“If you fail here, I want you to start transitioning to a defensive build.” That's the me threat Yuel used to scare Luke.

  Switg to a defensive build was the ultimate disgrace for any Dark Knight, it basically sighe DK’s retirement. No, thank you.

  I ain't gonhat happen! Luke asserted as he approached his foe. This meme gonna live on! I made it work st time, and I gonna make it wain!

  This fight was the ultimate test of his memeing ability. Haters might call his first success a fluke, but they'll shut up if Luke wins again! And again, and again! As many times as it was necessary to vihese mofos that off-meta picks worked like a charm!

  Besides, I don't wanna feel like the weakest link here. Luke thought. I mean, a few months ago I wasn't even expeg to get this far in the petition by memeing, but now I’m here, so I better win this shit!

  inally, Luke joihe Cssmancers club in order to chill. He was fed up with the toxipetitiveness back at the soccer club, so he decided to join a "video gaming club" to have an easy life.

  By a stroke of luck, it just so happehat his online rank was high enough to get accepted into the club. It was all because he memed a ton in Ranked, kek.

  At lower ranks, memeing worked perfectly fine. Half of the pyers there were s who didn’t know how to py for shit. Even the "meta sves" at these ranks were just braindead copycats who followed trends without thinking for themselves. They were the most literal example of "Monkey see, monkey do."

  So, Luke dunked hard on all these scrubs back then. It was the good times. It was thanks to all these noobs that Luke made it into the club.

  During the first year, the club was as chill as Luke expected. Nobody there was taking the game seriously. The team only participated at the regionals for the lulz. They didn't really expect to win or anything.

  In fact, these guys even memed at the regionals. They picked wild stuff like Dark Knight and Orc, then tried a five-man invade right at the game's start!

  Absolute mad ds! Luke couldn't help but grin when he remembered that epic se. It was the epitome of ess!

  But still, as cool as it was, he couldn't help but ask himself from time to time: was it really alright? Stratus had the privilege to pete at the regionals, so shouldn't they be taking things a little more seriously?

  Like, I never had that option in the soccer club. Luke thought. I wao pete but the coach was the embodiment of meta-svery cer. And, there was also so much dang petition for the first-string. Sigh.

  However, all these issues disappeared once Luke joiratus. There was no coach who preached about "meta" and there were barely any members, so getting a ce to py at the regionals was super easy, barely an invenie was a weird situation, all in all.

  On one hand, I could tinue memeing as I pleased and nobody could really kick me out for it. Oher hand, I knew I'll eventually be pying oage against some srs bsns dudes. That's one heck of a tradi, innit?

  Luke mulled over that problem for quite some time during his first year. And, his answer?

  I said "screw it" and tinued memeing, lel. Luke chuckled. Though, I also did extra researake sure my memes could actually pete against them meta sve bois.

  In the end, Luke found himself stuewhere in the middle between meme aa. He tinued pying memes, but he also did tons of research about the meta and stuff.

  Not to mention, he practiced his memes so much that it almost made him look like a sweaty tryhard. But, he was w this hard on memes and not oa csses, so it was fi least in his book.

  For the entire first year, that's the mentality he went with. During all that time, he was anxiously anticipating the petitive se, w how his memes would work there.

  The first time he got to py in a scrim was st year, actually. There were only five seniors in the club at the time, which was actually a lot by today's standards.

  Anyway, one of the guys called in sick right before a scrim, so somebody had to sub in. Logically, Kai was the most fitting choice, seeing as she was actually better than the seniors in the first pce. But, these rascals disregarded her because she was a girl, so they opted for somebody else.

  on that list was Vi, but the delis in charge of the club weren't too fond of that "nerd". As such, despite being the two oldest options to pick from, her Kai nor Vi was subbed in for that game.

  in line was Luke, who was actually oerms with these dudes. It also just so happehat the sub they needed was a Jungler, so Luke fit like a glove. And so, that became his first opportunity to test his memes against srs bsns oppos.

  Uhe RNG matchmaking of Ranked, here Luke was going to py against pyers who actually knew how to Cssmancers. They weren't just some braindead meta sves who thought that usia csses will help them climb the Ranked dder faster. No, these guys were all about winning real games!

  That match was so wack tho, haha. Remembering that shitshow had always brought a smile on Luke’s face. Like, the Stratus of that year was SO bad. Mispys happened left and right, with Luke’s teammates dying to the most obvious tricks in the book.

  It was a sad story. That was the only way to describe that fiesta. The eeam practically looked like one giant walking meme due to how ie everybody was.

  Like, these guys goofed a lot in Raoo, but that scrim was especially brutal. We could usually get away with some mistakes in Ranked, but in that scrim, we got mobbed HARD for the smallest slip-up. It was rough.

  All in all, they crashed and burned in that scrim. It got so bad that some of the seniors became salty and had the audacity to bme the losses on Luke's memeing.

  Like, bruh. My KDA was the best in most games. It’s them who were messing everything up, not me.

  Anyway, that was a story for another day. The bottom line was that Luke got to experiene brutal petitive games. On that day, he achieved his old dream of participating in official matches as part of the first-string!

  And holy? It was me. That was the ued clusion. Like, the stage and the oppos were cool and all. But, the actual games were a disaster. That team was no good, and I say that as a memer.

  The mopping was too much. Stratus lost that scrim so hard it was impossible to enjoy the experien any way imaginable. Not to mention, there was an audiehat came to watch that shitshow, which further shamed the losing pyers.

  I remember I had trouble sleeping that night, haha. Had nightmares about how the audience was cag at us. That was one heck of a traumatic experience, for real.

  It was a hel embarrassing experience all in all. That wasn't how Luke imagihe petitive stage at all.

  I guess that's when I started thinking about all these weird things. Luke recalled. It made me wonder whether I should keep memeing, and whether the level of our team was actually acceptable.

  As a memer, that was the st thing he expected to worry about. After all, ba the soccer club, the first-string was so obviously strong that this was never a real .

  But in Stratus, getting into the first-string was the easy part. Luke literally didn't have to do anything; it was just a matter of time.

  But in exge, there was a new problem: that team was too damn ying petitive games with this team was hel embarrassing, even for a memer like him. He wasn’t even sure that he wanted anything to do with that shitshow.

  That scrim really disillusioned me about a lotta things. I started doubting whether I even want to keep doing any of this.

  A part of him wahe team to improve and bee a viable petitor at the regionals, but another part just wao kick bad tinue memeing. He was quite the dilemma queen like that.

  When he discussed some of these s with Vi, he received an iing response. "Once Kai bees the captain, she shall restore Stratus to its flory! Eveionals won't be a dream anymore!"

  First of all, Stratus had no "flory" to speak of, so WTF was that dude smoking? Sedly, could a moody girl like Kai actually do anything about this zy-ass team? She seemed like too much of a loo lead a difficult team like this, TBH.

  heless, Vi's words kindled a small fme inside Luke. He realized that once all the seniraduated, there was some hope that the club would get more serious about peting at the regionals.

  Of course, there was no way ihey'd be able to take the regionals or anything fancy like that, but maybe they could at least win a game or two. Because frankly, this region's level wasn't even that high in the first pce. There were some weak teams here that even the old Stratus could’ve beaten if they worked a little harder.

  And so, with that optimism in mind, Luke resolved the dilemma he was wrestling with. Well, sorta.

  Assuming the team was really gonna git gud, then it was fine for Luke to tinue memeing as he pleased. He just had to make sure his memes were up to par and could pete on stage, to n the rest of the team down.

  I mean, I also sidered ditg memes and going tryhard mode, but I just couldn't do it, man. I had enough of that shit ba the soccer club. Never gonna force myself to follow the meta again. Never.

  Trying to both meme and pete at the same time was a tradi of sorts, but Luke has been carrying on that tradi for a long time now, to the poiopped seeing it as one. He was memeing to avoid the burden of being a tryhard, yet he was sorta tryharding in his memeing. The duality of man.

  Sometimes, I really ask myself WTF I'm even doing. But then, I just tinue doing it anyway, kek.

  He had e too far to turn back. The time and sweat he spent on improving his memes couldn't go to waste. So, he only had one choice: t his memes to the petitive se and take the regionals by storm! Or something.

  At the time, little did he know that mad ds like Yuel and Lars would join the club. These two dudes were on a whole different level. They transformed the club into a mega tryhard team.

  Thinking of it, that’s probably when things started getting plicated for Luke again...

  DarkestCymore