67 A Quick Battle
.
.
"See that one there."
"?"
"He is supposed to be Ravenville's new Starseed this year."
On another part of the stadium's seats, the Defenders' scout lazily pointed at Irvine's figure on the monitor to Troy.
"...You keep tabs on all the Starseeds every year?"
"It's my job." He answered,
"Though for most of them, I just put their names on the back of my mind until the time comes when they reach their senior year... But this time, I remember him because--"
The scout then slowly turned his head to look into the distance where the rest of Ravenville's substitutes stayed in one of the field's corners looking in.
Among the 5 players and the group of coaches, there was the figure of Medea who was also watching the game with the same level of attention as the rest.
Although the composition of Ravenville's advance group was the same as with their latter half of the match against Magnolia, for this particular match, Clint Silver had been the one chosen to take up the starting Ranger position first instead of her.
"--That Irvine Lang guy along with a Ranger called Medea Dormer are two Starseeds who got their licenses at the same time and have now joined the same Ravenville University." He explained.
"Ooh, two from the same year in one school? That one feels like it hasn't happened in a long time." Troy followed through with a comment of his own.
Even during his college years, he hadn't come across such a situation where one school had 2 Starseeds who're from the same generation.
At most, one school would have 2 Starseeds from different years.
"It is unusual." The scout nodded, also agreeing with Troy's comment.
"...You said you pay more attention to the ones who're in their senior years, right? Then, among the Starseeds who've become a senior this year, who do you think is the most excellent as a player overall?"
"Hmm... That's a very vague question." The middle-aged scout shook his head,
He was implying that the matter had too many variables that needed to be taken into account to simply justify it with one definite answer,
"Still, if we're only talking about who I think will most likely become the new breakout star after the next draft..." The scout took a moment to flip through a certain player's information in his mind before answering,
"That should be the Eastern Zeta University's current Starseed Solver. He's already turned many people's heads even during last season's game when he's just a 3rd year after all."
"Ah, that guy, I do somewhat remember him too. I mean, several of the fans have already started to speculate the team he'll end up in on various online forums, I think?"
"...You go through fan forums?" The scout turned speechless at the all-star player's words.
"Err... Y, yeah...?" Before long, Troy too, quickly realized that he had let out some unnecessary information with his comment,
"...Why not, it's fun! It's normal to want to know the latest topics!" He added on defensively.
"Hey, no judgement here." The scout shrugged without minding his reaction.
"..." Although he had said that, Troy could still feel the judging look from the guy's expression,
"If you really think he's that good, why didn't the Defenders make their move on him too?"
"--That's why I said it's not so simple. Forget about the fact that there will inevitably be hard competitions with that decision, we still have to take into account the current composition of our team." The scout explained,
"The owner and the Head Coach have long decided that our priority in the next recruitment should be on finding a Guard that can reinforce you on the field. Starting next season, we will most likely try to emphasize more on our various defense formations."
"...Just like the previous golden age of the Defenders."
Like its name suggested, the strongest era of Defenders' reign as OPL's top pro team put the core focus of their formations and strengths in their solid defenses!
At that time, most of their players had always been recruited with these points in mind.
But throughout several years of iterations, following the coming and going of the many generations of players, the current Lambda Defenders had become a team that was more versatile in their nature rather than focus on one single specialty.
They had given up a portion of their dominance when it comes to defending in favour of a more well-rounded roster in the team.
This was not to say that such a decision were bad or that they're no longer one of the strong teams, but it was quite evident that their recent track records had not been as glorious as their past achievements from back then.
In their strongest era, they had even received consecutive Golden Crowns year after year.
So much so that one of the spots in the playoffs' finals had almost been claimed as exclusively theirs by the fans.
Compared to those years, the current team could only be said to be lackluster at best.
Which was why there had been several actions from the team's owner and Head Coach that hinted at everyone that the Lambda Defenders of these last few years were trying to slowly change back into their core values once again.
.
"--Anyway, enough about this, quickly tell me your thoughts on that guy." The scout once again pointed towards Irvine's direction on the field and hurried Troy to talk.
Right now, the three people from Ravenville had just arrived onto the halfway line, seconds before the Armadillos followed from the other side.
But the two teams had yet to make their moves, which was why Troy could only frown at the question.
"The match has JUST started, what do you want me to say?"
"Anything. You know it may take a while before Ravenville go on the defensive with their difference in strength. Might as well train your observational skills in the meantime."
"..."
Feeling that the scout's words had some sense, Troy turned his head back and looked on to the field to observe the match's development further.
Even though their main reason for coming here was simply out of courtesy and to see Baron in action, since the two were already here, they had no qualms in enjoying the game like a normal Battle Arena fans would.
"..." Troy pondered for a while longer before opening his mouth.
"He plays like a pro." He muttered lightly in his comment, which caused the old man beside him to also smile a little bit wider at the field.
"Not bad, you noticed that." He praised,
"That guy, Irvine Lang. If nothing else, his thought process and attitude towards a match are already well-polished enough to maybe stand on the same level as a pro." The scout concluded.
Just like Troy, he had long since noticed the little things that Irvine had done throughout the advance group's relatively short journey towards the halfway line.
First of all, Irvine would always position himself on covering for his Fielder's blindside whenever Derrick made some quick turns on intersections without checking the other side first.
And secondly, from time to time, Irvine could also be seen turning his head around once or twice before continuing on his march. In both Troy and the scout's perspectives, it was quite clear what this action of his truly was.
It was Irvine keeping tabs of his own Ranger's locations as much as he could throughout the whole game.
From a glance, these two little things might not seem like much.
After all, even if Derrick looked like he was a bit too hasty and not careful with his intersection turns, he was only doing so because it had been too early in the game.
The three of them were still just moving around their half of the field, and they're even still close to their towers' locations.
It was a very safe bet for Derrick to assume that there wouldn't be any enemy ambushes around them during this phase of the match.
And plus, with him making those quicker turns without minding too much of the surroundings, Ravenville's advance group could truly cut down on their time moving towards the halfway line.
But nevertheless, Irvine would always cover this slight unwary moments of Derrick whenever they ran too fast past some intersections.
He would glance back on the directions that Derrick had ignored while putting his body close to him.
Furthermore, Irvine would also try to keep track of Clint's locations as best he could at all times while treading through his track towards the middle point of the field.
All these little things he did could be considered inconsequential and might even turn out to be useless in the later progress of the match. But he still did them nonetheless in the off-chance that that might NOT be the case.
This was what the Defenders' scout meant as the thought process and attitude of a pro.
In professional level matches, one should never discount any worst case possibilities in a match.
After all, who's to say that the enemy's plan was not to send their Ranger towards your half of the field and ambush your group as early in the match as possible.
It might not be a practical plan, but it was still very feasible.
And just because of that reason, no pro would try to rush towards the halfway line without regards of their surroundings in favour of time.
In these aspects, Irvine could be considered as someone who didn't lose out to any good pro players in the two's eyes.
"This type of attitude will take him higher in the long run for sure." The scout sincerely complimented.
"The question is if he's someone who can survive and grow enough to be in the long run in the first place." Troy replied with a short remark.
"That's true."
The things that Irvine did could make a good player great, but one still needed to become a good player first for it to even matter.
If Irvine couldn't reach the level of a pro in the future, then all these things would basically amount to nothing.
"Also, I noticed that he often used his body to cover for his Fielder in many of those cases, for a Solver, I don't think that that's--"
Troy was just about to elaborate further on some of the things he didn't quite agree with Irvine's play when the game on the field below slowly started to heat up with the two sides clashing on the halfway line.
At first, Troy had wanted to continue with his observation results because he's not too invested in the match from the start, but then, the development had suddenly taken its turn into something that surprised even him!
"--hm?"
.
.
Back on the field.
When Derrick, Irvine, and Naomi at the very back was suddenly confronted with the enemy's 2 Fielders charging formation that aimed at the lone Derrick together, instead of going for the brake or slowed down to regroup, the three still continued on with the same velocity and Derrick in front.
Behind him, Irvine who had followed Derrick's lead, first took note of the slightest head turn and shift in the latter's movement that could indicate which of the 2 oncoming Fielder would Derrick set his sight on.
And then,
'...The right one!'
*step* *BOOM*
When Irvine had finally locked onto the same target, he didn't hesitate to propel himself forward with a step of [Blast] in his jump to both catch up to and even overtake Derrick in that one instant!
And with that explosion as the cue, Derrick too, lowered his running stance by quite a bit to allow the figure of Irvine to pass by him from overhead.
*Swoosh*
Caught off guard by what's happening, one of the Fielders that Derrick and Irvine now targeted, couldn't react fast enough before getting his back pushed by the 'flying' Irvine towards Derrick who was now more than ready to receive him.
"Shi--!"
The simple combination move of the two quickly achieved its desired effect when the two of them had successfully pincered the unsuspecting Fielder from the front and back WAY before his teammate, the other Fielder, could arrive on time!
The Armadillos' plan had been to focus their firepower and corner Derrick until eventually Irvine had no other choice but to interfere instead of his usual running around and luring them away.
But before the two of them could take the initiative on Derrick, one of them had already been 'pulled' forward and cornered by the enemy's combined attacks first!
Just through this one retaliation alone, the Armadillos' formation and pace had quickly been thrown into chaos! Which was the result that they had been trying so hard to prevent in the first place!
With one of their Fielders getting caught between the two enemies' pace, panic quickly ensued for the rest of their advance group!
At least it did for a little while before they could regain their bearings.
But with just that small window of opportunity, the Illusions had managed to grab the momentum of the battle and break past the opposition's 'wall'!
.
In the end,
It was 7 seconds.
From the time the two groups had seen each other until their first halfway line battle was over, it only took Ravenville 7 seconds to breakthrough and reach the enemy's half of the field.
