Running It Back Again

"And the unreasonable one?"

Tyler had half a mind to give Warren a sharp whack upside the head. He didn't want the unreasonable reason because it was most likely irrelevant and would make his head hurt.

"Well… if the Gatling went top against the Paladin then the Gatling can farm freely and grow strong. Either the Ninja or the Rogue would go bot and focus on killing the Sharpshooter repeatedly so he never gets fed."

"So turn bot into a kill lane?" wondered Kelly. "I never considered that."

"It probably wouldn't work anyways," admitted Miranda. "You have to get used to playing that style, otherwise it just ends up being pretty garbage. You either kill or you end being useless."

"Look they're starting."

Neither team tried any level 1 shenanigans and headed directly for their lanes.

In the top lane team Rocket's Paladin faced off against the 1mm0rt4l's Ninja. This lane would be relatively uneventful. As a tanky support class Paladin wouldn't really have the damage to ever finish off the more mobile Ninja. The Ninja in turn wouldn't be able to kill the Paladin because of how tanky it was.

In the jungle, Golem faced off against Werewolf. Here the onus was on team 1mm0rt4l's Werewolf to take advantage of Golem's slow movement to make plays across the map that the opponent couldn't respond to.

In the mid lane Gelisorcerer faced off against the 1mm0rt4l's second assassin, the Rogue. Having a squishy mage opponent was usually the dream matchup for an assassin. However, Gelisorcerer was a control mage. With its wide area of effect control abilities, the Gelisorcerer should be able to keep from dying too much if at all by maintaining space and building defensively.

In the bottom lane Sharpshooter and Mute faced off against Gatling and Telekineticist. This was by far the most volatile lane and the focal point of the game. On one side, the Sharpshooter was content to farm safely harassing from a distance with the protection of Mute. On the other side, Telekineticist would be constantly trying to yank someone over for the Gatling to destroy.

If the Gatling kept getting kills, it could potentially flip the game around by having a much higher dps than its Sharpshooter counterpart. But the lane went remotely close to even, then the Sharpshooter would have much greater impact in fights because its greater range allowed it to attack more without being killed.

"This isn't looking good for 1mm0rt4l," declared Kelly after an uneventful few minutes.

"Is it really that bad?" asked Tyler. The game seemed pretty even so far. After all, no one had been killed yet so neither team should have that great of a lead.

"Don't forget that as long as they're Sharpshooter isn't too far behind team Rocket has the advantage," Miranda casually reminded him.

The game went exactly as expected. After a very long and relatively uneventful laning phase, team Rocket rotated mid as a five man and dove the unsuspecting Rogue under Pillar. After claiming the first Pillar bonus, they went back to base to buy items and heal before simply running back to siege the mid lane over and over again.

After cracking the Crystal and obtaining Ballista minions, they rotated top and repeated the process. Under the pressure of two lanes of Ballista minions and the extra power team Rocket had from the Pillars and Crystals they destroyed, 1mm0rt4l crumpled like a wet napkin and easily steamrolled.

"What do you think they'll do this game?" asked Tyler. "I think team 1mm0rt4l will draft a real tank this time so they have a frontline."

"Maybe. At very least I think they'll ban out Sharpshooter." Kelly shrugged dramatically. "My guess is Miranda will say they won't."

"Oh? Why not?" Warren scratched his head in confusion. "Jehsea's Sharpshooter was the most troublesome opponent by far."

The other three looked at Miranda who gave a small shrug of her own. "I wouldn't ban Sharpshooter. I also wouldn't say Sharpshooter was the most troublesome opponent."

"Really? But it did the most damage in the game and it wasn't even close!" protested Warren.

"Because it was enabled. And those damage numbers are inflated by their lead. They drafted around their Sharpshooter and they were rewarded. Those damage numbers are the payoff."

"Oh, they're already started picking again." Tyler hurriedly redirected the conversation as he realized the draft was already underway. "Aren't those the same picks as last time?"

"Yup. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. It's up to 1mm0rt4l to find a way to beat Rocket's comp. Until then Rocket can just keep running the same thing over and over again," Kelly answered matter-of-factly.

"If both teams are drafting the same, then it likely means that 1mm0rt4l thinks they can win but just executed poorly," added Miranda.

"Do you agree?"

"Yes."

"Do you think they'll win this time?"

"No."

Sure enough, 1mm0rt4l did execute better. They even managed to kill the Sharpshooter a couple times, particularly the Rogue.

"Cody! Cody! Cody!"

The student council president himself happened to be the one controlling the Rogue. As student council president, almost the entire student body knew his name. After a flashy kill the spectators rewarded him a chant.

Not that it really mattered. Aside for making a few team fights a wash and even winning two for themselves, 1mm0rt4l still ended up just being steamrolled by Rocket's repetitive and inexorable strategy.

"Okay they're going to have to change up something. What do you think they'll do this time?"

"The way I see it, they need to play around their Gatling. Sharpshooter is stronger but based on pure dps, Gatling is stronger. They can even get double the value by denying Rocket classes and using them to buff the Gatling."

"...or they can not." To the desks surprise the exact same bans and the exact same picks were locked in yet again. "At this point are they just being persistent or stupid?"