It was time for the third game of the scrimmage. The score was 1-1 right now, so the uping game will serve as a tiebreaker.

  But, it was more than just that. In a real tour match, two wins would have been enough to wiire thing. So, if this were the regionals right now, thehing would have been riding on this game!

  Then again, this is not representative of a real match for our side. Yuel though. Nia was half asleep in the first game and now she's pletely out of the picture, so we’re forced to rely on memes. This is turning out to be a “worst-case” simution of the regionals. It’s a little disappointing.

  The whole point of scrimmages was to give both teams a taste of what to expect at the regionals. But, this scrimmage? So far, it was nothing but a pure mess for Stratus.

  I suppose that's a lesson in itself. Yuel frowned. It shows us how unreliable our Junglers are and how much we’re depe on them.

  A Jungler was simir to a midfielder in soccer. Normally, they weren’t the pyer who scored the most goals or blocked the most attacks. heless, the midfielder was an important pymaker that lihe team's offense and defense. A successful defense could only transition into a strong attack via the mid-fielder.

  The Jungler role in Cssmancers was very much like that. The Jungler didn’t he covered up for ners whehey had to evacuate to the base. And, the Jungler didn’t score that many kills but himself but he participated in the majority of ganks.

  In summary, Jungler was a crucial role that linked many of the team's pys together. It was the pie the board that had the freedom to move from oo another on demand.

  But, Luke makes it difficult to utilize this piece properly. Yuel sighed deeply as he took his seat in front of the table. Instead of being a flexible piece, this guy es with so maris that I’m forced to pire team p around him. Normally, it's supposed to be the other way around...

  The Jungler was supposed to be the flexible role that adjusts itself to the team and the situatio, Luke's Dark Knight meme enforced the exact opposite.

  Now, because of this, Yuel had to form anhly aggressive team p once again.

  And, Cato is going to expect that so I 't be too obvious about it. Yuel reasoned. I’m sure Cato is on guard against another Dark Knight lineup, so I have to find a smart way to throw them with the early picks.

  This drafting phase was going to decide a lot about the oute of the uping game. If the enemy catches wind of this Dark Knight pn and ters it preemptively, then they’ll turn Stratus’s life into hell.

  For starters, there’s no choice but to pick Dark Knight toward the end. Yuel cluded. Until then, I'll stibiguous picks.

  The drafting phase opened with the banning phase. Yuel's bans were no-brainers: Aeromancer, Warlock, and Shadow Walker. Oher hand, the enemy barickshunslinger, and Pirate. Both strategists targeted pyers with obvious favorite picks.

  "Heh, they aren’t gonna ban DK?" Luke cracked a ugh. "It looks like they're not scared enough yet. I say let’s pick DK right at the start to give them some Vietnam fshbacks!"

  "Definitely not." Yuel shot it down. "As I expined earlier, this time, the pn is to keep the Dark Knight under ers. Last time, I used the Dark Knight pick to fuse them, but this time they'll kly what's ing ohey see the Dark Knight."

  "Oh, so therefore!" Vi excimed. "You are pnning to do the exact opposite of the st game, are you not? You will hide the mighty Dark Knight until the very end, fooling the enemy into thinking it won't be making an appearahis time!"

  “Yes, that’s the pn. I’ve already expi a few minutes ago.”

  "ht, you did say something along these lines." Luke rested his hands behind his head and kicked back. "Welp, I'mma leave this oo you. I trust your pro-level drafting skills."

  "Why thank you." A remihat I only have to work this hard on the picks because a certain somebody is making my life very difficult right now...

  But, regardless of Yuel's iions, the enemy had the first turn in this drafting phase. So, how were the Leoing to build their lihis time?

  After the events of the previous game, the most natural response would be to reinforce their defeo the max, but...

  "Gimme Berserker," Ronald requested.

  "That again?" ade a face. "I told you we have to start this one slow and steady."

  "Bleh, weak.” Ronald made a face. “So what, you gonna make me piight or some me stuff like that?"

  "Yes, that's the pn." Cato selected Knight on the menu but hasn't locked it i.

  "I mean, Knight is fine and all, but don't you think it’s a little weak of a pick here?” Ronald asked. “We gotta show them that we're hel fident about winning this one!”

  "This isn't a petition in who stroke their ego harder" Sonya pointed out. "We won't gain any substantial advantage here by pig Berserker."

  "Hard disagree,” Ronald insisted. “If we show them something like Berserker right at the start, then we'll be sending them a message, saying we aren't afraid of their DK. That gotta shake them up at least a little.”

  "It sounds like wishful thinking."

  ”Well, they probably think we’re mopping about our defeat or whatever, so we gotta show them that we don’t care about any of that shit. We’re ready to wage war!”

  "You’re basing your entire argument on some emotions that the enemy may or may not have. I don’t uand the logic behind any of it at all."

  "Heh, ‘Sonya the Android’ strikes again!"

  "Say what you will, but the bottom line is - you don't have any hard data to prove any of your theories."

  "Meh, not everything be proven with data. Sometimes, you just gotta FEEL it!"

  "You either have data or you have nothing."

  "Dang, what a tough er, haha."

  In the end, Ronald failed to deliver any ving arguments, so each side stuck to their religion.

  "Sonya and I have already discussed the lineup options during the break," Cato said. "There wasn't enough time to expihing to everybody, but the gist is that we want to start slow and steady in this drafting phase. First, we’ll see what the enemy is up to based on their picks, and then we’ll adjust accly."

  "That's the safest approach," Sonya expined. "Last game, we were sure we had the enemy figured out, so we rushed to fire some ter picks early on. But as you know, that backfired very hard and we lost the game because of it."

  "Heh, some drafter you are, man." Ronald threw shade at the captain.

  "My, what an unlikable brat." Cato put on a fake smile. "Yes, that was my blunder, I already admitted as much. I jumped the gun during the drafting phase and that led me straight into the enemy's trap. It won't happen again."

  "Are you sure about that?" Ronald asked. "At this rate, it sounds like we’ll end up with another overly defensive lineup at this rate."

  "Knight is a versatile css st time I checked."

  "Yeah, it's top tier for a reason,” Ronald agreed. “But, it cks a little OOMPH to it, you know? Berserker is a way more assertive pick. It clearly screams 'we gonna wreck you!’, which is the kind of stuff we should be pig right now."

  "I agree for a ge," William said.

  "Brooooo! I knew you'll uand!"

  "Well, holy, I know you're just ing up with excuses so you use an aggressive css a your frustrations."

  "Vent? What's that? Never heard of it." Ronald rolled his eyes. "I just wanna show them that we're not bothered by the nonsehey pulled st game."

  "What a tradi." Matthew sighed. "The fact you're so desperate to ‘prove’ anything just shows that you are, in fact, hel ed. Well, that’s just my two ts."

  "Well, that's... Eh..." Ronald struggled t any words into a coherent response.

  "My, my, my." iled impishly. "Somebody just got burned reaaaally hard~ Nice going, Matt."

  “Whatever.” Ronald shrugged. “I mean, how I eve ‘burned’ when I’m such a COOL guy, you know? Haha!”

  “...............”

  “Ahem. Never mind.” Ronald coughed it off. “Okay, I admit I’m a little salty about how the st game went down. And, I’mma be real: I made a outta myself a few times that game.”

  “My, I’m gd you’ve finally matured enough to accept that.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Anyway, that’s why I wanna make up for all that trouble by going hard in this game. So, lemme take an aggressive css and cp these scrubs!”

  “This sounds like a death fg,” Matthew said.

  “Yes, these are famous st words,” Cato agreed.

  “Hey, what do you mean ‘st words’?” Ronald objects. “Don’t you kill me off just yet, bruh!”

  “I agree with them,” Sonya said. “What you’ve just said sounds like a setup for defeat. You’ll be trying too hard to ‘make up’ for the previous game, which will likely make you screw up even more. I’ve seey of examples like that in the club. Nothing good ever happens wheions take trol over you.”

  “Y’all have zero trust in me, huh.”

  “Yes,” Cato said without aation. “A round, ft zero.”

  “Ya dang bullies, all of you!” Ronald waved an angry fist. “But anyway, gimme Berserker.”

  “.......................................................”

  The others stared in disbelief at the . It was as if his braied and the entire versation was vely deleted from his hard drive.

  None of the arguments any of them made could sway Ronald in the slightest. This was either a showcase of an iron will or of pure foolishness.

  “Hey, why are you givihese looks?” Ronald asked. “I know you’ve said a bunch of stuff against my idea and all that, but none of it matters. Why? Because my bro approves of this pick!”

  “I never said I specifically approve of Berserker,” William corrected. “But, I do think that f Ron to pick a ‘safe css’ is a waste here.”

  “How so?” Sonya asked.

  “In the reviews, we agreed that Bckhole looks like a mediocre pyer, right?”

  “Yes, that’s correct.”

  “So, I remembered the clusion that, in this formation, we should take advantage of Ron’s strong offense and have him domiop against Bckhole. Whatever happeo that?”

  “That’s… true,” Sonya ceded. “We did say it seemed like a good pn to overwhelm Bckhole in order to take trol over Top.”

  “Right? Right?” Ronald nodded repeatedly. “I’m telling you guys, bro is secretly the best strategist oeam! You should have him decide everything, then you won't be fetting basic stuff like that."

  "I admit that this detail partially slipped my mind because there were many other things to sider," Sonya said. “Just a moment. I’ll reevaluate the situation.” She pushed up her gsses and closed her eyes, puting the optimized course of a.

  The possibility of overwhelming InformationBckhole in Top was one of the more important observations she made when preparing for today's match. But, the many ued developments today took priority in her mind, so she pushed all the other data to the back of her head.

  To be ho, for someone who prided herself in analysis and strategy, this was a rather embarrassing mistake.

  "o feel so bad about it," Cato said. "That was an observation we made a long time ago. Many things have ged in our uanding of Stratus sihen. What used to sound like a good idea before may no longer apply."

  "How so?" Ronald demanded. "Even bro advocates this! That means it's totally the best move!"

  "Who died and made William god?” Cato asked. “Anyway, I suppose I should remind you that, inally, we thought that today's scrimmage will be easy. Sure, we expected some resistance, but that's about it. We definitely didn't see ourselves dropping any games, did we?"

  "Yes, that wasn't part of the pn," Sonya agreed.

  "In light of that, our way of thinking ged,” Cato expined. “We have no choice but to adjust ourselves to the reality at hand. The ret developments invalidated many of our previous assumptions, including that pying aggressively in Top timal for this matchup.”

  "Wait," Ronald interrupted. "So, you remembered that bit and you didn't even say anything? Talk about pying it dirty, man."

  "I don't remember ever signing a tract that states I must share my ehought process with you at all times. That'd an invasion of privacy, you know."

  "My guy, you were literally keeping super importaails from us!"

  "That outdated idea is just this point. Even now, we're wasting precious time talking about it."

  "Nuuuuu, but my opportunity to go ham in Top...!"

  "Put a so it."

  “Hmph!” Ronald crossed his arms and puffed his cheeks in protest. It was the response of a typical five-year-old.

  "Well," William started. "I know we don't have much time left to discuss this, but may I know why exactly you sider this idea 'outdated' now? I don't think anything has ged about our analysis of Bckhole."

  "True, he's about as mediocre as our analysis implied,” Cato agreed. “As I said, it's our impression of their team as a whole that ged. We assumed they'll be easy prey and that we’ll have the freedom to push offense in Top without w too much about defehere, but the previous game proved us wrong. We must keep our defeop-notch across the board."

  "I see," William said. "So, you want Ronald to be able to py defensively on demand."

  "Yes, that's the gist of it. As always, you're fast oake, unlike your younger kin~"

  "Hmph!" Ronald's arms remained crossed. "Like, sure, I uand where you're ing from. But, turtling isn’t gonna solve our problems, you know?”

  “I agree,” William said. “Sometimes, it’s a good idea to try to cut off the enemy's initiative early by striking first.”

  "Yeah, exactly!" Ronald made noise. "Fight fire with fire! Bro is a genius, I'm telling you!"

  "That’s a cssic recipe for defeat if you ask me," Cato said. "I see where you're ing from but personally, I think that turtling against Stratus is the right move here."

  "And, will you be satisfied with that kind of win?" William asked. "It'll make the audiehink we're scared of Stratus."

  "Let them think what they want."

  "Do I o remind you that we're supposed to be regional champions? Even if you don't care about public opinion, the coach sure does."

  "My, what a pain…" Cato sulked.

  William actually made a strong case here, ohat Cato will have to sider very carefully as the captain...

  DarkestCymore