The petitive stage. The pce where each pyer puts their everything on the line for the sake of victory. An arena where gdiators fight relentlessly through blood and sweat, dispying their strengths and quering their weaknesses.

  In today’s scrimmage, Yuel got a taste of this gmorous stage. It was a ruthless war zone, but a glimmering ooday’s battle just ended, yet he already dreamed of pying here again.

  “Hey dude,” Lars called out. “Match is over. How long ya gonna stand there?”

  “ht.” Yuel returned down to earth. What did just happen, again? Right, they had a handshaking ceremony and the Leopards left. Everything was a blur. He vaguely recalled Breaker talking about something with Lars and Roi, but he pletely out of it at the time.

  “You okay? You look like a zombie, haha.”

  “Just tired.” Yuel slowly turoward the exit. Ugh, his legs felt like lead. Each step felt like pushing a car that ran out of gas.

  “Dude, you look pooped.” Lars walked up to him and offered a shoulder. “.”

  “I’m not that tired- wah!” Yuel stumbled, almost diving into the floor. So much for ag tough. Ugh. He felt his cheeks heating up. “... guess I’ll take you on that offer.” He ed his arm around Lars’s shoulder. “This is embarrassing..”

  “Totally.” Lars nodded. “You gotta exercise more. You’ve been sg tely, right?”

  “I still jog, at least once a week.”

  “Laaaame. You gotta jog every day, yo.”

  “Pretty sure that’ll break my legs.”

  “Nah, it’ll be firust me, you’ll have more MP than ever! cast yo Tactics Shmactics spell all day.”

  “Heh, I’ll think about it.” Yuel smiled wryly. Body fitness directly tributed to mental fitness, so it’s not like Lars was wrong. However, Yuel’s fatigued stemmed primarily from the abnormal circumstances of today’s match,

  First, he ied the shot-caller role amidst a helpless situation in the first game. He had to squeeze every st bit of brain power to overe that ordeal. And sihen, he had been the shot-caller every game. That’s extremely taxing when bined with pying Support, a role which required sharp-deaking.

  However, all of that was still up his alley. Things started getting out of hand ohe issue with Trever hit the fan. Yuel was stressed out by the team falling apart and he desperately tried to find a solution, which led to fronting Trever face to fad asking the team captain to step down. An absurd situation. Yuel never dealt with that kind of drama before.

  And if all that wasn’t exhausting enough, he also became the captain. That loaded further pressure on him, since he had to act like a role model for everybody and hold the team together. Yuel raio bear such heavy responsibility during a match. It was nerve-rag.

  So all in all, there were too many unforeseeable circumstances and too many roles forced on him. No wonder he was exhausted. No amount of daily exercise could have prepared him for something like this. Even running twenty marathons every day wouldn’t build the necessary mental fortitude to deal with that sort of rollercoaster ride.

  The only relief he had today was when Lars joining the team. Lars was a high maintenance pyer, so Yuel had to babysit him a little. But in exge, Lars steered the momentum in StormBlitz’s favor, making it that much easier to wiwo games.

  “You pyed well today,” Yuel said.

  “Whoa,” Lars jumped. “You really praisihat’s rare! You sure you okay? Don’t die on me, dude!”

  “I give credit where it’s due. With that said, we still o review some of the terrible pys you made, like that oime you died diving uower.”

  “Bah, ruthless.” Lars made a face. “But we really did it, huh.” His eyes went over the grand stage. “We finally became pros!”

  “Again with that...” Yuel sighed and smiled wryly. “This is just junih. And, we only pyed as a sed string.”

  “But duuude, wasn’t it sick!? We finally got to py on a real stage! There was even an audiend everything! “

  I bet they were mostly spies from other schools, though. Yuel kept that observation to himself to not ruin the moment. Circumstances aside, today was really a huge step forward.

  Just a year ago, the two of them were just newbies who grinded in Ranked during lunch breaks and after school. They had e a long way, getting to py on a real stage where pro matches were held. But, that’s just the beginning.

  “We really made it far, but we still got a long way to go.”

  “True dat. ime, we gonna e here as the first string!”

  “Yes.” Yuel hough, that’ll have to wait until at least week. Sadly, it’s unlikely any ges will be made to the first string so te into the year. The regionals were just a couple of months away and Yuel still hadn’t surpassed Howard. But, year for sure...!

  “Sure took you a while.” Gilbert greeted them as they returo the waiting room. “You alive?” he asked while throwing a g the shoulder supp Yuel.

  “Kinda.” Yuel quickly removed himself from Lars, before anybody else sees this embarrassing se. Gilbert was fine, but others would make fun of him to no end. And, Julia would defiear him apart for this.

  Yuel dropped on one of the sofas and exhaled. Thinking of it, he didn’t get much sleep tonight. The nap he took before the scrimmage relieved some of that fatigue, but it was creeping back. He was so tired. If not for his teammates being as reliable as they were during the matches, he would have colpsed a long time ago.

  “By the way,” Yue; addressed Gilbert. “Thanks for bag up my shot-calling, especially i game. I could barely put two and two together at that point.”

  “Well,” Gilbert shrugged. “I was kinda supposed to be the team’s shot-caller in the fist pce, so...”

  Thanks for willing to surrehe role to me. Yuel kept that one io not rub any salt.

  Gilbert clearly came here today fully i on being the shot-caller throughout the whole scrimmage. After all, that's the role entrusted to him by Howard. Just how hard was it for him to surrehe role to somebody else? And to a freshman, to boot.

  “Really, thank you so much.”

  “, you making me blush.” Gilbert chuckled. “It’s no big deal. That's what teammates do: we support each other. Just because you py Support, doesn’t mean you 't rely on others. That's a problem I noticed, you know? You like shouldering everything yourself. It's a team sport. You don’t have to do everything yourself.”

  “Right.” Yuel had mixed feelings about this critique, but it probably had some truth in it. He really did accumute a bunch of different roles and overclocked his brain to find solutions for all the problems the team faced. But, it's not like he didn’t rely on his teammates at all. For example, he did borrow Lars’s help to recim the team’s momentum, didn’t he?

  “Well,” Gilbert looked aside. “To be fair, you were probably meant to be tested as the shot-caller in the first pce.”

  “Hm?”

  “Nothing,” Gilbert shrugged. “Anyway, I’m off to watch the first string’s game. Seems like they’re still at it.”

  “Oh! “ Lars excimed. ”I wanna watch too!” He turo Yuel. “Wanna go?“

  “Nah,” Yuel shook his head, sinking deeper into the fy sofa. “I want to rest a bit.”

  “Okay, seeya after the match.” Everybody left. Yuel also wao join them, but his body lost all its strength o dropped on the sofa. So tired. He merely pyed five games, but it felt like he returned from war. A little nap was in order. His eyes grew heavier and heavier until he succumbed to darkness.

  Sometime ter, Lars woke him up. The first string match was over, along with today’s scrimmage. It's time to head home.

  “Who won?” Yuel asked Howard.

  “We, of course,” Howard answered matter-of-factly. So, in the end, the first stri 3-2, which made the sed string’s 4-1 unnecessary. Yuel stressed so much etting that 4-1, but it didn’t even matter in the end. He felt cheated.

  “Gotta admit though,” Howard said. “It was close. Good thing you got that 4-1 as a backup.”

  “Yes, after somebody pressured me about it to death.”

  “Haha, did I press too hard? My bad.” Howard said that, but there was as nothing apologetic about his smirk. “Well, rejoice. You passed the test with flying colors.”

  “What test?” Thinking of it, whealking about subbing Lars in, Howard said: “sider this a test your future depends on.” And, Gilbert also mumbled something along these lines. “You old me what this ‘test’ is about.”

  “You’ll find out.”

  “Whely?” Yuel frowned.

  “After we win the championship.” Hrinned.

  “That’s some fidence. How are our ces?”

  “We’re in a pretty good spot for the regionals, at least,” Howard said. “I mean, we just beat the team that’s favored to represent the region. That’s not too shabby, right? Haha.”

  “You lost 0-2 to them at first, though.”

  “You’re a real party popper, anybody ever told you that?” Howard shook his head. “But, you’re right. We only ended up winning because it was a best of five. It’s tough to beat them 2-1, but if it’s 3-2 we got a det ce. Gotta pray we’ll only meet them at the finals.”

  “So it seems.” Yuel nodded. In the regionals, all matches were best-of-three, except for the finals which were best-of-five. They’re bound to run into Leopards as long as they keep winning, so it’s best if that happens in the finals.

  That’s where the seeding system came into py. If StormBlitz and Leet first and sed seeds, they’re bound to meet only at the finals.

  Unfortunately, things didn't go as pnned. StormBlitz mao secure first seed, but for some reason, the Leopards only secured fourth seed. After the scrimmage against StormBlitz, the Leopards lost most of their subsequent scrimmages.

  Was it on purpose? Did their coach order them to lose so they avoid meeting StormBlitz at the finals? It sounded like a stretch, but it’s hard to put anything past Fernando Ruez. After all, he’s the man who came up with an unventional strategy like the mixup to increase the ces of winni-of-three games.

  Aron and Howard spied on one of the scrimmages and Yuel tagged along. The lineups the Leopards used there were quite different from the ones Hoyed against. There was also an abnormal amount of subs during that scrimmage. The only sistent element was Fenrir, the team captain. He was the one pyer who had never been subbed out.

  Were they experimenting with new formations for the tour? Perhaps their coach reparing a special strategy to deal with StormBlitz.

  The most surprising part of the scrimmage was when boBreaker and Freezer were subbed in. Could it be this scrimmage was used to test them? After all, they were capable pyers. Being stu the sed string definitely didn’t suit somebody of Breaker’s caliber.

  Are they being given a ce to bee starters? Yuel csped his hands. He pyed against these two. His team even won 4-1. A, Breaker and Freezer were apparently given a ce to prove they were fit for the first string, whereas Yuel was stu the sed string. As a mere rookie, there was no hope for him this year.

  No, that’s not important right now. Yuel shook his head. He came here to observe the scrimmage, not to ment his situation. Besides, it’s possible the coach just used this scrimmage to give Breaker and Freezer some practical experience, a thing both of them seemed to previously ck.

  Either, the two of them put on a solid performance. Breaker pyed Pirate, but she was airely differe pared to when she faced Lars. Her movements were as refined as ever, but now she also knew how to adapt to unforeseeable situations on the fly.

  “RELEASE THE-!” The Pirate began yelling, then stopped. There’s no telling whether the enemy Elf inteo dodge the Kraken i sed, but Breaker didn’t care to check. All she wanted was to startle the enemy with the threat of an ining Kraken.

  While her oppo was momentarily fazed by this development, Breaker closed the distah Backfire on. One ssh. Two sshes. The Elf took two hits before finally esg with Elven Leap.

  However, what awaited the Elf at his nding spot was a vicious Kraken. Breaker forced this sequence of pys to pletely trap the Elf. The Kraken smacked the enemy into the ground and Breaker finished him off.

  Breaker’s pys were already polished before, but now they were also swift and brimmed with fidence. She must have gained a tremendous amount of practical experience over the st month. She was no longer a orick pony whose only dangerous on was bht now, Breaker was an all-around powerhouse.

  Simirly, Freezer also put on a surprisingly solid performance as Eleancer. All he did were mostly basic pys, but at least they no longer had any gring fws in them. He patiently applied Electric Charges via basic attacks, followed up with Lightning for maximum hits and ed it up with Electrical Explosion. The minion wave was blown to pieces.

  On top of that, Freezer also utilized Thuorm in the nastiest ossible. He alced the storm in the ter of the enemy’s formation during team fights, f the eo scatter and break formation. This usually led to an easy team fight win.

  pared to how poorly Freezer pyed Elea time, he truly improved a lot. Or rather, it’s more like he was rusty before and now got ba shape. bined with his sharp deaking and his deadly ability to punish overextension, he was shaping into a tough oppo.

  The Leopards ultimately lost 2-3. However, the two only games they wohe ones where Breaker and Freezer pyed.

  So, did it meawo really had a ce to be promoted to the first string? They definitely improved a lot sihe st time Yuel pyed them. They were moving forward, chasing the petitive stage. Yet here Yuel was, still stu the sed string like before. Ugh.

  Months passed by in a blink of an eye. Before long, the regionals came around.

  StormBlitz domihe petition and pushed all the way to the semifinals, where they ran into the Leopards. Whether this was a calcuted arra or purely bad luck, this best-of-three match was an unwelatchup for StormBlitz.

  her Breaker nor Freezer participated iour until that point, so it was safe to assume they didn’t make it into the first-string.

  That’s a relief. Yuel felt a little bad for thinking this way, but he couldn’t deny he was gd these two didn’t make it into the first string. Because otherwise, he’d feel terrible for still being stu the sed string-

  “boBreaker!” The announcer shouted as he read the roster. “A face we haven’t seen this tour yet! And a girl, no less! Is she Ruez’s secret on!? Or, perhaps a special tech against StormBlitz!? After all, the Leopards lost to StormBlitz in a scrimmage earlier this year. Oh? I also hear she used to be the captain of the sed string? That sounds promising!”

  So, boBreaker made it. Yuel frowned. Freezer wasn’t in the roster, but Breaker made it. In just a span of a few months, she asded into the first-string. Even though she didn't get to py in every match, she still achieved way more than Yuel did, which was zilada.

  And, Breaker didn’t e on stage just to shock Yuel. She actually put on a lot of work during the StormBlitz vs. Leopards match, dispying her hyper-aggressive bo style in all its beauty. It proved quite effective against Howard’s defensive position. Defending was that much harder against an enemy who could bst you apart in an instant.

  “Amazing!” The entator shouted. “From huo zero in an instant! To all you folks out there who call bo a ‘meme’, watd learn!”

  So much praise. So much attention. Even though Breaker wasn’t necessarily the most amazing pyer ich, the caster hyped her enough to make her look like a star. Her petitive debut was nothing short of dazzling.

  Meanwhile, Yuel was downstairs in the audience. He was sitting in the shadows of the glimmering lights, unnoticed. The stage was right there in front of him, yet it felt like it’s oher side of the world.

  This year, Yuel didn’t make it there. It was Howard and Ellen fighting on that grand stage instead of him and Lars. They were appointed as substitutes, but that’s only in case somethio happen to Howard or Ellen. In practice, they weren’t sidered part of the first string in any shape or form.

  Worse of all, Howard and Ellen were juniors. They’ll be around for another year and will keep overshadowing Yuel and Lars, stealing their spotlight on the petitive stage.

  No. year will be different. Yuel swore to himself. For now, he had no choice but to admit defeat against Howard. However, year he’ll seize the Support role for sure! He’ll no loay in the shadows.

  Even at his current level, Yuel led a team to score 4-1 against a team led by Breaker. And, Breaker proved herself a strong pyer who had what it takes to reach the first string. So, Yuel definitely had what it takes to pete on that dazzling stage too. And the same went for Lars, who defeated Breaker multiple times.

  They’ll get there. year, they’ll py on this same stage and face strong teams. ime, Yuel will lead a team to beat the Leopard’s first string.

  The StormBlitz vs. Leopards match cluded in three rounds. StormBlitz lost 1-2. As Horedicted, beating the Leopards in a best-of-three was unlikely. It’s impressive enough they won one game, rgely thanks to Aron’s strong te game.

  heless, a loss was a loss. The regionals had a single-elimination format, so StormBlitz was out of the tour. Despite Howard talking big about winning the championship, they didn’t even reach the nationals this year.

  In the end, the Leopards won the regionals. However, even they didn’t get all the way to the championship. They reached the semifinals of the nationals and were stopped there.

  In other words, there were even stroeams out there, waiting for Yuel oional stage. He had to get there, no matter what. year, for sure! It’ll be a long road, but the first step was clear: surpassing Howard as a Support.