Phew, okay. Yuel sighed in relief after seeing William return to the base without act. With that, the worst-case sario was averted.

  Holy, I'm surprised Challenger chose to join the fight instead of pushing the hat was very ued.

  It was more logical for Challeo stay on the ne and push while Vi was absent. The guy could’ve dealt substantial damage to the tower if he pushed it in Berserk mode along with a full minion squad.

  But instead, Challenger left the ne right after Vi and joihe fight. That gave the minions enough time to duke it out among themselves and eliminate each other, leaving the ne barren.

  And, what did the enemy gain fiving up this opportunity? They mao secure a kill on Luke, but that’s pretty much it. Of course, Luke’s death ainful oute for Stratus, but not nearly as much as the hypothetical push on Top would’ve been.

  Did Cato approve of this decision? In fact, did he approve of ANYTHING that had just happehere? It sure doesn't feel like it.

  That entire py felt like something that Winner and Challenger came up with on their own. They must’ve pletely disregarded Cato's opinion on anything here.

  In fact, even ba the repys, many of the duo’s joint pys felt like they went against ethodology. Those two often strayed from the Leopards' ever-defensive pystyle.

  I should’ve taken a better note of this. Yuel thought. This means two things. First, I should expect this duo to go for pys that Cato would never approve of. Sed, because such pys aren’t carefully pnned by Cato, it means there might be some gring openings in them.

  That was very important to keep in mind, but realizing that now probably won't help in this particur game. The current board position looked almost unsalvageable.

  Of course, Yuel tio issue shot-calls as usual in an attempt to turn things around. He ordered Luke to switch to a defensive build, aarted roaming around to help create opportunities on nes.

  As, it was to no avail. The team failed to bust through the enemy's tight defenses in Mid and Bot. Only Top had some occasional holes to exploit, but the enemy had too muentum there.

  An ally has been killed!

  "Baaaaakana!" Vi held his head dramatically. "A thousand apologies, Chessmaster! I uimated my foe but for a fleeting moment, yet this is the oute."

  "Challenger capitalized well on that opportunity,” Yuel said. “In general, he’s getting a little out of trol.”

  The more Challenger widehe exp gap between him and Vi, the fiercer the guy’s offense grew. He frequently pushed Vi bad domihe ne via brute strength.

  In turn, Vi was forced to retreat more often and py safer, which made him miss on some precious farm in the process. That only further widehe pap between them. As a result, Challenger kept growing stronger while Vi was being weaker and weaker.

  Normally, it was the Jungler’s job to put ao such a vicious cycle. As, Luke couldn't do mu that front, not after shifting to a defensive build.

  Of course, Luke rotated to Top as often as he could to provide backup, but that backup did precious little for overturning the situation. It just barely deyed the iable.

  DEFEAT

  Until the very end, Yuel was uo turuation around. He focused on taking down Challenger, who had the most openings among the Leopards, but all his schemes fell through.

  Yuel evehrough trials and tributions in order te a duel between Challenger and Lars, but even that wasn’t enough to stop Challenger’s snowballing momentum. Since Challenger was so much ahead in terms of farm, that duel ended in a draw.

  As I thought, the Dark Knight rerun didn't work out. Yuel sighed on his way dowage. This was the oute he predicted long before this game even started, yet it still frustrated him heless.

  We have to get a sed win as fast as we to force out their Korean pyer. Yuel thought. We don't have time to waste on experiments with Luke's memes.

  Down to it, the DK meme was the main source of their problems in this game. If only Luke was willing to py a prressive css that wasn’t sile, theeam would’ve still had a ce to turn the game around at any point in the game.

  Even though Nia is also a troublemaker in her ht, I so wish she ying instead. Yuel sighed. Seriously, why do our Junglers have to be so problematic? He sighed once more.

  "Hey, why are ya sighing like an old man, dude?" Lars massaged Yuel's shoulders. "You're taking this too hard, yo. Gotta loosen up a bit."

  "How I ‘loosen up’ after a game like this? They showed us they have no problem adapting to Luke's DK and that's the only aggressive option he has at the moment. Now, I have to find a way to make Setup Junglers wainst that tight defense..."

  "But hey, at least Nia woke up."

  "Oh!"

  Indeed, Nia was there, sitting on the sofa and mung one of Ben's sandwiches like a hamster. She was takings bites so small that it felt like it’ll take her an hour to finish the whole thing.

  But, that was beside the point. She was finally up, that was the most important part! At long st, Yuel was starting to see the light at the end of this dark tunnel.

  "So, are you really awake now?" Yuel asked.

  "Hmm." Nia pinched her own cheek. "It doesn't look like I'm dreaming, so I'd say so." She averted her eyes soon after. "Sorry for falling asleep like that..."

  "It's fine," Yuel said. The relief of having Nia back triumphed over his reason, but only for a moment. "Actually, no, it's NOT fine. You really have to fix this bad habit of yours."

  "Gufu..."

  "But, this isn't the time to chew you out on this. We'll have a LONG discussion about this after the scrim."

  "Please kill me now..."

  With Nia ba ission, it meant the memer could finally be relieved of his duty.

  "I propose to sub Nia ba," Yuel said. "Any objes?"

  "I'm all for it," Kai said. "She's way better than a certain memer who ruins all our ces."

  "Huh? What was that?" Luke's face torted. There was no trace of his usual id-back attitude. "For the record, I domihese scrubs pretty hard in the sed game, in case you fot."

  "Oh, I remember that fluke. The Leopards let their guard down, but it won't happen again. They’ve proved as much with this game."

  "Fluke, you say..." Luke ched his fists, but he failed to el any power into them.

  A fluke. Right. Maybe it was just a fluke.

  For just one game, Luke was at the top of the world, but it robably only because his oppos uimated him and allowed him to snowball. This won't happen ever again, that's the message the Leopards sent ihird game.

  This time, they were fully on guard against Luke's Dark Knight. They shut him down in a methodical manner, not allowing him to achieve anything at all. It ure cyberbullying.

  So yeah, Luke won't be dunking on these guys again today, not with DK and probably not with any other meme. #MemerLyfe.

  "Meh, whatever." Luke shrugged. "If you think that sleepy chick is gonna do the job better, then go ahead and sub her in."

  Luke gave up ohing. He dropped onto the sofa and grabbed one of the many remaining sandwiches.

  MUNCH. MUNCH. MUNCH. He stuffed his mouth to the point his cheeks threateo explode, but he didn't care.

  "Um, I don't think you should eat so much at once..." Ben ented.

  Oh, shut up. Leave me alone. Luke shooed the guy away with his hand. He was in no mood to talk to anybody. All he wanted right now was to drown this frustration in some way.

  If he were an adult, he’d probably go for alcohht now, that’s apparently what all the cool grownups did when they were depressed. As, Luke didn’t have that option, so he had to get drunk on… sandwiches, or something. Anything worked as long as it distracted him from the ive thoughts swirling inside him.

  It was ironic. Luke chose to bee a memer to escape the frustration that came with tryharding aa-sving. A, right now, that very same decision was tormenting him in a very simir fashion, if not more.

  Maybe things would’ve beeer if I could actually py a meta css or two when it was absolutely necessary... Such a dreadful thought invaded his mind for a moment.

  Nope, nope, hat's SO not me! I'm not thinking straight right now. Luke grabbed another sandwid MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH. He drowned all these stupid thoughts in the sandwich.

  Damn, these sandwiches taste like paper all of a sudden. Luke grimaced. Weren't they hel tasty earlier? Why do they feel so dry now…?

  Or, maybe the problem wasn’t with the sandwiches themselves? Maybe Luke’s sense of taste just decided to stop w all of a sudden? It seemed like his brain was messed up for real.

  Why? Why 't I just ugh this off? Why!? His eyes were turning moist, which prompted him to turn away from everybody. Fortunately, they were busy discussing the game, so they didn’t notice how Luke was breaking apart at the er there.

  I don't get it, I really don't. Why 't I just ugh this off like usual? Luke gritted his teeth. , I should be "Haha! At least I spooked these scrubs with my meme for one game! Huge success!"

  That was his usual response when he lost in Ranked. Sure, losing was always a little frustrating, but usually, Luke was satisfied as long as his meme brought in some results.

  But, not this time. The fact the team lost that important game, and that Luke failed to achieve anything of substahere… it just hurts, man.

  I really don't uand why I care so much all of a sudden, tho. Luke wondered. Is it because we won the sed game? Is that why I'm feeling so salty right now?

  In the sed game, Luke experienced something ued: success. And, not just any success. It was a huge ass success! His DK performed so well on the petitive se, utterly crushing the stro petitors this region had to offer. It was awesome!

  It finally felt like Luke’s efforts paid off. He was destio make it big on the petitive se with his memes!

  But, that clearly didn't happen. It was but a fleeting dream that vanished into nothingness. All it left behind were regrets and frustration.

  So basically, what I’m getting is that if I practiced this much but with a meta css, this is how well I could’ve performed. I could’ve totally stomped the regional champions with my supreme skill, haha! Haha, ha…

  But no, he didn’t do that. Instead, he chose to spend his free time practig DK.

  Sure, the css was hel strong, but its performance was a -flip fiesta by design. This wasn’t the kind of css that could promise sistent performano matter how much of a god Luke bees with the css.

  Ugh, just thinking about it depresses me... Luke shook his head. He wasn't allowed to think like that. That train of thought denied everythiood for as a pyer.

  Luke was supposed to be the No. 1 meta denier. He was all about rejeg tryharding and embrag memes and fun!

  But ironically, his strong denial of tryharding ultimately pushed him to tryhard from a different angle, just to remain relevant for the petitive stage. He became the very thing he swore to destroy!

  You either die a memer, or you live long enough to see yourself bee a tryhard. Luke looked at his palms. Maybe I am a tryhard. Trust nobody, not even yourself.

  A flurry of random memes fired off in his head like fireworks. They tried to numb his brain and distract him from the painful dilemma he found himself in.

  Who khat the petitive stage, the goal Luke was looking forward to ever since his soccer days, was a swingy pce like this? One moment, he felt like a big brain that stood at the top of the universe, then the moment he fell ft on his face like some scrub. It felt like shit.

  “pete with other schools,” they said, “it’ll be fun,” they said. Bullshit. Luke cursed. This whole thing is like torture in disguise. Mfs are making kids work hard like pro athletes, but they ain’t paying us shit smh.

  There was o the amount of salt p out of his brain. His own thoughts made no seo him anymore at this point.

  heless, there was ohing he uood beyond a shadow of a doubt: things couldn't stay this way. This wishy-washy state of half-memer half-tryhard had to be resolved in one way or ahis dilemma wasn’t good for his mental health.

  But, what should he do? Abandon his status as a memer and bee an actual tryhard? That'd go against everythiood for. It'd be the same as denying himself.

  Then, should he stay a memer? That also sounded wonky. It meant Luke will remain a substitute for the rest of middle school while Nia will be hogging the main stage.

  Even now, the only reason Luke was allowed onto the stage was that the girl needed her regur beauty sleep. In other words, if Nia ever fixes that bad habit of hers, then Luke will have no p the petitive se at all...

  Man, this is such a shitty situation. Luke sighed. I have no idea what I should do here...

  While he was wrestling with these thoughts, the rest of the team moved on toward the fame of the day. Unlike Luke, the others saw this substitution in a positive light. For them, this was an improvement.

  With Nia repg Luke, the team was no longer “handicapped by a memer”. But, was that really enough to make all the difference? Surely, Luke wasn't the only reason Stratus lost that game.

  There was yet another issue with the team’s lihat had to be addressed, which was rather plicated and difficult to resolve. As such, at the moment, only Yuel was fully aware of this particur problem.

  I do have one solution in mind, but it’s very experimental... Yuel grimaced.

  Did Stratus have the luxury to experiment like that in this difficult scrimmage? Especially, in this critical 1-2 situation...?

  DarkestCymore