So, they banned Shadow Walker, after all. Yuel hen, was there any point in dragging this out for so long? Normally, you'd ban it first. Was it just for the suspe sounds silly, but sidering who the enemy captain is...

  It was almost certainly done for the suspense. Specifically, to distract Yuel from other things. That was definitely a very Cato-like thing to do. He seemed to enjoy drawing things out needlessly in order to irritate his oppos.

  I should keep this in mind. Yuel thought. He’s the type who’d take a less optimal route just for the sake of pying some petty mind games with his oppo. I ’t let him get to me.

  With the banning phase over, the game moved into the first drafting phase. Stratus had the privilege to make the first pick.

  “Since Kai wants to piber,” Yuel said. “Then it’s better for Top or Juo be magical. But, Nia doesn’t have any magical csses she py, so...”

  “No problemo, my good sir!” Vi procimed. “I shall satisfy the demand and unleash my Spellbde upon the Leopards! Would that be acceptable?”

  “Yes, Spellbde works fine. But, how fident are you with it?”

  “As fident as I am with any other css, I would say.”

  “That’s good, then.”

  Spellbde was a det css but it wasn’t picked up all too often. It was a magical damage-dealer, which was already unusual for a Top pick, and it also wasn’t very tanky pared to other on Top picks.

  Therefore, Spellbde certainly couldn’t be pyed as a tank, and it barely even passed as a bruiser. That put the css in an awkward spot for Top’s meta, despite being fually a solid css.

  As such, Spellbde usually only showed up in some specific team ps. For example, in a p where the Mid Laner hysical damager dealer, like Bomber.

  With Viaking on the role of a magical damage dealer, it allowed the team to have access to both physical and magical damage as usual. That was of utmost importance, as it’ll force the eo build both Physical Defense and Magical Defense.

  Otherwise, the Leopards would have gdly focused on building only Physical Defense. As a result, they would have bee so tanky that killing them would be a nightmare.

  In clusion, a mixture of magical damage and physical damage was absolutely necessary. However, just pig Spellbde wasn’t quite enough.

  “So, Vi will be our main magical damage dealer,” Yuel expined. “This means your build has to lean toward offense.”

  “Indeed, it implies as much.” Vi nodded. “It’s of utmost importane to output enough magical damage to warrant building Magical Defense, after all.”

  “Exactly. So, in the long run, this means yoing to be far squishier than even a bruiser. In other words, I’ll have to be the tank.”

  “Indeed, indeed. You have figured it all out in a fsh! As expected from Chessmaster!”

  “This is just basic logic...” Yuel made a face. “Anyway, I’ll start by pig Druid for myself. Si be pyed in Top too, this hides our iions well.”

  “No objes,” Kai said.

  And so, Stratus’ first pick became Druid. , it was the enemy's turn to pick.

  "Druid, huh." iled. "A cute first pick since we 't tell whether it's for Top or Support."

  "Acc to data..." Sonya searched the database in her head. "Chess pyed Druid st year. Oher hand, Bckhole hasn't pyed it even once so far. With that said, it's not like we have nearly enough statistics to draw a clusion."

  "True. So, it's best to assume that this Druid be either Top or Support."

  "Agreed. I'll take Monk, then."

  "Alrighty, a solid choiobody got any objes, right?" Cato firmed with the rest before log the pick.

  It was a first pick that revealed quite a lot of information. It implied what kind of pace the Leopards were looking for in the uping game, which was very valuable information.

  With that said, everybody and their moms must have researched the Leopards’ previous scrims to death. Therefore, everybody khe Leopards were a defeeam. So, there was really no point in hiding such basiformation at this point.

  And naturally, the Monk pick didn’t surprise the eeam at all.

  As expected, they’ll be pying the long game. Yuel nodded.

  As far as Top Laners were ed, Monk was areme example of a te-game css. It started off with a handicapped kit due to having access to very little chakra, but ie-game it turned into a mohat was capable of one-shotting enemies with its ult.

  Hmm. Monk has both defensive and offeools. Yuel thought. So, I ’t tell who’ll be pying Top in this game.

  It might be TheTheorist, who was an all-rourongly leaning toward defense. Or alternatively, it might be AbsoluteChallenger, an aggressive beast who challenged oppos at every opportunity in order to score kills.

  Either way, Spellbde is a good pick against Monk, so we’re good. Oher hand, this sed pick is not so good for us...

  The eeam selected Lumimancer.

  A ter against Nia, no doubt. Lumimancer excelled at exposing stealthed oppos, and Nia could only py the csses that had stealth.

  I figured eeams will pick up on this eventually, but I didn’t think it’d happen so soon. Yuel frowned. Still, all her csses have stealth, so that’s what I have to pick for her.

  Si was clear that the enemy figured Nia out, it was very likely that they’ll alset her with bans during the sed banning phase. As such, Yuel had to piinja now.

  “Gooooo… d.” Nia nodded weakly in respoo the pick, almost falling asleep again

  Despite the many efforts to wake her up, she still looked as if she’ll doze off at any moment. Hopefully, the adrenaline rush of being in an actual game will wake her up…

  As for the sed pick of this round, Yuel chose Pirate for Lars. It was a high-tier css, so it was best to seize it before the enemy got the ce.

  “Aight, mates!” Lars grinned. “Let’s plunder dis game, yo!”

  For this game, he wasn’t going to py the Elf css he worked so hard on, but that was going to be exg in its ht. Pirate was one of the cooler csses out there, so Lars felt right at home with it. In fact, Yuel really wanted Pirate to bee the css Lars will master after Elf.

  Pirate was a stroa pick that didn’t have any gring weaknesses. As such, there weren’t any real ter-picks against it.

  The only real way to ter Pirate is to kill him early, which would hurt his progression quite severely. Yuel thought. But, the Leopards will have to py aggressively to score any early kills, and I don’t see them do that. They’re a defeeam and they’ve already itted to pying the long game with that Monk pick. So, Pirate is a safe pick here.

  After Stratus’ Pirate pick, the enemy picked Lionfolk. And, after the sed banning phase, they went for Aeromancer.

  Per protocol, the Leopards first banromancer before they picked Aeromancer. So, they pretty much telegraphed the Aeromancer pick ahead of time.

  I wonder if I should’ve banned Aeromancer after seeing the Eleancer ban. Yuel thought. But, I haven’t seen any of them use Aeromancer yet, so I don’t really have any strong objes to it. And, Bomber deal with Aero just fine.

  After mulling over it for a few good seds, Yuel ultimately cluded that it robably fine. In the worst-case sario, if this Aeromancer proves to be a powerful adversary, then that’ll be good to know for the future.

  All in all, the enemy didn’t piything that articurly troublesome. But, at the same time, all their picks were safe and couldn’t be ter-picked.

  As such, the rest of Stratus’ picks followed the agreed pn: Bomber for Kai and Spellbde for Vi.

  For the Leopards’ st pick, they went with Droid. It was an iing choice. The css was sidered high-tier, yet in practice, it was a rather niche pick.

  Droid’s main appeal was its impressive self-sufficy. The css had the ability to defend itself from ining shots with a shield, as well as to pce pseudo-wards via a skill.

  However, these very same advantages were also the reason the css was a niche pick. Instead of having access to more straightforward abilities that could help with clearing waves or pushihe Droid had two utility skills that had to be utilized smartly.

  Naturally, to justify its existehe Droid also had a third skill that helped with both wave clearing and ne pushing. However, that was just one ability out of aire kit, and the three abilities also shared a resourd couldn’t be utilized simultaneously.

  In other words, the Droid pyer had to smartly decide when to utilize which utility. So, the required level of deaking was far above what was expected from the average Carry, a role that was better known for meical skill than for tactical finesse.

  For one, I know that the great goof ’t ha at all. Yuel thought. The few times I had him py Droid, he pretty muly used one ability out of the e.

  Lars definitely didn’t have the right mi for wheeling a css like Droid, not at present and maybe not ever. Oher hand, somebody from the Leopards was fident he could put this css to good use.

  “Cool!” Ronald excimed. “Since yoing Droid, it means I build more power than usual, right? Right?”

  “You build whatever you want,” William said. “Just don’t fet to ward during the early-game.”

  “Sure thing, bro!”

  “And,” Cato added. “Make sure you build at least some supp items. You’re still the Support this game, as much as I don’t want to rely on your supp.”

  “Hey, rude,” Ronald objected. “Don’t you know? Offense is the best defense! I support that much better with a power build!”

  “That’s because you’re a blockhead who’s only good at fighting.”

  “Hey, hey! Don’t snder, man. I do my job properly when I py Support.”

  “You do a passable job, at best.”

  “Grrrr.” Ronald growled. “Well, whatever. You stay wrong for all I care.”

  “My, the denial is strong with this one.”

  “La! I ’t hear you over the sound of h you are.”

  “Am I really wrong, though?” Cato asked. “Deep down, you know the truth, don’t you? That your supp is just barely passable.”

  “I say bro should be the oo settle this. Bro, you agree that my supp is totally awesome, right? You trust me to do well, right?”

  “I only trust myself,” William said. “As long as you don’t drag me down, then I don’t care how you perform.”

  “Whoa, so cool!” Ronald grinned. “You see?” He turo Cato. “That’s a real pro for you. Bro doesn’t sweat the small stuff. He focuses on kig ass because that’s all that matters.”

  “I have absolutely no idea how you made this absurd leap of logid I don’t even want to uand it.” Cato sighed. “Just make sure you don’t fet you’re a Support, regardless of how you build your Lumi.”

  “Gotcha, gotcha.”

  I really hope he uands. Cato narrowed his eyes. I swear, this troublemaker ops making my life difficult. The only reason I tolerate this “Selfish Support” pystyle of his is that Will is somehow fih it and because it sort of works. I’m definitely not a fan of it, though.

  The Support pyer was supposed to be exactly what it said oin: a selfless pyer whose job was to support the rest of the team. So, this was one role that had no business selfishly seeking power. As, pyers like Ronald disagreed with that simple logic.

  I rather not lose any of the games today. Cato thought. But at the same time, I also really want Stratus to school this braiool. Yuel, teach this brat a lesson. Make this world a better pce to live in, pretty please~

  And so, the drafting phase came to an end.

  === Stratus ===

  Yuel (Chessmaster): Druid

  Lars (Gunz): Pirate

  Vi (InformationBckhole): Spellbde

  Kai (Beat): Bomber

  Nia (VanishingFlower): Ninja

  === Leopards ===

  Ronald (AbsoluteChallenger): Lumimancer

  William (AbosluteWinner): Droid

  Sonya (TheTheorist): Monk

  Cato (Rook): Lionfolk

  Matthew (Merlin): Aeromancer

  DarkestCymore