Registering Stratus as a Threat

"So," Rodriguez continued. "Now that you understand what mistakes you made, what are you planning to do next?"

He looked at each of them in order, urging them to come up with their own answers to this difficult question. They won't be able to learn a real lesson here unless they think for themselves and figure out their own solutions.

There was a long moment of silence as everybody contemplated the topic. Though, in truth, there was no need to think too hard. The next step was simple enough, but first, the team had to admit once again that they completely failed to do something so simple in the last game.

"We have to take them more seriously…" Sonya muttered awkwardly. It was painful to even say such an obvious thing out loud.

Taking their opponents seriously was something they all should have done without even talking about it, yet they spectacularly failed somehow.

The others voiced the same answers, so they were all on the same page here.

"We'll register Stratus as a top-tier threat from now on," Cato summarized for everybody. "We'll think of them as a StormBlitz-level threat, even if I personally think they're not quite up there yet."

"The fact you bothered to insert that addendum tells me you haven't learned a proper lesson yet."

"Oh, my, that's very true. My bad." Cato wore his usual impish smile but there were a few cracks visible underneath. Until the bitter end, he couldn't admit that Yuel turned the "weakest team in the region" into a powerhouse to be feared.

[I don't want to accept any of it but the fact remains that they DID beat us once. So, it's better to be safe than sorry.]

Cato had no choice but to cast some of his pride aside for this. He was the one with the vastly superior chess pieces on his side, so he had no choice but to respect Yuel's ability to score a victory with second-grade pieces.

[Of course, I'm still the superior strategist here.] Cato asserted. [He just caught me off-guard this time, that's all. I won't let it happen again.]

"So," Rodriguez continued as he turned to the others. "You all agree with Cato's assessment?"

The entire team nodded. As much as they didn't want to admit any of this, they definitely let their guard down in this game. That was unbecoming behavior for the future regional champions, so they had to fix this ASAP.

"Hmm. It sounds like your minds are in the right place," Rodriguez concluded. "So, do you have any concrete plans for how to proceed from here?"

"For starters," Cato said. "I believe it's about time we switched to Formation A."

He glanced at William as he said that. This stubborn guy was the very reason the Leopards had been using Formation B. So, now was the best opportunity to pressure him into changing his mind.

"Hmph." William scoffed. "I'm fine with that." He had no choice but to say that because everybody's eyes were needling him, including the coach's.

But, was he [really] fine with this arrangement? Not in the slightest.

[It's a shame.] He thought. [I didn't get to fight Gunz much in the end, so I didn't get the opportunity to properly establish myself as the stronger player.]

As far as William was concerned, proving his superiority over Gunz was the main goal of today's scrimmage. However, he only allowed himself to think that way because he believed that Stratus was a pushover team that wouldn't be able to put on a real fight today. As such, he assumed that dueling Gunz would be the most challenging experience today.

But, for the better or the worse, Stratus proved him wrong. They established themselves as a mighty opponent that was worth taking down.

Therefore, William no longer had the luxury to focus solely on Gunz. Unfortunately, attaining victory as a team was more important than settling the score with one opponent.

Therefore, William gave in to Cato's demand. The team will now shift to Formation A, the one which Cato and Sonya originally deemed a better fit for combating Stratus.

Unfortunately, it was a formation that kicked William out of the Carry role. This meant he will no longer be able to duel with Gunz as freely.

Not to mention, even if Willaim does arrange a duel at any point, it'll no longer be Carry vs. Carry. In other words, they won't be fighting on equal grounds.

[Though, I can at least keep it marksman vs. marksman.] William compromised with that.

And so, the team as a whole agreed to shift to Formation A. Cato and Sonya had been advocating it from the start but weren't the only ones excited about it.

"Heck yeah, let's go!" Ronald pumped a fist. "Finally, I get the chance to wreck some scrubs!"

"Have you even been listening this entire time?" William criticized. "It'd because you keep underestimating Stratus that you mess up."

"Nah, I'm not underestimating them, not anymore." Ronald flashed his teeth. "They're kinda good, I'll give them that. So, I'm looking forward to messing them up real good next game, haha!"

"That's good to hear."

Perhaps out of everybody here, it was Ronald's performance that suffered the most in the previous game. This doofus sometimes saw his opponents in black-and-white. They were either "strong" or "weak". There was rarely anything between these two extremes as far as he was concerned.

When the opponent was regarded as "weak", Ronald tended to underestimate them and play wildly. On the other hand, when he properly registered his opponents as "strong", Ronald could draw out the full extent of his innate potential and sometimes even surpass his own limits.

It was yet unclear whether Stratus will be able to register themselves as "strong" in Ronald's mind. But, at least for now, Stratus has managed to convince everybody that they were worthy adversaries.

As such, it was very much possible that Ronald will finally show his true strength in the next game. And, playing Top Laner as part of formation A was a far better stage for this than playing Support.

In the end, everybody approved of switching formations, and so did the coach. This was going to be the formation that'll help them reclaim victory with ease.

However, there was one guy who didn't quite agree with this turn of events. He has been keeping his nose out of the team's business because he believed the coach will handle things properly, but this conclusion wasn't satisfactory at all...