"Say,” Yuel addressed Luke. “You don't happen to have any other ‘surprises’ to show us, do you? For example, some other class you’ve been working on during the past month?"

"Aside from DK? Nope," Luke said. “I mean, it was only a month, man. You can't expect me to master a bunch of new spicy memes in such a short time."

"Yes, you're right. I was just making sure." Yuel took a moment to consider his options again, or the lack thereof. "It seems like we have no choice. You’ll have to play as usual in the next game."

"You mean I gonna go all-in with DK again, right? Right?" Luke's eyes glittered. He was like an excited puppy about to be taken for a walk.

"A rerun of DK? Absolutely not," Yuel rejected. "We delivered a successful surprise attack and it worked against all odds, but it was a one-time thing. We won't be able to pull it off again, not against the Leopards."

"Hey, what's with this defeatist talk? You’ll never know until you try!"

"No, I DO know,” Yuel insisted. “It's not too hard to imagine what'll happen if we use a similar lineup again. Basically, we'll get countered hard."

"Who knows?" Luke argued. "You only think that gonna happen because everybody and their moms be putting the Leopards on a pedestal. But bruh, tell me something. Did you ever imagine us smoking the Leopards so hard with that lineup?”

"No, I suppose not," Yuel said. "I always believed we had a chance to win if we played our hands right, but I admit that the result surpassed all expectations."

"So, you wanna see me do it again?" Luke grinned. "I can run all over them with my DK anytime, word!"

"Yeah, let's go!" Lars pumped a fist. "That was sick! We gotta do it again!"

"Indeed, it was a magnificent performance!" Vincent tuned in. "Dark Knight and Jungler, a combination from the very depths of unconventional picks! It has already shattered all expectations once, but can it do it again!?"

"Are you guys stupid?" Kai shot them down. “First of all, that DK nonsense only worked because Yuel did a good job misleading the Leopards during the drafting phase. Also, these bastards were clearly underestimating us that game, which won’t happen again now that we beat them."

"You think they were going easy on us?" Luke asked. “How do you tell?”

"Trust me, I know,” Kai assured. “I have a sixth sense for when somebody underestimates me for any reason." I have more than enough experience with that from previous years of this club.

"Okay, okay," Luke conceded. "Suppose they were underestimating us. I still don't see the problem, tho."

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, yeah, that I and my DK don't deserve all the credit for winning that game,” Luke said. “My brudda Yuel helped me a ton with piloting that DK. He pulled all the strings during the drafting phase, and he gave me lots of good advice during the game itself. Heck, despite how much he trash-talks memes, he sure knows how to meme like a boss! I’m super impressed."

"Do you think I studied all of that because I wanted to?" Yuel made a face. "I had to force myself to look through mountains of useless meme information in order to find something actually useful. It was like searching for gold in a pile of garbage."

"Haha, harsh. But hey, ya found some hella solid tech! I'm legit impressed.” Luke nodded. “I always knew you're a genius and stuff, but this is on a whole different level, word!"

"Yeah, it was sick!" Lars hyped up the topic as well. "Like, I didn't understand even half the tactics shmactics ya used there, but it seemed tight!"

"Indeed, it was a beautifully orchestrated master plan!” Vincent added. “The Chessmaster was stuck with a questionable piece on his board, possibly worse than a pawn, yet Chessmaster found a way to evolve this piece into something superior to even the Queen!"

"Well," Yuel said. "I'm glad you at least recognize the effort I put into researching all of this. But, don’t get deluded here. None of this changes the fact it was a one-time trick. This approach won't work on them again, definitely not against their shot-caller."

"Oho!" Vincent exclaimed. "So, the Chessmaster expects to see magnificent adaptation from his chess rival!?"

"He's not my 'rival', but yes, I expect him to adapt. I don't believe I'll be able to win the drafting phase against him that easily again."

"Then, come up with something new," Luke said plainly.

"... what?"

"I mean, you're the genius here, right? I bet you’ve already seen like 14,000,605 futures of how this scrim gonna end, so you must have like a hundred backup plans ready, right? Right?"

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"I don't know what you take me for but I'm not a magician. I can't pull new plans out of thin air on demand."

"But, that's totally what you always do, tho!"

"..........."

"Pft, haha! You totally got that 'Listen here, you little shit' look!"

"Only because you keep spouting all this nonsense." Yuel sighed. “I know that to others my ideas may sometimes seem as if they came out of thin air, but most of them are based on long and (punctual) preparation. You really think I came up with that lineup to supplement your Jungler Dark Knight on the spot?”

“To be honest, I have no idea, haha.” Luke laughed. “If it’s you, anything is possible.”

“Really.” Yuel made a face. “If that’s what you think, then I’m sorry to disappoint you. I didn’t come up with these game plans just today.”

“Say what?”

“I formed most of these ideas back when I was researching your memes. It took me a long time to come up with a semi-viable game plan for your nonsense.”

“Dang, that sounds like a lot of work.”

“It sure was. What you saw here today was the fruit of long hours of research and brainstorming. These weren’t things I came up with on the fly.”

“Dang, you really researched the topic that much, huh? It makes you sound like a real meme fanatic, haha!”

“Do you think I enjoyed any of it!?” Yuel clenched an angry fist. He very much wanted to bonk that troublemaker. “I had no choice. It seemed impossible to talk you out of using memes, so I had to find a viable game plan to go along with your dumb picks in case we have to use you today, which I knew was a very likely scenario.”

Seriously, why were this team’s Junglers so cursed? They were two hooligans with tons of problems and there was nobody else to adequately replace them at the moment. This fact was always an endless source of headaches for Yuel. Sigh.

“Anyway, just so we’re perfectly clear,” Yuel said. “I do NOT have any other good plans for your Dark Knight. It was already difficult enough to come up with the game plan we used in the previous game and it won’t work twice in a row. So, I’m sorry to disappoint, but I don’t have any good alternatives at hand.”

In retrospect, this could be considered a blunder on Yuel’s end. He knew better than anybody that it was always best to come prepared with multiple different game plans at hand. That would have given him more strategic flexibility and perhaps he could’ve employed the Dark Knight multiple times today against the enemy.

But, Yuel didn't have any alternatives at hand. Why? For one, it was already difficult enough to come up with one semi-functional game plan for this absurd meme. Yuel had to spend so many hours researching ways to turn that absolute niche into something playable.

In a way, it was a miracle that Yuel even managed to find as much info as he did on this topic. Never before did he imagine that he'll be giving instructions to a memer on how to play their meme. The whole thing felt like a bad satire.

I've spent way too much time researching all of that. Yuel shuddered as he recalled the experience. After wasting so much precious time, I didn't have any more strength left to keep searching for more options for this dubious concept...

It felt like a waste of time, all of it. Even the "useful" tech Yuel found seemed dubious at best and he had little to no opportunity to try it out during club practice. After all, Luke has been keeping his Dark Knight a "secret", which was a big problem in its own right.

"I'd like to add that keeping your Dark Knight pick a 'secret' from the team was harmful to everybody,” Yuel criticized. “Maybe you thought it'll be a fun surprise, but because of that we didn't have many opportunities to practice team comps that included a Dark Knight."

"Hey, hey," Luke objected. "I’ve picked DK a bunch of times in the past two weeks, didn't I?"

"Yes, that's how I noticed you were trying very hard to make it work. But, it would have been much better if you just told us that this was your plan, so we could brainstorm about it together and find the best way to work with that abnormal pick."

"I mean, it's not like I knew for sure whether it'll work out for me, ya know? I was testing out the waters for while with this spicy meme,” Luke said. “I had no idea whether it'll be ready for today, so I didn't wanna make any promises. Imagine if I said ‘I tots gonna use DK, dudes!’, only to bail out at the last moment because it wasn’t actually ready. Super lame."

"That's fair, I suppose." Yuel nodded. "Though, I'm sure you realized it was 'ready' at some point, so you should have told us as soon as the realization hit."

"Yep, you got a point there," Luke conceded. "I'll keep you posted the next time I come up with another spicy meme."

"Please do."

"Tho, I gotta say, you were kinda weird about this whole thing, too. Like, if you knew what I was up to, why didn’t you expose me yourself?"

"I was waiting for you to come out and confirm it," Yuel explained. "Since you kept quiet about it, I actually started having some doubt about the whole thing. I thought maybe you had no plans of actually bringing the Dark Knight to the stage.”

“Why not just ask me, then?”

“I considered asking but decided against it. I didn't want to give you any funny ideas in case none of it was your intention in the first place."

"Haha. You hate my memes that much, huh."

"I quite dislike them, yes."

"Yet, you still researched the heck out of them. Talk about being indecisive."

"What choice do I have?" Yuel sighed. "You insist on using your favorite memes, so I always have to be prepared to utilize them."

"Wait, you telling me you’ve learned how to make all my memes viable!?"

"Only some of them. There's no way I'll be able to study that many impractical picks, let alone come up with good tactics for them."

"But, you still studied a bunch of these memes, right?" Luke snickered. "It sounds like you got the makings of a professional memer yourself!"

"Over my dead body!" Yuel hissed. "I like exploring unconventional tactics but that's totally different from memes. Memes are only 'unconventional' because they're subpar compared to everything else. I’d never willingly study them unless I had to."

"Sure, dude."

"Ugh..." Yuel scowled. His skin crawled from the mere idea of being compared to a memer. He was nothing like these jokers who sacrificed the entire team's chances of winning in order to tell an unfunny joke.

Either way, so far, the flow of the conversation suggested that Luke will be brandishing his Dark Knight once more. Were there really no alternatives in Stratus’s arsenal!?