Why now? Luke shuddered. Why with this club? I swear this is such a hirious story.

  After Luke left the tryhard soccer club behind him and decided to bee a "casual" pyer, he ironically found himself closer to the pinnacle of the petitive se than ever before. The momeopped g about training hard aing into the first-string, he somehow got promoted into being a key pyer on a team that had a real shot against the regional champions. It ega story through and through.

  So, WTF am I supposed to do now? Luke ched his fists. I'm already dedicated to being a top-tier memer. That's the only area in which I’ve been training all this time. Even if you ask me now, I 't revert back to being a tryhard. I don't have it in me.

  Even if he were to start tryharding now, it’d take him ages to catch up to the others with meta csses. Not to mention, his heart will never be 100% into it, which will surely hamper his groerformance.

  So, it was simply impossible for him to go meta at this point. He has e too far to turn back. All the blood, sweat, and tears he went through in order to perfect his memes was not something he could ever discard.

  Even if you give me Shadow Walker or any other “broken” css - I wouldn’t know what to do with it. I’m sure I’ll perform worse with Shadow Juhan with any of my memes. Yes, even worse than my spicy Clerigler, heh.

  In the 2+ years Luke has been pying Cssmancers, he never bothered to study the top-tier csses that everybody raved about. For him, the only reason to look up tier lists was to learn which csses were reserved for meta sves and should be avoided by the cool kids. This robably the opposite of what 99.9% of the pyer base used tier lists for.

  I just didn’t want to feel like I’m tryharding again. Luke thought. The whole point of video games is to have fun, not to train to bee some sweaty eatsports pyer. Yet, here I am, pying on the petitive stage in Proter aing up the regional champions...

  This was a joke, a legit o was harder to e up with a dumber edy story than this.

  Seriously, how the heck did a memer like Luke end up on a stage like this? It was edy gold.

  heless, Luke was here at this very moment, so he had to deal with this crap. It ain in the ass, but it also felt weirdly good at the same time. The duality of man.

  I don’t wanryhard, but it feels good when I have an important role oeam ao trash the biggest meta sves of the region. This is so stupid, haha…

  After ing this far, a part of him wao take things more seriously a help this team win the whole thing. Like, he wasn’t anybody’s best friend here or anything, but heless, all these bruhs became an important part of Luke’s daily life.

  Even though he was just a memer, he developed a sense of radery with everybody after pying with them on a daily basis. During a match, Luke knew he could entrust his back to his bros. And, the same way he felt fortable relying on them, he also wahem to rely on him.

  But, there’s nothing more I do. Luke smiled wryly. Sure, I wasn’t born a memer, but was molded into one a long time ago, so I’m far too gone. I o longer return back to pying “normally”. It’ll take me years to relearhing about these so-called “meta csses”. Bleh. The term alone makes me want to puke.

  He was a memer with tryhard tendencies, but also a tryhard with memeing preferences. And unfortunately, he couldn’t do anything to ge that.

  “I’m sorry to disappoint ya all,” Luke finally spoke up. “But, I ’t turn into a tryhard all of a sudden. That’s just ain't me, ya know? I mean, this team turned out to be surprisingly awesome and I’d really like us to win, but I ’t just go meta all of a sudden. Some things are just impossible like that.”

  “Is it really that hard for you to learn at least one or two meta csses?” Yuel asked.

  “Yep, it’s mega hard. It’s at least as hard as it is for you to learn how to py a meme or two.”

  “A, I did study how to py your memes. It was a truly unpleasant experiend I wao give up on it many times, but I did it all the same.”

  “Haha, yeah, that’s true...” Luke smiled wryly. I fot this guy is like the epitome of tryhard. He’s so tryhard that he shit talks my memes but is still willing to spend his time researg them. I ’t beat that. I’m not hardcore enough.

  “Welp, you’re just something else, man.” Luke dodged the frontation. “Clearly, I’m not on the same level as you.”

  “Then try getting closer to it, please.”

  “Nah, it won’t happen. Your level of obsession with the game is borderline insanity, ya know?”

  “Is it? I think this much is an expected amount of effort for somebody who is seriously aiming to win the regionals.”

  “Actually, no,” Kai interjected. “I don’t like doing this, but I gotta agree with Luke on this one.”

  “Hey!” Luke pouted. ”What do ya mean you ‘don’t like it’? Rude.”

  “It’s because most of your takes on this topic are rubbish. You’re the prime example of a zy bum who doesn’t take the petition seriously.”

  “Hey, hey, I’m not THAT bad, am I? Didn’t you see my DK mop the floor with these so-called ‘champions’? Just so you know, I’ve trained hel hard to make my DK work this well. So, you see? I’m w real hard!”

  “Sure, sure.” Kai rolled her eyes. “Anyway, I relutly agree with you that it’s unrealistic to hold anybody to Yuel and Lars’s standards. They’re hardcore on a whole other level.”

  “Yep, totally.”

  “I don’t like to admit it,” Kai testified. “But, even I feel left a little behind sometimes. I already take the game far more seriously than most, but even I ’t pete with how obsessed they are with the game.”

  “Dang, even cap feels this way?” Luke cracked a ugh. “These bruhs are total fanatics, word.”

  “With that said,” Kai stressed. ”That’s no excuse to not try harder. For example, you could stick around for a little longer after regur training hours. But instead, you always run home straight away as if you have a family with five kids to feed."

  "Hey, hey. Even if I tu early from the club, it doesn’t mean I don’t practice at home, you know?”

  “Oh?” Kai blinked. “Are you saying that you do?”

  “Well, sometimes.” Luke shifted his eyes away, which made the answer sound dubious at best. “I mean, how do ya think I brought my DK to this level? Tons of secret training, hehe~"

  "Seriously? That makes this even sadder." Kai spat a sigh. "So you DO have the motivation to train harder every now and then, but you rather spend all that energy on preparing a meme that you didn’t even bother inf us about, just so you 'surprise' us or whatever. Are you for real?"

  "Weeeelp, it does sound a little silly when you put it that way." Luke scratched his head. "But hey, Yuel already chewed me out enough, so yeah, I uand now. It’s better to keep you posted on icy meme I'm preparing."

  "Even before that," Yuel said. "The fact you spend your spare time practig a meme instead of improving with good csses is a huge problem in itself. Why 't you pour even half of that energy into learning at least oa css?"

  "Bruh, ya always ask me this and I always give ya the same answer. Pyia just ain't my thing, you know? I ’t get myself motivated to learn or py it. So, no way I gonna perform well with any of this shit."

  "And as I always say, if you pick a meta css, then at least our overall team p will be much more stable. But yes, we’ve had this versation a thousand times by now, so let's put it aside for now."

  "'For now'...?” Luke made a face. “Please don't tell me you gonna keep harassing me about this. "

  "Always. Without fail. 24/7."

  "Nuuuuuuuuu!"

  Yuel and Kai sighed at this respo was evident that they were going in circles here.

  There was simply no ging Luke's attitude right now. And, even if they somehow mao achieve such a miracle, this hardemer didn't have a sia css he could py on demand. It was a lost cause.

  "So, in short," Yuel summarized. "It sounds like we're stuck with Luke as our best option at the moment, and his best options are all memes."

  "Yeah, sounds like it." Kai shook her head. "We'll have to wait until Nia wakes up to kick him out."

  "Whoa, rude," Luke excimed. "You two are bullies, you know that? You’re only thinking about how to get rid of me. Scary."

  "Is that supposed to be a Nia impression?"

  "Ehe."

  "EHE TE NANDAYO!?" Vi shouted some nonsehat only made sense for the memers.

  "Anyway," Luke said. "I really don't get why you're rag your brains so hard. I mean, DK is my spiciest meme at the moment, so clearly I should be pying it. It’s the same way you make Lars pick Shooter or Slinger when it's avaible."

  "Except, Trickshooter and Gunslinger are actually good csses that be picked in any p. But, Dark Knight isn’t. It’s a css that only works a very specific game pn that's incredibly dangerous and difficult to pull off, especially when the enemy is ready for it."

  "Welp, life always gonna be hard, man.” Luke shrugged. “So, gotta use the best stuff you got and keep moving forward."

  "That's..." Yuel didn't want to agree with anything Luke had to say on this topic, but this particur point was true. No matter how much Yuel ranted about being stuck with an "unreliable Jungler", pining about it wasn’t going to ge anything. He simply had to adapt and find a novel way to utilize Luke’s trained Dark Knight.

  Though I have to say, he's sure feeling himself after that game. Yuel frowned. I'm gd we won, but I feel that oute will only make Luke more hellbent to tinue using memes. Sigh.

  After tasting such a sweet victory, there was no ving Luke that his memes were iive on the petitive se. After all, the evidence spoke for itself. He used a meme to utterly trash the regional champions. So, what was better proof that his memes were viable?

  Unfortunately for him, there's this little thing called 'adaptation'. Yuel thought. Winning one game hardly matters in the grand scheme of things. I’m sure the Leopards already adapted to this lineup. They'll shut us down on the spot if we try to use it again.

  The team won that one game, but at what cost? Now, Luke had even more reasons to ouch meta csses for the rest of his life. This was a rough trade.

  A part of me almost wishes we lost that game, just to avoid this problem. But, I didn't want to lose, so...

  It was quite an internal struggle. Yuel worked very hard to secure the team's victory but there was also a part of him that hoped to see Luke mess up and fail. Crashing and burning should’ve helped vihat goof to take things more seriously.

  But instead, they ended up winning in a very ving mahis result pced Luke on a high horse. There was no talking him out of using memes anytime soon.

  At least, it won’t happen until he suffers that iable defeat. Yuel thought. But, I’m definitely not going te something like this on purpose, especially not against the Leopards.

  This scrimmage was already an uphill battle, so Yuel didn’t really have the luxury to think about the bes of losing any games here. Stratus had to keep fighting hard to get these difficult wins.

  At the bare minimum, we have t that mysterious Koreao the stage. Yuel thought. If we return home today without achieving at least that much, then that'll t as a crushi for the eeam as far as I'm ed.

  With all these siderations in mind, it was a bad idea to let Luke pick Dark Knight again. It’ll be the same as throwing him to the wolves.

  But at the same time, what alternatives did Yuel have?

  None. I have nothing. Yuel sighed deeply. After all this bad forth, it seems like I'm back to square one.

  Of course, there was the option of making Luke pie of his other memes, but most of them were Setup Junglers. Such picks promoted a defensive pystyle, which wasn’t the kind of jungling Stratus needed against the Leopards’ hyper-defense.

  Especially, if they switch to their other formation, then they’ll have much tighter defense on nes. Yuel reasohat'll be a nasty formation to break through without a threatening Jungler.

  All this bad forth was starting to turn into a headache. Yuel couldn't believe he was forced into this kind of stupid dilemma, the kind that should on the petitive level.

  At this point, after bashing his head against a wall for so long, he actually started to favor a rerun of the Dark Knight Jungler as well. He couldn’t believe that he fell so low, but that’s how much the situation was f his hand.

  In the many simutions he ran in his head about today's scrimmage, he never sidered a situation like this. He repared to use Dark Knight oage, but he didn’t expect to win in such a pronounced way that made Luke’s Dark Knight look good.

  This was an unexplored sario. Yuel needed a few good hours to mull over this problem and simute various possible outes.

  As, he didn’t have such time. He had to make his decision NOW.

  But, even now, he still had no clusive answer on this matter...

  DarkestCymore