radars. In practice, there were only two Support pyers in the club: Howard and Yuel. Gregory? Who's that mofo?

  Seriously, that's how it felt. They let Gregory py Support from time to time in practice matches, but way less than they let Yuel do it. It's clear everybody preferred Yuel regory as Support. These damn ungrateful scrubs.

  Why? What was wrong with Gregory’s py? Well, he wasn't strong enough, that's what. Whether it's about pig pyers or pig friends, everybody preferred strong guys. The weak and ued were useless, they oed to be made fun of.

  Yeah, Gregory was weak. Or at least, that's what everybody around him cimed. He really didn't want to accept that, but a certain versation he overheard drove that point home.

  “So,” Aron started. “You decided who yoing to make the vice-captai year?”

  “Yeah,” Howard replied. It was a secret versatioweewo top dogs of the club. Gregory shouldn't have eavesdropped, but screw the rules that sounded iing as heck.

  “There's only oion, really,” Howard tinued. “Yuel.”

  Only oion? Gregrimaced. Sure, Lars and Taison were monkeys and Julia was aional bitch. But, what about Gregory? He was a smart, good-looking, intelligent, skilled and knowledgeable pyer!

  Well, okay, maybe a few of these points were debatable. But still, he was far from a nobody. His game knowledge and deaking skill should be on par with Yuel's. He also knew how to gather, process and aa. Sory was totally a didate for the vice-captain position. Heck, he could even run for president if he wanted!

  “I agree,” Aron said. “Yuel seems like the best didate at the moment.”

  Zero objes and not a single mention ory's name. Did people fet he exists? Man, already going se this age? Topkek shenanigans.

  ... but damn, that stupid versation. It reduced Gregory to a nobody who never even stood a ce against Yuel. Why? Why!?

  They were both meically trash pyers. They both relied on game knowledge and dirty tactics to beat stronger mofos. Then why? Why wasn't Gregory on anybody's radar!? Why was he always treated like some weak nobody!?

  Seriously, the flying fuck? Gregory worked his ass off to research Cssmancers ba grade school, just so he could py Support that satisfied Taison. Whewo of them joined arms, they were uable! They were the stro! They even stomped Lars, the puy who always in the ter of everybody’s attention. They embarrassed that loser in front of the entire css!

  But, then came Yuel and flipped everything on its head. That damn degee.

  If Yuel is nominated vice-captain, he also gonna bee the captain after that. And, of course, he'll be the one who chooses which role goes to who. In other words, Gregory, and Taison will be fucked. They won’t get to py Support and Carry even ihird year.

  Julia probably gon Mid because she held Yuel's balls, so the only remaining positions will be Solo and Juherefore, if Gregory wants to py petitively at some point in middle school, his best bet was Solo.

  “Hey, what’s up, GG?” Taison asked after being called over.

  “Who you fu’ calling GG?” Gregory hissed. “Anyway, listen. I'm thinking about maining Solo.”

  “Huh?” Taison raised an eyebrow. “The heck you’re on about?”

  “I've been thinking about it for a while. Yuel will probably be selected as the team captaiually, so-”

  “Huh? Why would that happen? That dude only knows how to e up bullshit ideas.”

  “Bullshit ideas that work,” Gregory corrected. He didn't mention the versation he overheard because Taison wasly the type who knew how to keep their trap shut, so instead, Gregory prete was all hypothetical. “Why do I think Yuel will bee the vice-captain? Well, everybody thinks he’s some hot stuff. Besides, who else you think lead the club after Howard is gone?”

  “There's DaBestBrht here!” Taison grinned like an idiot while pointing at himself.

  “So, as you see, there are only two real options here: me or Yuel.”

  “Hey! I totally be the cap!”

  “Jokes aside, that's our situation,” Gregory shrugged.” It’s either me or Yuel, and pretty sure right now most people are in Yuel’s favor.”

  “Yeah, okay, maybe that that’ll happen. So, what of it?”

  “You really don't get it?” Gregory sighed. “If Yuel bees the captais decides the roster. He gonna pce himself as Support and who do you think he gonna pick for Carry?”

  “DaBestBro, of course!”

  Does this guy even have a brain? Gregory felt like facepalming all the way through his skull. This was going nowhere, so enough being roundabout. “He'll take Lars for Carry. So, her of us will get to py in tours even in our st year.”

  “No way in hell,” Taison's face twitched. “I gonna py tours, yo! My bro gonna be a starter in Venom year, and I'mma be a starter in StormBlitz!”

  “Yeah, I also y but, at this rate, we won't be able to because Yuel and Lars ki. We'll have to break their arms or something if we y, kek.”

  “I'll do it, yo!”

  Will he? He might, holy. Even Gregory couldn't tell. “Anyway, I got a better solution. How about we switch roles? I py Solo and you're kinda alright at jungling, so you py Jungle.”

  “Nah, bro. Jungle is cool and all, but I wanhe Carry! That's like being the ace, ya dig?”

  “So, what do you prefer? To py in tours without being the ace? Or, to not py at all?”

  “Of course, I'mma py in tours! As the ace!”

  My brain cells need an ambunce. Gregory massaged his temples. “Anyway, I think I'mma give it a shot. I'll try fog on Solo a little more from now on and see how it goes.”

  “But mah brosef, ain'tcha ‘DaBestSupport’? How ya gonna py Solo with that name? Khaha.”

  o rub it in, dammit! It's not like I wanna do it either! Dumbass. Gregory wondered why was he still here, just to suffer? “Anyway, that's all I wao say. I suggest you to py more Juoo, in case Yuel really bees the captain.” And I know he will, at this rate.

  “Hm, okay, I guess,” Taison crossed his arms. “But, I still gonhe ace! And py in tours!”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Gregory looked away. At least, you have a better ce than me because people actually think you're a good pyer. It's because of you that I...

  Gregory was overshadowed, that's the only expnation to this bullshit. Even though Taison was an idiot with a minus 200 IQ, he was a strong pyer. He has been pying Cssmancers with his bro for lohan any other freshman and he was meically skilled.

  As a result, Taison's strength overshadowed Gregory's. Nobody took notice ory because Taison was stealing all the good parts when they pyed as a duo. Even though Gregory was the one who always had to cover up the shit Taison caused, nobody appreciated him for that hard work. All they saw were Taison's successes, while Gregory was also sorta there maybe.

  Supports were often underappreciated due to their less active role, but this shit was getting outta hand. Good pyers would know how to gauge a good Support, but Howard and Aron were a bunch of blind fools. They won’t reize good supp even if somebody shoves it in their faces.

  To get the spotlight he deserved, Gregory first had to step out of Taison's shadow. Pying Solo was the best way to do it because it's a ne where he had to rely only on himself throughout half the match. That’s why he liked calling it “Solo” instead of “Top”. It was an isoted h mostly 1v1 a. And fory, this ne was a grand stage prepared solely for him to py as the leading actor.

  With that ving, Gregory focused more and more on pying Solo. He still often pyed Support for Taison in the club, but in his private time, he poured hours into Solo.

  On one hand, Solo was one of the easiest roles to py. Solo csses were mostly bruisers and tanks, so survivability was high and the enemy ner didn't apply that much pressure. Oher hand, mastering Solo was quite the pain. It was a ne on which every type of pyer skill had roughly equal importance. Meical skill was useful for the many 1v1 sarios, deaking was important for not losing the ne and game knowledge was o ter-pid ter-build.

  As a result, there were all sorts of different Solo Laners. Some were brutes like Roi who relied on raw strength, whereas others were intellectuals like Gregory who used game knowledge to ter their ne oppos.

  Like the genius Gregory was, he khat knowledge was his stro suit. Therefore, he polished that area more than anything else. He read the upvoted guides, watched reended CssTube videos and so forth. Of course, he was also up to speed with all the spicy Solo Lane memes; very important.

  And today, in this “seleatch”, Gregory finally gonna reveal his insane Solo Laner skills to the entire world! It's a fateful trial, no doubt arranged for him by God himself! Today will be the day he beats Roi and cims himself a spot on the first string! And also, today, Gregory will get to crush the hopes and dreams of Yuel by stopping that nerd from getting into the first string! Two birds with ooopkek.

  As for preparations, Gregory did plenty. In addition to the time the team spent training together, Gregory also spent some of his off-time researg Roi. As a fellow guild member in the game, Gregory could easily access Roi's match history. All matches from the past week were set to “private” to avoid info leaks betweeeams, but any of Roi’s ames were accessible.

  So, of course, Gregory abused this privilege. He studied which csses Roi pyed the most, what were Roi’s win ratios with them, what Roi usually built and so on. All that crap was too much to process though, sory used the app Cssmancer Analyst, which summarized the data for him.

  It was really ve. He just had to dump Roi's match history into the app and it showed lots of useful shit. It even collected some data from the actual match repy, such as when and where Roi went to farm jungle camps. It had everything Gregory needed for taking down that Goliath.

  As expected from today’s greedy apps, all these fanalytics features were locked behind a paywall. Buuuuuuut, Gregory just download a crack. Who'd pay for this shit when you get it for free, kek.

  Gregory jotted down the major points about Roi's pystyle and researched ter picks. He even opened some forum threads under an alt at and asked for the best way to ter csses which didn’t have any natural ters, like Knight which was one of Roi's favorites and a high tier Solo Laner in general.

  As expected, there were some troll replies ihreads like “git gud” and such. However, the most upvoted posts usually made some sehere were a few odd suggestions thrown into the mix and were still upvoted, like how supposedly Warrior could deal well with Knight despite being a trash-tier css. But,t otherwise, the suggestions were good.

  All in all, Gregory came pretty damn prepared for the match today. He kly what Roi gonna pid how that mofo gonna py. Everything was calcuted to a T. This was Gregory's time to shine in a solo performance!

  Then why? Why the flying fuck did Roi pick Dark Knight? It's one of Roi’s least pyed csses! Gregory even double-checked the data on Cssmancer Analyst during the drafting phase and there was almost nothing!

  What the actual fuck. Roi wasn't supposed to py this kind of shit. Like, it's a flippin’ Dark Knight of all things. Roi pyed mostly fair and strong csses like Knight, not this garbo.

  Hoho, I see, I see. Roi is so scared of my analytical skill that he'd rather py one of his niche csses instead of fag me with a css I've already researched! Yes! Fear my genius, peasant!

  No, of course not. In the first pce, Roi probably wasn't that smart. And, the guy was hel fident in his skill, so he wouldn't think twice about going all out with his usual pystyle.

  Then, why Dark Knight? Why in this match? Of course, because it’s freakin’ Dark Knight, the anti-fun noob stomper. Dark Knight was the stro early-game bully in the game because he boasted the highest base damage during the early-game. Therefore, Dark Knight destroyed any scrubs who had no idea WTF they were doing during the early game.

  Back when Gregory first picked the game, he liked him some Dark Knight too. Getting 10 kills a row and dominating the game was the best. Boy. those were fun times, probably the most fun he ever had pying Cssmancers.

  But, that didn't st forever. Once Gregory started fag more petent pyers, Dark Knight became trash. Against enemies who knew when to defend and when to pressure, Dark Knight was either stalled until te-game et his ass whooped due to its suicidal game pn.

  Thus, Dark Knight will only be forever immortalized as “a fun css” in his memories, but nothing more. Nowadays, Gregory couldn't py that edgy boi without a high ce of getti, even in casual. One of these days, he should make a smurf at to pwn some noobs with Dark Knight, kek.

  Anyway, Dark Knight was trash at this level of py. It arently sorta viable in the high-level pro se in some niche sarios, but everybody here were mid-level pyers at best. No way Roi dominate a game as Dark Knight here, especially sidering the guy barely evehe css.

  Not to mention, there was one huge requirement for pying Dark Knight: you had to be better than your ne oppo. Only then, Dark Knight had any ce to exhibit his stomping ability. That stuff was hel rare in the pro se because everybody there reeeetty good. But, it still happened sometimes, mostly in C-League.

  So, by pig Dark Knight, Roi was basically saying “e at me, nub. I'mma whoop yo ass, you filthy trash kid.” In other words, Gregory wasn't even on Roi's radar as a threat. Gregory was, and remained, a nobody in everybody's eyes.

  “S,” Howard spoke in the middle of the drafting phase. “You sure you don't want to try turtling? It's D-Knight, so turtling is a viable opening here.”

  “No fu’ way,” Gregory pressed his gsses against his nose. “Lemme at that fucker. I'll show him what happens when you think you DK me.”

  “Don’t lose your cool over it. It’ll hurt your performance.”

  “No problem, chief. I’m calm. REAL calm.” Gregory insisted. “Lemme fight that D-Knight. I’mma pwn it.”

  “If you’re sure,” Howard shrugged. “As I said, I don’t pn to force you into pying hyper defense. If you want to challenge Roi, go ahead.”

  “You won’t regret it,” Gregory promised. “So, Knight for me, pls.”

  “You got it.” Hoicked Knight. Good, that’s how it gotta be.

  Until a few moments agory was borderline fih following Howard’s turtling game pn. However, after seeing Dark Knight, it became a different story. He’s gonroy Roi. He’ll mop the floor with that pompous bastard. Gregory will prove that he was a strong pyer, that he was more than just a scrub hiding in Taison’s shadow!

  This looks like a recipe for disaster. Howard had a plicated expression. But, I should probably thank Yuel for this Dark Knight. It’ll serve me well.

  Gregory headed into the first match with burning fighting spirit. But, who will it end up burning? His oppo? regory himself?