“Passing through.” Dan arrived in Bot shortly after boBreaker was killed.

  “Yo, now you e?” Lars chuckled. “Where were ya when we o score some kills, dude. We had to do some crazy stuff to get this kill. retty fun though.”

  “Not my fault you didn’t wait for me” Dan shrugged.

  “It wouldn’t have worked if we waited,” Yuel expined. Breaker was good at dealing with on situations, such as ining ganks. If she were to spot Dan nearby, she’d retreat without a moment’s hesitation and slip away. Besides, Beastmaster didn’t have much impressive the first pce, so Dan’s gank potential was rather low.

  “Yeah, Beast is difficult like that,” Dan nodded. “But hey, at least I brought you some dogs.” He activated “Let the Dogs Out”, summoning four jungle monsters he tamed: Hyena, Alpha Wolf, Ogre Leader and Griffin. The monsters ihe ne and joihe allied minion wave. Together, they all advaoward the eurret.

  It was an impressive army. Especially, the Ogre Leader and Griffin were much tougher than the average minion. Taming a Griffin was quite the feat, sidering Griffins were located iral areas of the jungle, always tested by both sides. Yet, somehow, Dan secured one of them even with the Beastmaster’s subpar camp clearing speed.

  Yuel had been paying minimal attention to anything outside Bot, so he had no idea how Dan achieved all that. Some impressive strategy and deaking must have been in py.

  Hmm, he bought Smite and Sprint. Yuel examined Dan’s build. Smite was a utility skill designed for Junglers. It dealt high damage to one mohen released an AoE shockwave which dealt additional damage to nearby to monsters. Not all Junglers had to buy Smite to clear camps effectively, but Beastmaster definitely .

  Sprint was the more iing choice here. It’s a utility skill which granted a movement speed buff for a short time, as well as sed any slows. Beastmaster didn’t have any mobility options, so c mround via Sprint was one solution.

  Buying two utility skills so early into the game was very unon, but Dan clearly knew what he was doing. That’s evident by the great colle of tamed monsters he brought along to push Bot. With the tankiness of the Ogre Leader and Griffin, they brought the enemy’s Turret down to 50% HP in one push. Despite everything said about the Beastmaster’s oints, its push potential was nothing to s.

  “They’ll probably return soon,” Dan said. “Mind helpih the Dragon?”

  “Nah, let’s push some more!” Lars kept firing away at the Turret like a brat. “We take it out before they return! Fastest Turret fall in history, yo!”

  “We won’t make it.” Yuel retorted. All they had left were a nearly dead Griffin and two bowmen minions. There’s no ce ing the Turret from 50% to 0% with just these.

  But, at the same time, going fon also sounded risky. Both Yuel and Lars were running low on HP. “You sure it’s a good idea?” Yuel asked. “Their Mid or Jungler may gank us.”

  “Hm?” Dan blinked. “Yeah, I think it’s safe enough. I mean, their Mid is turtling hard and their Jungler is around Tht now.”

  “Is that so.” Yuel threw some g his mini-map, verifying Dan’s words. Ihe Eleancer was hugging his Turret, so it’s unlikely he’d leave Mid any time soon. There’s no sign of the enemy Vampire, but there were some Wards in Top Jungle, so the Vampire robably spotted by one of them a little while ago. “I guess you’re right...”

  “Wait, you didn’t notice?” Dan asked. “You? Of all people? I always thought your map awareness is the shit.”

  “No, it’s just... Well, I was in the middle of an intense fight just now...” Yuel mumbled excuses. Not having full map awareness was embarrassing, especially for a shot-caller. But, that’s a sacrifice he had to make to let himself trate on Bot Lane. “Alright, let’s don. You’ll have to tank it, though. We’re spent.”

  “No problem. I got a Supreme Wraith.”

  “Oh, that’s great.” Yuel was impressed. On top of the monsters Dan already unleashed in Bot, he still had one more in store. “Let the Dogs Out” didn’t force the Beastmaster to release all his tamed monsters in one go, so Da himself the Supreme Wraith, the boss of the Wraith Camp.

  Ohey arrived at the Dragon, Dan released the wraith with an attack order on the Dragon. Sihe Supreme Wraith was the first and closest hostile presehe Dragon focused its attacks on the wraith. The wraith wasn’t too tanky, but it could withstand a couple on attacks.

  In the meahe three of them assaulted the distracted Dragon. Ohe Dragon started running low on HP, Dan used Smite to erase 15% i. The Dragon’s HP fell below the necessary threshold, so Dan ed it up with “Tame the Wild”, adding the Dragon to his monster colle.

  Then, Daur in the Jungle, whereas Yuel and Lars recalled to base. Fortunately, nobody ambushed them this whole time. The Dragon was a highly tested objective, but they got away scot-free.

  It’s amazing how effective Dan’s Beastmaster turned out to be. With his help, the enemy Bot Turret was down to 45% HP and they even secured the Dragon. Yuel always sidered Beastmaster a borderline meme css, but Dan definitely knew how to make it shine.

  It’s no joke that Dan could py “any Jungler”. He wasn’t just some generalist, he really knew how to use the strengths of ead every Jungler css he pyed, even etries like Beastmaster.

  During matches, he usually didn’t stand out much because he didn’t exhibit any mind-blowing teiques with any particur css. But, he definitely had one impressive off-s skill: the ability to piy Jungler css and py it well. Only now, after seeing him py Beastmaster with such excellence even in a petitive match, Yuel came to realize how amazing Dan’s skill truly was.

  “Hey, Mr. Shot-Caller,” Roi called out. “It’s o see you’re doing great in Bot and all, but what about other nes? You’ve been awfully quiet. Where are your usual batshit crazy shots? Lol.”

  “Oh, I just..” Yuel was taken aback. “Um, I needed more time to think.” Now, that the team’s morale was restored, everybody treated him differently. After they resisted everything he suggested st game, he was relut to make any new calls this game.

  But, the team was fine now. His teammates even came asking for shot-calls of their own accords. It’s great! If they keep pying like this, then winning twames was very much possible!

  But first, Yuel had to actually provide some good shot-calls for other nes. He had been ing them to trate on taking down Breaker in Bot, but that’s doh, With the team’s morale restored, could he now expand his awareo the whole map?

  Like for everybody else oeam, much of the pressure he had been feeling throughout the game dispersed by now. Lars ied a huge dose of positivity into everybody by killing Breaker, so the load on Yuel’s shoulder felt lighter. He was no longer haunted by a whirlpool of thoughts about rest team morale and all that distrag nonse’s now much easier to trate oual events happening in front of his eyes. In this state, he could surely py full force again!

  Mid Laop Jungle and Top Lane. He gradually expanded his map awareness by analyzing each part of the map in order.

  In Mid, Dan unleashed his tamed Dragon and attacked the Mid Turret together with Gilbert. Freezer arently forced to retreat, so they had the freedom to push without any interference.

  When summoned as an allied minion, the Dragon owerful anti-tower tank. It couldn’t be ordered to attaemies, but instead, it automatically tched onto the eower, no matter whether it was a Turret, a Golem or even the Colossus. The Dragon held said tower hostage, preventing it from attag nearby pyers regardless their as iower’s rahe Dragon soaked all of the tower’s attacks and its thick scaled skin survived many shots. On top of that, it restlessly cwed away at the tower with its razor cws, rending the tower asunder.

  With the Dragon’s aid, Mid Turret fell down to... 25% HP? Wait, that couldn’t be right. No matter how amazing the Dragon was for pushing objectives, there’s no way it could single-handedly allow Gilbert and Dan reduce the Turret from 100% to 25% so early into the game. They didn’t even have a DPS css to help them push, so how did this number e to be? What did Yuel miss while fog on Bot?

  “That’s amazing progress in Mid,” Yuel said as he turo Gilbert. “You must’ve attacked the Turret a lot during ning.”

  “I sure did...” Gilbert raised an eyebrow. “You were sleeping or something?”

  “N-No, of course not. I just paid more attention to other nes.” Yuel averted his eyes. “Anyway, that’s impressive. Freezer was good at freezing the he st two times he pyed Mid, but I see you found a way through.”

  “Dunno what you’ve been looking at this whole time,” Gilbert said. “But, he’s like a totally different guy this game. I dunno why, but as Electro he’s nowhere he same level. He’s been making some really ys..”

  “Like what?”

  “For one, he doesn’t clear the wave right,” Gilbert expined. Due to the way Eleancer’s kit worked, it had to unleash its abilities on the minion wave in a very specific order to effectively clear.

  First, it was mandatory to hit at least a couple of minions with basic attacks because those inflicted Electric Charges via the Eleancer’s passive. This was a necessary preparation before unleashing Lightning, a damage spell which bounced for additional hits when there were nearby targets with Electric Charges. Each hit of Lightning also applied another Electric Charge on hit targets, charging them even further for what was i: Electrical Explosion, a spell which detonated all Electric Charges. The more charged the enemies were, the harder they blew up.

  By following these precise instrus, Eleancer’s clear speed was actually quite formidable. However, failure to execute these steps properly led to very erforma’s for this reasoromancer was sidered a difficult css to py.

  Most mages in the game didn’t require such eborate preparations for something as simple as clearing a minion wave. So, to effectively execute the Eleancer’s particur ritual - it’s necessary to practice that routine a lot until it bees natural. And, it’s also necessary turly py the css to not lose touch.

  Gilbert cimed he’d rust if he didn’t py Elea least once a week. It was simply too different from the straightforward way most es pyed their ning phase.

  When pying correctly, Eleancer’s clearing speed would definitely superior to Gilbert’s Aeromancer. Yet, in this game, Gilbert somehow domihe ne. Acc to him, the reason was Freezer’s poor skill.

  Freezer definitely khe right moves for making the most out of Eleancer’s kit, but his execution was terrible. Sometimes his Lightning was fired at a minion positiooo far from those with Electric Charges, so the spell didn’t make any additional bounces. Other times, he greedily stacked as maric Charges as he could with basic attacks before activatirical Explosion, but by the time he finally detohe minions - the durations of maric Charges expired and only a few of the minions were actually were blown up.

  “Maybe he’s the type who ime to warm up.” Yuel wondered.

  “Hard to say,” Gilbert shrugged. “At least, he wasn’t like that when he pyed Warlock.”

  “So, you think he’s out of touch with Electro?”

  “Sure looks like it. I even saw him miss Lighting once when aiming at the minions. I know it’s a thin skill-shot and everything, but damn man... so sad.”

  Is he really not good with Electro? Or, maybe it’s a trap? Yuel couldn’t judge from Gilbert’s words alone. Freezer was a defensive and tricky pyer, who lured enemies and puhem for overextending. The enemy’s st-sed lineup switch during drafting robably his idea too, it fit his pystyle well.

  So, in theory, it’s possible Freezer was only pretending to py poorly, to lure StormBlitz into overexerting. It sounded terintuitive, but a certain “goddess” in their club regurly pulled stuff like that. Anything ossible.

  Still, did it make seo go as far as sacrifig a Turret for that kind of pn? And the Mid Turret, of all things. Would Ellen do that?

  A pointless question. That snake would do anything to get the upper hand, no matter what she had to sacrifi the process. She had no qualms pretending she was as weak as a Bronze pyer and feeding her brains out, just so she turables on the overfident eer on. She’s that bizarre.

  Freezer and Ellen were both defensive pyers, but so far Freezer hadn't showcased the same level of otherworldly craftiness as Ellen. Therefore, it’s safe to assume he was either rusty with Eleancer or needed more time to warm up. Either way, it was worth testing by sending Lars to Mid and see how he’ll fare in a 1v1 against Freezer.

  Te that 1v1, Gilbert first had to leave Mid. Was there any good rotation for him? Yuel analyzed the map for a while, then came up with a pn.

  “I got an idea,” Yuel announced.

  “Oh!” Roi grinned. “Here it es, boys!”

  “Roi, you let the Berserker push you back a little? Then, pretend you’re recalling to base. But instead of actually recalling, circle around Top and ride to the enemy Wolf Camp. If Gilbert heads there too, you’ll get to 2v1 their Jungler.”

  “Lol, hel roundabout. Like always.” Roi chuckled.

  “What about defending Mid?” Gilbert asked. “The Electro will return any moment now.”

  “That’s where Lars es in,” Yuel turo Lars. “Go farm in Mid for a while. Try getting a kill on their Electro if you .”

  “Haha,” Lars's eyes lit up. “Wao go all in?”

  “Yeah, go wild.”

  “Sick! I’mma score twenty kills off that dude, just ya watch!”

  “Sure.”

  “Wait, is that a good idea?” Gilbert asked. “You know Freezer is good at punishing overextensiht?”

  “Yes, normally he is.” Yuel nodded. “But, it’s clear he’s not pying his usual game right now. How he deals with Lars will tell us a lot about how much of a threat he really is this match. If turns out he’s weak with Electro - we’ll feed on him.”

  “Whoo,” Dan whistled. “Brutal.”

  “As for Bot,” Yuel tinued. “I’ll freeze it until Lars returns.”

  “Got it,” Gilbert nodded. “Sounds like a pn. Roi, tell me when you're ready to go for the Wolf Camp.”

  “Already w on it.” Roi carefully poked the Berserker areated, then again poked areated. That’s his way of pretending he ushed baot exactly an Oscar-worthy performance, but he didn’t o be a great actor to vihe enemy. He ran low on MP, so it made sense for him to switch to defehat factor art of arked Yuel’s pn in the first pce.

  Ohe Berserker pushed Roi all the way back to the Turret, Roi retreated into the backside of the jungle, out of the Berserker’s field of vision. In this situation, it’d make perfect sense for Roi to return to base, heal up and then teleport back to ne. He had done so before, so the enemy already knew he had Teleport and that it was out of cooldown.

  However, Roi headed into the jungle instead, as Yuel instructed. He activated the Knight’s ult, eed, and mounted a white horse. While mounted, his movement speed was much greater, allowing him to invade deep into enemy’s Top Jungle before they realize what happened.

  At about the same time, Gilbert began his rotation from Mid to Top. He started off almost twice as close to the destination as Roi, but they’ll still arrive at the enemy Wolf Camp at around the same time. That’s how fast the Knight’s eed was.

  As Yuel predicted, they found the Vampire there, still busy farming the st wolf. They ganged on the unsuspeg enemy without dey. Gilbert slowed him with Jet Stream and Roi pushed him bato the camp Shield Bash, denying any ce of escape. The fight ended almost as suddenly as it began.

  An enemy has been killed!

  “Lol,” Roi grinned and turo Yuel. “He sure didn’t see it ing. Good guess there, bro.”

  “Thanks.” Except, it was no “guess”. The enemy Jungler didn’t ge positions during the enemy’s mixup, so he had been pying the same general pystyle all day. In other words, Yuel already had three games worth of data on that Juhus, predig that Jungler’s farming routine wasn’t much of a brainer.

  Like many pyers in the Leopards, their Jungler was quite orthodox. Before choosing his destination, he examihe states of nearby nes and decided where to head based on that. If a nearby ne was at a standstill or the Leopards’ ner was at a disadvaheir Jungler would gank the ne about 80% of the time. Oher hand, when their ner was in lead and the enemy ner ushed back to the Turret, the Jungler almost never ganked; he proceeded to farm the camp instead.

  That’s all standard jungling theory and there’s no real fault with it. heless, it attern this Jungler closely stuck to. And, a pattern could be exploited.

  When Roi allowed himself to be pushed back by the Berserker, he ily prevehe Jungler’s gank. The Jungler saw his team held the advantage in Top and that Roi was retreating, so ganking would be a waste of time acc to standard theory. It’s uhe Jungler would help to secure a kill or to push the ne mu this situation, so he headed to the nearby Wolf Camp instead. This sound, yet predictable, judgment was his undoing.

  With the successful sneak atta the enemy Jungler, Gilbert and Roi took out the only enemy who could help out the Berserker against a gank. Not only that, but they were already grouped up and positioned behind the Berserker. Dan was als nearby, so it could even easily turn into a 3v1 gank.

  “Let’s gank-”

  “Gank the Berserker ,” Yuel ordered.

  “Of course, of course.” Gilbert smiled wryly. “We at least figure out a simple py like that ourselves.”

  “ht.” Yuel frowned. Was he turning a tad too bossy? People sometimes told him he had the tendency to get carried away, but all he wanted was to ensure everybody was on the same page. Well, no matter. As long as they all py their parts and produce results, all will be well.

  What truly ied him was the situation in Mid: Lars vs. Freezer. This was the first time Yuel got to closely examine Freezer’s performance as aromancer. Fortunately, Lars’s monitor was right o his, so it’s like he had a fro in the ema. He could see every move, every twitch, Freezer made.

  Just like Gilbert informed, Freezer’s wave clearing cked polish. He definitely k was best to nd a couple of basic attainions before following up with Lightning arical Explosion, but he forced it too much. Even at the expense of putting himself in Lars’s firing range, Freezer advaoward the g minions so he could nd some basi them.

  Unsurprisingly, Lars used this opportunity to fire away at Freezer. As a result, enemy minions focused on Lars and broke out of formation. In turn, allied minions broke their formation as well in order to pursue enemy minions.

  Both waves became a mess. That’s the st thing aromancer wao deal with. The swordsmen and bowmen strayed too far from each other, so Lightning couldn’t bouhrough all of them at o’s probably best to wait for a little until order was restored to the hen proceed with Lightning.

  But, Freezer disagreed. He fired Lightning anyway and it bounced between the minions, even hitting Lars who stood nearby and had oric Charge on him. Right after, Freezer followed up with Electrical Explosion, blowing up all the Electric Charges on the minions and Lars.

  All of that bined erased 25% of Lars’s HP. Nothing to s, but it didn’t feel like hurting Lars was Freezer's main goal here. His as felt forced and rushed. He khe perfect routihe Eleancer should strive for and tried to follow it to a T, regardless of the unfavorable circumstahese were all mispys.

  Freezer earned himself temporarily ne advantage in both health and minions, but it left him effectively naked against Lars. From this range, a sirickslide would easily close the dist-

  “I’m going in!” Lars announced.

  “Wha, already?!” Yuel was taken aback. He didn’t even finish evaluating the situation, but Lars already jumped into the fray, like a predator sensing a weakened prey.

  Lars slid forward and fired a Trickshot at a nearby jungle wall. A ballsy move, since missing this opening shot could screw over the whole assault aromancer had the option dodge by blinking away with Thundercp. But, the high risk paid off.

  The boung shot instantly reduced Freezer’s HP to 60%. On top of that, sihe shot was fired from a Trickslide, it granted Lars a stack of Attention Grabber, boosting his attack power and speed. Thanks to this high-risk high-reward opening, Lars set himself in a great position for verting this assault into a kill.

  It’s the kind of py only he could e up with on the spot because he unditionally trusted his otherworldly meical skill. Once he locked on his target, things such as ce or risk became sedary. He instinctively made the most aggressive pys possible, disregarding everything else.

  Admittedly, Lars had a bad habit of taking his aggression to the point of recklessness and Yuel often had to intervene. However, this time, he let Lars run loose. How well was the “overextension punisher” going to deal with this raw aggression? Yuel was curious.

  tions did Freezer have here? He wasn’t even Lv.5 yet, because he ushed back by Gilbert the whole game and was forced to farm uower. So, his ult wasn’t avaible yet. Both his Lightning aric Explosion were on cooldown because he spent them on the minion wave without thinking twice.

  Thus, the only tool he had avaible right now was Thundercp, a blinking ability. If he was his usual self, Freezer would probably blink away to lure Lars further in. However, if Yuel’s estimation was correct...

  Seriously? What a pain. Alex frowned as an impossibly accurate Trickshot bounced from a wall and pierced through his shoulder. That was 30% of his HP gone in one fell swoop. In just o. In one. Damn. Hit. What’s with this Trickshooter? Wasn’t he supposed to be some rookie? StormBlitz’s sed string was supposed to be filled with just juniors and freshman from what he heard.

  He made fun of Jennifer when she died against this rookie, but it’s no longer funny. What’s with this bullshit accuracy? It was no damn joke. 30% HP in a single shot. , seriously?

  Anyway, he had just to retreat. It’ll be fine as long as he creates some distance. 1v1-ing a marksman as a mage was asking for trouble, especially when all his damage spells were on cooldown.

  So, retreat all the way. That’s the only option. If he’s lucky, he’ll lure the Trickshooter toward the Turret and turuation around.

  62%. 54%. 46%.

  Damn, he’s stig to me. What a pain. Alex frowned as his HP plummeted. What was going on? Each shot hit like a truck. Oh, was it the Trickshooter’s passive? Um, what was it again? It was some voluted buff effect if memory served.

  30%. 22%.

  This is getting bad. At this point, Alex had trouble distrag himself from the gravity of the situation. He already retreated back to his Turret, but the Trickshooter refused to let go. Was that scum going to invade? If so, there’s nothing Alex could do...

  No, wait. He still had Thundercp! Right. How did he fet about it? He could blink away! This sort of mobility was so rare among mages that it pletely slipped his miromancer and Lumimancer were about the only mages with a blinking ability in their kits.

  14%.

  Two more hits and he’s done for. As hard as he tried to maintain posure, his heart beat faster and faster. He was ready to give up at first, but Thundercp opened up a possibility. He could still get away! He had to blink! Right now! As fast as possible! NOW!!!

  “Ack!” He shrieked as he hastily clicked. His Eleancer dissolved into a cloud of electricity and shot toward the sky, then came down crashing some distance away. He successfully used Thundercp, but the dire he teleported in was far from optimal. He misclicked in hurry. What a dumb mistake.

  Still, even at this distance, maybe he could-

  You have been killed!

  “Ah.” He just sat there, unsure how to react. He just died to the most straightforward frontal attack ever. That Trickshooter just literally chased and shot him down, without missing a single shot. He was supposed to be good at punishing overly aggressive pyers, but it felt like nothing could be done in that situation. Why? It’s weird. He should have beeer than this.

  “The hell you doing!?” Jennifer roared. “Why you didn’t blink right away!?”

  Ugh, she saw that? Awkward. Alex averted his eyes. “I po lure him to the Turret at first, but turned out his attacks were a bit too much to handle.”

  “Yeah, sure. Because that expins why you blinked like a millimeter away once you actually blinked.”

  “Ugh.” Alex didn’t have a good excuse for this one. He really messed up. “As if you have the right to talk. You also got killed by him because you didn’t retreat in time.”

  “Wha!?” Jennifer smmed oable. “At least I didn’t fuck up a basic blink! You could totally get away there!”

  “Misclicks happen, okay?”

  “Misclicks?” Jennifer’s face torted. “Right, right. Of course you’d misclick. Because you don’t practice for shit! When was eve time you pyed Electro? You’re pying like trash!”

  “ it already.” Alex exhaled and dropped on his chair. Jennifer shot some more rants his way, but who cared.

  Jennifer ain. That Trickshooter ain. This game ain. Everything ain.

  So, she asked when was the st time he pyed Eleancer? Why, of course it was... when was it again? Um, a month ago? Maybe two? Huh, it’s been a while...

  Still, Eleancer was one of his best Mid csses, so that bitch should get off his case already. Nobody erfect. Fettiails and misclig in the heat of the moment was normal. He was a little surprised by that Trickshooter’s intense aggression, that’s all. It was just a little hiccup. Not his fault.

  “This kill firms it,” Yuel announced. “Freezer doesn’t pilot Electro well. I thought he may be faking it at first, but giving us a kill on purpose in that situation sounds like a stretg.”

  “Lol,” Roi chuckled. “Wouldn’t put that kinda shit past Elly, though.”

  “I agree.” Yuel nodded. “Thankfully, we’re not pying her right now. I’m pretty sure Freezer didn’t pn on dying there. His pys just feel rusty. He may get a better hang of it as the game goes on, so don’t let this opportunity slip - feed on him every ce you get”

  “Got it,” Gilbert nodded. “We’re also done in here.”

  An enemy has been killed!

  Through bined effilbert and Roi took down the fleeing Berserker in Top Lahat’s three kills in a row. First the Vampire, then Freezer and now the Berserker. The situation transformed from 5v5 to 5v2 in a blink of an eye. Both Top and Mid were pletely open for pushing. There’s a good ce StormBlitz will take out at least ourret this early into the game.

  This domino effect was amazing. After Lars geed momentum for the team by sying Breaker, the momentum rippled throughout the team and brought one positive development after another. At this rate, this game was as good as settled!