“Alright, I get the picture,” Howard said. “Let’s go with Serpah again.”

  “Thanks, Wardy~!” Ellen smiled from ear to ear. “I wuv you~!

  “Yeah, yeah.” Howard rolled his eyes. “But, o actually pick Seraph this early yet. First, I’ll take Druid in preparation.”

  “Yes, that’s for the best. Keep the surprise for the end~”

  And so, Howard locked Druid. Then, after the sed banning phase, he finally went for the Seraph pick.

  “My, I wish I could see Lavender’s expressiht now~” Ellen smiled from ear to ear as she imagihe raw emotional torture she utting her oppohrough~

  And ihis pick successfully delivered a mental blow to the enemy.

  “Wait, are they for real...?” Karen raised an eyebrow. “There’s no way that shit gonna fly. What the fuck?”

  “Karen, nguage.”

  “But sis, look at these bastards!” Karen insisted. “They actually think they get away with that te-game pick against my Impaler! And that’s after we mopped them so hard in the previous game!”

  “Do not let that provoke you,” Fiona said. “Remember, their Bot duo excels at baits. This pick is likely an attempt to get a rea out of you.”

  “Do you really think they’d go this far just ter me?”

  “It is quite possible, yes,” Fiona asserted. “From what I have observed, much of Athena’s baits revolve around maniputing her oppo’s thoughts. She makes you believe ohing, only to pull the rug from under you a moment ter.”

  “Tch, what an annoying bitch.”

  “Language.”

  “What an annoying… eh, motherfucker!”

  “... I have a feeling you o work on that vulgar vocabury of yours, young dy.”

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Karen shrugged. “So anyway, you’re saying they’re just trying ter me, right?”

  “Yes, quite likely. Therefore, make sure you do not take this bait.”

  “Got it, sis!” Karen nodded. “I’mma show them they picked a te-game css in the wrong damn ne!”

  “Just make sure you do not overextend to prove that point.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I know.”

  I really hope you do. Fiona sighed on the side. Even after everything I have said, I have the feeling Karen will get carried at one point or another. It seems pretty muevitable.

  Fiona’s advice should have minimized the influence of the bait but the damage was already done. Kare like her oppos were uimating her, so her pride would get in the way of her performance.

  I will have to keep a close eye on Bot in this game. Fiona thought. Despite how fident Karen is about reruning this matchup, I suspect the enemy duo will stump her.

  Evidently, Athena was also very fident about this pick. A hyper te-game css was supposed to fear an early-game pick like Impaler, but Athena apparently had no problem with this votile matchup.

  But, ultimately, this is good for us. Fiona thought. If we both py mid-game csses, the game is very likely to get dragged into the end game, which is StormBlitz’s pyfield.

  Just like in chess, different pyers excelled at different phases of the game in Cssmancers. StormBlitz was a team fully geared toward the te-game, therefore fag them there was akin to pying ourf.

  It leaves us no choice but to things up by mid-game. Fiona asserted. On paper, that makes it sound like pig an aggressive early-game css is optimal. As, things are not so simple in practice.

  In the same way an early-game css could win fast, it could also crash and burn just as fast. Failure to get an early lead was bound to turn Karen’s css into the weakest link of the team for the rest of the game. At that point, victory would be pletely out of reach.

  This arra worked out alright i game because I built plenty of momentum for us, but that will not necessarily happen again. Fiona reasoned. I am sure they will fortify their defenses for this round. In fact, they had already begun.

  The enemy banned Lionfolk and Werewht off the gate, the two csses Fiona used the most on the petitive stage. StormBlitz clearly reized the threat of Fiona's jungling and sought to seal it thhly.

  Unfortunately, they happen to be my best csses. Fiona frowned. I will struggle to build momentum with any other css I pick.

  Of course, Fiona knew all too well how important it was to master many different csses in this game. Not only did it protect her from enemy bans, but it also gave her more flexibility in terms of team positions and ter picks.

  As, she did not have enough time to extensively practice more than two csses thus far. She had less than a year of Cssmancers experiender her belt, which was not enough to properly master many different csses.

  Of course, she dabbled in as many csses as she could to be able to py them on a passable level at least, but that was a far cry from truly mastering them. In fact, it robably arrogant freenhorn like her to cim she "mastered" any csses at all, given how little pytime she had.

  Most of our oppos have way over two years of experience. pared to that, I am nothing more than a beginner.

  As such, to be able to pete against these giants, Fiona had no choice but to focus on a couple of specific csses at first. Apparently, people called that "maining" the csses.

  So far, this trated approach has served her well. It allowed her to put up a fight against both Leopards and StormBlitz, the very pinnacle of this region. As, this "maining" method had strict limits and Fiona had just run into them.

  With both her main csses banned, she now had to rely on inferior alternatives. There were many options to choose from, but none of them would be on par with her Lionfolk and Werewolf.

  I must expand my roster to at least four csses as soon as possible. But until then, I will have to get through today's scrimmage with the tools I have avaible.

  Once Lionfolk and Werewolf were off the table, there were suddenly tless csses for Fiona to choose from. All of them paled pared to her main csses, but they were still usable and had their fair share of advantages and disadvantages. From that big array of options, Fiona had to selee css that best fit the current situation.

  Perhaps I should have gone for Viking earlier in the drafting phase. Firetted. All things sidered, I believe it is one of the best picks for me in this situation.

  Like Lionfolk and Werewolf, Viking was also a bursier who could effitly secure kills. It was, in fact, the css that Fiona nning to main.

  As, upHitter already took the css earlier. It was unfortunate Viking doubled as a Top Laner, making more people pick it. This was a major sideration for not maining the css right away even though it was more meta than Werewolf.

  After Viking, I do not believe there are any other options that stand ht now. Fiona skimmed the list of csses tagged as "Jungler". There are some good assassins here but I rather avoid those if possible.

  Though she practiced how to py assassin csses, they were not quite to her liking overall. These csses had great potential for sg kills and building up momentum, but they were very squishy and vulnerable.

  No matter how far ahead an assassin got, there was always a ce to turables on them with a surprise attack. All the enemy needed was one swift strike to kill the assassin before they had the ce to execute their game pn.

  Oher hand, bruisers generally had a harder time building momentum. But, ohey had it, they were almost unstoppable. They scaled strongly in both attad defeurning into a one-man army when they were ahead. Therefore, Fiona gravitated toward bruisers a lot more despite the fact assassins were also very meta.

  If I filter the list down to just bruisers, then the sele of meta options bees very thin. Fiona frowned. I suppose Vampire will have to do.

  The css was a bit too defensive for the current matchup, but its ult could secure kills very well when used correctly. Admittedly, Fiona did not have the mastery to make this css truly shine, so she will have to make up for that ck of experieh solid deaking and shot calls.

  With this pick decided, only Andria’s css remained...

  DarkestCymore