The mid-game was about to hit. There was no official in-game annou for it, but both teams khe time had almost e.

  The exact timing of “mid-game” varied from matatch depending on various factors, the most noticeable of which was the progress of the pyers’ builds. Once most pyers have finished building their core items - it was time for a! At least, usually, it was.

  However, in this case, the Leopards preferred to postpohe mid-game for as long as possible, therefore they didn’t make a move. As such, the ball was in Stratus’ court. It to Yuel to decre when the mid-game will begin.

  Nia finished building Imperial Spear, so it’s time. He made the decision based on this one particur key item. It was a strong item for Ninja that turned Izuna Drop into a deadlier on than it already was.

  As such, this was a good time to begin the mid-game. This phase was a double-edged sword for Junglers, but a very necessary one in this case.

  Since pyers usually stuck together during the mid-game, it was that much harder to piebody off the way Nia liked. However, on the flip side, the mid-game was much more hectid dynamic, making it harder for the eo defend optimally.

  The Leopards sure know how to defend themselves from all sides when things are calm. Yuel thought. This is pretty much like Cato’s pawn defense in chess.

  Judging by their chess game, Cato had this very peculiar approach ty. Though the majority of his moves ultimately followed chess theory, for some reason, the guy was obsessed with ereg a wall of defense made of pawns. He even sacrificed some of his early development to that end.

  Though this approach went against many chess teags, it was admittedly effective at frustrating the enemy and making them struggle to find any good options. Yuel fell into that hellhole during their matd found himself suffocated, uo make a single good move.

  Instead of searg for ways to attack, I should’ve disrupted the pace of the game first. Yuel thought. If I just dragged him out of his defensive shell first, then an opening would’ve preseself eventually.

  As, Yuel wasn’t at the top of his game back then, so he got caught up in the spider’s web. He believed he was in full trol of the board due to his superior piece development, so he tried to utilize that advao mount a strong, decisive attack. And, that tunnel vision became his undoing.

  It’s actually simir to what happeo Nia in Top. Yuel thought. She could only think about attag since she found a rare opportunity, so she rushed in. Fortunately, there weren’t any terattacks in this case, but these sorts of mistakes are what Cato usually feeds on.

  The guy’s obnoxious wall of defense just naturally triggers his oppos, making them desperately search for some kind of opportunity to attack. But, at best, the attacks fail, and at worst, they lead to getting tered.

  We just have to accept the fact that the Leopards’ defense is at its highest during the early-game. Yuel thought. As long as they safely turtle in their nes, it’s almost impossible to get any kills on them.

  As such, it was best to start dragging them out of their fort zone as soon as possible. Ohey’re forced to move around the map and respond to unfolding situations on the fly -that’s where Nia might get her ce to strike.

  The ime she gets an opportunity, we really need her to score a kill. Yuel thought. And, it looks like I have te su opportunity for her.

  Waiting for Nia to discover su opportunity by herself was out of the question. The Leopards will most certainly reinforce their defenses further after Nia's attempt at Challenger's life. As such, it will take Nia a long time to find another opening like that, if she ever finds one.

  Therefore, instead of waiting for an opportunity to present itself, Yuel had to actively create one. And, he already had a couple of ideas on that matter. As usual, the pn revolved around exploiting the enemy’s most gring weaknesses.

  Challenger is their most vulnerable link. He's meically strong and be overwhelming on the offense, but his defense seems g pared to the rest of their team.

  As such, out of the Leopards' roster, Challenger was the most attractive target. In faia even almost scored a kill on him already. The gank in Top could have easily verted into a kill if Ben was close enough to aid her.

  Unfortunately, that was the first and only opportunity Nia has gotten so far. Ever since, Challenger has been pying more carefully. He retreated more frequently than before, making it impossible to catch him off-guard.

  It feels like their eeam pys that way in this game. Yuel analyzed. This must be an anized defense pn against Nia. I'm surprised they realized the threat she poses so quickly. They didn’t seem to pay nearly as much attention to her in the first game.

  Perhaps, back then, Nia did a poor job avoiding enemy wards. That made it clear to the Leopards when it was truly necessary to retreat.

  Not to mention, in that game, the Leopards held the upper hand the eime. So, they had no reason to be ed about some stumbling Jungler.

  But, things have ged sihen. Stratus mao score a win against the champions, and Nia must’ve been doing a great job pying around enemy wards this time around. bihese two factors kept the Leopards ooes.

  As usual, Cato didn't cut any ers with his defense. If he spotted even the smallest hint of a potential threat, he reinforced his defenses in advao make sure this threat won’t get any opportuo work with.

  This was a different approach from Howard's defense, which dynamically adjusted to the threat depending ouation. Instead of putting the eeam on the defensive for the whole game, Howard hahe threats as they came.

  This approach made it that much harder to tell which threats Howard was actually aware of, so there was always a sense of paranoia in the air. And, whenever Yuel made the wrong guess - he walked right into a ter.

  In that sense, fighting Cato’s defense is more straightforward. Yule thought. He's very upfront about his hyper-defensive pystyle, to a fault. Though, that also makes it far more annoying to actually deal with...

  The Leopards' defense tight at all times, that's why even Challenger was a hard target to gank. He had all the makings of an excellent target for Nia, but ust’ve been enf his defehodology on the puy.

  Holy, that obnoxious defense almost equalizes all the potential targets. Yuel summarized. It barely matters which target is "easier" to gank wheire team is being so defensive across the board. Essentially, all of them are difficult to gank without a proper pn. So, perhaps fog on Challenger is narrow-minded.

  Overall, delivering a gank on Challeill had the highest ce of success. However, it seemed like a small crease pared to ganking anybody else, so it probably wasn't wetting fixated on.

  Besides, Challenger is oher side of the map, so I 't reach him that easily. Yuel reasoned. Oher hand, I rotate to Mid, so maybe I make something happehere.

  Time was of the essence. Yuel wao execute a strong, decisive py as soon as mid-game strikes. It was absolutely necessary for Stratus to establish early momentum in order to drive this game to victory.

  That's why, despite being busy with the plex ning petition against two powerhouse oppos, Yuel tihinking about the future during any spare mome. So, even though he was adequately peting with his oppos in the ne, his eyes were set on the mid-game and on Mid Lane.

  In fading all those “ineffit” shots on Rook was, in fact, preparation for the mid-game. These pys were very wasteful in terms of MP, but Yuel was looking at the bigger picture here.

  He should be recalling after this wave. Yuel thought. That'll be my cue. As shaky as it is, I do have something that resembles a pn, so I might as well give it a shot.

  After extensively analyzing ead every oppo, Yuel ultimately determihe best target for Stratus to gun for. The clusion he reached was a tad surprising even for him, but it was supported by facts and logic.

  I think we should go after Wihat's the clusion Yuel reached.

  Yes, AbsoluteWihe pyer who was extremely aplished in both meical skill and tactics. He was arguably the most skilled pyer in the Leopards, definitely a far cry from what one would call the "weakest link" of the team.

  Then, why target Winner? Because the guy did possess one particur weakness, or so Yuel believed. Essentially, he hungered for kills.

  This was evident from the footage of the Leopards' previous scrims, where Winner and Challenger went on a killing spree across the entire map. It almost felt like the two of them peted for who could score the most kills.

  During this so-called “petition”, it felt as if Winner and Challenger were pushing each other to py more and mgressively. Essentially, they were trying to get kills faster than each other by dialing up their aggression up to eleven.

  That kind of wild, arguably childish, attitude certainly suited Challehere was no doubt in Yuel’s mind that Challenger was a brat in real life.

  Oher hand, that mischievous attitude was a little odd for Wihe guy usually carried himself in a calm and posed manner, only going for effit and calcuted pys. Therefore, it was odd to see a pyer like him participate in something like a killing race, a petition in which both pyers discarded proper tacti favor of speed.

  That is unless he's extremely petitive to a fault. Yuel deduced. I suspect he siders killing to be the best way to "prove himself”. That's why he went for that early invade in the previous game.

  Logically, going for an early invasion against a team with a Dark Knight was suicidal. Surely, Cato vehemently objected to the idea. There was simply no way that the fanatic worshipper of defense would agree to such a dangerous move.

  Likewise, Winner didn't seem like the type who’d normally take such a huge risk, either. Perhaps the entire operation wasn't even his idea per se but he heless cooperated, that was the key part. That py reaffirmed Yuel's suspi.

  I think Winner just really, REALLY hates losing. Yuel reasoned. He’s the type who always o prove he's at the top of the petition, that's probably why he challenged Lars so many times throughout the day. It's like he was trying to say "I'm stronger.”

  Assuming that all of this analysis was on point, or at least close enough to the truth, then what did it mean for this game? For one, Winner robably unfortable with the way the game had been developing thus far.

  He hasn't scored any kills yet. Yuel thought. In fact, most of his gank attempts didn’t achieve much of anything because our defense has been solid across the board. To make it worse, it’s probably ued for a team like ours to be able to py good defense, so Winner must be twice as salty about this.

  Stratus was slowly establishing itself as a potential powerhouse, but so far, it was only known for its offeheir defense cked in parison, so Winner should’ve had an easy time getting a few successful ganks against them. Yet, he didn’t get a single one. If that didn't hurt his pride, then nothing would.

  I'm sure he's hungry. He’s desperately searg for at least one kill. Yule thought. So, what will happen if we throw him a bone?

  That's the hidden avenue of attack Yuel discovered after destrug every single member of the Leopards. Out of all of them, despite being arguably the most petent, Winner seemed like the most vulnerable target at the moment. So, that's where Stratus should strike!

  But, that's easier said than done. Yule thought. He's the Jungler, so it's no small feat to lure him into a death trap. At least, not without some extensive pnning.

  So, that's exactly what Yuel has been doing: w on a pn to entrap Winner. It was a difficult puzzle that Yuel barely had any spare time for, but eventually, he found a solution. Or, at least, it was something that resembled a solution.

  "Kai, Nia, I have a pn I'd like to share," Yuel said.

  "Oh no." Nia gave him a look. "I bet it's some crazy talk again."

  "Right?" Kai chuckled. "Whearts his sentence like that, you just know it gonna be something else. Well, I'm listening."

  Despite their initial reas, the girls lent their ears to Yuel. This showed that, despite Yuel’s questionable unication skills and his subpar ability to fully vey all the aspects of his reasoning, his teammates were still willing to go along with his pns, no matter how bizarre they might have souo them.

  "So, the pn goes like this..." Yuel id out the details to the best of his ability, expining how he po take advantage of Winner's hunger.

  As usual, his teammates found his reasoning a bit g. Kai and Nia both said that Yuel’s clusiarding Winner felt like they were based too mu circumstantial evidence, and that was true to aent.

  In order to quickly discover enemy weaknesses, it was often necessary to rely on some degree of circumstantial evidehere wasn’t enough time to gather a whole lot of solid eviden the heat of battle, so some circumstantial evidence had to suffice.

  In the end, despite the girls’ doubts, they agreed to go along with Yuel's pn. They didn't look entirely vinced, but they trusted Yuel's judgment enough to ignore some of his leaps of logic.

  "So, I'm bait again, huh." Kai sighed. "I feel like I've been turning into bait way too much retly. You hate me or something?"

  "Nothing personal," Yuel reassured. "It's just that your status as the Mid Laner makes you an attractive bait. Good teams are always on the lookout for an opportunity to gain an advantage in Mid."

  "Yeah, I know that,” Kai said. “But, it still feels me. I want to be the aggressor for once."

  "Holy, I think pys like this suit you best," Yuel said. "Your offense and defense are very banced and yood at switg between them on the fly. It makes you very good at tering."

  "So, you're saying I'd mainly be using cross-ters if this was boxing?"

  "Yes, something like that.” Yuel nodded. “You’re the type who maintain solid defense for prolonged amounts of time and then unch a ter as soon as you see an opening. I’ve seen you do this many times."

  "Huh. I 't say that's a pystyle I'm particurly into, but I py like that sometimes, sure."

  Kai couldn't tell whether she should treat this as a pliment. Yuel definitely wasn't trying to butter her up sidering how bad he was with these things, so he really meant everything he said.

  But, if this is the pystyle he thinks I’m best at, then that means... Kai frowned. Yeah, I'm really not sure I like the implications of this. But, whatever. I think about it after we’re done mopping these bastards.

  If possible, Kai would have preferred to directly froargets. As, the game didn't revolve around her personal whims. Stratus was trying to win as a team so Kai had to pull her weight accly, even if she didn't agree with every single py she had to do in the process.

  "Okay, let's do it," Kai said. "One cross-ter, ing right up."

  "Good." Yuel nodded. "Nia, are you fih this pn, too?"

  "It sounds okay," Nia said. "Not sure I sneak up to Mid, though. They got their eyes on me 24/7. Scary."

  "Yes, it's clear they're on guard against you, even more so after you tried to gank Top,” Yule said. “But, there's a good ce this pn will distract them enough to give you an opening."

  "I hope so."

  Nia excelled at telling when the eeam aying attention to her and when they weren’t. It was almost like a sixth sense.

  But, that's also one of her weaknesses. Yuel thought. She's very good at it, so she relies on it a bit too much.

  It’s true that it’s optimal to strike the enemy when they least expect it, but Nia couldn’t just sit there and do nothing until an opportunity magically presents itself. It was necessary for her to be more proactive about this and search for ways to manually create such opportunities.

  But, that's ohing she hasn't learned how to do yet. Yuel thought. So, it's up to me to set up the stage for her.

  And so, the pn was set in motioe the mild reluce, Kai and Nia both agreed to follow Yuel's pn.

  It was time to kick off this scheme, right at the start of the mid-game!

  DarkestCymore