“Hey, wele back!” Luke greeted the team as they ehe waiting room. “Man, that game was intense! You almost had it at the end there!”

  “Yes, it was a good game.” Ben nodded in agreement.

  “Yeah, we were SO close, yo!” Lars excimed. “But, don’t worry! We gonhem game, believe it!”

  “Totes, man!” Luke gave a thumbs up, theiced the creature napping in Lars’s hands. “Also, I’m quite not sure why, but I have a strong feeling I’ll be pying in that game, hehe.”

  “So it appears...” Yuel sighed. “It was a mistake t Nia into this game. I should’ve let her sleep. In a way, you could say it was my fault that we lost.”

  “If so, then I’m equally guilty,” Kai said. “I also thought that bringio the stage will wake her up immediately, but turned out we were off the mark.”

  “Indeed, indeed.” Vi nodded. “We have all uimated the Slumber Realm that ever insists t in our Vanishing Phantom.”

  “True,” Yuel agreed. There was no denying the fact that nobody voiced an argument against putting Nia on stage. But, I still think it’s mostly my fault. Especially, since I’m apparently the one who made her cram all the material on the Leopards te into the night.

  But, there was no point iing too hung up on that point. There were far more important matters to sider right now.

  With Nia out of ission for a while, it meant that somebody will have to fill in for her. And, the first pick that came to mind was her thaeam’s memer, Luke.

  God help us all. Yuel sighed deeply. The Leopards are going to tear us apart if we bring memes to the stage.

  Luke was a skilled pyer, no doubt about it. But unfortunately, his css picks dragged him down to Bronze level. So, no matter how skilled he actually was, he had little future on the petitive se in his current form.

  But, he’s not our only option this time. After all, we have Ben, too.

  This was a small, but important, differenpared to the previous scrimmage. With Ben on board, the team’s options increased expoially!

  ... at least, that’s what I’d like to tell myself. But, I’m really not sure about sending Ben in as a Jungler.

  Ben was a det pyer overall. During club practice, he pyed Top most of the time, but he was also an excellent Support even though he was usually relut to py the role. It seemed like scars from the past were still fresh in his mind, creating a mental block.

  heless, every time Ben was cast in the role, his supp was exceptionally good, sed only to Yuel’s in their club. Despite Ben’s aversion, it robably his best role.

  But, we don’t actually need another Support, so that’s fiill, the fact he py Support so well definitely says a lot about his ability to py Jungler.

  That wasn’t just a random guess. Yuel made sure to properly test that theory during club practice as well. He made Ben py Jungler more than a few times, to gauge the guy’s potential as a Jungler substitute for the club.

  I knew we’ll need a substitute for this game, too. Yuel sighed deeply. In the end, all that talk about making Nia exercise and such... it went in one ear and out of the other. Sigh.

  As aggravating as it was, Nia ignored Yuel’s criticism when it came to the topic of taking naps. As such, on that front, the girl was barely aer than she was during the Taurus scrimmage. And so, sleepiness still governed over her life.

  So truly, it was beyond obvious that Stratus will need a Jungler substitute today, too. And fortunately, Ben performed detly as a Jungler during club practice, but...

  He’s a defensive pyer. Yuel knotted his brows. Even as a Jungler, he pys more like a Support in many ways. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but that’s not quite what we need against the Leopards.

  As the ret game has just proven, the Leopards will easily blow Stratus out of the water if the two teams pete in perseverance. After all, the Leopards of this year ecialized defeeam, very much like Howard’s StormBlitz, and maybe even more obnoxious. As such, pying with a defensive Jungler against them was a recipe for disaster.

  We need more offensive power, not less. Yuel reasoned. Holy, the main reason we fell behind in the previous game was that Nia didn’t apply enough pressure. That pretty much sealed our fates all by itself. This is how critical it is to have a Jungler who reliably attack.

  As such, a defensive Jungler was out of the question. At least, it would have been if there were better alternatives.

  Unfortunately, the memer wasn’t that much better in that regard, either. Most of Luke’s css picks didn’t offer much offerength, except for extreme memes like Rogue.

  Ben might be pying defensively, but at least he picks real Jungler csses. That’s already a thousand times better than whatever nonsense Luke pulls. So, I suppose we’ll have to pensate for that ck of jungling offense by being mgressive on the nes.

  “For game,” Yuel started. “I was thinking about having Ben py Jungler.”

  “M-Me?” Ben jumped. “Um, o-okay, I do it, but...” He g Luke with guilty eyes.

  “Say whaaaat?” Luke jumped. “an, you know I’m the pro Jungler sub of this team! You ’t do me dirty like that, fam.”

  “Sorry, but we don’t have time to mess around against the Leopards. We o turn things around before they decide we’re no match for them, or else they’ll start rotating pyers around.” Not to mention, there’s also that phantom Korean pyer we have t out of the shadows as soon as possible.

  “Yeah, that’s what I’m saying!” Luke nodded. “We don’t have time to mess around, man. That’s why you gotta pick the best man for the job.”

  “Correct.”

  “Meaning, you gotta pick me! I’m yo man!”

  “No, you are not.”

  “Wha-!? Are you saying Benny boy is a better Juhan me!? I’m SHOCKED, fam. Literally shaking right now.”

  “No, I don’t think he’s a ‘better Jungler’ per se,” Yuel admitted. “As far as skill goes, you’re the better pyer in that role.”

  “Right? Right? So , what the heck are you even on about with that dumb idea? You gotta pick me, your friendly neighborhood memer!”

  “This again...” Yuel sighed. “I suppose I’ll have to expin this once more, for the millionth time. Yes, you’re the better Jungler, but your css picks are atrocious. So, I rather have a less skilled teammate who knows how to py the relevant csses, rather than a teammate who has more skill but wastes all of it on bad jokes.”

  “Damn, the burn.” Luke ughed dryly. “Are ya’ll hearing this shit, guys? There’s no way you all agree with this nonsense, do you?”

  “As much as I’d like to agree with Yuel,” Kai said. “There’s just one there. Namely, that Ben is a hel passive pyer, even when he pys Jungler.”

  “Indeed, indeed.” Vi nodded repeatedly. “Such is his trade, for he is dubbed the Eternal Peacekeeper! He holds the uny ability to bey to his desires and defley and all iions of aggression that e his way. Truly, it’s an EX rank Noble Phantasm!”

  “Riiiiight.” Kai rolled her eyes. “Anyway, the point is, if the previous game is anything to go by, then we need a better offeo crush the Leopards.”

  “True, that’s my clusion as well,” Yuel agreed.

  “So, you see the problem, right? I’m sorry to say this, but Ben won’t strengthen our offeoo much. His setups are cool, but we already have you, the Support, to do setups for us. So, we better get somebody who prank.”

  “And, who do you propose, then?” Yuel asked. “A memer who mostly pys Setup Junglers?”

  “Oh. That’s a fair point, actually.” Kai crossed her arms. “Yeah, that doesn’t sound too healthy for our offeher.”

  “Right. That’s why I think we should go with Ben and make up for the ck of offense by pying mgressively on the nes. Because, no matter who we pick as the Jungler, we’ll have to make up for the ck of offeher way.”

  “Huehue, boi.” Luke snickered. “That’s where you’re pletely wrong, my friend!”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Hehehe. Looks like it’s finally time to let the cat out of the bag!”

  I have a bad feeling about this... Yuel made a face but heless listened with full attention.

  “Well then,” Luke started. “You probably thought I didn’t listen much during that b Taurus scrimmage review, right? But nope! I heard every single dang word.”

  “Oh? Then, does it mean you actually started pying some meta csses i? If so, that would be amazing-”

  “Nah, it ain’t anything b like that.” Luke immediately destroyed that ray of hope. As a professional memer, it was his sacred duty to shoot down such b ideas on the spot. “I obviously ignored all that nonsense you said about how I should be pying a meta css and stuff.”

  “Because of course you did...”

  “Buuuuuuut!” Luke thumped on his chest. “I heard ya loud and clear when you said I ck ‘offensive csses’. Ya made me realize I really mostly practiced Setup Junglers.”

  “Well, I’m gd at least some of the criticism sunk in.”

  “Yep.” Luke nodded. “So anyway, this srs bsns realization led me to sult a bunch of pro memers o. Basically, I asked them to hit me up with the most savage Jungler memes they could e up with!”

  “Well, on one hand, I’m gd you took something away from that match revieut the effort to ge things up,” Yuel said. “Oher hand, I have a feeling your efforts were a little mispced...”

  “Nah, it was the perfect solution, man!” Luke insisted. “These absolute mad ds took the matter super srs and hooked me up with the craziest suggestion ever!”

  “I imagine...”

  “I mean, it’s probably ahat most of you wondered about at least once,” Luke said, “But, even I never seriously tried to master it, not until retly! It suddenly hit me that this was exactly the css I was looking for, so I researched it like crazy and got a lot of practi!”

  The guy was brimming with fidence. An attitude like that would normally be reassuring for the team, but in this case, it was all the more reason for worry...

  DarkestCymore