Thirst for Strength

For Gregory, this stupid "starter selection match" came out of left field. And honestly, it didn't even feel like it was meant to "select" anybody. The positions for the first string were already pretty much set in stone: Howard, Gilbert, Dan, Roi, and Ellen.

In truth, this match was nothing but a farce. It's just gonna be a shitshow in which everybody beat the crap outta Yuel and Lars. After all, there's no way these losers can carry the team better than Howard. And even if they somehow win this selection match, there's no way Howard gonna be like "Yep, I'm totally fine with this" and step down from his precious captain position.

[This entire thing is just one big joke, kek.] Gregory didn't want to delude himself for even a moment. But still, Howard sold this as a "starter selection match" to Gregory and Taison, he even went as far as suggesting they could make it into the first string if they perform well today. Yeah, fat chance. They'll never become starters this year... or, maybe?

Honestly, there's never knowing for sure with Howard. Back when he was saying it, he sounded genuine enough. Howard probably didn't really believe any of them could best the first string players, but he'll surely take them into consideration if that happens. After all, Howard was a straightforward guy in that sense. He wanted to win, so he wanted the strongest pieces he could get.

In other words, if Gregory proves he's strong, he'll be picked. Simple as that.

But, of course, there had to be a catch to such a sweet deal. Due to how Howard arranged this stupid selection match, he had to give Gregory the Solo role instead of Support. Not exactly the most fitting role for DaBestSupport, kek.

Or, maybe it was fate? Maybe God dropped this trial on Gregory? After all, he had been considering switching to Solo for some time now.

Back when Gregory joined the club, he had a strong rivalry with Yuel. He was totally planning to kick that snotty guy's ass and steal the Support spot on the team. He even proclaimed himself DaBestSupport, topkek.

But then, Howard happened. A strong, confident, skilled, experienced and knowledgeable player, and also a great leader if all that wasn't enough. Gregory figured right away he was no match to that top dog, so should forget about playing in tournaments until his third year. He accepted that shit because there's literally nothing he could do about it.

But, Yuel didn't get the message. That mofo kept challenging Howard time and again, aiming for that sweet starter spot. What a dumbass. Yuel must have had a fetish for embarrassing himself, kek.

What's real dumb, though, was Howard's special treatment of Yuel. Even though Howard always took jabs at Yuel and criticized that scrub, he also paid a lot of attention to Yuel for some reason. When Yuel made a weak shot-call during practice, Howard debated it with him over the break. When Yuel proposed a crazy plan of attack with a shit ton of holes in it, Howard suggested how to make it safer. No matter what Howard claimed, he constantly paid attention to Yuel.

But wait wait wait, wasn't there another amazing Support player in the club? Ya know, a certain DaBestSupport? Hello? Anybody? No? Okay.

Gregory planned to beat Yuel in their third year to get the starter spot, but he wasn't even on these guys' radars. In practice, there were only two Support players in the club: Howard and Yuel. Gregory? Who's that mofo?

Seriously, that's how it felt. They let Gregory play Support from time to time in practice matches, but way less than they let Yuel do it. It's clear everybody preferred Yuel over Gregory as Support. These damn ungrateful scrubs.

Why? What was wrong with Gregory's play? Well, he wasn't strong enough, that's what. Whether it's about picking players or picking friends, everybody preferred strong guys. The weak and untalented were useless, they only existed to be made fun of.

Yeah, Gregory was weak. Or at least, that's what everybody around him claimed. He really didn't want to accept that, but a certain conversation he overheard drove that point home.

"So," Aron started. "You decided who you're going to make the vice-captain next year?"

"Yeah," Howard replied. It was a secret conversation between the two top dogs of the club. Gregory shouldn't have eavesdropped, but screw the rules that sounded interesting as heck.

"There's only one option, really," Howard continued. "Yuel."

[Only one option?] Gregory grimaced. Sure, Lars and Taison were monkeys and Julia was an emotional bitch. But, what about Gregory? He was a smart, good-looking, intelligent, skilled and knowledgeable player!

Well, okay, maybe a few of these points were debatable. But still, he was far from a nobody. His game knowledge and decision-making skill should be on par with Yuel's. He also knew how to gather, process and organize data. So, Gregory was totally a candidate for the vice-captain position. Heck, he could even run for president if he wanted!

"I agree," Aron said. "Yuel seems like the best candidate at the moment."

Zero objections and not a single mention of Gregory's name. Did people forget he exists? Man, already going senile at this age? Topkek shenanigans.

... but damn, that stupid conversation. It reduced Gregory to a nobody who never even stood a chance against Yuel. Why? Why!?

They were both mechanically trash players. They both relied on game knowledge and dirty tactics to beat stronger mofos. Then why? Why wasn't Gregory on anybody's radar!? Why was he always treated like some weak nobody!?

Seriously, the flying fuck? Gregory worked his ass off to research Classmancers back in grade school, just so he could play Support that satisfied Taison. When the two of them joined arms, they were unbeatable! They were the strongest! They even stomped Lars, the popular guy who always in the center of everybody's attention. They embarrassed that loser in front of the entire class!

But, then came Yuel and flipped everything on its head. That damn degenerate.

If Yuel is nominated vice-captain, he also gonna become the captain after that. And, of course, he'll be the one who chooses which role goes to who. In other words, Gregory, and Taison will be fucked. They won't get to play Support and Carry even in their third year.

Julia probably gonna get Mid because she held Yuel's balls, so the only remaining positions will be Solo and Jungler. Therefore, if Gregory wants to play competitively at some point in middle school, his best bet was Solo.

"Hey, what's up, GG?" Taison asked after being called over.

"Who you fuckin' calling GG?" Gregory hissed. "Anyway, listen. I'm thinking about maining Solo."

"Huh?" Taison raised an eyebrow. "The heck you're on about?"

"I've been thinking about it for a while. Yuel will probably be selected as the team captain eventually, so-"

"Huh? Why would that happen? That dude only knows how to come up bullshit ideas."

"Bullshit ideas that [work]," Gregory corrected. He didn't mention the conversation he overheard because Taison wasn't exactly the type who knew how to keep their trap shut, so instead, Gregory pretended it was all hypothetical. "Why do I think Yuel will become the vice-captain? Well, everybody thinks he's some hot stuff. Besides, who else you think can lead the club after Howard is gone?"

"There's DaBestBro right here!" Taison grinned like an idiot while pointing at himself.

"So, as you see, there are only two real options here: me or Yuel."

"Hey! I can totally be the cap!"

"Jokes aside, that's our situation," Gregory shrugged." It's either me or Yuel, and pretty sure right now most people are in Yuel's favor."

"Yeah, okay, maybe that that'll happen. So, what of it?"

"You really don't get it?" Gregory sighed. "If Yuel becomes the captain, he gets decides the roster. He gonna place himself as Support and who do you think he gonna pick for Carry?"

"DaBestBro, of course!"

[Does this guy even have a brain?] Gregory felt like facepalming all the way through his skull. This was going nowhere, so enough being roundabout. "He'll take Lars for Carry. So, neither of us will get to play in tournaments even in our last year."

"No way in hell," Taison's face twitched. "I gonna play tournaments, yo! My bro gonna be a starter in Venom next year, and I'mma be a starter in StormBlitz!"

"Yeah, I also wanna play but, at this rate, we won't be able to because Yuel and Lars kinda exist. We'll have to break their arms or something if we wanna play, kek."

"I'll do it, yo!"

[Will he? He might, honestly.] Even Gregory couldn't tell. "Anyway, I got a better solution. How about we switch roles? I can play Solo and you're kinda alright at jungling, so you can play Jungle."

"Nah, bro. Jungle is cool and all, but I wanna be the Carry! That's like being the ace, ya dig?"

"So, what do you prefer? To play in tournaments without being the ace? Or, to not play at all?"

"Of course, I'mma play in tournaments! As the ace!"

[My brain cells need an ambulance.] Gregory massaged his temples. "Anyway, I think I'mma give it a shot. I'll try focusing on Solo a little more from now on and see how it goes."

"But mah brosef, ain'tcha 'DaBestSupport'? How ya gonna play Solo with that name? Khaha."

[No need to rub it in, dammit! It's not like I wanna do it either! Dumbass.] Gregory wondered why was he still here, just to suffer? "Anyway, that's all I wanted to say. I suggest you to play more Jungle too, in case Yuel really becomes the captain." [And I know he will, at this rate.]

"Hm, okay, I guess," Taison crossed his arms. "But, I still gonna be the ace! And play in tournaments!"

"Yeah, yeah." Gregory looked away. [At least, you have a better chance than me because people actually think you're a good player. It's because of you that I...]

Gregory was overshadowed, that's the only explanation to this bullshit. Even though Taison was an idiot with a minus 200 IQ, he was a strong player. He has been playing Classmancers with his bro for longer than any other freshman and he was mechanically skilled.

As a result, Taison's strength overshadowed Gregory's. Nobody took notice of Gregory because Taison was stealing all the good parts when they played as a duo. Even though Gregory was the one who always had to cover up the shit Taison caused, nobody appreciated him for that hard work. All they saw were Taison's successes, while Gregory was also sorta there maybe.

Supports were often underappreciated due to their less active role, but this shit was getting outta hand. Good players would know how to gauge a good Support, but Howard and Aron were a bunch of blind fools. They won't recognize good supporting even if somebody shoves it in their faces.

To get the spotlight he deserved, Gregory first had to step out of Taison's shadow. Playing Solo was the best way to do it because it's a lane where he had to rely only on himself throughout half the match. That's why he liked calling it "Solo" instead of "Top". It was an isolated lane with mostly 1v1 action. And for Gregory, this lane was a grand stage prepared solely for him to play as the leading actor.

With that convincing, Gregory focused more and more on playing Solo. He still often played Support for Taison in the club, but in his private time, he poured hours into Solo.

On one hand, Solo was one of the easiest roles to play. Solo classes were mostly bruisers and tanks, so survivability was high and the enemy laner didn't apply that much pressure. On the other hand, mastering Solo was quite the pain. It was a lane on which every type of player skill had roughly equal importance. Mechanical skill was useful for the many 1v1 scenarios, decision-making was important for not losing the lane and game knowledge was needed to counter-pick and counter-build.

As a result, there were all sorts of different Solo Laners. Some were brutes like Roi who relied on raw strength, whereas others were intellectuals like Gregory who used game knowledge to counter their lane opponents.

Like the genius Gregory was, he knew that knowledge was his strongest suit. Therefore, he polished that area more than anything else. He read the upvoted guides, watched recommended ClassTube videos and so forth. Of course, he was also up to speed with all the spicy Solo Lane memes; very important.

And today, in this "selection match", Gregory finally gonna reveal his insane Solo Laner skills to the entire world! It's a fateful trial, no doubt arranged for him by God himself! Today will be the day he beats Roi and claims himself a spot on the first string! And also, today, Gregory will get to crush the hopes and dreams of Yuel by stopping that nerd from getting into the first string! Two birds with one stone, topkek.

As for preparations, Gregory did plenty. In addition to the time the team spent training together, Gregory also spent some of his off-time researching Roi. As a fellow guild member in the game, Gregory could easily access Roi's match history. All matches from the past week were set to "private" to avoid info leaks between the teams, but any of Roi's older games were accessible.

So, of course, Gregory abused this privilege. He studied which classes Roi played the most, what were Roi's win ratios with them, what Roi usually built and so on. All that crap was too much to process though, so Gregory used the app Classmancer Analyst, which summarized the data for him.

It was really convenient. He just had to dump Roi's match history into the app and it showed lots of useful shit. It even collected some data from the actual match replay, such as when and where Roi went to farm jungle camps. It had everything Gregory needed for taking down that Goliath.

As expected from today's greedy apps, all these fancy analytics features were locked behind a paywall. Buuuuuuut, Gregory just download a crack. [Who'd pay for this shit when you can get it for free, kek.]

Gregory jotted down the major points about Roi's playstyle and researched counter picks. He even opened some forum threads under an alt account and asked for the best way to counter classes which didn't have any natural counters, like Knight which was one of Roi's favorites and a high tier Solo Laner in general.

As expected, there were some troll replies in these threads like "git gud" and such. However, the most upvoted posts usually made some sense. There were a few odd suggestions thrown into the mix and were still upvoted, like how supposedly Warrior could deal well with Knight despite being a trash-tier class. But,t otherwise, the suggestions were good.

All in all, Gregory came pretty damn prepared for the match today. He knew exactly what Roi gonna pick and how that mofo gonna play. Everything was calculated to a T. This was Gregory's time to shine in a solo performance!

Then why? Why the flying fuck did Roi pick Dark Knight? It's one of Roi's least played classes! Gregory even double-checked the data on Classmancer Analyst during the drafting phase and there was almost nothing!

What the actual fuck. Roi wasn't supposed to play this kind of shit. Like, it's a flippin' Dark Knight of all things. Roi played mostly fair and strong classes like Knight, not this garbo.

[Hoho, I see, I see. Roi is so scared of my analytical skill that he'd rather play one of his niche classes instead of facing me with a class I've already researched! Yes! Fear my genius, peasant!]

No, of course not. In the first place, Roi probably wasn't that smart. And, the guy was hella confident in his skill, so he wouldn't think twice about going all out with his usual playstyle.

Then, why Dark Knight? Why in this match? Of course, because it's freakin' Dark Knight, the anti-fun noob stomper. Dark Knight was the strongest early-game bully in the game because he boasted the highest base damage during the early-game. Therefore, Dark Knight destroyed any scrubs who had no idea WTF they were doing during the early game.

Back when Gregory first picked the game, he liked him some Dark Knight too. Getting 10 kills a row and dominating the game was the best. Boy. those were fun times, probably the most fun he ever had playing Classmancers.

But, that didn't last forever. Once Gregory started facing more competent players, Dark Knight became trash. Against enemies who knew when to defend and when to pressure, Dark Knight was either stalled until late-game or get his ass whooped due to its suicidal game plan.

Thus, Dark Knight will only be forever immortalized as "a fun class" in his memories, but nothing more. Nowadays, Gregory couldn't play that edgy boi without a high chance of getting rekt, even in casual. One of these days, he should make a smurf account to pwn some noobs with Dark Knight, kek.

Anyway, Dark Knight was trash at this level of play. It was apparently sorta viable in the high-level pro scene in some niche scenarios, but everybody here were mid-level players at best. No way Roi can dominate a game as Dark Knight here, especially considering the guy barely even played the class.

Not to mention, there was one huge requirement for playing Dark Knight: you had to be better than your lane opponent. Only then, Dark Knight had any chance to exhibit his stomping ability. That stuff was hella rare in the pro scene because everybody there was preeeetty good. But, it still happened sometimes, mostly in C-League.

So, by picking Dark Knight, Roi was basically saying "Come at me, nub. I'mma whoop yo ass, you filthy trash kid." In other words, Gregory wasn't even on Roi's radar as a threat. Gregory was, and remained, a nobody in everybody's eyes.

"So, Greg," Howard spoke in the middle of the drafting phase. "You sure you don't want to try turtling? It's D-Knight, so turtling is a viable opening here."

"No fuckin' way," Gregory pressed his glasses against his nose. "Lemme at that fucker. I'll show him what happens when you think you can DK me."

"Don't lose your cool over it. It'll hurt your performance."

"No problem, chief. I'm calm. REAL calm." Gregory insisted. "Lemme fight that D-Knight. I'mma pwn it."

"If you're sure," Howard shrugged. "As I said, I don't plan to force you into playing hyper defense. If you want to challenge Roi, go ahead."

"You won't regret it," Gregory promised. "So, Knight for me, pls."

"You got it." Howard picked Knight. Good, that's how it gotta be.

Until a few moments ago, Gregory was borderline fine with following Howard's turtling game plan. However, after seeing Dark Knight, it became a different story. He's gonna destroy Roi. He'll mop the floor with that pompous bastard. Gregory will prove that he was a strong player, that he was more than just a scrub hiding in Taison's shadow!

[This looks like a recipe for disaster.] Howard had a complicated expression. [But, I should probably thank Yuel for this Dark Knight. It'll serve me well.]

Gregory headed into the first match with burning fighting spirit. But, who will it end up burning? His opponent? Or, Gregory himself?