The drafting phase began. For the first two bans, the Leopards targeted Gunz by removing Trickshooter and Gunslinger from the picture.

  “Hmph. So unnecessary.” William scoffed. “You’re being too cautious. I defeat him even if he pys these csses.”

  “Maybe you , maybe you ’t.” Cated. “Either way, why should we take the risk when we just elimi entirely with a simple ban?”

  “Hmph. Whatever. You better keep your promise a him py his main csses after we get three wins.”

  “Of course, of course. I’m ly a fan of beiricted like this during the banning phase, you know? If it turns out his main csses don’t pose much of a threat, then I’ll gdly leave them unbanned iure.”

  With how outstanding Gunz’s performance was with Trickshooter and Gunslinger, it’d be foolish to not ban these csses. However, being forced to ban them also meant that Cato couldn’t ban other csses he might have wanted. It was rather suffog.

  Banning Trickshooter and Gunslinger already took 2/3 of the bans Cato had avaible for the first banning phase. On top of that, he would sometimes have to ban Shadow Walker too, as it was still unclear whether the css truly fell off from S tier or not.

  There was a lot of heated discussion on the ret ges reted to Shadow Walker. Regardless, at the bare minimum, the css remained a dangerous A+ threat that nobody wao deal with. Though, part of it robably a result of PTSD from dealing with the S tier Shadow Walker. Humans were such fragile creatures~

  Personally, I wouldn’t mind leaving it unbanned against other teams. Cato thought. But, Stratus got Vanishing. I feel like this css is right up her alley.

  Nobody has seen VanishingFlower py Shadow Walker on stage, but she seemed to main Junglers with stealth abilities. Therefore, she most likely knew how to py Shadow Walker and could cause a lot of trouble if she picks it.

  So yeah, no thank you. Cato and Sonya have already agreed on banning Shadow Walker for the third ban. There were no ifs or buts.

  And so, just like that, Cato was forced to burn through all three of his avaible bans. He didn’t eve an option to make any meaningful decisions here. Everything was scripted ahead of time.

  This isly my idea of a fun chess game. ade a face. So, I really hope our “No. 3” defeat Gunz and recim his No. 2 spot. It’ll give me a lot of breathing room during the banning phase.

  Meanwhile, unaware of Cato’s woes, the other team had total freedom with their bans. However, at the same time, it was also difficult to make many “smart” bans against the Leopards.

  They haven’t banned Shadow Walker yet? Yuel wondered. Normally, that’d be the first css you ban when you go sed. Are they uimating us? Or, do they no longer sider it an S tier css?

  Shadow Walker’s current standing oier list was still a heated debate among top-level pyers. Now that its most broken build received a nerf, it was yet unclear whether Shadow Walker remained a powerful S tier css or was relegated into a det A tier.

  Either way, even if it’s A tier, then it’s probably A+. Yuel believed. Nia py Shadow Walker well, so it’d be a mistake for them to leave it open. Not that I’m pining, of course.

  It was an iing theorycrafting topic, but Yuel didn’t have the time to linger on it. He had to piore ban, which was no easy task with the limited information he had at hand.

  “ is Warlock,” Yuel informed the team. “We don’t know whether Theorist or Merlin will be pying Mid, but this is a css they’ve both used to great effect.”

  “Sounds good,” Kai said.

  It was truly fortuhat the Leopards exposed Warlock as a shared css betweewo Mid Laners. There was almost no corretioween the csses their members pyed, which was the main reason this banning phase was so tricky.

  Still, it’s pretty vexing when I don’t even know who’ll be pying in whie.

  Per tradition, the Leopards had two pletely different lineups. Both ps sisted of the same members, but all their positions were sed around. Not a single pyer retaihe same role across the two lineups.

  Acc to an interview with Ruez, the Leopards’ coach, this “Mixup” strategy served two purposes.

  First, it demanded every member of the team to learn at least two different roles. That turhe pyers into more flexible petitors, both in mind and body.

  Ierview, Ruez mentiohat many young pyers mained a single role. They naively believed that they’ll definitely get to py that role in the pro se.

  But, what would happen if the pro teams they applied to had no open spots for that specific role? If the applit had no backup roles to offer, then their ces of joining any of these pro teams were nil.

  Therefore, Ruez drilled the importance of role flexibility from a young age. He forced all members of the club, not only the starters, to pick up at least two roles.

  That’s some good lohinking. Yuel agreed. But, right now, it makes my life harder...

  That tied into the sed purpose of the “Mixup” strategy. With two possible ps in hand, the Leopards could easily adjust their lineup in order to best ter the ehey were fag.

  On top of that, sihe two lineups featured the same pyers, it meant the Leopards could always adjust their pns on the fly even during the drafting phase. They had the freedom to postpoheir decisions until after they saw the list of banned csses.

  For example, even if Yuel were to ban all the best csses the Leopards used in formation A, then the Leopards could simply choose to use formation B in that game, and vice versa. It was impossible to ter them iruest sense of the word.

  No matter what I ban, I ’t always at for both lineups. Yuel frowned. But at the same time, any css that showed up in both lineups is definitely ban-worthy.

  That’s why Warlock was a good ban against the Leopards. In fact, it was the only good ban against them at the moment, as it was the only css that showed up twice with different pyers.

  Merlin and Theorist both pyed Mid, and both of them used Warlock before. Thus, banning Warlock removed an option from both lineups at once. And unfortunately, with the currently avaible data, this was the only ban that could achieve this result.

  Unbeknown to Yuel, this ban was an even more effective blow than he expected.

  “Too bad,” Cato said. “They banned your favorite.”

  “What a pain.” Matthew sighed.

  “Welp, I told you it’s best to not funt your Warlotil you get into a serious game. You reap what you sow.”

  “I guess so.” Matthew didn’t have any viable objes to this. It was her than his own zihat brought about this result.

  Warlock was a high-tier css that was very easy to py, so it was always tempting to pick it. Especially, against pos, pying Warlock made things that much easier and smoother.

  “Then,” Matthew started. “I’ll go Aero.”

  “Already deg?” Cato asked. “We haven’t eveheir lineup yet.”

  “It’s not like they piything that directly ters Aero.”

  “Electro says hi.”

  “Aed ‘ter-pick’ if you ask me. Electro only ‘ters’ Aero if we exge ult for ult. That’s not a big deal.”

  “My boy, you gotta remember this is the petitive se,” inded. “Our oppos aren’t just some pushovers from Ranked. Well, at least, two of them aren’t. So, you don’t want to give them any advantages if you help it, no matter how small.”

  “Of course not.” Matthew nodded. “So, I’m trusting you to baro in the sed banning phase.”

  “My, what a cheeky little...” iled wryly. “Alrighty, then aro ban it is. We don’t really have any other important didates anyway, am I right, my secretary?”

  “Who’s your secretary?” Sonya shot him a look. “But, you’re right. There aren’t any other important bans for the sed phase. Though, that may ge after we see their picks.”

  “True. So far, we ’t infer much about their pns based on their bans alone.”

  “Yes. They’re just banning csses that we’ve pyed in previous scrims.”

  “ht. Now that I think about it, you pyed Warlock too, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, I did. Though, uthew, I only picked it onot every siime I pyed Mid.” Sonya gave Matthew a judging look, implying the guy dug his own grave.

  “No big deal,” Matthew reassured. “Warlock isn’t the only css I‘m maining, you know.”

  “Of course it isn’t,” Sonya said. “You’d never make it into the first string if you could only py one css. Though I have to say, you’re really cutting it close with how few csses you actually py. You o work on expanding your roster.”

  “Now, now,” Cato calmed down the discussion. “We discuss this in more detail after the scrim, alright?”

  “Sure.” Sonya nodded.

  “I’d rather not discuss it ever, but okay.” Matthew shrugged.

  “Alrighty then,” Cato tinued. “If nothing ges, then I’ll baro in the sed banning phase so you pick Aero in peace.”

  “Yay.” Matthew gave a half-hearted fist pump.

  Seriously, he be such a handful. Cato sighed on the side. He’s a good pyer, but that zy part of him holds him baetimes. Though, in a way, that’s also a part of what makes him so good.

  Matthew’s philosophy was best summarized as “quality over quantity”. He’d rather master a handful of csses than dabble in many of them. That mi was undoubtedly born from the zy part of his personality.

  However, this mentality wasn’t without merit. Fog on just a couple of csses allowed the pyer to master them. This ofteo exceptionally good performan matches, far better than what the pyer could’ve achieved by maintaining an “average” skill level across the board.

  Matt is actually among the best pyers in the region when he pys his best csses. Cato thought. But, Sonya strictly refuses to pce him as high as he deserves to be, just because she doesn’t like his attitude on this topiature`

  With a Warlock or an Aeromancer in hand, Matthew was definitely a tender for being the “No. 5 stro pyer” on Sonya’s list.

  The No. 4 spot was retly cimed by Nirvana, the captain of Taurus. He proved himself as a powerhouse of a pyer, so it was reasoo assume that Matthew was somewhere below this guy.

  Therefore, the No. 5 spot felt just right. Aside from No. 1 to No. 4, there weren’t any other notable pyers in the region who quite measured up to Matthew, at least not in Cato’s book.

  Well, I might be pying favorites here just because I know how good Matthew get. itted. But, I really believe he’s high up there. He might seem zy and all, but he knows how to get the job done. So, even though it’s out of ziness, fog on a handful of csses allows him to perform very well.

  In fact, Gunz otentially another example of such a pyer. Though it remaio be seen how well the guy will perform without Trickshooter and Gunslihere was evideo suggest that these two were his exceptional main csses.

  Last year, Gunz stopped posing much of a threat after his Trickshooter was baherefore, with both Trickshooter and Gunslinger bahere was a very good ce he won’t be much of a threat today.

  That is, unless he mastered a third css. iled wryly. We’ll have a very big problem if that’s the case. I mean, we ’t afford to spend all three of our bans on him every game, right? It’s just not practical.

  Even right now, Cato had no choice but to spend his st ban on Shadow Walker as dictated by protocol. So, what would he have done if Gunz had a third main css?

  I’d have to choose between banning that css or Shadow. It’d be impossible to elimih of them at onot fun, not fun at all. Cato sighed. But well, at least I got the ce to py around a little with this st ban~

  Normally, a team that inteo ban Shadow Walker did so at the very start of the banning phase. It rotocol ban" that didn't give the enemy any information, so it was the "safest” ban to start with.

  But, that's just a waste. Cato thought. It's not like any of my bans are going to be super informative, anyway. It’s pretty obvious I’m just banning Gunz’s csses, so I ban things in any order.

  As such, it was more fun to keep the Shadow Walker ban for st. It kept the enemy ooes, making them outguess whether or not Cato would actually ban Shadow Walker.

  I totally imagihe frown on Yuel’s face~ iled impishly. I bet he’s asking himself “Why in the world they haven’t banned Shadow yet!?!?!?! What is going on!?!?!?”. Ah, this deliixture of fusion and frustration~

  This was the only joy ao derive from this otherwise suffog banning phase. With his hands tied so tightly during this phase, it was difficult to enjoy any of this.

  With that said, these mind games wereirely without merit. fusing the enemy strategist, even slightly, could make a difference.

  Once you start w about the te ban, you 't easily fet it, you? Cato snickered. Even if you push the topic to the back of your head, it'll still remain there and will keep distrag you for a while. Oh, the human brain is so wonderful, isn’t it~?

  On the petitive stage, amidst the heavy pressure, even the smallest distra could prove fatal. And, Yuel robably already struggling with the banning phase quite a lot, so being distracted by the Shadow Walker definitely didn’t make his life any easier~

  But unfortunately, all good things had to e to an end. It was time for Cato to select the team’s third ban, which was Shadow Walker, of course.

  And so, the first banning phase was over. , the game moved into drafting...

  DarkestCymore