“You did it, huh.” Howard nodded in satisfa after hearing Yuel’s report. “You got Trever to step down and led your team to victory. You even became the netain, gratutions.”

  “Thanks.” Somehow, being praised so openly by Howard felt weird. Still, it’s all true. Yuel truly achieved great results, despite all the drama that happened ieam.

  Just half an ho, Yuel was shaking in his boots from the mere idea of fronting Trever. In the end, he not only overcame that hurdle but also achieved victory. With Lars’s help, of course.

  This definitely warranted a celebration. Yuel took a sip from his Coca-Co , no longer feeling guilty about not paying for it.

  “I see everybody is celebrating with Coke,” Howard chuckled at the sight. Every member of the sed string was holding a in their hand. “Should we name your team CokeBlitz?”

  “That just sounds wrong. On many levels.”

  “I knht? Haha. Was it your idea to buy Coke for everybody?”

  “No, that’s... Um, a fairy delivered them.” Yuel smiled wryly. When they fihe matd returo the waiting room, five s were waiting for them. Trever promised to treat them if they win, so he must have watched the match from somewhere.

  This robably Trever’s way of making up for the troubles caused. He really didn’t have to, but it brought smiles on everybody’s faces. They all sat around the room, chatting away while drinking. It did woo the team’s spirits.

  Even though Trever wasn’t here, he was still supp the team from behind. In the end, Yuel was just a stand-in. Trever was much better suited to be the captain.

  “Anyway, you really did well.” Howard sang even more praises. It’s amazing. Howard had never praised Yuel like this before. He always either scolded or belittled Yuel and rarely ever appreciated. This was huge progress!

  “I’m really impressed.” Howard didn’t stop. Okay, at this point the amount of praising started sounding dht uny. “So, I’m trusting you to wi game as well.” Howard’s eyes turned sharp, like a knife pressed against Yuel’s throat.

  “O-Of course!” Yuel responded by instinct. After receiving so much praise, he had to live up to the expectations pced on him... Wait, was that maybe Howard’s goal all along? Did Yuel just beautifully walk into Howard’s trap? Gah! N-No! Yuel didn’t care about any of that praise! Not eve! Really! Goddammit...

  “How did yame go?” Yuel asked, trying to deflect attention from himself.

  “We won, but it was a close ohey adapted to us really well, which is why,” Hoced a hand on Yuel’s shoulder and squeezed it. “You must win the game, no matter what.”

  “G-Got it.” Yuel stepped back to escape the grab. Ugh, it hurt a little.

  “I have high hopes for you” These were Howard’s st words before leaving.

  He’d say anything to motivate his chess pieces. Yuel grumped. Just you wait. I’ll make you praise my skill for real ime.

  Howard’s lip service wasn’t appreciated, but it’s uandable. The first string was in a tight spot, hanging at a 2-2. One more defeat and StormBlitz will lose the entire scrimmage unless Yuel’s team prevails once again and finishes with a 4-1. That’ll guaraormBlitz’s victory today, regardless of how the first string match pys out.

  After getting buttered up so much by Howard, Yuel secretly hoped the first string will blow their match. That’ll turn the sed string’s 4-1 into today’s savior. That’ll show Howard!

  But first, we have to actually win. Yuel switched gears. It was too early to indulge himself in rebellious banter. He still had an important game ahead of him. A game he had to win at any cost.

  His team took the st game quite vingly, but that’s because the enemy didn’t expect Lars to be this strong. They allowed Lars to pick Trickshooter and to gain early momentum, that was their undoing. Lars was unstoppable once he started rolling.

  But, the Leopards surely learned from their mistakes. They’ll find a way to adapt. The game won’t be nearly as easy.

  First, they’ll most certainly ban Trickshooter. After that overwhelming performance, anybody could tell it’s Lars’s stro css. It’s the only css with which he had a positive win ratio against Trever in 1v1.

  However, that didn’t mean Lars couldn’t py other csses. He liked insta-log Trickshooter, but Yuel made sure to stop him every on a while so he picks something else. Yuel also closely monitored the csses Lars picked during practice, to make sure the distribution wasn’t 99% Trickshooter and 1% everything else.

  Thanks to that, Lars didn't bee a orick pony. Trickshooter was still his main and stro css, but he could py many other Carry csses too. So, unlike Freezer, Lars won’t fall apart just because his main css is banned. Probably.

  It’ll be fihat goof will do fine. Yuel repeated like a mantra while walking upstage. The fifth and final game was about to ence.

  “Leopards switch a pyer.” The umpire announced. “Freezer is repced by Onions.”

  Not surprised. This only further supported Yuel’s theory. Freezer could probably only py Warlo a petitive level. And, even then he had some gring issues.

  On paper, Freezer seemed like an experienced pyer with superb deaking skills. But, something was amiss. Most likely, Freezer was rusty with other csses due to ck of practice.

  “That’s what happens when you only main one css all day,” Yuel addressed Lars. “You’ll be kicked out as soon as your main is banned.”

  “Yeah, I get it, I get it” Lars nodded. “You only told me that like a billion times. Don't worry, I practiced all the good csses. Piy Carry you want and I’mma show you da stuff, yo! “

  “Elf.”

  “Geeeeh! I mean, not like I ’t, but... Really, dude?”

  “Yes. They’re going to be on guard against you and Elf is great for these sarios. But, I haven’t decided for sure yet. It depends oher they ban Trickshooter during the first-”

  The eeam barickshooter.

  “Welp,” Lars sighed. “Guess Elf it is. You’re a freakin’ prophet dude, I swear.”

  “I just got something called ‘basic drafting knowledge.“

  “What’s that skill? Never spent any SP on it, haha.” Lars tried to ugh his disappoi away. “Meh, just pick whatever you think is best. I’mma blow these guys out of the water no matter what I py.”

  Mr. fidence, as always. Yuel sighed. As much as he wao take a jab at Lars’s attitude, he couldn’t. Lars delivered results, regardless of matchup and circumstahat always gave him the excuse to not participate in the drafting process. No matter what css he ended up with, imes out of ten he prevailed through brute strength.

  Everybody else could draft. Gilbert was good enough to be the team’s drafter, Dan was det and Roi could at least draft a good matchup for his own ne. But Lars? Put him in charge of drafting and he’ll mash random buttons.

  Was it mandatory for Lars to know drafting? Well, not necessarily. This was a team game, so as long as others could hahe drafting - Lars didn’t o lift a finger. At least, that’s how Yuel justified being x with Lars oter.

  Holy, it’s such a pain to teach that goof anything outside matches. Things which Lars couldn’t directly experien his flesh through gamepy simply refused tister in his bird-brain. Sigh.

  “How do you feel about fighting their Pyro?” Yuel asked.

  “She’s sick, yo! That insta-kill bo is da stuff!”

  “That’s not what I’m asking.” Yuel shook his head. “Think you handle her? Remember. you won’t be pying Shooter this time. If you think she’s too much, we ban her.”

  “No problem!” Lars fshed his teeth. “Elf, Pirate or even Archer - doesn’t matter! I’mma beat her for sure!”

  “Some fidence for somebody who ’t beat Trever.” Yuel rubbed his temples. If he got o every time Lars spouted such overfident nonsense, he’d be a millionaire by now.

  It was no use. Mr. fidehought he could take on the whole world, so Yuel had to make the call himself.

  The first two bans were pretty much decided. The first was Shadow Walker because it’s Shadow Walker. The sed was ancer because SkyNight pyed it extremely well. That left only one more ban for this banning phase.

  There’s no point banning Warloymore, since Freezer was switched out. And, there weren’t any other bans which seemed mandatory.

  So, maybe it’s a good idea to ban Pyromancer here? After all, they had to win this round, no matter what. They were going to win here and make sure StormBlitz wins the scrimmage, no matter how first string fares. That’s what Yuel promised.

  Until now, Yuel had always kept Pyromancer in py. However, that’s only because there were reasons to believe they’d successfully deal with Breaker’s bht now, he wasn’t so sure.

  Because of Freezer’s sub, Pyromancer became a wildcard. There’s no telling whether the new pyer was going to py Mid or something else. Therefore, there’s no telling whether Breaker will py Mid or Carry. She exhibited mastery in both roles, so either was a legit option.

  If she pys Mid, she’ll face Gilbert again. That’s an unfavorable matchup, as proven by the devastatis of the third game. Yet again, they’ll have to devise some eborate pn against this arra, such as pig Aeromancer + Beastmaster.

  Last time, that almost backfired. They were only saved because Freezer was a rusty Eleancer and because the enemy didn’t properly shut down Dan’s Beastmaster. It’s no good to rely on such luck again.

  Oher hand, if Breaker pys Carry, Lars will have to handle her. Urever, Lars had many holes in his defense. Against the absurd burst of bo, even a tiny mispy in defense was going to be fatal.

  Without Trickshooter, could Lars fight Breaker without getting eliminated in an instant? Ugh, it’s such a sticky situation. No matter where Breaker pys, she’ll be a tough oppoo deal with.

  “You’re running out of time.” Gilbert pointed out.

  “ht.” Yuel returo earth. The clock showed 5 seds. He had to make the sed ban, so he banned ancer.

  “What’s wrong, dude?” Lars ed his head toward Yuel. “You look beat. Fried your brain? Haha.”

  “Maybe I’m a bit tired.” Yuel exhaled and dropped backward on his chair. Thinking of it, he had been making shot calls for fames in a row now and this was the fifth. Every game was also stressful too. The Leopards never gave him a breather.

  And, then there were other responsibilities weighing on his shoulders: being the captain and beiedly told to win 4-1. Oh, and in case people fot, he was also the Support. No, no pressure at all. Easy.

  “You look troubled,” Gilbert said

  “I just ’t make up my mind about the st ban.”

  “You don’t have to make that decision alone, you know.” Gilbert crossed his arms. “I’m still teically the vice-captain, in case you fot.”

  “Yeah,” Roi added. “Speak to us if you got problems, man.”

  ht. I suppose I borrow their help. Yuel pted for a moment. It’s true he was responsible for drafting, but they were a team. Just the way Lars was exempt from drafting because somebody else could hahe job, Yuel could also share some of the burden with others. Especially with Gilbert, who was as good as Yuel in drafting.

  “I sider banning Pyro,” Yuel expined. “But, I’m not too sure.”

  “That’s new,” Gilbert raised an eyebrow. “You’ve been arguing for keeping Pyro open this whole day. What ged?”

  “I’m not sure we handle her this time. Because of the sub, we don’t know if she is going to be Carry or Mid, so it’s hard to prepare. And, you know hoys. He’d be bo’d to death in a sed.”

  “Whoa!” Lars excimed. “You don’t trust me, dude?”

  “Not particurly. Not after you chased Breaker uower and got killed.”

  “Welp, that was kinda dumb,” Lars rolled his eyes. “But, ! I dominated most of the game, didn’t I?”

  “Yes, with Trickshooter. Which is now banned.”

  “I do that with any css! 200%!”

  “If only I could take your word for it...” Yuel sighed for the huh time. “Besides, that’s only half the equation. There’s the ce she’ll py Mid, which means we’ll have to go out of our ways to ter her again.”

  “I spare you that headache,” Gilbert poi the enemy’s bans. “These aren’t bans for pying a Mid Pyro.”

  After Trickshooter, the Leopards’ sed ban adin. Not surprising, sidering Justice Strike had been giving Breaker trouble. These bans directly targeted Yuel and Lars, so the straightforward ters for Mid Pyromancer were left open.

  “If we suspect she goes for Mid,” Gilbert said. “I go for either Sage or Sorcerer. Not g it’ll to be an easy ride, but I should be able to handle her.”

  “I see. You’re right.” Yuel rubbed his eyes. He started overthinking the whole topic way too early. He should have known they could narrow down Breaker’s options based on the bans, but... He freaked out. Maybe his brain was really fried at this point.

  It was weird. Yuel led the team to victory st game, so he should have been more fident about the game. But instead, he felt even more stressed than before. All the adrenaline and sharpness from st game vanished without a trace, leaving him only with fatigue and worry.

  The more he thought ba the “victory” StormBlitz achieved st game, the more ed he became. It’s clear there were many fortunate factors in py back then, like Lars snowballing early and Freezer pying poorly. None of that will happe game. Trickshooter? Banned. Freezer? Subbed.

  Worst of all, the Leopards’ coach discussed something with the team. Yuel briefly saw the man step on stage during the break. As far as he khat happened only once before today, right before that match. The o which StormBlitz was rent asunder and nearly fell apart.

  Something was ing. Yuel had no idea what, but something was going to happen this matd he wasn’t going to like it.

  Could he hold the team together if push es to shove? There’s no guarantee. pared to Trever, Yuel’s charisma stat was ro. If the team falls apart because of him...

  “Rex, dude,” Lars smacked Yuel on the back, a teique he ied from a certain senior. “Look at these guys, they’re on guard against us.” He poi the barickshooter and Padin. “You said they’re all seniors, right? Well, guess who’s sg them shitless right now? That’s right, this sick freshmen duht here!”

  “Oh.” Yuel blinked. It’s true, the two bans were specifically aimed at Yuel and Lars. The Leopards didn’t want to deal with this duo after witnessing its power, which meant they couldn’t find any ters.

  So, while Yuel felt pressured by Breaker’s presehe eeam felt pressured by Lars’s strength. And, maybe they were even a little pressured by Yuel’s tactics too. her side felt like they had the upper hand.

  “You see? We got this!” Lars grinned. “Besides, didn’t ya say Elf is kinda good against Pyro? Because e or something?”

  “That’s... true, actually.” Yuel fot how to blink for a moment. Did Lars just bring up a favorable matchup? Unbelievable. Absurd. Who was this smart guy and what did he do to the usual brainless goof? Perhaps Lars absorbed mame knowledge than Yuel gave him credit for.

  As a Carry with aremely long reach, Elf was indeed favored against Pyromancer’s medium reach. Elf didn’t quite have the tools for ht defeating Pyromancer, but it could be pyed defensively by maintaining distance, without surrendering the hat’s especially effective for staying out the range of Breaker’s bos.

  Yuel actually sidered all of that over the break, back when he was ing up with a Trickshooter rept for Lars. But somehow, it slipped his mind while he was fussing over Breaker’s options. His brain must had been on the brink of shutting down pletely if a goof like Lars had to remind him of the strategic value of Elf.

  “Alright,” Yuel said. “Let’s keep Pyro in the game and deal with her, like before. Any bans you’d like?” He turo the others.

  “No Viking would be really nice,” Roi said. “I’ve been fag that dude all day and I tell ya, he pys a good Viking. Make him piething else.”

  “That works.” Yuel nodded aed Viking as the third ban. Aside from Shadow Walker, the other bans StormBlitz made specifically targeted csses which pyers from Leopards liked to pick. It felt less like a tactid more like a personal attack.

  The Leopards retaliated in kind. Their third ban was Druid, targeting Yuel again. Two bans against Yuel and one against Lars. They must have left quite the impression oher team.

  What kind of face would Breaker, the “pride senior”, make if she knew she was on guard against two freshmen? Yuel was tempted to send her a private message asking how it felt, but those were disabled in official matches.

  Padin and Druid were the two csses Yuel felt most fident about, but he wouldn’t dare to call himself a petitive pyer if he only could py these two. He held game knowledge in high regard, so naturally, he mastered many different options in the Support role. He robably only sed to Dan in term versatility, and that’s because Dan also learned how to py off-meta and meme csses.

  So, there were plenty of options. Question was, what should Yuel pick to keep Breaker in check? He had some ideas, but he had to admit - he was exhausted.

  Therefore, it’s best to pick a css which didn’t demand a high level of execution and deaking. Even if it isn’t high tier, as long as it doesn’t require many fast and accurate decisions, it'll be great.

  Which css fit that requireme? The answer actually stared him in the face the whole day: Warlock.

  With a CC ultimate which shrouds the entire area in darkness, it’s easy to influeeam fight with a single click. There’s o aim or to make plicated decisions, just press a button and all nearby enemies are affected. Simple and effective. Perhaps that’s why Freezer maihis css, the guy looked like he was born tired.

  With that decided, Yuel picked Warloext, he turo discuss the rest of picks with his teammates. There wasn’t enough time tize during the break, because he was busy rep to Howard while the rest were busy celebrating with free Coca-Co. Thus, Yuel had tanize everything on the fly.

  First, Dan. His Beastmaster was very effective st game, which showed what type of team the Leopards were. They must have primarily trained how to deal with meta csses, but not so much how to py against the gimmieta ohanks to that, Dan got away with pyimaster st game and even showed great results.

  Unfortunately, it’s unlikely Beastmaster was going tain, especially not after the Leopards had a meeting with their coach. Then, how about another obscure css?

  “Say,” Yuel addressed Dan. “Is there another off-meta css you py that’s viable?”

  “Sure.” Dan smiled, no doubt eaining some wacky ideas. “How about Jungle Lumi or Jungle Cryo?”

  “Okay, not THAT off-meta. These are all memes.”

  “Hey, don’t uimate Jungle Lumi. If Lumi builds damage, it be pretty scary.” Dan cimed while wearing a smirk that betrayed his words. He clearly just thought it’d be cool to meme on stage.

  “I meant something viable. Something you’d see in a pro match at least on a while.”

  “You meta sve. No soul, eh?”

  “There’s a differeween off-meta and meme, in case you didn’t know.”

  “Heh, okay, fine. How about o? Meta enough for you?”

  “You py o too?” Yuel blinked. ancer was a mage pyed primarily as a Jungler due to its heavy burst potential, slowdown CC, det mobility and time-rewinding ult. It’s plex utility css which demanded high-level execution to be effective.

  Not many could boast they py ancer petitively. However, judging by how well Dan pyed Beastmaster, he probably didn’t joke about it.

  “Impressive.”

  “Heh, no big deal,” Dan puffed his chest. “Told ya, I py any Jungler.”

  “No kidding,” Roi chuckled. “This guy right here is a jack-of-all-freaking-trades in the flesh. Back when we pyed baseball, dude legit tried to learhing at once. Hitting, defending, pitg and even catg, you . And I’m like: ‘My dude, how you gonna pitch when you’re also the catcher?’ Lol.”

  “Um, that was...” Dan shifted his eyes. “Anyways, I’m a ged man now. See? I only learned everything about one role this game. That still allows me to py cool stuff, like Jungle Lumi and Jungle Cryo. But, I won’t lie. Being able to py all roles sounds cool too.”

  “And theeeere we go. Cssi-of-all-Trades. You ain’t learned nothing, lol.”

  “Oh shut up.” Dan chuckled.

  Iing. Yuel o himself. He didn’t know these two personally, so this versation was insightful.

  Apparently, it had always been Dan’s thing to be a versatile generalist. That vinced Yuel even more that Dan could py ancer on a petitive level, despite being only one of tless csses Dan learned. Dan-of-all-Trades was a fitting name for sure.

  And so, Yuel put his trust in Dan a along with the ancer idea. However, he didn’t pick it right away, just to py it safe. If the enemy sees ancer early, they might respond by pig a more CC-heavy p to ter ancer’s time-rewinding ult. That’d be a problem.

  So instead, Yuel picked Elf for Lars. It was already decided in his mind that the defensive capabilities of Elf were the best pick for Lars this game. Yuel would have preferred to push the Carry pick for a little ter, but there’s the ce Elf will be banned in the sed banning phase. It was a slim ce, but Yuel didn’t want to take any risks. He didn’t have any good backup pns in the case Elf was banned, so Elf had to be picked now.

  What most uled Yuel about the development of this drafting phase was the absence of Pyromancer. Breaker usually picked her favorite css early into the draft, but they were already halfway through and still nothing.

  Was the enemy cooking something up again? After all, they discussed something with their coach. There’s a good ce he provided them with some sort of game pn.

  Then again, pig Pyromancer early wasly a smart move in the first pce. Maybe the coach just called Breaker out on that?

  “Oh man,” Roi made a face. “They went after my Knight. Guess they’re all sick of getting parried, lol.”

  The sed banning phase opened with another personal attack, this time on Roi. He pyed Knight all day, just like the eop Laner pyed Viking all day. So, it’s an eye for aormBlitz banned Viking, therefore the Leopards banned Knight.

  Now, both Top Laners had to adapt by pig somethihe Leopards had no iion making the st game easy for Yuel. Even after losing three matches, they didn’t lose their spirit and were still going strong, right from the drafting phase.

  On one hand, Yuel kind of wished the Leopards’ spirit would crumble so they hand him an easy win. Oher hand, he was gd they stayed strong. The Leopards were worthy oppos. He wao defeat them while they were pying their best, that’s the only way it’d be truly satisfying.

  “Lel, I go for Warrior?” Roi asked with an impish smile.

  “I don’t mind,” Yuel cocked his head. “But, you sure? There are better options.”

  “I want a guy with a good bat and Warrior is as good as it gets.”

  “I see. You want to keep parrying.” Yuel had no idea how he even uood Roi’s iion.

  As far as parrying was ed, Warrior was among the best csses in the game. Yuel experiehat first-hand when he practiced parrying against Julia. pared to csses with one-handed swords like Padin and Knight, Warrior carried a rge two-handed sword and swung it swiftly with both arms. Yuel’s parrying success ratio increased by about 20% when he pyed Warrior.

  With that said, no sane person would ever pick Warrior just to slightly increase their parrying ratio. Except, Roi was no sane person. He was a walking parrying mae.

  “Go for it,” Yuel said.

  “Awesome!” Roi locked-in his Warrior like aed child.

  With that, the drafting phase approached its end. For some reason, there’s still no sign of Pyromahe enemy didn’t ban any of Pyromancer's main ters for Mid Lane, so it’s safe to assume Breaker wasn’t going to py Mid. Besides, the enemy already picked Shaman, a mage without bo potential, at least as far as Yuel knew.

  Still, just in case, Gilbert picked Sorcerer. There’s always the possibility the enemy ying mind games and pnning sneak in a Pyromancer i sed. As the one who ied the mixup strategy, there’s no telling what other aces the Leopards’ coach had up his sleeve.

  Shaman wasn’t Carry material either, so the enemy’s st pick was assuredly going to be the Carry. Was it going to be Pyromancer? Or, some other css with bo? Either way, the Elf pick for Lars should had covered all these sarios.

  Elf, huh. Jennifer lifted her . I see what you’re doing. You ain't gonna ban my Pyro, but you still py around it. And, this ooo. She threw a g the Sorcerer, who was clearly picked to kill the possibility of Mid Pyromancer.

  So, that’s what these scrubs were basically saying, right? “e at us with everything ya got! We gonna mop the floor with ya!”

  Irritating scrubs, they hadn’t banned Pyromancer even ooday. She had been making sick pys left and right the whole day, yet these triggered trash kids thought they could handle her without a problem.

  Grrrr! She sooooo wao insta-lock Pyromancer ahe shit outta these trash kids! But, what’s even more infuriating, was how everybody seemed to think she ’t py shit except for Pyromancer.

  Bitch, I got a bunch of bo csses waiting in line. I’ve been waiting the whole day for you to ban Pyro so I show ‘em off, dang it! Jennifer waved an angry fist at the s.

  What’s even worse, it didn’t even cross anybody’s mind she py anything other than bo csses. Sure, she was a bo god above everything, but she practiormal meta pys too. She just found them less fun to py, that’s all. She could definitely py them detly, a...

  “Detly, huh. I hope you give it a try match. You may be surprised.” What was it with Coach? It’s like he was saying Jennifer will have her ass hao her if she pys a non-bo css.

  Okay! Fihey all wanna see her py something that’s not bo? Then, she’ll show them a mothafuon-bo css!

  Here! How’s that, huh!? Jennifer made the st pick: Pirate. Here, a non-bo css! These scrubs better not fall off their chairs from shock!

  “Wha...” Yuel gaped like a fish.

  “That's one funny-looking Pyromancer.” Lars chuckled.

  “Um,” Dan titled his head. “I think I’ve been sleeping oest patotes. Turns out they made Pirate into a bo css”

  “You didn’t sleep on anything,” Yuel said, his voice hoarse. That was no Pyromancer and not a bo css either. In fact, it wasn't even a mage. Just a proper and standard marksman who was meta to boot. Yes, the normal stuff.

  Yet somehow, it couldn’t get more alien than that. It’s the st thing Yuel expected boBreaker to pick after she has been ing across as a meta-defying pyer the whole day. Pirate was even partially a ter to Elf if utilized correctly.

  Just what was going on with this match? Yuel was exhausted, so he picked Warlock to cut himself some sck. Trickshooter was banned, so Lars had to py a weaker css and a defensive o that.

  Then, oher end of the spectrum, Dahe high skill ancer because he cimed he could py any Jungler. And, Roi picked Warrior for... better parrying ratio?

  And finally, Breaker picked a non-bo css for the first time today. Odd and uncharacteristic picks all over the pce. Yuel didn’t even...

  He was too tired to try making sense of this mess. The final game was definitely going to be something. He had no idea what, but it’ll be something.