Only Andria’s pick remained now. “A Sage for me once again, please,” she requested.

  “Very well.” Fiona had numents against this. Sage should fare well against Aeromancer sih csses excelled at farming from a distance.

  And so, the Valkyries’ lineup was settled. Now, StormBlitz had to seleore css, their Jungler.

  “Oh, wow.” Dan excimed. “Vampire? That’s like a total 180 pared to the st game. Do you think she’s pnning to py defense all of a sudden?”

  “I highly doubt it,” Howard said. “They still picked Impaler, which means they’re gunning for the early/mid-game. If I had to guess, she picked Vampire because that’s her best css.”

  “Yeah, that might be it.” Dan nodded. “I mean, not everybody is a pro like me and py all csses, haha!”

  Yeah, for the better and for the worse. Howard remarked silently. I had the feeling Rosemary is the type to main a couple of csses. That’s the only way to expin how she performed so well despite being a greenhorn.

  Normally, it was unthinkable for a newbie to dominate a petitive game as much as Rosemary did. Especially, it wasn’t supposed to ever happen against a powerhouse like StormBlitz.

  So, the only way to expin this impossible phenomenon was that Rosemary focused on a handful of specific csses. By learning these few csses extensively, Rosemary was able to speedrun the skill dder and reach a level that seemed on par with StormBlitz.

  But, it’s all fakery. Howard asserted. We already bawo csses, so let’s see how good her third oually is. I’m expeg a sharp drop in quality.

  "So," Howard started. "Anything you'd like to pi respoo that Vampire?"

  "Eh, maybe Lancer?" Dan answered a question with a question. "Feels like all the best meta bruisers are banned or taken, so not much left."

  "You don't feel like pying an assassin?"

  "Eeeeh, I dunno. It sounds hel risky after how the previous game went down..."

  "Is that so." Howard frowned. I had the feeling this might happen.

  Flexibility was supposed to be Dan's selling point. As the "Dan-of-all-trades", he could py any Jungler css, even many of the memes.

  As, right now, he was cutting down his option by half. Out of fear, most likely.

  He's ag all cheerful but there's no way the previous game didn't affect him. Howard reasoned. He must've lost a lot of fiden himself after dying so many times. I have to fix that.

  Junglers had to be fident about their as. Unlike ners, they had to dynamically rotate around the map and make many swift decisions. Aation or uainty would hurt their performance.

  The way he’s now, I'm sure he'll py this game too safe. Howard thought. I’m irely opposed, but there’s such a thing as pying TOO safe.

  Most likely, Dan will try to dodge any dangerous frontations. He'll minimize risks to avoid what happened in the previous game.

  As a result, he won’t make many good rotations. That doesn't sound like a very funal Juo me.

  It was crucial to fix this problem ASAP. A team without a Jungler was always bound to suffer immensely, especially when the enemy had a superb Jungler on their side.

  If Rosemary notices Dan's passiveness, she'll start ter-jungling hard. Howard thought. We 't let her build momentum like that again.

  As such, it was mandatory to pull Dan out of his slump. But, what was the best way to do it? A pep talk would be nice, but it was far better to boost his fideh some as.

  "Knight and Vampire are both difficult targets to kill," Howard said. "You should pi assassin against them."

  "Wut?" Dan blinked. "You really wao py assassin here?"

  "Yeah, why not?"

  "Well, you know, the previous game was kinda sus..." Dan lowered his head. The bad memories were probably ing back to haunt him, but he had to face them with his head held high.

  "The previous game was the previous game," Howard asserted. "We already established it started on the wrong foot and things just snowballed from there."

  "Well, yeah, but..."

  "Or what, are you pnning to let Rosemary domihe game too? Because if you py it too safe, it’ll be the same as giving her all the trol."

  "Yeah, that's true..." Dan chewed his lips. "I mean, I guess I could try an assassin, but don't bme me if things g, haha."

  "No, I'm going to criticize the hell out of you if you start dying again."

  "Geeeeeh.” Dan groaned. “On sed thought, maybe I wanna stick to that Lancer, after all..."

  "No, you don't," Howard objected. "So, which assassin do you prefer?"

  "Hmm. Ninja could fit the job pretty well…" Dan pondered. "Oh, but that's only if I get opportuo nd my ult on them. Eh, it get kinda tricky I feel. Hmm. Maybe I need something more straightforward..."

  "Ninja sounds good, actually," Howard said. "sidering their skill level, I doubt they’re very good at dealing with stealth"

  “Or, so you’d think,” Dan said. “But, they’ve already surprised us once. Who’s to say they won’t surprise us again?”

  “Just py better than them ahese kills. It’s that easy.”

  "Yeaaaah, 'easy'. Haha..."

  “At the very least, Lady should be a pretty easy target,” Howard said. “I feel like that girl has the map awareness of a Bronze pyer.”

  “Haha, sure feels that way.”

  “We shouldn’t even be having this versation, to be ho,” Howard said. “I’m not supposed to work to vince you. You’re the one who should be telling me which css you think is best.”

  “Yeah, that’s true…”

  “And, normally, you’d go with Ninja without w too much about it.”

  “Yeah, probably.” Dan didn’t stop to think about it until now, but his instinctive resistao the Ninja pick was a bit uncharacteristic. Like, he was Dan-of-all-trades! He was supposed to be able to py any Jungler css on demand! That was kinda his whole thing.

  Yet, I’m totally chiing out on Ninja right now. Dan shook his head. That st game sure did a number on me…

  He didn’t want to gh the same experience again. Not today, and not ever again. That shit was dht embarrassing. Rosemary made Dan look like a Bronze X rank, which didn’t eve.

  So, of course, Dan wao make sure he wouldn’t be as vulnerable this time around. And, the safest way to go was to pick a bruiser with good survivability.

  But, that’s kinda like running away from the problem, isn’t it? Dan thought. If I pick a lower-tier bruiser just because I’m worried about getting killed as an assassin, that’s already kinda like admitti…

  Holy, he was starting to get a headache from all these mental gymnastics. His flip-floppy brai going bad forth between the safe mid-tier Lancer and the risky high-tier Ninja.

  “Look,” Howard said. “Down to it, you’re worried about getting killed, right? So, let me make it straight: if you give up on the assassin pick here, it’s the same as letting her kill yhting spirit. Sure, maybe you’ll minimize the ces of actually dying during the game, but you’ll be like a walking dead.”

  “Dang, that sounds like the plot of a depressing flick...” Dan chuckled dryly. “Okay, you’ve vinced me. Lemme go Ninja and I’ll get them kills rolling!”

  “That’s the spirit.”

  And so, StormBlitz’s st pick was decided. It was a bold pick sidering how badly Rosemary washed Dan in the previous game, but that was all the more reason to pick it.

  This will boost everybody’s morale, not only Dan’s. Howard nodded in satisfa. And, I’m sure this will get a frown or two from our enemies. Good, good.

  And so, both lineups were plete.

  === StormBlitz ===

  Howard (Aegis): Druid

  Ellen (Athena): Seraph

  Gilbert (Adapting): Aeromancer

  Roi (upHitter): Viking

  Dan (Average): Ninja

  === Valkyries ===

  Fiona (Rosemary): Vampire

  Karen (Lavender): Impaler

  Andria (PrinceCharming): Sage

  Lua (Nike): ancer

  elia (GoldenLady): Knight

  DarkestCymore