The banning phase began. Right off the gate, the Valkyries came swinging.

  "My, they're sure targeting us alright." Ellen blinked a few times as she examihe enemy's bans. They hit Padin and Ranger right away, clearly targeting Howard and Ellen.

  "So, they did their homework." Howard nodded. "Newbies or not, at least we say for sure they're taking the petition seriously. They came here to win, that alone already makes them dangerous."

  In response, Howard banned Lionfolk, which seemed like the favorite css of Rosemary, AKA the “La Princess”. Other than that, there was very little information about the Valkyries, so Howard didn’t have any good bans off-hand.

  Rosemary pyed Lancer before, but it wasn’t a top-tier css and her performah it wasn’t stelr. So, it didn’t seem like a worthwhile ban.

  Instead, he banned Shadow Walker for the protocol. In additio rid of Knight because that was always a good rule of thumb.

  These were all det moves, but frankly, Howard wasn’t thinking too deeply about any of this. He just went for the most straightforward meta ideas, believing that was enough. However, as the drafting phase progressed, he began to realize that was a mistake.

  Tch, that Sage is a nasty ter to our Pyro. Howard clicked his tongue. Such a good pick. I have to say, they sure don’t feel like amateurs when it es to drafting.

  Right from the banning phase and up until the end of the drafting, the Valkyries exhibited a deep uanding of the game. They respoo StormBlitz’s te-game p with a hyper-aggressive lineup, setting this up to be an iing game.

  Furthermore, the Valkyries effitly deormBlitz some strong te-game options like Sorcerer, as well as caught Howard off-guard with that pinpoint Sage ter-pick. This roving to be a surprisingly tough game already.

  I had a feeling I should've goh something safer like Electro. Howard sighed. Julia just kept begging for Pyro so I went for it without thinking…

  This was Howard’s mistake, he reized as muoheless, he had the urge to vent. "Yht this on yourself, Julia."

  "Hmph No big deal." Julia crossed her arms. "I beat a Sage with Pyro any day."

  "I sure hope that's the case. Otherwise, we're going to have a very bad time in Mid"

  Truth be told, it was ued to see a newbie team like the Valkyries pick Sage. PrinceCharming pyed it briefly against the Leopards but her performance didn’t leave much of an impression. She cked the necessary mastery t that plex css online in a petitive enviro.

  People like memeing about how it’s a broken “spambot” css, but that's a shallow take. Howard thought. Sage only have an easy time up to Silver rank at best. Afterward, it bees an uphill battle. You ’t just go out and “spam” your spells as you please.

  On paper, Sage was indeed a mage with the seemingly unfair ability to quickly cast multiple spells in succession. However, the question was WHEN and HOW to utilize that spamming ability. The pyer had to maheir resources carefully and find the right situations.

  their Mid pull that off? Howard wondered. From what I've seen, Charming has det meical skill and she made some solid on-the-spot decisions against Leo, at least in the first game of the scrim. Afterward, she was all over the pce.

  To be fair, their eeam was in shambles after the exhausting first round. None of them actually performed that well after that point, save for Rosemary.

  heless, Charming’s dee in ability felt the most extreme of them all. One moment she was a serious tender for being the Valkyries’ 2 pyer, but the moment she looked like the worst they had to offer.

  So, she is either overfident with this Sage pick, or she practiced really hard and actually got good with it. We’ll find out soon enough.

  The fact remaihat Sage was a ter to Pyromanultiple levels, which spelled bad news for Julia. But, maybe it was a good test for that troublemaker. It’ll be iing to see how Julia hahis disadvantageous matchup.

  Either way, I have no iion of dropping a single game today. Howard asserted. So, if Julia has a rough time in the early game, I'll just have Dan babysit her. This means he might have to be able to rotate quickly on demand.

  The gears in Howard’s brain finally started moving again after this wake-up call. He realized he had to treat this drafting phase with utmost attention. Ironic, sidering he just warned Dan and Roi to take this game seriously a few minutes ago.

  Upon closer iion, the match-up in Top was also quite iing: Viking vs. Berserker. It had two Nordic warriors squaring it off.

  Based on the previous scrim, the enemy’s Top Laner, GoldenLady, was a rather unstable pyer. She pyed simirly to Julia's aggressive mode in many ways. The moment Lady's fuse went off, she went full berserk mode and stopped at nothing to assault her oppo.

  I trust Roi to fend off her attacks. But, I'd also like to be able to capitalize on her overextensions whenever possible.

  An aggressive pyer like Lady roo overitting duritacks. That made her a great target to focus on.

  So, I'd like Dan to be able to rotate over there quickly and gank on demand. Howard reasoned. Hmm. This already makes it two nes he’d have to closely pay attention to.

  In other words, Dan’s css absolutely needed mobility options. He might find himself rotating a lot between Top and Mid, so he had to be able to do so without wasting too much precious time.

  "So, basically," Dan started. "You're saying I hafta go ht?"

  "o, huh? An iing option." That definitely wasn't the first idea in Howard's head sidering how rare the css was. But, it certainly fulfilled the required ditions.

  ancer was an assassin-mage hybrid with the ability to manipute time and space. For the needs of this particur game, Haste would reat Movement Speed boost, whereas Time Portal would allow Dan to teleport between nes on demand. Truly, it was a whole package.

  With these abilities in its kit, ancer was uionably one of the best csses for the job. The only worrisome factor was the css's tier ia, which was currently resting somewhere between high d low B. Not amazing.

  It's not TERRIBLE per se, but it definitely needs more love from the devs. Howard thought. And, it's also a plex css to py, so not many bother with it.

  Despite the impressive mobility options, ancer wasn’t a favorite in the pro se. The main reason for that was the delicate resource-ma aspect. The css had the ability to unleash some of the most impressive of spells in the game, but doing so cost Time Accel stacks, a resource that could only be obtaihrough the passage of time.

  Fortunately, Dan-of-all-trades was very much capable of pying ancer, just as he could py any other Jungler css. So, css mastery wasn't an issue for their level of py, especially when sidering their oppos for this game.

  "Alright, let's go with o.”

  "Heck yeah, let's go!" Dan pumped a fist. "'t believe I actually get to py the css on this stage! I thought it'd never happen!”

  "Yeah, this is a rare situation where o happens to have all the tools we need," Howard expined. "As I said, you'll likely be rotating a lot between Top and Mid, so you have to be fast."

  "Yep, and o is fast as fuck boiiii."

  "So, it's settled then."

  Against stronger oppos, Howard would’ve hesitated a lot more. But, against the Valkyries, a ancer should be a great pick.

  And so, the drafting phase tinued. From the enemy's lineup, it was clear that they were pnning to push offense in this game. They picked Impaler and Berserker, both early-game csses.

  They want to rush us down. Howard smiled meaningfully. Heh, this reminds me of the tactics Yuel tried against me. But, I’m sorry, “princess”. This won't work for you.

  "Sihey banned your favorite," Howard addressed Ellen. "What would you like instead? Pirate is baoo, so you have to go for something more obscure."

  "Suaughty girls, banning all the easy options. Hmm." Ellen pced a finger on her cheek and tilted her head. "These furious kittens are obviously pnning to push hard during the early game, right? So, I say we lure them in with Seraph~"

  "Oh? You really like pying with fire, don't you?"

  "Fire happens to be the best way to attract moths, don't you think?” Ellen smiled meaningfully. “Danny rotate super fast with ht? So, unish them in Bot the moment they try to attack~"

  "That's provided he won't be busy dealing with another that time," Hoointed out. "But yeah, I see yle. Basically, you're saying they're already eager to go ham on offense, so we might as well pe attractive baits."

  "Exactly~!” Ellen nodded. “We should make their hunger for offense blind them~"

  "I see Esmeralda taught you well."

  “Teehee, of course she did~!”

  Pig Seraph was equivalent to installing a time bomb the enemy had to deal with, as their lineup wasn't suited for the te-game in the slightest. In other words, it’ll be Game Over for them the moment Seraph es online.

  The Valkyries will surely reize that as well, so they will feel pelled to dial up their aggression. That’ll surely bring about many punishable overextensions.

  "And, that's where we turables on them~" Ellen procimed happily. “The moment they make a mistake, we switch from defeo offense and make them regret all their life choices~”

  "Yeah, that should work," Hreed. "The idea itself is on the riskier side, but we should be able to pull it off against this team. It’ll be good practice."

  "My, didn't you just tell us to not uimate the Valkyries?"

  "Yeah, I did," Howard admitted. "But, we should take everything in proportiht? No matter how you twist it, the Valkyries aren't on par with the biggest threats in the region, so this is a good opportunity to practice pying a hyper te-game p against an aggressive team.”

  “My how risky.”

  “Yes, it is a bit risky,” Howard admitted. “But, going forward, I’ve been thinking how it might be useful if we get used to taking small risks here and there.”

  “My, my.” Ellen smiled meaningfully. "Is that part of your brainst for our eventual rerun with the Leopards?"

  "Heh, maybe it is." That scrim left a bad taste in Howard's mouth. From start to end, StormBlitz struggled immensely against the Leopards' iron wall of defehis team simply wasn't built to deal with su obnoxious level of hyper-turtling.

  Ever since, Howard had been musing how to win the match. Apprentece’s existence was a huge problem in its ht, but even before he took the stage StormBlitz was already struggling. They just barely came on top in the end, but it was anybody’s game the eime.

  If we ’t thhly beat Leo before they resort to Apprehen we have no hope of beating them ohat happens. After all, there’s very little we do about the fact Apprentece himself is pro-level material.

  Rather than chasing the impossible, Horeferred to keep things practical. As such, he focused on how to beat the rest of the Leopards, rather than the mohat retence.

  The Leo vs. Stratus scrim already showed just how difficult it is to take that guy down. Howard thought. Even Lars just barely got a kill on the guy despite the fact they caught him overextending.

  So, while it was important to e up with pns for beating Apprentece himself, it was far more crucial to ter the Leopards as a whole. For that, StormBlitz had to ge something about its game pn.

  Against turtly teams like that, I may have to get used to taking some risks. Otherwise, it’d be impossible to bust through their defense. Howard smiled wryly. Heh, Yuel would ugh if he heard me say something like this.

  Most of Yuel's tactics were high risk high reward, to a fanatic degree. That was the main reason he and Howard never saw eye to eye and rarely pyed on the same team even during practice.

  However, the Leo scrim made Howard resider some things about his approach. Sometimes, pying "safe and steady" simply didn't cut it. There were obnoxious teams out there that waheir oppos to py slow like that because they excelled at battles of attrition.

  In a way, Yuel's ky team pushed Leo around way better than we did. Howard thought. We got two wins faster than Stratus did, but each of these games was a toss. Meanwhile, Yuel mao get just as far with inferior teammates and memes.

  Clearly, Yuel's risky approach was able to make a dent in the Leopards' wall of defense. And, StormBlitz mao do the same only once Howard subbed Julia ie her less-than-satisfactory performance overall, her aggressive approach created some iing opportunities for StormBlitz.

  Frankly, subbing her in was a big risk Howard didn't think he'd be taking so early into the year, especially not against the region’s stroeam. He inteo keep Julia’s existender ers until the regionals, but the circumstances forced his hand. He had to improvise after struggling so much against the enemy’s defense.

  Surprisingly, adding Julia to the roster ied the team with the spice it needed. She was a hidden trump card that took the Leopards by surprise.

  Frankly, I started having doubts about whether we could push through that wall of defehout Julia’s aggression. Howard admitted only to himself. So, I had to test it right there. There was no time to wait until the regionals for the first test run.

  Besides, there was also Julia’s ck of petitive experieo sider. Scrims existed to help pyers gain said experience, so it was far better to let the girl debut long before the regionals.

  In the end, I took the shot and it sorta worked out. Howard thought. So, that got me thinking. Maybe I o be more dynamid spontaneous sometimes, so long as I don’t go overboard like Yuel.

  Even with a troublemaker like Julia oeam, StormBlitz was still able to maintain solid defense overall. Howard had to work harder than usual to make up for whatever aggressive mistakes Julia itted, but it turned out alright in the end.

  If the ehing be settled with me w a little harder, then I’ll do it. Howard thought. A riskier game p necessarily trao a wame pn, that’s something I have to internalize. So long as I offset the risk with good shot-calling, then it might be worth taking.

  It was ironic. Over the year, it seemed like Yuel started appreciating good defense, whereas Howard developed an i in good offense.

  The st time they cshed, each of them aragon of their respective cult. But, now they were dipping their toes into the arts of the opposite side. So, following that mentality…

  “Alright, let’s go with Seraph,” Howard said. “Get ready for an uphill battle in the ne.”

  "I was born ready~"

  And so, Howard locked in Seraph, the Hyper Carry that guaranteed victory so long as the team safely made it to the te-game. The main challenge will be to survive in good health until then, which was surely doable against a team like the Valkyries. It should serve as good practice.

  And so, the drafting phase went on. By the end of it, the Valkyries had a team geared toward winning the mid-game, whereas StormBlitz had a defensive lineup for the te-game.

  ===Valkyries===

  Fiona (Rosemary): Vampire

  Karen (Lavender): Impaler

  Andria (PrinceCharming): Sage

  Lua (Nike): Aquamancer

  elia (GoldenLady): Berserker

  ===StormBlitz===

  Howard (Aegis): ancer

  Ellen (Athena): Seraph

  Julia (Venus): Pyromancer

  Roi (upHitter): Viking

  Dan (Average): ancer

  DarkestCymore