The fourth match between StormBlitz and the Leopards was about to begin. Lars subbed for Trever, eliminating what Yuel sidered the biggest of source of ivity ieam. Everybody’s spirits already looked a little lifted after the events in the waiting room.

  Unfortunately, they spent the whole break dealing with Trever’s substitution. As a result, there was no time to review the previous match or discuss ter strategies against the enemy’s mixup. Based on how favorable the new chups were for the Leopards, there’s no doubt they’ll use their mixup again: boBreaker will be Mid to overwhelm Gilbert, whereas Freezer will be in Bot to punish aggressive pys.

  Even though Trever was no lohe Carry, the issue of dealing with Freezer’s punishes remained. Lars, too, was an aggressive Carry. In fact, he was a wilder and less experienced version of Trever, proo overextensions. This was going to be fun...

  Success in Bot Lane will heavily depend on Yuel’s ability to lead Lars and prevent that goof from overextending. As long as Lars avoids irresponsibly charging in like Trever, things should work out. Hopefully.

  As, the same couldn’t be said about Mid Lane. Yuel was just one person, he couldn’t support both Mid and Bot at the same time. Mid was the most important ne and boBreaker was the stro oppo, so surrendering the o her was out of the question.

  “ we please ban their Pyromahis time?” Gilbert asked.

  “Yeah,” Roi joined in. “Chick is hel annoying.”

  “It’s so stressing to gaoo,” Dan added. “I always feel like she’ll destroy me the moment I show up. bos are SCARY.”

  Everybody’s eyes were on Yuel. He was the captain now. He had the final say.

  In truth, they had no obligatioing him as the captain. As far as they were ed, he was just a freshman, a mere rookie. heless, they chose to respect Trever’s st wish and followed Yuel. Even now, Yuel’s authority ieam was still partially supported by Trever’s approval. He felt he earned some points by standing his ground against Trever and pushing the substitution through, but that’s about it. At the moment, he was still just “the netain whom Trever vouched for.”

  So, they’re all set on banning Pyro. Yuel frowhe whole scrimmage until now, he had been arguing against banning Pyromahey already adapted to how boBreaker pyed the css, so it should be easier to ter her.

  However, the situation was different now. Gilbert couldn’t handle Breaker’s Pyromancer in Mid, so the argument of “adapting to her pystyle” didn’t mean anything anymore. Simply being familiar with Breaker’s Pyromancer didn't make Gilbert beat her or even be her equal.

  Seeing as Breaker picked Pyromahree times in a row, it’s certainly her best css. If they were to ban Pyromancer, she’d definitely be weakeo some degree. But, would it be enough? Judging by her high proficy with bo and her ability to perform well in any situatioe the pystyle‘s restris – there’s no doubt she mastered bo with more than just Pyromancer. She probably had at least one or two more bo csses on par with her Pyromancer.

  Maybe we ban all suspects? No, there’s not enough data for that. Yuel bit his lip. There weren’t many csses which could be pyed with bo on a petitive level, but there were definitely enough. Each team got only three bans during the first banning phase, so hitting all three of Breaker’s best csses was nigh impossible. They didn’t even have any hints.

  In hindsight, maybe I should have agreed to ban Pyr the sed game. That way, she’d have t out her 2 css. Then, ihird game, we could’ve bahat css too to force out her 3rd best css. Oh well. No use g over spilled milk, He just had to deal with the situation at hand. Unfortunately, they were running low on time.

  “I o think,” Yuel said. “So, I’ll start with Viking.” He made the first ban, two seds before time ran out. It was a rather soft ban, but a safe ohe eop Laner seemed to favor Viking and he’ll py Tardless of whether the enemy will use mixup, so it’s a hit. Nobody pined.

  “Man,” Jennifer sighed. “They sure took their sweet time with this one. And, just to ban Viking? What’s the big deal? They also switched out WildDragon. Wasn’t he like the captain and stuff? These scrubs make no sense.”

  “Ban something. Quick.” Alex ordered.

  “Huh? Who died and made you the boss?”

  “Just ban already. They were buying time with their first ban, so they must be arguing about something. Don’t give them time to think.”

  “Got it, got it. Jeez, look who’s suddenly all srs bsns. Who are you and what you did to that zy bum?” Jennifer chuckled and banned Shadow Walker. There was o even think since Shadow Walker was currently sidered the only S tier css in the game. Nerfs pls.

  Ugh, already bae? Yuel bit his lip. He had only one mio decide the ban. And, more importantly, to decide what he was going to do about Pyromancer.

  Should they ban Pyromancer? It’s a critical decision which may single-handedly decide the ech. And, everybody expected him to make this critical decision because he’s the captain now. And, it better be a good decision. Yeah, no pressure at all. Gulp.

  Was Trever pying uhis pressure this whole time? No matter how many times Yuel gulped, his throat remained dry. The weight on his shoulders was crushing him, it’s inparable to anything else he ever experienced when pying Cssmancers. He always thought being the shot-caller was effectively the same as being the captain sihe shot-caller was responsible for many important decisions.

  But, he was wrong. pletely wrong. As the shot-caller, he was merely the team’s advisor, the strategist. He was merely tasked with providing the team with tactid ideas. Nothing more was expected from him.

  However, as the captain, he was the team’s leader. Everybody’s eyes were on him, filled with expectations. With his words, his pys and his decisions - he was to lead the team to victory. And, if he ’t, that’s on him. Nobody would smack him on the bad say “It’s okay! Not your fault!” He personally kicked out the guy who had this role and assumed that guy’s post. Now, he was the only one who could say such things.

  So, back to the problem: should he ban Pyromancer as everybody wanted? How was he to make this important decision under all this pressure!? It’s unreal! No worever crumbled when things went south. Every mistake he made felt ten times heavier due to his position as the captain.

  I think it’s better to front Pyro like before, but... Yuel’s thoughts didn’t e together. Despite what he personally believed, the team’s requests kept popping in his mind.

  “ we please ban their Pyromahis time?”

  “Yeah, chick is hel annoying.”

  “It’s so stressing to gaoo. I always feel like she’ll destroy me the moment I show up.”

  Everybody wahe Pyromancer banned, only Yuel had a different opinion. But, could he properly expin his position and vihem to follow him? With his mind in a jumble, he had a hard time expining things even to himself.

  Last time I tried, it was a disaster. Yuel’s hands trembled. He recalled the bitter experience of the previous match wheeam refused to follow his shot-calls. His opinion was at odds with that of everybody else, so he was rejected.

  Was it going to be any different this time? Just because he became the “captain” didn’t mean they suddenly saw him in a pletely new light. He was still a freshman, a rookie. They gave him more credibility out of respect for Trever, but he could lose it all in a heartbeat with one bad decision.

  If a rift forms between the captain and the team, the events of the previous match will repeat themselves. Last time, the team fell apart shortly after Trever, the captain, crumbled. If Yuel were to fail the team here - it’d be over. Not to mention, morale still hadn’t fully recovered from that match. The atmosphere was still strained.

  “So, we’re banning Pyro or what?” Gilbert asked ohe timer hit 30 seds.

  “... yes, I suppose we should.” Yuel bit his lip. There’s no choice. He couldn’t fight against these circumstances. As the netain, his first task was to get the team on its feet. Therefore, he had no choice but to ban Pyro-

  “Lame.”

  “Eh?” Yuel blinked, his finger froze on top of the mouse button.

  “I really wao fight that Pyro dude.” Lars pouted. “She looks sick, yo. I wan her.”

  ht. Lars is here too. Yuel was so preoccupied with the opinions of the uppercssmen that he pletely fot about Lars. There’s one more pyer here eager to challenge Breaker’s Pyromancer, potentially capable of overp her (as long as he doesn’t mess up like a goof).

  “I get that her Pyro is tough fil,” Lars said. “But, ’t ya just ter her in Mid? That’s what you do best, dude.”

  “Just ter her”, huh. Yuel sneered. Lars sure made it sound easy, despite how critical this decision was. How could he be so nont about it? Oh, it’s probably because he’s not the captain.

  That’s when it hit Yuel. If he weren’t the captain right now, he’d definitely push for tering Pyromahere’s no reason to fear Breaker’s Pyromancer just because the enemy destroyed them with a mixup. The burden of being a captain clouded his judgment. That’s no good. He shouldn’t succumb to this pressure!

  “I’ll ban Warlock first.” Yuel submitted the ban 5 seds before time ran out. Everybody agreed on Freezer’s Warlock being a pain to deal with, especially after he switched to Support.

  They still had one more ba for this banning phase, so he could ban Pyromanext time. Until then, in what little time he had, he’ll sway the team in his favor!

  “Geh,” Jennifer made a face “They stalled for time again.” And Warlock, of all things? Were they that scared by Alex? What a bunch of scrubs.

  “Targeting me, huh,” Alex smirked, no doubt proud of himself.

  “You better be able to py something other than Warlock.” Jennifer snarked. “You haven’t been showing your fa practice, so I’ve only ever seen you py Warlock tely. Please tell me you py other stuff in your free time.”

  “No problem. Anyway, just ban already.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Jennifer grumped and picked the sed ban. These scrubs better ban my Pyro , or I’ll be mad for real.

  Ugh, these guys don’t waste any time. Yuel hadn’t finished s his thoughts yet, but it was his turn to ban again. Only 60 seds, that’s how long he had to e up with a case for keeping Pyromancer in the game. He had to figure something out!

  “I-I think we should keep the Pyromancer after all.” Yuel fought his best to stabilize his voice. “There aren’t many good ways to ter her in Bot, but Mid is a different story.. There are enough mages who outreach Pyro.”

  “But, one of the best is already banned.” Gilbert pointed out. True, Sage was just banned by the enemy. Along with Sorcerer, these two csses were known as strong Mid Lane ters to Pyromancer. Normally, they weren't ban-worthy during the first banning phase. However, if Breaker inteo pick Pyromancer again, banning Sage and Sorcerer was a strong move. Sorcerer hadn’t been banned yet, but the ban was ining.

  “I’m sure Sorcerer is ,” Gilbert argued. “And then what ter do you suggest I pick? Wizard?”

  “That’s oion.”

  “You ’t be serious.” Gilbert made a faot surprising, since Wizard was a beginner-friendly css and unpopur in the petitive se. Basically, it was sidered a css for newbies only.

  Even so, there were niche cases when Wizard icked even in the pro se. Wizard was a simple and straightforward mage, but that’s what made it effective against Pyromancer’s retively short reach. Yuel experiehe frustration of this matchup in his very first Cssmancers game when he pyed Pyromancer against an intermediate Wizard bot. Back then, he found a way to defeat the Wizard, but that’s because the enemy was a mere bot. Against an experienced yer, a Pyromancer was going to have a bad time.

  “Even if you’re serious,” Gilbert said. “I haven't touched Wizard in at least a year. So, don’t t on it.”

  “I see.” It was a shame si was really one of the ters Yuel had in mind. But, even with Sorcerer and Sage bahere were other ways to deal with Pyromancer. Especially, a bo Pyromancer.

  The general approach to tering a Pyromancer was by outreag it and zoning it during the ning phase. The best picks for that were mages with le, namely Sage, Sorcerer and Wizard. As, they were out of the picture at the moment.

  However, Breaker didn’t just py Pyromancer. She was a bo Pyromancer, relying on burst damage to swiftly elimiargets. To achieve that, she had to farm effectively and preferably out level oppos by sg kills. The ohing she definitely couldn’t allow herself was to fall behind on farm, as that’ll mess up her whole game pn. If she’s under-leveled, there’s a ce her bo won’t one-shot some oppos. In other words, she’ll no longer pose as much of a threat.

  Therefore, all Gilbert really had to do was deny Breaker’s kills and prevent her from getting ahead in farm. It’s enough for him to clear waves at a det pace while maintaining distance from Breaker. As long as Breaker doesn’t get ahead, they should be able to deal with her during the team fighting phase.

  One good pick for this strategy was Aeromancer. Its Whirlwind spell summoned a tornado which persisted in an area for a while, dealing damage over time. Its clearing speed was a bit slow during early game, but with enough early power items - it’s enough to not be pushed back by the Pyromancer.

  Gilbert could cast Whirlwind all the way back from his Turret, without ever getting into Breaker’s range. In other words: a turtling strategy. Lars would yap to no end when asked him to py like that, but Gilbert should be reasonable enough to accept it as a viable strategy for winning the game.

  Therefore, the Aeromancer pick sounded good. But, was it enough? After all, they were dealing with Breaker, who time and again proved she knew how to handle any inve situation.

  Aeromancer was a great defeion against her, but pying too passively would allow her to exploit this matchup in other ways. For example, a standard ter strategy against turtling was to frequently rotate and gank other nes. If said ganks were to succeed, they’d let her out level others, defeating the whole purpose of tering her in the h Aeromancer.

  30 seds left. He had to make a decision. It’s the st ban of this phase. There’s no postponing any further. He tapped into the sea of knowledge in his mind, frantically searg for something, anything. Everybody called him a walking encyclopedia, so he had to know a Mid pick which could ter Breaker even more effectively than Aeromancer....!

  As, no matter how hard he searched, he couldn’t find such a Mid pick. If only there was a team formation which allowed Yuel to suppilbert, then they could handle Breaker. Unfortunately, Yuel was just one person and he had to stay in Bot until mid game, especially now that Lars ying instead of Trever. So, Yuel couldn’t help Gilbert in Mid... Wait, did it have to be his job?

  There’s another role in Cssmancers with some simirity to Support. It had the freedom to roam throughout the map and help whichever ne was struggling. It’s Jungler.

  If Yuel and Lars hold their ground in Bot by themselves, Dan could focus on ganking Top and Mid. This would allow him to suppilbert more often in ne.

  But, there’s a problem. “It’s so stressing to gaoo. I always feel like she’ll destroy me the moment I show up. bos are SCARY.” That’s what Dan said earlier. He might e off as a bit weak-willed there, but his words made sense.

  Ganking a bo Pyromancer was simir to ganking an assassin: you must take the target down before they dish out their burst. With bo Pyromancer’s lighting speed casting and medium reach, as well as Breaker’s fwless execution, it’s no surprise Dan struggled to gank her. She bombarded whoever dared set foot on her ne.

  It’d be great if Dan could somehow suppilbert in Mid without putting himself in danger, but how? There’s no choice but accept they had to py defensively in Mid against Breaker. So, it’ll be fine even if Dan ’t score any kills on her, as long as he helps pushing Mid and forces Breaker to stay in ne.

  In other words, they needed a Jungler css which could help with pushing Mid without getting too close to Breaker... Was that even possible?

  15 seds left. There’s no time. He had to figure something out. Fast.

  He sed every Jungler css in the game, even low tier ones like Rogue. Actually, if pyed right, Rogue could potentially fit the- No! Bad! They couldn’t pick a D tier css in su important match. The enemy were going to ter the heck out of it.

  There had to be something more reasohere had to be a ter. It’s Cssmancers, the game he fell in love with right after finding a way to kill a Wizard as a Pyromancer by overing the disadvantage e. He refused to cede. There had to be a pick for this situation.

  Optimally, he wanted another css like Aeromancer: a css that clear minion waves while staying away from the wave itself. This was an unventional requirement for a Jungler, as her assassins nor bruisers were desigo be pyed that way... Oh, but the Jungler role wasn’t restricted to just assassins and bruisers.

  Once he ged the css filter in the menu, he stumbled across a niche css which perfectly met the requirements: Beastmaster. her an assassin nor a bruiser, a peculiar css tagged as a “specialist”.

  5 seds left. It’s now or never.

  “Dan, you said you py any Jungler, right?”

  “Yep.”

  “Does that include Beastmaster?”

  “Oh,” Dan blinked for a moment, then his lips curved into a smirk. “Of course I py it. I love me some Beastmaster.”

  “Good, then I know what we should do.” Yuel nodded and proceeded to make the third ban-

  TIME OUT

  “Ah...” He just stared at the s. It’s the first time this ever happeo him. Time ran out. They didn’t ban squat. “Um, oops.”

  “... for real?” Gilbert facepalmed. “I didn’t want to interrupt your deep thinking, but man...”

  “Ugh,” Yuel jerked as everybody’s eyes stabbed him, demanding an expnation. Not good. Not good at all, He just screwed up big time. He had to expin himself. Fast. “M-My bad. I was thinking about so many possibilities and... Anyway, I decided against banning Pyro.”

  “You serious?” Gilbert raised an eyebrow.

  “Yes, quite serious.” Yuel his was the decisive moment. Could he vihe team to follow his strategy? This is where he was going to make it or break it as a captain. “We ter their Pyro with Aeromancer amaster.”

  “Aeromancer? Since when that’s a ter?”

  “It’s not, not really. But, it’ll let you stay away from the Pyro without losing much farm.”

  “You wao turtle, huh,” Gilbert made a plicated expression. Turtling wasly the most fun strategy for most people. Especially, aggressive pyers like Lars and Trever hated it to death.

  But, what about Gilbert? He was her an aggressive nor defensive pyer. His pystyle adapted acc to the situation at hand. He was a banced and sisted pyer. Therefore, Yuel believed Gilbert will agree to this pn

  “’t say I’m a fan of turtling,” Gilbert said. “Especially, not when I’m heading into a matowing I’m going to turtle. But alright, it’s one way to fight that Pyro, I guess. But, that ’t be your whole pn, right? Because that’s not enough.”

  “Of course,” Yuel nodded. “That’s where Dan’s Beastmaster es in.” He expihe gist of his reasoning:

  Beastmaster’s special gimmick was capturing jungle monsters and deploying them as minions on nes. In other words, after unleashing the monsters onto a ne, he didn’t o stick around to watch them fight the enemy wave. The mourned-minions operated indepely, just like normal minions.

  So, the strategy was straightforward: Dan will capture a bunch of jungle monsters, drop them in Mid and immediately get out. All of that without getting within Breaker’s ra all. Between the Aeromancer’s Whirlwind and the Beastmaster’s minions, they’ll rival the Pyromancer’s wave clearing speed without getting close to her. In fact, they’ll most certainly out push her.

  “Sound cool,” Dan nodded repeatedly. “ried pying like that before, so I’m totally in. There’s some more fun stuff I throw to the mix, like proxy farming with monsters. We domihat Mid Lane no problem. Easy peasy.”

  “Hmm, I suppose it work.” Gilbert nodded, but his eyebrows were knotted. It seemed Yuel failed to sell him on this idea, but at least it wasn’t rejected.

  “So we fag the Pyro?” Lars pumped a fist and grinned. “Sick, yo!”

  “Heh,” Roi smirked. “Guess I’ll get a few more home runs from her.”

  Good, morale didn’t drop in the slightest. In fact, it probably improved, thanks to the two loud goofs. Yuel messed up huge time by missing a valuable ban, but things worked out. Somewhat. Though far from fwlessly, Yuel cleared his first hurdle as a captain.

  After StormBlitz missed their third ban by running out of time, the ball passed back to the Leopards.

  “Hooooooh,” Jerembled. “ I see how it is. You don’t think my Pyro is ban worthy, is that it? I see, I see. Heh. Haha. Hahaha! Don’t fuck with me!” She roared and banned Sorcerer. “If you don’t mind my Pyro, I gonna pick it and tear you apart!”

  With that, the first banning phase ended. StormBlitz picked their first css: Padin, a det first pick. Generally, the first pick should be a high tier css which be used in a myriad of strategies and has few ters. A strong pick like that didn’t give the enemy mufo about the team’s strategy, therefore l the ces of being figured out and tered. For that reason, the first pick was usually a bruiser or a tank and almost never a mage or a marksman-

  “How’s that!?” Jennifer locked in her Pyromancer. It happened as soon as the turn passed to the Leopards. Not even a millised of thought ared on it.

  “Uh...”

  “Err, Jenny...”

  “That’s kinda....”

  The team was stoned. Drafting the Mid Laner so early was already questionable, but on top of that, it’s Pyromancer, a mage known for its medium reach. It’s like she was asking to be tered!

  “Did you seriously just... huh.” Alex massaged his temples, feeling his brain was losing cells just from breathing the same air as Jennifer.

  “What?” Jennifer crossed her arms. “These scrubs were asking for it! Hmph. Sage and Sorcerer are banned, so I deal with whatever they bring. Besides, we all khis was ing, so what’s the harm?”

  “You ever heard of ‘cealing information’ from... Meh, nevermind.” Alex sighed. There’s no use reasoning with a derp like Jennifer, especially wheriggered. “It’s a terrible pick for sure, but... We may be able to use it our advantage. Hmm...” He mumbled to himself.

  While still dumbstruck by their captain’s rash as, the Leopards picked their sed css: Orc, a Top Lahe turn passed back to StormBlitz.

  “Pyrht off the bat?” Gilbert raised an eyebrow.

  “Seems like their captain is very fident,” Yuel said. This was a great development for StormBlitz, as it eliminated one of the greatest fears he had regarding his Aeromancer + Beastmaster pn.

  SiormBlitz went first in this draft, it meant the Leopards will be pig the final css of the draft after seeing StormBlitz’s whole team position. So, if the Leopards kept their Mid Laner pick for st, boBreaker would get a ce to pick a different mage after seeing the Aeromancer amaster.

  Thankfully, that’s no longer possible. The Pyromancer was now locked-in and will undoubtedly be the Mid Laner, so Yuel could proceed as pnned.

  Still, revealing the Aeromancer amaster early harbored some risks. Both csses had weaknesses which could be exploited via ter picks, especially in team fights. Therefilbert and Dan’s picks were pushed to the very end of the drafting process. First, Roi picked Knight and Lars got his beloved Trickshooter.

  “Sooooo,” Jeorched the monitor with her intense gre “They got a pn against my Pyro or what?” Now that she cooled down a little, she realized she done goofed. Even with Sage and Sorcerer bahere were many ways to make her life hard as a Pyromancer. She khat, yet she went ahead and insta-locked Pyromancer anyway. Jeez, was she a Bronze pyer or something!? Blegh.

  While she was sitting and biting her nail, the drafting phase approached its climax. Only two more positions for the Leopards to decide on: Carry and Support.

  “I think I’ll go with Pirate,” Albert said. “I would’ve liked Elf against their Trickshooter, but they ba.”

  “Wait,” Alex said. ”Let’s leave the Carry for st.”

  “Hm? Isn’t it better to pick Support st? We’ll have a better idea how to ter their whole lineup by then.”

  “Yeah, that’s usually true...” Alex shrugged. Expining his idea was such a drag. “Anyway, it’s better to not limit ourselves too much. They probably gonna show us soon how they pn to deal with our Pyro. If their ter is det, we may want to drop the mixup.”

  Alex expihe gist of his idea. After some heated discussion, they agreed to push the Carry pick to the end. Instead, they picked Lumimancer for Support. It was StormBlitz’s turn again.

  They’re keeping Carry for st? Why? Yuel frowned. Both StormBlitz’s Carry and Support were already decided, so what sort of ter were the Leopards afraid of for their Carry? Well, it’s not like there’s a rule against pig Carry st in such situations, but it’s an odd decision to make without a good reason. It’s even weirder when sidering that the Support was Freezer, who struck Yuel as the smart type. Did Freezer engross this decision? Why?

  “Hehehe,” Dan cackled like a cartoon vilin. “So, this is where we drop our trap card. Hehehe.”

  “Yeah, let’s do it.” Gilbert nodded. “Let’s see how this Aero + Beast bo is going to turn out.”

  her of them was ed with enemy’s pick order? Maybe Yuel was overthinking it? The drafting phase proceeded smoothly so far, so they could go ahead with the pn and pick Aeromancer + Beastmaster for their st two picks.

  Yes, everything had been going well so far, He didn’t want to instill unnecessary doubt ieam, so he kept quiet about his unfounded suspi. He was the leader now, so his words carried weight. If he were to express doubt, said doubt would spread across the whole team.

  “They really went for it.” Alex smirked. “Let’s py with our inal formation then. Hmm, so I have to deal with Aero.”

  “Eleancer is a det ter.” Albert pointed out. “They’re pretty even in the ning phase, but Electro ter Aero’s ult.”

  “Elem.” Alex made a plicated expression. It’s really a good ter, but...

  “Hah,” Jennifer sneered. “As if he even py Electro.”

  “And why you decided I ’t?”

  “Because you don’t practice for shit. Say, guys. Anybody here ever saw him py something other than Warlock the st few months?” Her question was followed by awkward silence.

  Of course nobody did, because Alex only dropped by the club once or twice a week and barely stayed for even an hour. That’s the ziest schedule he mao get away with without being kicked from the club. If it was in Jennifer’s hands, she’d kick that zy bum all the way to the moon! He was a disgrace to all aspiring petitive pyers in the world! No, in the whole universe!

  “Just because I don’t py something in the club doesn’t mean I ’t py it. Don’t go assuming shit with that feeble brain of yours.”

  “Feeble? What’s that mean?”

  “Point in case.”

  “Wut?”

  “Anyway, I’ll go with Electro,” Alex annouhere was some hesitation, but he didn’t let it slip through his stoic facade. Real talk, when was the st time he touched Eleancer, again? ... whatever.

  With this, the final pick was decided by the Leopards. However, unlike everybody inally expected, said pick wasn’t a Carry. It was Eleancer, a Mid Laner.

  “Huh?” Yuel cocked his head. What? Eleancer? Why? It made no sehey didn’t have a Carry- Oh. Actually, they did. They had a Carry. They had it all along...!

  “I-I think we messed up.” Yuel gulped. It finally dawned on him. Why did the enemy pick Pyromancer early without any worries? Why did they postpohe Carry pistead of the Support pick? This Eleancer piswered everything.

  From the beginning, the Pyromancer was a wildcard. It could be either Carry or Mid. However, everybody, Yuel included, assumed the Pyromancer was definitely going to be in Mid because the enemy will surely use their mixup lineup. Ugh...

  “You think they ged formation again?” Gilbert grimaced.

  “Ouch,” Dan sighed. “You could say... they did a mixup on their mixup, amirite?”

  This was a mess up. A huge one. After the devastati they suffered the previous match, it was only natural to assume the Leopards will use the same winning formation. It was unthinkable the Leopards will ge it back again after losing twi a row, but they did. In the very st moment, by simply postponing the Carry sele, they gaihe option to decide whiation to go with.

  Because of that, StormBlitz’s Aeromancer amaster became icks. They were supposed to ter Breaker’s Pyromancer in Mid, but that idea went dowoilet. On top of that, Aeromancer’s ult was going to be tered by Eleancer’s ult in team fights, whereas Beastmaster wasn’t a particurly strong Jungler in general. Instead of gaining an advantage in Mid with these picks, the odds were turned against them!

  Everybody khe Leopards could abandon their mixup. Everybody, Yuel included. He should had taken that into sideration, but he failed. He was too ed about pleasing the team as the netain and finding a solution for the Gilbert vs. Breaker situation. As a result, he failed to see the bigger picture. He failed the team and he failed as the captain. He failed all over the pce.

  Invisible weight dropped on his shoulders. The atmosphere around them turned dense and suffog. It’s just like st game, when the whole team fell apart. ivity seeped into the team and, this time, there’s nobody else to bme; it’s all Yuel’s fault!

  “Yo, what’s wrong, my dudes?” Lars asked. “If you trate this much, you gonna fry yo brains, haha!”

  “Well...” Yuel sighed. How could this goof smile so nontly right now? Didn’t he uand the gravity of the situation? Did he even uand the situation at all? “We picked Aero a to ter their Pyro in Mid, but they pyed around that by moving Pyro to Bot.”

  “Oh, I see.” Lars nodded. Apparently, he just figured the situation. Just how dense could this guy be? Well, at least now he’d share everybody’s ses- “Yo, that’s great!”

  “... excuse me?”

  “I gonna fight Breaker from the start! Best stuff!” He was unfazed by this development. Rather, he... weled it? While everybody else pined about fag Breaker’s bo Pyromancer, Lars saw it as nothing more than a fun challenge. What a bizarre goof.

  “Besides, why worry so much?” Lars tinued. “Aren’t they just returning to their inal formation? You already mopped the floor with them when they pyed that way, so let’s do that again! No problem!”

  These words peed the team's ive atmosphere and echoed in everybody’s minds. Everybody eechless, because Lars both made absolutely no sense and perfect se the same time.

  There were some unfavorable factors, that much was true. However, they already bested the Leopards twi this formation, that’s also true. In the first pce, the Leopards resorted to using mixup because they couldn't haormBlitz with their inal formation. Pressuring the Leopards bato that formation could actually be seen as an achievement! Sort of.

  Either way, Yuel was the captain, so he had to say something. Something, anything. Lars’s positive attitude created an opportunity to wash away the team’s ivity, so he had to follow up on that.

  “Lars is right,” Yuel said. “They got us good in Mid, but if you look at it another way: we mao kick their Pyromancer out of Mid with our drafts. We’ll have to pay for that a little, but there’s no telling who is really better off in this trade.”

  “Hm, that’s true.” Gilbert nodded. “At least, I’m gd I don’t have to deal with Pyro on ne anymore. Freezer, oher hand? I handle him.”

  “And,” Dan added. “Maybe I still put my Beast to good use. Just because Pyro moved to Bot doesn't mean she's no longer in the game. I’ve really been wanting to test Beastmaster in a petitive match, so this gonna be good.”

  Little by little, morale was restored. Lars's positivity ied the whole team. The ivity from the previous match wasirely gohey were in much better shape now.

  Now, everything will depend on their ability to maintain said positivity throughout the match. With Lars being the only member not suffering from that baggage, he was the perfect didate for being the team's lin. He could very well gee the momentum the team so desperately o fully recover.

  But, he was a goof. Was he even aware of these things? Could he pull off su important task on his debut? And, against a tough oppo like boBreaker? As Lars’s Support, Yuel will have to lead him in the right dire.

  The fourth match was about to begin!