They picked Pirate and not Seraph? Yuel frowned. Hmm. Could that imply Winner is the Carry? Or, maybe Cato realized that banking only on the endgame isn't a good idea against us, so they're going for a more well-rounded lineup.

  There was no telling for sure what any of this implied. Cato always made his picks difficult to outguess.

  Normally, it's best to pick the Top Laner before the sed banning phase. Yuel thought. But, if I do that, I'll give Cato a free ce to ban any Mid Laner he wants. That won't bone well for us.

  The enemy's Aeromancer pick was a tad tricky, especially sidering it was going to be in the hands of either Theorist or Merlin. They were both defensive pyers who could utilize the Aeromancer's remote farming to stall the game.

  To properly challenge an Aeromancer in the was best to pick a mage with a long reach. There were multiple good didates on that front, but if Yuel doesn't pie of them now, then they will all be banned for sure; Cato will definitely pull a nasty move like that.

  "Sorry, Ben," Yuel said. "I'd like to pick Mid first if you don't mind."

  "No problem at all," Ben reassured. "You know best what to pick."

  This wasn't just Ben being his usual submissive self. He really had no reason to worry about the order of picks here.

  He py many defensive csses hly the same level. Yuel thought. So, no matter how hard Cato tries to ban Ben's best options, there will always be somethi.

  Thanks to Ben's background as a former Support pyer, he knew how to drive many different bruisers and tanks, so he had a big array of options to choose from. As such, it was impossible to seal his defeions within a single banning phase.

  “So, Kai, you’re up ,” Yuel said. “I was thinking of Sorcerer.”

  “Same as st time, huh.” Kai made a small sigh that was difficult to interpret.

  “Do you want a different css?”

  “Nah, Sorcerer is fine.”

  “Then, why the sigh?”

  “Nothing, really.” Kai rolled her eyes. “It’s just that thinking about bashing my head against Theorist’s defense again is a little depressing. I almost want to pick a hyper-aggressive mage and go ham on her.”

  “Would you really ‘go ham’ on her even if you pick a css like that?”

  “Of course, why wouldn’t I?”

  “Well…” I still remember the title Vi gave her, the Softhearted Amazon. It sounds silly at best, but I suspect it’s actually on point, like most of Vi’s wild titles.

  As a css, Sorcerer was definitely more on the defensive side. As such, perhaps it felt more natural for Kai to py the css passively against Theorist.

  But, down to it, Kai was more of an aggressive pyer. She had a solid defense, but her game pn usually involved a mixture of attacks and sidesteps. She carefully dodged ining attacks while ung terstrikes of her own.

  A, none of that came into py when Kai faced Theorist. It felt like Kai never wao go on the offehere, no matter the situation.

  She did force herself to attack a couple of times, possibly because she realized her own passiveness. But, in the end, Kai never quite itted to her offense. She only unched a few attacks until Theorist reinforced her defenses, and then Kai gave up.

  That’s really not like her. Yuel thought. She’s supposed to be more petitive than that. If somebody blocks her out like this, she’s supposed to get salty about it and search for ways to turables on them.

  A, against Theorist, Kai chose to py nice for some reason. She wasn’t like that against Merlin.

  And, it’s not like she’s feeling nervous about pying the Leopards or anything. Yuel thought. I’ve seen her deliver great pys when the fight didn’t Theorist.

  For example, when Winner was baited into ganking Mid st game, Kai’s performance shot up all of a sudden. She fronted Winner with everything she had, building up the most ultimate ter. It was one of the riskiest forms of offense and she executed it almost fwlessly.

  Noy was in lih how Kai usually pys. Yuel thought. The fact she pull off a py like this under aremely stressful situation proves that everything is fih her today. It’s only this matchup against Theorist that’s throwing her off.

  Hence, Yuel couldn’t stop thinking about that "Softhearted Amazon" title. Though it seemed like an unfouheory, it was an undeniably ving expnation for Kai's lukeerforman Mid.

  But, Yuel didn't pursue this versation any further because the topic obviously irritated Kai. The girl was hellbent on denying everythied to this, so there was er her needlessly, especially not before such a critical game.

  After the Sorcerer pick, the drafting phase ehe sed banning phase. Stratus had a slightly unpleasant position there, which the enemy didn't fail to exploit.

  My how splendid~ iled impishly. You left your Top wide open for bans. How nice of you.

  For now, it was difficult to determine whether Yuel made the right call, but then again, what choice did he even have? The poor d was stuck between a rod a hard pce, so he had to give up on something. Basically, everything roceeding just as Cato orchestrated it~

  So, you value the Mid pick more than Top. Cato thought. That's curious. Does that mean Phoenix py many different csses? Then again, you probably have no idea what's waiting for you in Top, do you? My, how electrifying it is to be the only one in the know~

  Poor Yuel had no idea that Jin was going to steamroll that ne. Phoenix absolutely he most defensive css he could get in order to not be instantly trashed by the Emperor.

  "In the end, it looks like I'll be banning a bunch of Top csses anyway," Cato informed.

  "Sure." Jin only said that. He didn't care either way, for he was fident in his ability to trample over Phoenix. Truly, it was an attitude befitting the Emperor.

  Following up on his pns, Cato banned Vanguard, Terramancer, and Padin. The enemy hadn’t picked their Support either, so a Padin ban targeted two nes in one shot.

  Uo’s great position in this banning phase, Yuel had to make some shots in the darkness. He couldn't know for sure whether the Leopards’ Viking pick was for Top or Juherefore his only 100% reliable course of a was tet Support csses.

  In particur, a ancer ban was a big deal. This css caused Lars’ Elf lots of trouble by obstrug his field of view.

  "Aww, yeah!" Lars pumped a fist. "For real, this ice dude be annoying."

  , Yuel banned Lumimahough it hasn’t been picked today yet, this anti-stealth css will obviously cause problems for a certain hide-and-seek pro.

  "Yes!" Nia pumped a little fist uhe table in respoo this ban. Good Lumimancer pyers were like the bane of her existehis hax css could expose Nia anywhere and at any time. Scary.

  For the st ban, Yuel banned Bishop, which was another rather problematic css for Nia. It had the ability to se allies of ive status effects regardless of distance, which was something that Nia's Drow wouldly apprentibsp;

  On that he sed banning phase came to an end. , the drafting tinued on Stratus' side.

  "Is Druid fih you?" Yuel asked.

  "Yes," Ben answered. "It's actually the css I was going to suggest. Are you a mind reader?"

  "Yeah, he is." Nia decred fidently. "He’s a robotic, telepathic, mutant alien. Scary."

  "I feel like I’m being a more and more bizarre creature by the day." Yuel made a face. "At this point, I 't even tell what sort of thing you're g I am. How one be an alien, a robot, and a mutant all at ohese three things fually tradict each other."

  "It just works."

  "Sure..." Yuel sighed. "As for your question, Ben. No, I'm not a mind reader. I just know that you like Druid and that you performed detly with it during club practice, so that makes it a good pick."

  "Oh, I see!" Ben nodded. "You really know everything about what others py. It's amazing."

  "It's my job to know these things," Yuel said matter-of-factly. "I'm in charge of the drafting, so that's the bare minimum I have to be aware of."

  "It's still amazing."

  "If you say so."

  , it was the enemy's turn to pick their st two csses...

  DarkestCymore