The banning phase began. Right off the gate, the Valkyries came swinging.

"My, they're sure targeting us alright." Ellen blinked a few times as she examined the enemy's bans. They hit Paladin and Ranger right away, clearly targeting Howard and Ellen.

"So, they did their homework." Howard nodded. "Newbies or not, at least we can say for sure they're taking the competition seriously. They came here to win, that alone already makes them dangerous."

In response, Howard banned Lionfolk, which seemed like the favorite class of Rosemary, AKA the “Landberht Princess”. Other than that, there was very little information about the Valkyries, so Howard didn’t have any good bans off-hand.

Rosemary played Lancer before, but it wasn’t a top-tier class and her performance with it wasn’t stellar. So, it didn’t seem like a worthwhile ban.

Instead, he banned Shadow Walker for the protocol. In addition, he got rid of Knight because that was always a good rule of thumb.

These were all decent moves, but frankly, Howard wasn’t thinking too deeply about any of this. He just went for the most straightforward meta ideas, believing that was enough. However, as the drafting phase progressed, he began to realize that was a mistake.

Tch, that Sage is a nasty counter to our Pyro. Howard clicked his tongue. Such a good pick. I have to say, they sure don’t feel like amateurs when it comes to drafting.

Right from the banning phase and up until the end of the drafting, the Valkyries exhibited a deep understanding of the game. They responded to StormBlitz’s late-game comp with a hyper-aggressive lineup, setting this up to be an interesting game.

Furthermore, the Valkyries efficiently denied StormBlitz some strong late-game options like Sorcerer, as well as caught Howard off-guard with that pinpoint Sage counter-pick. This was proving to be a surprisingly tough game already.

I had a feeling I should've gone with something safer like Electro. Howard sighed. Julia just kept begging for Pyro so I went for it without thinking…

This was Howard’s mistake, he recognized as much. Nonetheless, he had the urge to vent. "You brought this on yourself, Julia."

"Hmph No big deal." Julia crossed her arms. "I can beat a Sage with Pyro any day."

"I sure hope that's the case. Otherwise, we're going to have a very bad time in Mid"

Truth be told, it was unexpected to see a newbie team like the Valkyries pick Sage. PrinceCharming played it briefly against the Leopards but her performance didn’t leave much of an impression. She lacked the necessary mastery to bring that complex class online in a competitive environment.

People like memeing about how it’s a broken “spambot” class, but that's a shallow take. Howard thought. Sage can only have an easy time up to Silver rank at best. Afterward, it becomes an uphill battle. You can’t just go out and “spam” your spells as you please.

On paper, Sage was indeed a mage with the seemingly unfair ability to quickly cast multiple spells in succession. However, the question was WHEN and HOW to utilize that spamming ability. The player had to manage their resources carefully and find the right situations.

Can their Mid pull that off? Howard wondered. From what I've seen, Charming has decent mechanical skill and she made some solid on-the-spot decisions against Leo, at least in the first game of the scrim. Afterward, she was all over the place.

To be fair, their entire team was in shambles after the exhausting first round. None of them actually performed that well after that point, save for Rosemary.

Nonetheless, Charming’s decline in ability felt the most extreme of them all. One moment she was a serious contender for being the Valkyries’ 2nd best player, but the next moment she looked like the worst they had to offer.

So, she is either overconfident with this Sage pick, or she practiced really hard and actually got good with it. We’ll find out soon enough.

The fact remained that Sage was a counter to Pyromancer on multiple levels, which spelled bad news for Julia. But, maybe it was a good test for that troublemaker. It’ll be interesting to see how Julia handles this disadvantageous matchup.

Either way, I have no intention of dropping a single game today. Howard asserted. So, if Julia has a rough time in the early game, I'll just have Dan babysit her. This means he might have to be able to rotate quickly on demand.

The gears in Howard’s brain finally started moving again after this wake-up call. He realized he had to treat this drafting phase with utmost attention. Ironic, considering he just warned Dan and Roi to take this game seriously a few minutes ago.

Upon closer inspection, the match-up in Top was also quite interesting: Viking vs. Berserker. It had two Nordic warriors squaring it off.

Based on the previous scrim, the enemy’s Top Laner, GoldenLady, was a rather unstable player. She played similarly to Julia's aggressive mode in many ways. The moment Lady's fuse went off, she went full berserk mode and stopped at nothing to assault her opponent.

I trust Roi to fend off her attacks. But, I'd also like to be able to capitalize on her overextensions whenever possible.

An aggressive player like Lady was prone to overcommitting during her attacks. That made her a great target to focus on.

So, I'd like Dan to be able to rotate over there quickly and gank on demand. Howard reasoned. Hmm. This already makes it two lanes he’d have to closely pay attention to.

In other words, Dan’s class absolutely needed mobility options. He might find himself rotating a lot between Top and Mid, so he had to be able to do so without wasting too much precious time.

"So, basically," Dan started. "You're saying I hafta go Chrono, right?"

"Chrono, huh? An interesting option." That definitely wasn't the first idea in Howard's head considering how rare the class was. But, it certainly fulfilled the required conditions.

Chronomancer was an assassin-mage hybrid with the ability to manipulate time and space. For the needs of this particular game, Haste would offer a great Movement Speed boost, whereas Time Portal would allow Dan to teleport between lanes on demand. Truly, it was a whole package.

With these abilities in its kit, Chronomancer was unquestionably one of the best classes for the job. The only worrisome factor was the class's tier in the meta, which was currently resting somewhere between high C and low B. Not amazing.

It's not TERRIBLE per se, but it definitely needs more love from the devs. Howard thought. And, it's also a complex class to play, so not many bother with it.

Despite the impressive mobility options, Chronomancer wasn’t a favorite in the pro scene. The main reason for that was the delicate resource-management aspect. The class had the ability to unleash some of the most impressive of spells in the game, but doing so cost Time Accel stacks, a resource that could only be obtained through the passage of time.

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Fortunately, Dan-of-all-trades was very much capable of playing Chronomancer, just as he could play any other Jungler class. So, class mastery wasn't an issue for their level of play, especially when considering their opponents for this game.

"Alright, let's go with Chrono.”

"Heck yeah, let's go!" Dan pumped a fist. "Can't believe I actually get to play the class on this stage! I thought it'd never happen!”

"Yeah, this is a rare situation where Chrono happens to have all the tools we need," Howard explained. "As I said, you'll likely be rotating a lot between Top and Mid, so you have to be fast."

"Yep, and Chrono is fast as fuck boiiii."

"So, it's settled then."

Against stronger opponents, Howard would’ve hesitated a lot more. But, against the Valkyries, a Chronomancer should be a great pick.

And so, the drafting phase continued. From the enemy's lineup, it was clear that they were planning to push offense in this game. They picked Impaler and Berserker, both early-game classes.

They want to rush us down. Howard smiled meaningfully. Heh, this reminds me of the tactics Yuel tried against me. But, I’m sorry, “princess”. This won't work for you.

"Since they banned your favorite," Howard addressed Ellen. "What would you like instead? Pirate is banned too, so you have to go for something more obscure."

"Such naughty girls, banning all the easy options. Hmm." Ellen placed a finger on her cheek and tilted her head. "These furious kittens are obviously planning to push hard during the early game, right? So, I say we lure them in with Seraph~"

"Oh? You really like playing with fire, don't you?"

"Fire happens to be the best way to attract moths, don't you think?” Ellen smiled meaningfully. “Danny can rotate super fast with Chrono, right? So, we can punish them in Bot the moment they try to attack~"

"That's provided he won't be busy dealing with another lane at that time," Howard pointed out. "But yeah, I see your angle. Basically, you're saying they're already eager to go ham on offense, so we might as well place some attractive baits."

"Exactly~!” Ellen nodded. “We should make their hunger for offense blind them~"

"I see Esmeralda taught you well."

“Teehee, of course she did~!”

Picking Seraph was equivalent to installing a time bomb the enemy had to deal with, as their lineup wasn't suited for the late-game in the slightest. In other words, it’ll be Game Over for them the moment Seraph comes online.

The Valkyries will surely recognize that as well, so they will feel compelled to dial up their aggression. That’ll surely bring about many punishable overextensions.

"And, that's where we turn the tables on them~" Ellen proclaimed happily. “The moment they make a mistake, we can switch from defense to offense and make them regret all their life choices~”

"Yeah, that should work," Howard agreed. "The idea itself is on the riskier side, but we should be able to pull it off against this team. It’ll be good practice."

"My, didn't you just tell us to not underestimate the Valkyries?"

"Yeah, I did," Howard admitted. "But, we should take everything in proportion, right? No matter how you twist it, the Valkyries aren't on par with the biggest threats in the region, so this is a good opportunity to practice playing a hyper late-game comp against an aggressive team.”

“My how risky.”

“Yes, it is a bit risky,” Howard admitted. “But, going forward, I’ve been thinking how it might be useful if we get used to taking small risks here and there.”

“My, my.” Ellen smiled meaningfully. "Is that part of your brainstorming for our eventual rerun with the Leopards?"

"Heh, maybe it is." That scrim left a bad taste in Howard's mouth. From start to end, StormBlitz struggled immensely against the Leopards' iron wall of defense. This team simply wasn't built to deal with such an obnoxious level of hyper-turtling.

Ever since, Howard had been musing how to win the next match. Apprentece’s existence was a huge problem in its own right, but even before he took the stage StormBlitz was already struggling. They just barely came on top in the end, but it was anybody’s game the entire time.

If we can’t thoroughly beat Leo before they resort to Apprentece, then we have no hope of beating them once that happens. After all, there’s very little we can do about the fact Apprentece himself is pro-level material.

Rather than chasing the impossible, Howard preferred to keep things practical. As such, he focused on how to beat the rest of the Leopards, rather than the monster that was Appretence.

The Leo vs. Stratus scrim already showed just how difficult it is to take that guy down. Howard thought. Even Lars just barely got a kill on the guy despite the fact they caught him overextending.

So, while it was important to come up with plans for beating Apprentece himself, it was far more crucial to counter the Leopards as a whole. For that, StormBlitz had to change something about its game plan.

Against turtly teams like that, I may have to get used to taking some risks. Otherwise, it’d be impossible to bust through their defense. Howard smiled wryly. Heh, Yuel would laugh if he heard me say something like this.

Most of Yuel's tactics were high risk high reward, to a fanatic degree. That was the main reason he and Howard never saw eye to eye and rarely played on the same team even during practice.

However, the Leo scrim made Howard reconsider some things about his approach. Sometimes, playing "safe and steady" simply didn't cut it. There were obnoxious teams out there that wanted their opponents to play slow like that because they excelled at battles of attrition.

In a way, Yuel's clunky team pushed Leo around way better than we did. Howard thought. We got two wins faster than Stratus did, but each of these games was a coin toss. Meanwhile, Yuel managed to get just as far with inferior teammates and memes.

Clearly, Yuel's risky approach was able to make a dent in the Leopards' wall of defense. And, StormBlitz managed to do the same only once Howard subbed Julia in. Despite her less-than-satisfactory performance overall, her aggressive approach created some interesting opportunities for StormBlitz.

Frankly, subbing her in was a big risk Howard didn't think he'd be taking so early into the year, especially not against the region’s strongest team. He intended to keep Julia’s existence under wrappers until the regionals, but the circumstances forced his hand. He had to improvise after struggling so much against the enemy’s defense.

Surprisingly, adding Julia to the roster injected the team with the spice it needed. She was a hidden trump card that took the Leopards by surprise.

Frankly, I started having doubts about whether we could push through that wall of defense without Julia’s aggression. Howard admitted only to himself. So, I had to test it right there. There was no time to wait until the regionals for the first test run.

Besides, there was also Julia’s lack of competitive experience to consider. Scrims existed to help players gain said experience, so it was far better to let the girl debut long before the regionals.

In the end, I took the shot and it sorta worked out. Howard thought. So, that got me thinking. Maybe I need to be more dynamic and spontaneous sometimes, so long as I don’t go overboard like Yuel.

Even with a troublemaker like Julia on the team, StormBlitz was still able to maintain solid defense overall. Howard had to work harder than usual to make up for whatever aggressive mistakes Julia committed, but it turned out alright in the end.

If the entire thing can be settled with me working a little harder, then I’ll do it. Howard thought. A riskier game plan doesn’t necessarily translate to a worse game plan, that’s something I have to internalize. So long as I can offset the risk with good shot-calling, then it might be worth taking.

It was ironic. Over the year, it seemed like Yuel started appreciating good defense, whereas Howard developed an interest in good offense.

The last time they clashed, each of them was a paragon of their respective cult. But, now they were dipping their toes into the arts of the opposite side. So, following that mentality…

“Alright, let’s go with Seraph,” Howard said. “Get ready for an uphill battle in the lane.”

"I was born ready~"

And so, Howard locked in Seraph, the Hyper Carry that guaranteed victory so long as the team safely made it to the late-game. The main challenge will be to survive in good health until then, which was surely doable against a team like the Valkyries. It should serve as good practice.

And so, the drafting phase went on. By the end of it, the Valkyries had a team geared toward winning the mid-game, whereas StormBlitz had a defensive lineup for the late-game.

===Valkyries===

Fiona (Rosemary): Vampire

Karen (Lavender): Impaler

Andria (PrinceCharming): Sage

Lua (Nike): Aquamancer

Cornelia (GoldenLady): Berserker

===StormBlitz===

Howard (Aegis): Cryomancer

Ellen (Athena): Seraph

Julia (Venus): Pyromancer

Roi (CleanupHitter): Viking

Dan (Average): Chronomancer