『DEFEAT』

Silence descended on Yuel's camp after the enemy team thoroughly crushed them. Even after Yuel and Lars came up with a way to mount a comeback and even got a kill on Taison, they crashed into a wall right after that.

Such was the extent of Howard's Aegis, the absolute defense. Every time Yuel thought he pierced through it, he discovered it was thicker than he thought.

During the entire game, Howard has been using Taison as a momentum generator and as a weapon against Lars, but Howard didn’t bank solely on Taison's performance. Howard took into account that Taison might be beaten at some point and he was prepared to cover up that mess up with more defense.

I was too greedy. Yuel hung his head. If only he stopped Lars from chasing Ellen back then, they would have had a chance to win. They gained so much momentum from the team fight and they were finally getting a chance to turn things around, so it was tempting to keep pushing all the way. But, these poisonous greedy thoughts led to their demise.

Maybe I should have just given up earlier. Perhaps the entire last part of the game was completely pointless and Yuel was just prolonging a lost game. To fight so hard until the very end, to nearly grasp a chance... only to fall without gaining anything.

It was upsetting and it might put a huge damper on the team's morale. No wonder everybody was so quiet.

“C'mon, my dudes!” Lars jumped from his chair. “What's with the long faces? We almost got these guys!”

“You have an interesting definition of ‘almost’,” Dan retorted with a chuckle.

“But, ya saw it, right? I totally beat Taison there! We were winning! We gonna get them next time for sure, believe it!”

How can he still be so optimistic? Yuel sighed, but a smile crept onto his face. Lars was right, they still had one more shot. This wasn't the time to lose hope.

In the last game, the team was forced into a bad position and Howard revealed the aces he prepared for today’s match. However, in the next game, they will be better prepared. Yuel will use everything he learned from this defeat to strengthen the team, that’s what it meant to play a competitive best-of-three set.

As the captain, Yuel, in particular, wasn't allowed to mope. At dark times like these, he was supposed to be a role model for the others. If he loses spirit, the negativity will spread across the entire team.

“It was a tough game,” Yuel said. “But, we also learned a lot from it. Dan, you need to communicate better with the laners to know the state of the lane before ganking.”

“Roger that.”

“Roi, you need to play a little safer and not rely on parrying so much.”

“Heh,” Roi sneered. “Maybe I wouldn't have that much trouble if I actually played a half-decent class for once.”

“What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I mean, lol,” Roi added his trademark phrase, but his smile looked far from joking. “I told you, Dark Knight is trash. I became totally useless after we lost the early game.”

“Yes, that's one of the weaknesses of Dark Knight by design. It's a risk I took.”

“Yeah, sure. I bet you also took into account how fun it’ll be for me to play while feeling totally useless, right?”

“What?” Yuel frowned. “You transitioned into a tank build, so you became our main frontliner. That’s far from being useless.”

“Oh yeah, sure. Because it's so fun to play a tank who can't CC for shit, right? Are you even hearing to yourself, bro?”

“Hey now,” Dan interjected. “You letting the salt speak for you.”

“... right, my bad.” Roi shook his head. “I gonna go wash my face. Gotta wash off all this salt, lol.“

“I need to go too.” Dan joined.

With that, Roi and Dan left the room. Even though the quarrel quieted down, it left a bad taste.

Maybe Dark Knight was really pushing it. Yuel tapped his forehead. Against a late-game composition like Howard's, Dark Knight was a very fragile pick. It could dominate the mid-game with just a little momentum from early-game but, without any advantage, Dark Knight was doomed to be subpar for the rest of the game. Its only choice was to become a pure tank, but a very lackluster tank without CC. The presence of such a Dark Knight was far from impactful, it was almost a 4v5 game at that point. It was like a rook piece which devolved into a pawn.

Roi stated many times he didn't like using Dark Knight, but he was competent enough to pilot Dark Knight well. After seeing Roi's strong performance in Ranked, Yuel decided to go through with this pick despite everything and hoped for the same great results.

Alas, the competitive level was different from Ranked. Howard's team was given time to adjust after losing the first game, so they handled the Dark Knight much better in the second round. That's where the cracks in Dark Knight's properties and in Roi's mastery began to surface.

In retrospect, Yuel probably should have dropped the Dark Knight strategy after winning the first game. It’s just that Dark Knight worked so well the first time that Yuel couldn’t help but try it again. Frankly, it was foolish. He must do something different in the next game.

Anyway, that's something for Yuel to figure out. Before that, he wanted to finish discussing everybody’s faults from the previous game. Especially, the next one had a lot on her plate...

“Julia,” Yuel carefully spoke up. “You-”

“I know!” Julia shot up from her chair like an arrow. “You gonna say I played like shit right?”

“Well, not in these exact words, but there were a few glaring issues with your performance. Starting with-”

“You're really good at motivating people, you know that? Yeah, please go on. Rub into our faces how shit we were that game. I bet it makes you feel good about yourself, even though you messed up a shitton of stuff too!”

“I never pretended I'm perfect,” Yuel argued. In fact, he believed much of the fault laid with him, but that was a separate matter altogether. As the captain, it was his job to ensure everybody performed their best and that’s why he had to review the game with them.

“Whatever,” Julia walked toward the door.

“Wait, we haven't reviewed the game yet. Where are you going?”

“Toilet!” Julia slammed the door behind her.

Oh, brother... Yuel had a distinct impression that Julia might be a little pissed off. This isn't good...

Everybody left. Yuel and Lars were the only ones in the room. Going to the bathroom during the break wasn’t odd or anything, but the way everybody left was concerning. It felt like a rift was forming among them. It reminded him of the huge breakdown the second string suffered during the scrimmage with the Leopards.

Back then, Yuel argued it was mostly Trever's fault. Then, did it mean that this time it was Yuel's fault? No, that shouldn't be the case. There was no denying that some of his bad decisions contributed toward the team’s defeat, but he didn't do anything toxic that could cause bad blood in the team.

Either way, now it was only Yuel and Lars.

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“Gonna roast me next? Haha.”

“I didn't mean to roast anybody. I just wanted to review the game.”

“I know, I know. Just kidding, dude,” Lars flashed his teeth. “Okay, hit me with it, yo! Come at me with everything you got! I'll handle it!”

“Your defense was awful.”

“Gah! I knew you'd start from there!”

“But, beyond that,” Yuel paused for a moment to think. “You played both games really well. Your Gunslinger was even better than I hoped, so you did great.”

“What, not even gonna mention that last chase I did?”

“You mean, the one after Ellen?”

“Yep,” Lars shook his head. “That was so lame. I finally had things going but I fudged it up at the end there. We could've won if I didn't chase.”

“True, it was the misplay that killed our chances of winning,” Yuel nodded. “But, it was my fault.”

“Huh? How come?”

“I made a bad call not stopping you. I was mulling over it but decided against it. So, that one is on me.”

“Hey,” Lars smacked Yuel's shoulder. “That's wrong, dude. I mean, maybe you could've stopped me but I'm the one who decided to chase there. It's all on me, yo.”

“I see,” Yuel smiled weakly. Compared to the rest, Lars was willing to face his own mess-ups and to admit he committed some mistakes. “You're really taking this well, huh.”

“You kidding, dude?” Lars dashed toward his bag with and took out... a basketball? Why did he even bring it here? “I'm super pissed, yo! So pissed, that I feel like I gotta dribble for five hours straight to forget about this shit!”

Lars threw the ball at the floor and it came back to him. He threw again, and it came back again. And then again. And again. Every throw was faster and fiercer. In a couple of seconds, the ball started moving so fast there were multiple copies of it in the air! It must have reached Mach 4!

“You sure you should be doing this before a match?” Yuel asked. “It looks tiring.”

“No problem,” Lars continued slamming the ball. “It’s my meditation.”

“Really...” Rather than peaceful meditation, this looked more like boxer venting his anger on a punching bag. Lars slammed the ball into the ground with quick movements, as if hitting the floor with all his frustration.

But of course, there was no way Lars wasn't frustrated by this defeat. For them, the competitive scene was at stake this match. If they lose one more time, it’ll be game over. They'll have to spend another year gazing at the dazzling stage from below.

No more. They were sick of it. They were serious competitive players, their place was on a competitive team, not on the second string.

To get there, they absolutely had to win the next game. No ifs or buts. They had to win, period. As the captain, Yuel had to lead the team to that victory.

At this point, both teams showed what they were capable of. All the big aces prepared for today’s match must have been revealed by now. For the last game, everything was up to Yuel figuring a counter-strategy that’d allow the team to adapt to Howard’s game plan.

How should Yuel tackle Howard's unbreakable defense? So far, Howard has adjusted to everything Yuel threw at him: the Alchemist’s Impulse Bomb was a one-time shocker, Gunslinger will most certainly be banned next game and Dark Knight proved inefficient against the Druid counter pick.

Banning Druid was one idea, but Howard surely had other good counters in mind. It was obvious Howard trained Gregory how to turtle, so it's best to assume Gregory knew how to freeze the lane with multiple different classes. Running a Dark Knight against that turtling was a folly.

In general, Yuel’s early-game composition worked at first, but Howard has completely shut it down the second time around. Therefore, charging in with another aggressive composition was risky. The only reason Yuel’s team won the first game was that Howard's defense wasn't fully prepared yet. But, now it was all set and it felt impenetrable.

In that case, should Yuel try extending the power curve of the team? From an early-game composition to a mid-game composition, or maybe even a late-game composition. Given the overly defensive nature of Howard's lineups, Yuel's team should be able to get away with a lackluster early game.

Switching to a composition with a longer curve also meant the team will have a better defense, so it should be easier to pick a class which can help Lars avoid confrontations with Taison. For example, with a class like Elf, even a Bronze rank defense player like Lars should be able to get out of most sticky situations.

“Oh! I know that look!” Lars grinned while throwing the basketball into the air and catching it, without even looking at it. Mr. Supreme Mechanical Skill, as always.

“What do you mean? What look?”

“Ya know, when you cross your arms and stare reaaaaal hard at nothing. It’s like you’re on another plane, yo.”

“Do I really do that?” Yuel wasn’t sure how to take it. The ability to filter out the environment in order to concentrate on a single task was an important skill in chess, so Yuel mastered it a long time ago. Perhaps he was using it subconsciously?

“So, whatcha got? Came up with anything fun?”

“I got an idea,” Yuel said. “I think we should try extending our power curve.”

“What's that mean?”

“Instead of focusing on the early game, we'll aim to gain an advantage in later parts of the game. In mid-game, or maybe even late-game.”

“Wait, what?” Lars failed to catch the ball and it hit the floor. “We not gonna go hard early on?”

“That's the gist of it.”

“But, that's like our thing, yo! We go all in and wreck these dudes as fast as possible!”

“You saw how well that works,” Yuel pursed his lips. “Our aggressive early-game failed to make Howard budge.”

“Hey, we won the first game, remember?”

“That game was...” Yuel still wasn't sure what to make of it. “It was odd, that's the only way I can describe it. The way they played the first game was half-hearted like they were warming up. “That game doesn’t represent their real strength. The second game is what we should use to judge their power.”

“But, we were doing fine in the second game too,” Lars insisted. “I even killed Athena and all.”

“Yes, once. And yes, YOU were doing fine in the early game but the same can’t be said about the other lanes. And, even in Bot, Howard stalled us out. It's like he held all lanes under a lockdown.”

“Should I start calling him Big Lockdown Dude? Haha.”

“You may as well,” Yuel smiled even though this was no laughing matter. Howard's global lockdown during the early game was their biggest problem that game. Yuel’s team didn’t lose too badly in the early game, it's just that they didn't win the early game. That alone was a huge hit against their early game composition.

For Howard’s late-game composition, all it took was to stall out until the later parts of the game. At that point, Howard team was almost assured to win.

“But wait,” Lars picked the basketball from the floor and started tossing and catching it again without even looking at it. Seriously, what manner of witchcraft was that? “If we ain’t gonna blast through these guys in the early game, does that mean we gonna play defensively?”

“For the most part, yes. It’ll be a defensive early game which will transition into an offensive mid or late game. I was considering Elf for you”

“Gaaaah, but that's not fun, yo!”

“Yes, because your defense is terrible.”

“This ain't it, chief,” Lars insisted. “I mean, going full offense to kick the enemy’s butts is what we do best, right? If we throw that away, it's like we’re giving up on our game plan. We gonna be playing in enemy territory, yo!”

“That's an exaggeration,” Yuel objected even though he knew there was some truth it.

The team focused on practicing the early-game over the past week because Yuel believed he'll be able to penetrate through Aegis’ defense with hyper-aggressive early game. If Yuel shifts their game plan toward the later parts of the game, it’ll be like venturing into unexplored territory and playing at Howard's pace.

Nevertheless, the mid-game and late-game were still well-established parts of the game. Just because the team didn’t specifically practice these parts of the game didn’t mean they couldn't play them. Howard's team might be more experienced in that territory, but Yuel's team had superior players like Lars, Roi, and Dan. No matter which part of the game they play, Yuel's team should be able to win in terms of raw strength.

“Elf doesn't sound like a ‘winning’ pick to me, tho,” Lars protested even after hearing the gist of Yuel's reasoning.

“I thought of Elf because it's easy to defend with it, even for you. This way, I won't have to worry about babysitting you that much in the early game.”

“I ain't no baby, yo!”! Lars made a face. “Just give it to me straight, will ya? You think Taison gonna keep wrecking me, so you want me to turtle, right?”

“That's part of the equation,” Yuel admitted. “If Taison keeps targeting you this game, then Elf's escape potential will come in handy.”

“C'mon, it sounds like ya just scared of taking some risks. How we gonna win if all we do is defend? Maybe I’m just dumb, so explain it to me, genius.”

“That's...” Yuel opened and closed his mouth. When put like this, Yuel’s plan really sounded like it came from somebody who was already defeated. At some point, the goal of “winning” was replaced with “not losing”.

That was wrong. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. To secure victory against an opponent of equal strength, Yuel had to take some risks. That was true for chess, for sports, and for Classmancers as well.

Even in a defensive team, somebody had to be the pillar of the team's offense. On Howard's team, that was Taison last game. In Yuel's team, that had to be Lars. Rather than sheltering Lars in fear of Taison's ganks, it was best to play to Lars's offensive strength.

“Okay, I see your point,” Yuel said. “So, what class would you rather play? As you saw, focusing on early game is problematic. We need a class that functions well in the later parts of the game.”

“Hmmmmmm. Oh! I got it! How about Seraph!?”

This guy... Yuel sighed with a smile. A Hyper Carry, of all things. That'll certainly be a dangerous check for Howard's team, but... “I thought you said you hate classes with a slow early game.”

“Yeah, it's lame. But, if we only gonna fight for real in the late-game anyway, my dude Seraph gonna kick some serious ass.”

Truer words have never been spoken by this goof. As a Hyper Carry, Seraph was a monster in the late-game. And, combined with Lars's skill, it'll become a demon. Howard will no longer be able to drag the game out forever in fear of Seraph's late-game potential. Putting a defensive team on a timer was a good way to make it slip up, it might even open up opportunities for breaking through Howard's defense.

That goof clearly didn't think that hard about that pick, but it was a great choice. Yuel will have to work hard to keep this goof’s Seraph alive and well until the later parts of the game, but if they succeed - they'll claim victory!

Once the others return, Yuel will go over this plan with them. The next game was one they couldn't possibly afford to lose, yet they were about to take a huge gamble. Will they be able to beat Howard in his own game by switching from early game to late game? Yuel will have to make it happen, no matter what.