In the Classmancers Club of St. Mary’s, practice started off with thorough warm-up exercises. The routine involved physical exercises as well as warming up to the game’s controls. Most of it was based on the warmup practices of pro players.

It might have seemed excessive, especially since the girls were only going to play some Ranked matches. The average online player jumped straight into games with zero warmups or preparation, so compared to that the Valkyries’ routine was clearly an overkill.

With that said, as players aiming to excel in the competitive scene, the Valkyries had to conduct themselves professionally. They had to get used to the idea of preparing their mind and body for every upcoming battle, no matter how big or small it was. High-level play was all about minimizing mistakes; Fiona wanted to make that concept as natural as breathing for the team.

Not to mention, a solid warm-up also helped the player to improve during practice. The better their condition was, the better they observed everything around them. This directly contributed to learning better from mistakes. Therefore, even though these warmup exercises ate away at the already lacking time for practice, Fiona insisted on conducting them regardless.

After the extensive warmup was over, the team logged into the game and played against opponents in Ranked. This ability to easily arrange matches with players around your skill level was great for improving, especially for a team sport that needed 10 players to hold a game.

Unfortunately, the matchmaking system was far from perfect. Assigning a simple rank to each player was oversimplified. Such a system struggled to take into account the teamwork quality between players, a factor that varied greatly depending on whether the teammates were familiar with each other.

But, that is to be expected. Fiona thought. Most types of ranking systems are flawed. This is a common design problem that seems very difficult to solve.

Fiona encountered similar issues in many sports. It was always difficult, if not outright impossible, to accurately evaluate a player's skill using simple math. There were far too many factors involved in that equation.

To sidestep all that headache, most sports used simple ranking systems that awarded points based on match and tournament results. These were far from accurate, but they were simple and functional, and that was what mattered.

Classmancers’ ranking system was largely the same. After every match, it awarded the most points to the winners.

However, the system also tried to be a bit more than that. It gave the players extra points based on various achievements, such as scoring many kills, getting many assists, having few deaths, and so on.

It sounded great on paper, but naturally, there were problems with this system. You could often find players complaining about how most of these extra achievements favored aggression over defense. For players who preferred a slower and more methodical playstyle, it was very difficult to score any bonus points with this system.

Unfortunately, there was not much that could be done about this. A ranking system was bound to be imperfect as long it was invited by humans.

At the very least, in Fiona’s case, the bonus points from achievements served her well. Even when the team lost a game, if Fiona performed well then she got rewarded with enough points to mitigate the penalty.

For one game, the impact of the bonus points was almost negligible. But, across many games, the bonus points accumulated and propelled her rank forward.

In particular, once the team started facing Platinum rank opponents, their progress became very stifled. Fiona was the only one making progress these days thanks to her solid performance, which was how she had already reached Platinum I despite all odds.

At this point, only Karen was above Fiona in rank. She had a big head-start on Fiona because she had been playing for a couple of years now. However, Fiona was slowly but surely catching up. She was in Platinum II while Karen was in Diamond IV. The

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Unfortunately, as a whole, the team’s current win rate in the Platinum division was right around 50%, which was not convincing enough to climb higher on the ladder. It was quite disheartening, as Cato said the Leopards were playing in the Challenger division; they were so far ahead.

But, it cannot be helped. We do not have enough experienced players. Fiona thought. That includes me as well, unfortunately.

In fact, in terms of sheer playtime, Fiona's was on the lower side in the club. Karen, Andria, and Lua all played Classmancers before joining the club. However, only Karen actively played Ranked. Lua said she avoided Ranked because she had nobody to play with, whereas Andria claimed that grinding Ranked was neither fun nor rewarding.

With a team like that, anybody would rightfully mock Fiona for even dreaming of winning the regionals. Nonetheless, she believed it was very much possible.

This newborn team had undeniably less time to prepare for the regionals than other established ones. However, "time" was a relative concept in this context.

For example, Andria and Lua both clocked more time in Classmancers than Fiona. However, the two of them did not pursue the competitive scene as seriously as Fiona did. As such, they did not spend much time in Ranked before joining the club, which meant their level of experience did not measure up to the actual amount of time they spent in the game.

On the other hand, Fiona rushed to Lv. 50 as soon as she created an account. She unlocked Ranked in her first week with the game and had been grinding it together with Karen even before establishing the club. Thanks to that competitive mindset, she had already passed Andria and Lua in rank.

Essentially, Fiona's progress during her “brief time” with the game was likely twice, if not thrice, the average speed. Especially, since she also hired various coaches to professionally tutor her. Thanks to all that, she had already reached Platinum I, which was considered very good for a player with less than a year under their belt.

Alas, she had a hard time climbing any further at the moment. The reason for that lay not so much with her but with the rest of the team. As long as their win rate was stuck at a hard 50% in the Platinum division, it was difficult for Fiona to climb to Diamond.

To make any progress under these circumstances, she had to outdo herself in very specific ways and earn the bonus points the ranked system offered.

However, that can become a trap in its own way. Fiona realized soon after she started appealing the system. It handsomely rewarded her for various aggressive actions, especially for killing enemy players. As a result, she sometimes found herself chasing difficult kills that she had no business chasing, blinded by the potential bonus points.

This led to bad habits, something that Rodriguez was quick to point out when coaching her. Thankfully, that advice saved Fiona from crippling her own development.

Fiona’s ultimate goal was to improve her skill and win in the competitive scene, not inflate her rank. So, even though it was statistically easier to climb the ranks by being aggressive and proactive, a truly competitive player should value minimizing errors far more than that.

And so, Fiona focused on playing her best and hoped the system would naturally reward her for performing well. It made the climb slower, but the system nonetheless took notice of her various achievements and slowly pushed her rank forward.

Honestly, I would rather see the entire team climb the ranks at this pace. Fiona thought. Alas, the time goes by, I am coming to realize it might be an unreasonable expectation.

The other members exhibited great growth in the club’s first few months, but they soon reached a point of stagnation. This was a familiar feeling for anybody who ever tried their hand at sports. It meant they "hit a wall".

Fiona ran into countless such walls throughout her career. Some walls were harder than others, but she usually succeeded in breaking past the first wall with the help of professional coaching and focused training.

But, that was just the first wall. After every wall, there was a short period of growth, followed by the next wall. And, this new wall was usually larger and sturdier than the first. And, after that wall lay yet another wall somewhere in the distance. Such was the natural cycle of improving at any competitive sport.

Fiona and the club had already broken through multiple such walls since the day the club was formed, but they still had a long road ahead of them.

According to Fiona’s research, all the best players in the region were in Challenger rank by now. So, that was the level everybody in the Valkyries had to aspire to.

Alas, Karen was the only one in Diamond right now, the others were Platinum or below. So, there was still much more climbing for everybody to do, and the first Ranked game of the day was definitely not helping them with that...