The drafting phase for the third game began. The Leopards started it off with a Berserker pick, an odd choice for such a defeeam.

  "Could it be that our foes are pnning to shift gears in this game!?" Vi excimed. "This eime, we thought they only possessed the Ultimate Defense personal skill. But, could it be that they also have access to the Ultimate Offense noble phantasm!?"

  "It's too early to clude that they're pnning to py offense," Yuel said. "We've seen them pie or two aggressive csses before."

  "Ihat we did. Those picks always went to the Absolute Duo, did they not?"

  "Yes, and it usually happened in their alternative formation, the one where they weren't in Bot."

  Even so, this particur pick was a little peculiar. For o gave away too muformation. It strongly suggested that the Leopards were going to use their sed formation for this game.

  And they didn't even ban Knight. Yuel frowned. Knight has a favorable matchup against Berserker, so it should have been a priority ban.

  Knight was one of the most popur top ners due to its all-rounder kit. It didn’t have any notable weaknesses except for its ck of self-sustain, which wasn’t a big factor in the currea.

  No css really tered Knight and it had generally favorable matchups against most top ners. As such, the rule of thumb was to either pick the css or ban it.

  Then again, the number of bans is limited and Pirate is also a high-priority ban. Yuel thought. The fact they chose to ban Pirate over Knight suggests they’re more ed about how things will py out in Bot.

  This only further reinforced the theory that the enemy nning to switations for this game.

  Back when AbsoluteWinner and AbsoluteChallenger were in Bot, the enemy didn’t show any signs of being worried about the matchup against Yuel and Lars. The “Absolute Duo” was meically strong, so it had no trouble dealing with Lars’s destructive offense.

  Oher hand, the Bot duo of the alternative formation wasn’t anything like that. Cato and Merlin were both theory pyers with slightly above-average meical skill. They’ll surely struggle against Lars’s offense, so they’ll aim to avoid frontal frontations at all costs.

  So, they banned Pirate to keep it out of Lars’s hands. Fair enough. Yuel nodded. Little do they know that Elf is Lars’s best css. It’s an ued third css for him, which is part of the reason I wanted him to master it.

  There were numerous csses Lars could pick for his third marksman. The goof liked Elf due to its sniping ability, but he also liked a bunch of other csses as well, especially the ohat allowed him to go on a rampage.

  Out of all these options, Yuel strongly advocated for Elf. Why? Because it brings something different to the table.

  Trickshooter and Gunslinger were both offense-oriented marksmen, whereas Elf was a more defensive ohat focused on ing his oppos.

  Learning how to utilize a css like this was bound to expand Lars’s array of skills. In fact, much of the growth Lars experienced in terms of defensive skills was likely a result of him practig Elf.

  But, there’s a little bit of petition for Elf today. Yuel thought. If the Leopards are really pnning to use their other formation, then Merlin will probably try to pick Elf.

  In all the scrimmages in which Merlin pyed Carry, the guy alicked Elf. EVERY. SINGLE. GAME.

  It was the exact same story as his Warlo Mid. As long as the css was avaible, Merlin always insta-locked it.

  So, we have to pick it first. Yuel cluded. I’m not a fan of pig the Carry so early, but it is what it is.

  Yuel selected Elf and moved on. With this one pick, he both secured a strong css for Lars and also dehe enemy one of their main csses, killing two birds with oone.

  This pick should royally screw Merlin in Bht?

  But wait, what if Merlin pys Mid, after all? Yuel felt paranoia creeping up on him. I ’t shake the feeling that something is off. Cato is being way too obvious with their pns so far. It reeks like a trap.

  The Leopards’ bans and first pick - everything strongly suggested that they were going to use their sed formation in this game. It was so obvious that it felt wrong.

  The element of surprise was supposed to be one of the main points selling points of using a different formation. Cato should’ve tried to fuse Yuel and keep him guessing until the very st moment.

  Yet, right now, Cato was shoving the answer right in Yuel’s face. Why?

  Is he pying mind games? I wouldn’t put it past him. Yuel frowned as he recalled a few repys he watched of Cato’s chess. The lunatic liked making some head-scratg moves, apparently for the sole purpose of messing with his oppos.

  At least, I couldn’t figure out the point of these moves. Yuel shrugged. Anyway, these overly obvious picks and bans are either another ent, or they might be a legit trap.

  As such, the possibility of the Leopards pulling a switcheroo and using the previous formation wasirely off the table yet. So, there was a ce that Merlin will be pying in Mid again.

  “Kai, I fot to ask. What was your impression of Merlin’s Sorcerer? Was he strong?”

  “Nah, a total scrub.”

  “Really now…” Yuel made a face.

  “Heh, just pulling y.” Kai chuckled. This was a petitive stage, so nobody here was a “scrub”. She learhat the hard way in the previous scrimmage.

  “He did alright with Sorcerer.” Kai shrugged. “Holy, it’s a little hard to judge his performance because we had such a strong start. He had to py from behind pretty much the eime, but he hung in there.”

  “How would you say his Sorcerer pares to his Aeromancer and Warlock?”

  “Well, I didn’t py his Warlock,” Kai said. “But, based on the repys, I’d say his Sorcerer isn’t up to par. His Aero and Warlock looked more airtight.”

  “I see.”

  This answer was in lih Yuel’s impression as well. Merlin seemed like the type to focus on very specific csses and py only those, over and over and over. In Mid he mained Warlod in Bot it was Elf. These must’ve been his best csses. Every other css gged in parison.

  "Kai, what do you say about pig Sorcerer in this game?" Yuel asked.

  "Sure, that works. Are y to ter Merlin some more?"

  "Yes, that's the idea,” Yuel said. “I want to see how much we er him. Maybe at some point, he’ll be forced to pick a css he’s terrible with."

  "Sounds like wishful thinking if you ask me," Kai said. "But, I'm i's see what he piext."

  "That’s provided he's going to py in Mid this game."

  "Oh!" Vi excimed. "So, you suppose it's time for our oppos to unleash their sed form!? To shuffle their entire roster and force us to re-learch-up from scratch!?"

  "Yes, now would be a good time for them to do it," Yuel said. "They lost the previous game, so they probably want to switch things up."

  "Indeed, indeed.” Vi nodded. “Right now, they must be feeling frustrated that their inal formation failed them, therefore they choose to evolve to the stage!"

  "I wouldn't go as far as saying that it ‘failed’ them, but I'm sure it showed them the limits of that formation against us. It's their other formation that I'm most wary of."

  The Leopards’ first formation was very defensive across the board. The team’s only two aggressive pyers, AbsoluteWinner and AbsoluteChalleneger, were both stu Bot, so they couldend their aggression to other hat easily.

  That formation was very effective against teams with weak Bot duos. In matches like that, the "Absolute Duo" steamrolled the petition and easily gained an early lead in Bot. From there, the duo ofte for strong pushes that swung the entire game in the Leopards’ favor.

  Fortunately, this formation wasn’t that iive against Stratus. Yuel and Lars were more than capable of fending off the “Absolute Duo”.

  It’s iing, actually. Yuel thought. They knew what we are capable of, yet they still chose to start with that formation first. Maybe they were just testing the waters? If so, with this game, the match begins for real now.

  With that in mind, Yuel had to adjust the team’s lineup accly...

  DarkestCymore