Educated Memeing

Lars started the match off on the wrong foot. It seemed the goof has completely forgotten what it meant to be a Mid Laner, to the point he wasn't sure whether he should buy a ward at game start. On top of that, he wasn't sure where to best place his ward and had to consult Yuel on that as well.

All of this created a very concerned image. There was no doubt the goof will mess something up really bad, or so Yuel thought. Surprisingly, once Lars actually arrived on the lane, he was like a changed man.

Lars cast Whirlwind at the perfect spot to make it hit both the enemy swordsmen on the front and the enemy bowmen on the back. The whirlwind was just barely wide enough to cover the entire minion wave but Lars placed it almost perfectly. His aim was slightly off on the first minion wave and one bowman escaped the reach of his whirlwind, but Lars corrected his mistake right away on the following wave.

Not only that, but he always cast Whirlwind preemptively before the two minion waves clashed in the middle of the lane. Normally, players waited for the minion waves to assume their combat positions and then placed their Whirlwind accordingly. That ensured they could properly summon the whirlwind in the right area.

But, not this guy. Lars summoned the wind just briefly before the minions arrived and made sure the whirlwind will hit the entire wave once it grows to its full size.

By doing so, Lars optimized his wave clearing speed. It made his wave clearing about one second faster. That didn't sound like the most impressive thing in the world but, on high levels of play, such a difference could be huge. Clearing the lane just a couple of seconds faster than the opponent opened the door to many opportunities.

However, Lars didn't stop there. He followed up on his Whirlwind with quick basic attacks and didn't drop a single shot despite moving around to juke enemy shots, as expected from the "200% accuracy" sniper. He was shooting nonstop without ever lifting his finger from the left mouse button, yet each and every shot connected. If Yuel attempted such a stunt, he'd undoubtedly miss at least 70% of the shots.

[And that's why I don't play Carry.] Yuel smiled wryly. He had more than another trouble landing one "quick shot" without lifting his finger, so many of these in a row would probably even miss against a stationary target.

Not to mention, Lars wasn't just shooting fast without a plan. He made sure to mix up his targets to not miss any last-hits. He fired at every swordsman to bring them all low and then he last-hit each of them in order. The ongoing ticks of damage from whirlwind helped him secure the last hits on the entire wave.

All in all, this was an amazing display of how to do laning right as an Aeromancer. Yuel was proud. Nowadays, everybody naturally expected Lars to be this efficient with his last hits while farming, but it wasn't always like this.

It took Yuel a long time to drill the importance of efficient farming into Lars. It almost felt like converting a non-believer. But, once Lars FINALLY developed the correct mindset, the result was nigh flawless execution.

At some point, Lars no longer had to "think" about last-hits anymore. He just practicing farming routines until it became second nature for him to deliver last-hits to all minions. He became a terminator.

This strong display of flawless farming completely dispelled Yuel's initial worries. Perhaps Lars a monkey who didn't understand the fine details about warding and smart tactical decisions, but his execution was godlike. His execution alone was strong enough to carry him as a Mid Laner even against Diamond and Challenger ranks.

However, if a class had a tool with some advanced some tricks to it, those didn't always register in the goof's brain right away. If Lars played a class regularly, he eventually nailed all the high-level tricks Yuel taught him. Alas, Lars could be trusted to forget all about them after two weeks if he didn't touch the class.

"Don't forget to use Jet Stream," Yuel said. "It's important to not let Electromancer land basics."

"Oh, right," Lars nodded. He didn't ask what Yuel meant by this advice, so at least he remembered the gist of it.

Just as the enemy Electromancer was about to fire another beam of electricity, Lars cast Jet Stream between the Electromancer and his swordsmen. Just like with the rest of Lars's execution, the timing and placement of Jet Stream were perfect.

The Electromancer's bullet of electricity passed through the trail of wind and slowed down until it vanished entirely. The attack failed to reach Lars's swordsman.

That was one of the great advantages of Jet Stream during the laning phase. Jet Stream slowed down enemy projectiles that went through it and made them dropped off earlier.

Even though Electomancer's basic attack was a shot of electricity, that was was just animation. In practice, the Electromancer's shot was a projectile like any other ranged basic attack. Therefore, Jet Stream slowed it down and reduced its range.

This put the Electromancer in a tough spot. The Jet Stream was like a wall that stood between him and Lars's minions. In order to make his shots reach Lars's minions, the Electromancer had to somehow play around Jet Stream's slowdown.

One option was to rotate to the other side of the lane. The Electromancer has been firing at minions from the bottom side of Mid Lane, so Lars created the Jet Stream accordingly to block shots from that direction.

Therefore, if the Electromancer rotates to the top part of the lane, his shots will reach the minions from there. However, such rotation required time. Especially, with Lars's Whirlwind still raging in the middle of the lane. The Electromancer would have to go all the way back to his side of the lane to go around the whirlwind, which would be a huge waste of time. His entire minion wave will be gone in the meantime.

Therefore, the Electromancer couldn't rotate all the way from the bottom to the top. Instead, he advanced to the frontline despite the risk. From there, his shots traveled far enough to reach the minions even after passing through Jet Stream.

However, that put him in a dangerous position. He was right within Lars's reach. While Jet Stream reduced the range of enemy projectiles, it extended the range of allied projectiles. Therefore, as soon as Lars wiped out all enemy minions, the Electromancer became the next prey!

[Let's go, yo!] Lars fired Squall without warning. The huge gust of wind counted as a projectile, so passing through Jet Stream boosted the heck outta its speed and range. And, it even increased Squall's power because Squall was best pals with Jet Stream. In other words, this was one heck of a powerful shot, yo!

Bam! The gust of wind crashed into the Electromancer like a truck! It took out a nice 20% HP and left the guy staggering. It was time to go for a kill, yo!

Lars darted forward and fired at his slowed prey. He totally gonna get some heavy damage in there and- Oh, the dude vanished. What a party pooper.

The Electromancer bailed the heck out of there by blinking away. Man, that escape skill was so cheap. Why none of Lars's main classes had a blinking ability? Lame.

But okay, this was a good start. The Electro dude was down to 80% and this was just the second round. Lars just gotta keep pressing hard like that during every minion wave and he'll crack that dude eventually.

"That was some hard pressure," Luke commented. "You totally owning that guy in Mid."

"Heh, thanks," Lars flashed his teeth. "Too bad I don't have a way to finish the job, though. Dude gonna blink away every time like this. Where's my anti-blinking ability at?"

"Haha, I feel ya," Luke chuckled. "Happens every single time. You about to kill the guy but he just goes NOPE and blinks away. Ruins my day every time."

"Feels bad, dude."

"But hey," Luke smirked. "If the guy doesn't have blink, I can end his whole career. Think you can force him to retreat with blink again during the next wave?"

"Yeah, no problem."

"Cool. You don't mind if I sneak up to the guy after he blinks and kill him, right?"

"Sure," Lars gave a thumbs up. "Get dat cheap blinking dude."

"Haha, will do."

The next minion wave arrived and Lars repeated the same routine. He summoned a whirlwind to take care of the minions and placed a Jet Stream to block off the Electromancer's shots.

And so, the Electromancer advanced to the frontline again and put himself at risk. The poor dude had no choice, really.

Lars hoped dude will get sick of this and pick a fight with him, but that Electromancer acted composed. Meh, what a boring dude. Avoiding fights in this position was probably the smart thing to do but where's the fun in that?

Just like last time, Lars cleared the lane first. Then, he fired Squall!

[Oh! Dude actually tried to blink away before I shot.] Lars grinned.

The Electromancer saw Lars's Squall from a mile away and tried to blink preemptively. But, too bad! Lars fired Squall right after last-hitting the last enemy minion. It was an instant follow up with zero delays! Ain't nobody fast enough to dodge that stuff on time.

Lars barely had any time to aim but his Squall landed on the Electromancer without trouble. That's a given because he had 200% Accuracy! Also, he was that... Eh, how did Vincent call that special ability, again? The Gungun Sniper? Something like that. It was da stuff!

The Electromancer was already down to about half HP. But, dude ain't gonna retreat or something lame like that, right? Half HP was still plenty so that Electric Boogaloo dude should keep trying to contest the lane. Who knew? Maybe dude will come up with a good counter plan to Lars's shenanigans. That's when things gonna get fun for real.

"Ahoy there," Luke greeted. At some point during the entire exchange between Lars and the Electromancer, Luke snuck into Mid Lane while stealthed. Right as the Electromancer finished his blinking, his back was wide open to be wrecked by Luke!

"Got 'em!" Luke dropped a smoke bomb in front of him. The smoke only hindered enemies so Lars could clearly see the slaughter that followed.

Slash! Slash! Slash! Luke ran his dagger all across the Electromancer's back. The strikes were swift and dealt a crapton of damage because they came from behind. Electroman over there was screwed!

Without his blinking ability, the Electromancer didn't have any other escape tools. His only options were to either stand and fight or to run for his life. Naturally, dude chose to get the heck outta there. Nobody gonna blame him because what kind of crazy mage dude wanted to deal with a Rogue at close range? That's like asking to be brutally executed.

But, escaping wasn't that easy. The smoke from Smoke Bomb slowed down the Electromancer and Rogue was a naturally fast runner. So, Luke stuck to the dude's back like glue. It was over.

『An enemy has been killed!』

"Executed!" Luke pumped a fist. "How ya like my meme now, huh? Pretty neat, right?"

"It's just one kill," Yuel was quick to ruin the party. Just because Luke scored one kill with a Rogue didn't suddenly make Rogue a good pick.

"Man, you're so hard to please," Luke made a face.

"Yeah, he really is," Lars chuckled. "He won't praise ya unless you win the entire game. And even then, he gonna make sure it doesn't sound like real praise."

"Sounds like a tough customer."

"Yeah, dude is a hella tough customer, haha," Lars nodded. "But, I think that kill was sick, yo! You rekt that dude!"

"Danke, danke."

[They're making too big of a deal out of it,] Yuel thought. [It was just one kill under convenient circumstances. Anybody with decent execution could've pulled that off.]

Nevertheless, Yuel had to admit that Luke surprised him for the better in this play. Yuel's first impression of Luke was that of a memer who didn't know any of the meta conventions. However, so far, Luke was proving to be a solid player. Well, aside from the fact he picked a low tier class for memes.

Rather than the actually kill itself, what impressed Yuel was the way Luke organized that gank. The idea behind this entire play came from Luke. It was Luke who placed a Sentry Ward to secure himself a ganking route for Mid and it was Luke who asked Lars to exhaust the Electromancer's blink.

So, Luke was no amateur, that's for sure. Maybe Yuel could even trust Luke to execute even tougher plays.

"Well," Luke started. "I'mma go steal their hyenas. Looks like their Lancer gonna come to defend Mid, so that camp gonna be free."

"Wait," Yuel said. "Do you mind waiting near the lane for a little while? Say, around the corner in the jungle."

"And why would I wanna do that?"

"There's a good chance the Lancer will think you're gone and that might make him overextend. If he does, you can gank him and get another kill."

"Sounds cool, but how do you know he'll overextend? He's coming here to defend the lane, so I don't think he's going to take any risks."

"This Lancer seems a bit inexperienced," Yuel explained. "He might commit that kind of mistake."

"How do you figure? You know the guy?"

"No, it's based on what I've seen of him so far."

"Wut. Dude, the game started like a few minutes ago. You telling me you already figured out that guy? Are ya an ESPer?"

"I know it may sound a bit far-stretched and I may be wrong, but..." Yuel pursed his lips. This was a familiar barrier. Every time he played with new teammates he ran into this issue.

[Feels like this hasn't happened in ages.] Yuel smiled wryly. Everybody in StormBlitz got used to way Yuel analyzed things, so he hasn't justified himself in a long time. But, with this new crew, he had to prove his worth again from scratch.

"You should give it a shot," Vincent joined the conversation out of nowhere. "You may not believe it, but Chessmaster got the Mystic Eyes of Weakness Perception!"

"Mystic Eyes?" Luke asked. "No idea what that does but, not gonna lie, sounds cool."

"It goes like this," Vincent explained. "You see, everything in existence has a weakness. Humans, air, will and especially opponents."

"Not sure I get it but sounds deep so I'm digging it."

"Right? That's the spirit," Vincent nodded. "In short, his eyes can see the weaknesses of things. As long as something exists, he'll reveal you all of its weak spots!"

"Savage!" Luke bandwagoned the silly hype train. "Alrighty then, you just want me to wait behind a wall near the lane, right?"

"Yes," Yuel said.

"You got it, fam," Luke gave a thumbs up. "Still not sure about the entire thing but let's give it a shot, why not. If it fails, you own me one."

"Sure," Yuel nodded. If his quick analysis of the Lancer's skill was off, then this play won't convert into a kill and Luke will lose the opportunity to steal the Hyena Camp. However, it was such a low-risk high-reward opportunity that Yuel just had to go for it. These are the kinds of plays he should prioritize from now on when shot-calling.

Luke left the lane through the jungle, making it look like he'll be gone for good. However, once he was sure nobody on the enemy team could see him, he rotated around a nearby jungle wall and laid in wait. Unless the enemy had a ward nearby, they had no way to know Luke was lurking over there. Therefore, as far as the Lancer was concerned, only Lars was in Mid right now.

As Yuel suspected, the Lancer did more than just defend. After clearing the remains of the minion wave, the Lancer stayed on the lane to clear the following wave. He even approached the frontline to execute a sweep attack on Lars's swordsmen. The mad lad had no fear in him.

"Looks like you were right on the money," Luke grinned. "So, I'm up?"

"Just a moment," Yuel said. "He still hasn't used his leap. It'll be tough to chase him down."

"Nah, it'll be super easy, barely an inconvenience. I'mma just teleport behind him with my ult and be like 'Nothing personal kid', haha."

"That may work, but..." Yuel had to choose his words carefully.

Rogue's ult, Phantom Strike, was a great tool for chasing. The Rogue blitzed in a straight line and struck the first enemy player in his path. If the strike hits the target's back, it'll also stun them and allow the Rogue to follow up with additional slashes from behind. Those hits dealt extra damage thanks to Rogue's Backstabber passive. So, it was a solid tool for chasing down an opponent and finishing them off.

However, the success rate of such a play heavily depended on the player's execution. Luke will have to properly land his Phantom Strike in the heat of the moment and kill his opponent as fast as possible. The last part of this confrontation might take place in the enemy's Turret area, so if Luke takes too long - he'll wind up dead instead.

It wasn't like this play demanded crazy mechanical skill, but Yuel didn't have a full grasp of Luke's skill level yet. So, entrusting this memer with such a play invited some risks. Instead, Yuel wanted to secure this play more tightly.

"To make sure we definitely get the kill," Yuel explained. "It's better if we bait out Lancer's leap before you gank. That'll make it easier for you to secure the kill and should allow you to keep your ult."

"Sounds tight," Luke nodded. "So, watcha got in mind, Mystic Eyes?"

[Mystic Eyes?] Yuel made a face. "Lars, scare the Lancer with your ult. Go to the jungle and launch Hurricane from there."

"Oh!" Lars exclaimed. "So, it gonna be like a Sniper Hurricane?"

"Something like that."

"Sick, yo! I'm on it." Lars snuck away from the lane toward the nearby jungle entrance.

From this position, the Lancer shouldn't be able to see Lars's actions. He was busy clearing minions right now, so he ignored Lars's peculiar activity. That was a mistake, yo!

"Okay, I'mma go for it," Lars began casting Hurricane. It took the wind a couple of seconds to gather, but once formed - this bad boy was gonna travel through the wall and wreck everybody on the lane! It gonna be top-level shenanigans!

"Alrighty, I'm ready," Luke got closer at the lane. He was ready to assault the Lancer at a moment's notice. All the chess pieces were in place. Now, it was just a matter of executing this kill.

Lars unleashed Hurricane on the lane through the wall. The raging winds expanded as they traveled across the lane and sucked everything in like a black hole. Even though the Lancer saw the tornado coming, he couldn't simply outrun the gravitational pull of Hurricane. His only option was to leap away Lunge unless he wanted to get sucked in and receive heavy damage. Either outcome would be a win for Yuel's team.

The Lancer picked the smarter choice and leaped away with Lunge. Little did he know that Luke was awaiting him on the other side of the lane. Just as the Lancer landed, Luke popped out from the jungle and slashed the Lancer in the back for heavy damage.

For a moment, it looked like the Lancer was considering giving Luke a fight. As a Lancer, It wasn't unreasonable to expect to win against a Rogue in a 1v1 situation. However, he immediately abandoned that idea when Lars returned to the lane. The Lancer must have realized that if he stays and fights, he'll run into a nasty 1v2. So, retreat was his only option.

The Lancer darted toward his Turret. But, Luke was hot on his trail and slashes at his back nonstop. With each slash dealing extra 30% damage thanks to Backstabber, the Lancer couldn't bear this pressure for long.

『An enemy has been killed!』

"Got 'em!" Luke raised a hand.

"Ez!" Lars high-fived.

"Not bad," Yuel said.

"I swear," Luke made a face. "Can this guy even praise anybody? Like, ever?"

"Gotta work super hard for that," Lars laughed.

"Gotta say, though," Luke went on. "These Mystic Eyes are some cool shit. Dunno if it was a good guess or whatever, but you read that Lancer like a book. Kinda scary, to be honest."

"You can call it 'educated guessing'," Yuel said.

"Heh, then you call my playstyle 'educated memeing'."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Or," Vincent barrage in. "You can call it the Meme Force!"

"I'd rather not," Yuel denied that nonsense on the spot.

By opening the game with three kills, the team created a rather unbeatable position. Kai and Vincent performed well on their lane as well and got a couple of kills with the help of Luke's ganks. The team was destroying the opposition across the entire map.

Contrary to Yuel's initial concerns, their first match as a team ran smoothly. Luke was a memer but he knew how to play the game. If he starts using higher tier classes, he'll become a solid Jungler for the team.

So far, the team seemed promising. There was still one member Yuel hasn't met yet and the club will recruit one freshman this year. So, contrary to its reputation, Stratus was looking like a solid team right now.

At first, Yuel was concerned about the fact this team has never passed the first round of the regionals. However, now, he was much more confident about this team's chances to reach far at the tournament. Will Yuel and Lars manage to pull this team all the way to nationals? Only time will tell, but Yuel absolutely had to make it happen.