It was time for the sed bout between the Leopards and Stratus. The pyers from both sides ehe stage and took their seats.

  The Leopards were pag the same strong lineup from before, whereas Straus made one small adjustment to their team position. The referee made sure to run that ge by the Leopards before the game.

  “My, have they already repced Vanishing?” Cato blinked. “That was fast.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Sonya said. “She was clearly underperf st game, we all saw it in the repy.”

  “Yes, I agree. In fact, I’ve used that fact against her multiple times that game.”

  During the break, Cato and Sonya briefly went over the previous game’s repy. The main goal was to reevaluate every member of Stratus, to find any discrepancies betweeheoretical analysis of the pyers’ skills and their actual performan the stage.

  As they ran the parison, VanishingFlower’s erformaood out like a sore thumb.

  “It’s unfortunate.” Cato shook his head. “I nning to abuse the fact she’s underperf, but oh well.”

  “It looks like our oppos are self-aware, at least,” Sonya said. “Then again, they repced Vanishing with Memer, which is a rather questionable decision. I was hoping they wouldn’t bring out this... this creature against us.”

  “Haha. A little harsh, aren’t we?” iled. “It’s not like Memer is a bad pyer.”

  “Yeah!” Ronald joined in. “It’s the guy who uses low-tier csses in the jungle, right? Bruh is sick! I mean, I know we gonna stomp him real hard and all, but mad respect for the dedication. Bruh is a real legend!”

  “There’s nothing praiseworthy about that nonsense,” Sonya decred. “Well, I suppose this game will be even easier than the previous.”

  “Perhaps,” Cato said. “You have to admit ohing, though. Memer definitely makes the drafting phase more iing. I, for one, have absolutely no idea what we should even ban against him.”

  “Me her, but I doubt it even matters.” Sonya shrugged. “Judging by his past records, he’s most likely going to pick a terrible css anyway.”

  “Yeah, unless what we saw in the previous scrim was a sham,” William pointed out. “Maybe this time he’ll go meta.”

  “Possible but I doubt it,” Sonya said. “One look at his niame is enough to tell what kind of pyer he is.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “We’ll just have to wait and see,” marized. “Personally, I just don’t like it when I don’t know which Jungler csses to ban, but it is what it is.”

  “It’s not like you have too much freedom with bans anyway,” Sonya said. “We’re going sed again, so your first three bans are pretty much pre-determined.”

  “Haha, that’s true...” iled wryly.

  He was obligated to also ban Trickshooter and Gunslio seal Gunz’s stro ons. And, sihe team was going sed, the burden of banning Shadow Walker fell on the Leopards' shoulders once again. Or, did it?

  If we knew for sure that Memer only pys memes, then we could skip banning Shadow. After all, there’s no way a memer would pick a top-tier meta css, right?

  As, as William pointed out, there wasn’t enough data to assert that LegendaryMemer only pyed memes. The guy participated in only two games in the previous scrimmage, which wasn’t enough to determine what kind of pyer he really was.

  Was he truly a mad d who dared t memes to the petitive se? Or, was it just a hobby? Perhaps he only used memes against teams that he didn’t deem threatening enough.

  Either way, the uping game should clear that up.

  As the team finished discussing their opinions on Memer, the drafting phase began. Uedly, or perhaps iably, both sides went for simir bans during the first banning phase.

  Cato barickshooter and Gunslinger as demanded of him, whereas Yuel banned Warlod Knight again. These were carefully calcuted bans, they were the results of intensive research. As sueither side saw the o adjust anything thus far.

  My, our banning phase starts feeling like chess openings. iled impishly. But, the third ban is where I have some leeway to be creative... if I wasn’t obligated to ban Shadow again! Sigh.

  To make things worse, this restri only applied to eanwhile, his oppo had the freedom to ban whatever he wanted for the third pick.

  There was no doubt that Yuel chose for his team to go 1st this round in order to capitalize on having more freedom with bans. So, what kind of mind-blowing 3rd ban was he going to show the Leopards? Did he even have anything iing in mind?

  Regardless, ohing was certain - the enemy was taking their sweet time with this third ban. And, Cato had a guess as to why. It was good old paranoia, wasn’t it~?

  Ugh, again? Yuel frowhey’re not banning Shadow Walker early this time, either.

  Was Cato pying mind games again? Or, did he figure out that Luke wouldn’t pick Shadow Walker even if the css was avaible? Sigh. It was such a pain to try figuring out what that smartass was scheming.

  If Stratus’ Jungler was anybody but Luke, then Yuel would have had nothing to worry about. After all, Shadow Walker ractically a mandatory css for any serious petitive pyer.

  Even Nia, who strictly pyed assassins with invisibility, was rather profit with Shadow Walker. Though, perhaps it was because Shadow Walker did, in its own way, fit the “invisiblity” bill, at least partially.

  As, Stratus was stuck with Luke for Jungler, of all people. He was the kind of guy who broadcasted to the entire world that he was all about pig memes.

  As such, despite how cautious Cato usually was, even he might try to gamble on not banning Shadow Walker this once.

  I might have to ban it myself. Yuel grumped. Ugh. It pretty much defeats the entire point of us going first during the drafting phase. What a pain.

  “We might have to ban Shadow Walker,” Yuel shared.

  “Huh?” Kai tilted her head. “But, we’re going first.”

  “Yes, but there’s a ce they won’t ban Shadow Walker. After all, our Jungler is...”

  “ht.” Kai tapped on her bck cap. “Hmm.”

  “If you may recall,” Vi started. “The Leopards pulled a very simir tri the previous game as well. They waited until the very st moment to ban Shadow Walker, no doubt pying mind games with us. As such, I suspect this is but another instance of that.”

  “Yes, it might be,” Yuel agreed. “But, it’s risky. If they pick Shadow Walker, then we’ll have a very bad time.”

  “But, will they, tho?” Luke asked. “I mean, it’s these meos we’re talking about. These turtles don’t know the first thing about pying offense.”

  “That’s not true,” Yuel asserted. “They do focus mainly on defense, but they’ve shown that they’re capable of switg to offense as needed.”

  “Yeah, after a billion years, maybe.” Luke shrugged. “Besides, I don’t think they gonna take a risk leaving Shadow unbanned like that. I mean, these guys like pying super safe, right?”

  “Hmm.” Yuel knotted his brows. He might be a memeing , but he does have some good observations.

  The Leopards of this year were ihe paragons of safety. They always refused to take risks, no matter how small. Their entire game pn revolved around safely and systematically eliminating their oppos.

  That was Cato’s entire philosophy in chess, and it bled very strongly into his shot-calling in Cssmancers. As such, the more relevant question to ask was this: Will Cato take the risk of leaving Shadow Walker unbanned?

  No, I don’t think he will. Yuel was almost certain. He’ll be pying mind games until the very st moment, but in the end, he’ll pull back. At least, that’s my impression of him.

  For Stratus, banning Shadow Walker here will bear great implications that’ll extend far beyond this game alone.

  Oher teams see Yuel ban Shadow Walker in this situation, they’ll immediately clude that Luke couldn’t py the css. Subsequently, in all future games, none of Stratus’ oppos would ever ban Shadow Walker when Luke is in the lineup.

  That’d put us at a great disadvantage for the rest of the year. A year too, seeing as Luke is a junih.

  The more Yuel thought about it, the more unappealing the idea of banning Shadow Walker sounded. It will lead to too many long-term sequences, so hopefully, this was just one of ind games...

  “Okay, fet the Shadow Walker ban,” Yuel said. “We’ll leave it to the eo ban it.”

  “Now you’re talking like a real man!” Luke gave a thumbs up.

  The rest of the team was also on board with this final decision. And so, they moved on to discuss which other css to ban.

  But, was this the correct decision? Will Cato really avoid taking the risk? Will he really ban Shadow Walker himself...?

  DarkestCymore