“So, Pip. Anything else that caught your attention?”

  “Yes, of course, sir!” Pip nodded repeatedly. “I’ve written many, many, MANY more notes!”

  "Yeah, I'm sure you did,” Howard said. “The question is whether any of it is useful for the short term and be discussed briefly."

  "I'll check, sir!" Pip flipped through a few more pages. "Hmm. Holy speaking, sir, most of the notes are about Rosemary."

  "Yeah, you already said that.” Howard wao skip the topic at first, but then he realized it might be a mistake. Pip had something useful to say about Bot, so maybe he’ll enlighten us about Rosemary too.

  “Well then, is there anything insightful you tell about Rosemary’s performaher than the fact she domihe game?"

  "Hmm.” Pip flipped bad forth through the hundreds of notes he wrote. “Ohing I’d like to mention is that I tried to evaluate Rosemary’s skill with Werewolf as opposed to Lionfolk, since Lionfolk reviously established as her main css."

  "That's a good line of thinking."

  Based on the Leopards vs. Valkyries scrim, it was evident Rosemary's favorite css was Lionfolk, as she picked the css in fames out of five. That's why Howard immediately bahe css during the banning phase.

  "So, what was your impression of her Werewolf?"

  "I dare say it measured up to her skill with Lion, sir," Pip said. "In fact, her Wolf might everohan her Lion!"

  "Are you sure it’s not because she got an early lead and dominated in this particur game?"

  "I tried to take that into sideration and stay as impartial as possible, sir," Pip said. "Holy, I 't say for sure that my clusion wasn’t affected by the way she snowballed, sir. heless, the pys I've seen her perform with Wolf vinced me she possesses great css mastery!"

  "I sed that, actually," Dan added. "Girl sure knows how to use that dang Wolf to the fullest. I mean, some of the pys she pulled were real impressive, like how she blinked in and ult'd me in the middle of creating a portal. Shit was as hell!"

  "Well, of course you'd praise her," Howard said. "She killed you so many times that there's no way you wouldn't be impressed by her performance."

  Being awed by Rosemary's execution was like a defense meism in this case. Dan died so many times that his brain had to justify all of it. So, the easiest excuse was to say "The enemy is to!".

  "As another bystander here," Gilbert said. "I agree with Pip on this ohat Werewolf was really impressive, both tactically and meically. Sure, you attribute most of her success to snowballing, but her execution was nearly fwless in the pys I’ve seen."

  "Hmm. I see." Howard nodded. "In that case, we better ban both Lion and Wolf."

  Uhe previous inputs, this one was far more credible in Howard’s book. Gilbert wasn’t part of that game, so his opinion wasn’t swayed by Rosemary’s dominance. In addition, he was a veteran pyer with far more experiehan Pip, and he also wasn’t the type to overhype things.

  If even Gilbert says so, then it's got to be true. Howard cluded. I was on the fence about this until now, but they vinced me.

  Small but important observations like this were the whole reason to ask for bystanders’ opinions. Their inputs were expected to be less biased because they saw the entire picture during the game, and they also weren't as personally ied because they weren't the ones pying oage.

  In particur, Pip was very good at destrug matches iime, albeit his analysis was a tad excessive and overhyped at times. Still, having ahought-out ral opinion was very valuable for the team.

  Last year, we had Yuel run these errands for us. Heh. Howard thought ba the days when the previous first-string roped Yuel int full-time for them. They sent the freshman to scout eeams, pile notes, and sometimes eve them during the first-string's official meetings.

  Of course, Aron being Aron, the guy demanded full trol over the procedure. He always carefully reviewed Yuel’s notes before any official meeting.

  But, over time, even Aron had to accept that Yuel was gifted at this job. And so, the first-string dumped more and more responsibilities on the freshman while they themselves focused on practig.

  I was looking forward to tinuing this tradition this year as well… until Yuel pulled a fast one on me. Howard sighed. After him, the only o in the club who could fulfill a simir role was Greg, but…

  That guy was a handful, to put it lightly. Somewhere deep down he was the studious type, so he could definitely researemy teams and present the information iings. That is, if he felt like doing it…

  Nah, he only cares about himself. Howard shook his head. He’d only go to great lengths to research stuff that helps HIM specifically. He couldn’t care less about the first-string so long as he isn’t a part of it. What a useless brat.

  Because of this, for a while, Yuel’s leave was a huge blow to StormBlitz. Howard effectively had to split his focus between managing the first-string, information gathering, aings. It was rather tiresome.

  Fortunately, a short time ter, Pip showed up. He passed the sed part of the entrance exam with flying colors, and unlike Greogry, he was motivated enough to tribute to the first-string without being a selfish brat.

  He already siders himself a part of the team even though he doesn’t py oage. Howard hat’s a great mio have.

  There were only five pyers oage at any given time, but that didn’t mean they were the “eeam”. The rest of the club supported the five representatives in many ways outside the games themselves.

  Everybody practiced in the same club, exged ideas, studied the eogether, and so forth. So, even though the supporters weren’t the main fighting for the stage, their tribution to the victory could sometimes be just as valuable.

  Yuel and Pip both uood that, unlike Gregory. And to think that the guy was supposed to be the vice-captain…

  Instead of being useful, he and Taison are more busy with trying to get into the first-string. Well, good luck with that.

  After exhausting Pip’s main intel, Have the team a short break before the game. However, he himself tinued discussing the topic with Pip and Gilbert to make sure he didn’t miss anything else.

  Losing aname is not an option. Howard asserted. We WILL win, and we will do it as ly as possible to make everybody fet the previous game.

  With that determination, StormBlitz headed into the sed game of the day…

  DarkestCymore