The drafting phase came to an end. This sighe start of the 4th game of the day, as well as Stratus' st ce to vihe Leopards t out their Korean pyer.

  Their lineup is rgely unged. Yuel analyzed the enemy's picks.

  Once again, the Bot duo went with Seraph and ahose two gave Yuel and Lars some trouble st game, but unfortunately, Yuel didn't get around to banning them. There were other important bans he had to attend to first, like banning Sage for Mid.

  Sage was one of the best defensive csses, so Yuel hoped to make it a little easier for Kai in Mid by removing Sage from the table. As, this move wasn’t very effective.

  With Sage baheorist simply opted for Aeromancer, yet arong defensive css. Its range wasn’t as long as Sage’s, but it had more than enough ways to farm minions from a safe distance. In short, it was another Mid css that fit Theorist's defensive pystyle like a glove.

  Meanwhile, Kai picked Sorcerer again at Yuel's request. It was a steal-pick that preveheorist from taking the css for herself. But ultimately. the effectiveness of this decision proved to be questio best.

  In the end, Theorist still got herself a very defensive css, and Kai also has a css that leans more toward defense. Yuel frowhis isly an optimal setup for starting any attacks in Mid. Sigh.

  It seemed that, once again, Kai will not get to py a key role ieam’s offense. Not only was she burdened by her “Softhearted Amazon” syndrome, but even her css favored defense over offense.

  Though, maybe that’s for the better. Yuel tried to vince himself. If she’s not in the mood to attayway, then might as well piething that’ll fortify her defense.

  That was the line of reasoning that led him toward making Kai pick a css like Sorcerer despite the disadvantages. Even if it failed to stop Theorist from pig a defensive css, at least it reinforced the team’s defense in Mid.

  heless, this put the eeam’s offeential in an awkward spot.

  Ben won't go on the offeher because that's just not his pystyle. Yuel thought. So, that's why I had to go for su extreme piyself.

  Indeed, his pick was a tad peculiar for a Support. It was definitely viable enough, as proven by its occasional usage on the petitive se, but it was very irregur and niche.

  Warlock had many strong tools as a Mid Laner, but it also had very det supp tools as well. Some of its Invocations boosted damage, but others provided utility such as defense shredding and sileng.

  And of course, there was also Warlock’s infamous ultimate. It was the very reason why many regarded Warlock as a brain-dead “click-to-win” css. And indeed, it was one of the stro and most versatile ults iire game.

  Not to mention, this ult doubled as another source of “stealth”, which could really help a certain phantom they had oeam.

  Nia usually sneak around unnoticed by her own power, but that's mostly in Ranked ainst weaker oppos. Yuel thought. So far, she hasn't brought any notable results against the more troublesome oppos, like Taurus' Triangle and the Leopards.

  Was her stealth iive against high-caliber pyers? Or, did these specific games simply have bad circumstances for her?

  Either way, I 't rely oo ehe eeam’s offense. Lars and I have to press offense harder this time around.

  And, as expected, Yuel was right to worry about Nia’s reliability. The girl was fidgeting all around and her eyes darted from side to side. Even though she had already pyed one game oage today, it seemed like her nap pressed the reset button.

  So, we have to wait for her to acclimate again. Yuel sighed. To make things worse, we’ve got yet another nervous fellow this time around.

  Ben ale as a sheet, he looked even worse than Nia. Was he going to be okay...?

  "Rex, my dudes!" Lars called out. "Sure, we’re going up against the regional champs and stuff, but we already beat them ooday. So, let's just do it again! Ezpz."

  "Y-Yeah..." Ben nodded weakly.

  "Regional champs..." Nia repeated. "Scary."

  "Weeeelp." Lars scratched the back of his head. "That wasn't very effective, haha."

  "This is never easy,” Yuel said. “We'll just have to trust them to sort things out during the game itself."

  "Yep, sounds abht. There ain't nothier than practical experience, yo!"

  "You twot endless fidence, huh?" Kai made a face. "It's as if being oage doesn't affect you at all."

  "Nah, of course we're a little nervous too," Lars admitted. "Ain't nobody be on a stage in front of an audiend feel zero pressure, that’s just ain’t human, dude. But, ya just gotta get used to that pressure, that’s da wae."

  "Yes," Yuel agreed. "Once you e to terms with the fact that feeling pressure is part of the experiehen it bees much easier to deal with it."

  "S-So," Ben stuttered. "Is it normal to feel like your insides are twisting and that you might puke?"

  "Weeeelp," Lars started. "That sounds oreme side for sure. Are you okay there, dude?"

  "N-Not so sure, to be ho..." Ben held his stomach as he answered. An odd internal pain had been assaulting him ever since he set foot oage. It felt like he had to go to the toilet, except not really? It was weird and disturbing. Will he be able to actually focus on the game like this...?

  "Does your stomach feel irritated?" Kai asked.

  “Y-Yeah, something like that.”

  "I read that it’s perfectly normal. Besides, I also…” Kai paused for a moment. “... I also sometimes feel something simir, so it’s not just you.”

  "Oh, so this is normal..." Ben sighed in relief. The stomach pain was uling for sure, but it sounded like many people experiehe same thing. So, it’s not like Ben had some kind of special dition.

  Besides, Yuel and Lars also attested that they were a little nervous despite how fident they looked. So, it seemed like experience was the key here.

  So, I just have to e. A-After all, I'm the... the EnduringPhoenix... He felt his cheeks heating up from the mere mention of his new niame. It was so embarrassing!

  That bombastic overfident name was ed by her than Vi because Ben couldn’t e up with something good himself. It was overall a positive ge but it felt way over the top!

  His previous niame, Fatty, wasn't something that Ben came up with or wanted. Mike and Co. threatened him to pick that terrible IGN as part of his “repentance”.

  Fortunately, after the i was resolved, Ben was free to pick himself a new niame. But, of course, he first had to make sure that his “friends” allowed it now.

  "Nope, denied!" Larry said. "You gonuck with this nick for life, khaha!"

  “Yep, you gon in the pro se with that name!” James added. “Imagihey announce every pyer’s loud, and then there’s like… FATTY! HAHAHA!”

  The duo ughed to no end at Ben’s expehey probably meant no harm with these jokes, but for Ben, this was a very important matter.

  Fortunately, the leader of the gang uood the true gravity of the topic.

  “It gonna be embarrassing if you represent the school with that niame,” Mike said. “So, go ge it pronto.”

  With permission granted, Ben sulted the club about the procedure of ging an official IGN. It turned out that CssSely disced the practice because they didn’t want fickle teens to keep ging their registered names every other week.

  In Cssmancers, a “golden name” was supposed to be special and unique, representing the pyer’s identity just as their real name did. Therefore, every newly submitted name underwent a reviewing process. Basically, registering a new name was supposed to be a “big deal”.

  As such, Ben had to fill up a lot of papers and expin iail why he wao ge his niame. And, if the supplied reasons weren’t ving enough, then CssSoft reserved the right to reject the appeal. It was truly quite the ordeal.

  At first, the whole thing seemed so tedious that Ben simply gave up on it before he even tried. He was sure that CssSoft will reject his application on the spot.

  However, the entire club enced him to push forward with the request. Vi and Yuel even volunteered to help Ben pose all the expnations as to why it was so necessary for him to ge his name from Fatty.

  And so, thanks to the push on the back, Ben somehow pulled through the process. But after that, a few weeks passed without a response. As time went on, Ben was more and more vihat his application was rejected or straight-up ignored.

  But, just a few weeks ago, he finally received a response and his request roved! And so, his new IGN became… EnduringPhoenix. This nick sounded a little embarrassing in its own way, but it didn’t even begin to pare to the insult that was Fatty.

  "You have endured many ordeals!" Vi said at the time. "And in the end, you revived from the ashes and recimed your normal life once more! Heh, I dub you the EnduringPhoenix!"

  Vi's loudness retty much the only ving factor in that whole suggestion. He insisted that this was the most fitting o represent Ben's new life of freedom as a proper member of the club. And. when it ut like this, it really sounded kinda nice.

  Ben didn't have any good ideas for a niame anyway, so he ended up going with Vi's suggestion. It seemed like an alright idea at the time, but the truth dawned on him a few hours after submitting the request…

  Doesn’t this name sound kind of pompous? Ben shuddered. I think I should've gone for something a little subtler…

  As, there was no going ba that decision. From heh, Ben was known as EnduringPhoenix!

  Aaaaaah, just thinking about it makes me embarrassed… heless, he was now obligated to live up to this bombastiiame, so he had to do his best!

  I mean, I've really endured quite a lot over the past year. Ben thought. I always told myself that I deserved it for my sin, but it was really too much. Even now, I still 't believe I mao endure all of it.

  During that dark episode of his life, it seemed uhat Ben will ever be able to bee a proper member of the club. He missed way too many practice sessions to be sidered a legitimate club member. In fact, it wouldn’t have been strange for Kai to ht kick him out of the club.

  A, here he ying as part of the first-string on the petitive stage. Furthermore, the team entrusted him with the major responsibility of being Vi’s temporary rept.

  I-I have to do my best! Ben gulped. If we lose here then it'll be 1-3, which is like losing the entire scrim! N-No pressure...

  Ben was thrht into the deep waters with this sub. Frankly, a part of him even wao run away. This setup was way too stressful!

  But, he couldn't just quit. He was also a member of Stratus, a petitive pyer like everybody else. So, he was obligated to see this through.

  Not to mention, he wasn’t the only one feeling anxious here. As Kai said, everybody felt pressure to some degree or another. So, after ing this far, Ben had no choice but to quer this irksome feeling and push forward!

  If I survived that "bullying" so to speak, then I should be able to live through this pressure as well. I-It's nothing to me! Yes, nothing at all...

  As his fidence was wavering bad forth, a loud shout exploded from the audience.

  "HEY BEN!" Somebody yelled. "GO GET THEM!"

  "YEAH!"

  "YOU SHOW 'EM!"

  A trio was shouting at the top of their lungs from the audiehe referee shot them a gre but they didn’t care in the slightest.

  "THESE GUYS ARE NOTHING!"

  "YEAH, THEY 'T EVE MEMES!"

  “TOTAL SCRUBS!”

  Despite the distance, Ben reized the trio at a gnce: Mike, Larry, and James. His old friends were all here!

  T-They didn't tell me they were ing! Ben jumped in his seat. Mike did mention he'll be watg how my "career" develops, but I didn't think he meant it literally...

  This only piled further pressure on Ben. He now had to live up both to the club’s expectations and to the high standards of his former friends. And, there was also the rest of the audience as well, which will surely be disappointed if Ben performs worse than Vi. It was so stressful!

  But, it's not all bad. Ben found himself smiling amidst the teuation. Maybe I'm starting to uand a little what it means to “get used to the pressure”.

  The fact Mike and Co. were here put extra pressure on Ben but it didn't feel bad, not at all. In fact, it ied Ben with a renewed sense of fidence!

  In the past, that very same trio cimed that Ben had no ce of ever pying petitively. A, now they were here, cheering on him and saying he had the game in the bag. This was the greatest 180 in the history of 180s!

  S-Somehow, I really start feeling like I might be able to pull this off! Ben looked at his shaky palms, thehem against his plump cheeks. BAM! He smacked himself from both sides at once!

  Admittedly, the sound was a little louder than he expected, but that was fihe high volume only further reinforced how big of a deal all of this was for him.

  At long st, Ben was here, pying on the petitive stage. And, the friends he "betrayed" in order to get here were finally ing to terms with his as. Not only that, but they even cheered for him!

  Now, I py without feeling any guilt. Ben nodded. L-Let's do this!

  With that determinatioarted off his debut match. Was he going to live up to everybody's expectations? Could he serve as ae rept for Vi against AbsoluteChallenger?

  Hoy, he wasn't too sure what will be the ao these questions. But, there was ohing he did know: he’ll work as hard as humanly possible to turn all of them into a loud, fident "YES!".

  DarkestCymore