All or Nothing

"That's all from me," Cato reported on his way out of Bot Lane. "Now, I know that their Jungler is currently in Top, but that doesn't mean you can keep pushing from here and overextend as you please."

"Of course," William gave a reassuring response. On the other hand...

"No problem, we got this!" Ronald promised. "We finally got a breakthrough here, so we gotta make the most of it, right bro? Right?"

"........" Cato made a face.

"Don't worry, we won't overextend," William promised. As the older brother, he was the one in charge here, so it was safe to leave this matter to him.

"Good." Cato nodded in satisfaction and headed toward the nearby jungle exit. Just then, a loud SPLASH made him pause for a moment.

[Hm? My, that's such aggressive farming.] Cato turned around to examine the situation.

As the sounds implied, the Aquamancer was hard at work. He assaulted the incoming minions with his water spells, helping his Carry get rid of the invaders.

He used Rainfall to slow down the minions, Geyser Eruption to knock them up, and Splash to deal further damage to them. In other words, he unloaded his entire kit on the wave. It wasn't exactly a good example of being conservative with MP.

[Is Yuel that concerned with maintaining lane control?] Cato wondered. [Well, I suppose it makes some sense. This is the one lane in which they don't have an advantage right now, so they definitely don't want to let the situation here get any worse for them.]

But, did that justify spending all that mana? Yuel should know better than that.

If he spends all his MP too early, then he'll be forced to recall. That'll leave Gunz all alone on lane and the guy will have a VERY hard time farming against the brothers all by himself.

"Say, Will," Cato started. "Do you have an estimation of how close their Aqua is to Overflow?"

"Hard to say," William admitted. "He has been using his spells very aggressively, that's all I can say. This time he even dropped his entire kit, so there's a good chance he's very close to Overflow, if he hasn't already reached it."

"I see." Cato left the lane with that mental note in hand. [Is he planning to open an attack soon? But, that doesn't make much sense, does it? You can't open a strong attack when you don't have any MP left.]

It was a little odd. It seemed as if Yuel was rushing to reach Overflow at the expense of his MP even though it was fundamentally futile. By the time he gets there, he'll realize he didn't have enough MP left to deliver a truly powerful attack. It was rather curious.

[Hmm. Well, in any case, I don't have the time to worry about it.] Cato directed his gaze toward Mid, his next destination. It was undoubtedly the stage for Stratus' next big play, so Cato had to get there ASAP.

In the meantime, the enemy continued pushing Top at full throttle.

『An allied Turret has been destroyed!』

The Top Turret fell. Yes, just like that.

Even though it was so early into the game, the Dark Knight & Berserker duo was able to make quick work of the tower in a single push. Truly, the early-game potential of Stratus' comp was quite scary.

[And, next is Mid, right?] Cato speculated. [Thinking of it, if they spot me rotating over there now, then they might give up on that idea. But, that's fine, too. In fact, I might prefer that outcome.]

Cato would gladly "waste his time" on a futile rotation if it will discourage the enemy from targeting Mid. That DK & Berserker duo was dangerous beyond words.

To make things worse, by coming to Mid, this dynamite duo will join forces with an Electromancer. That was going to boost their offensive capabilities that much more.

In fact, even with Cato coming to the rescue, there was no guarantee that he'll be able to defend the lane at all together with Matthew.

[So yes, I prefer them to not come at all. Please spare us this headache. Pretty please.]

To relay this prayer to his opponents, Cato passed through the same route he used to rotate to Bot half a minute ago. There was certainly a ward somewhere along that road, considering how quickly the enemy duo reacted to Cato's rotation at the time.

Somewhere along this rotation, the enemy was bound to learn Cato's position.

[You may use this information for free. It's on the house~]

Just like he wanted, the enemy definitely caught wind of his movements. However, their response was not what Cato was hoping for...

"The Vampire is heading to Mid," Yuel warned the Top duo. "He's probably planning to intercept you there, so keep that in mind."

"Nani!? Our next move has been read!?" Vincent exclaimed.

"Yes, they're likely expecting an attack on Mid."

"Such impressive analytical finesse! As expected from the Leopards' tactician!" Vincent sang praises. "Then, should we press on with this plan regardless?"

"Yes, stick to the plan," Yuel said. "This isn't outside my predictions by any means. In fact, this is the scenario I was hoping for. Once Rook rotates, we can kill two birds with one stone. My Overflow is ready now, so we're in a good position."

"Such outstanding calculation!" Vincent made noise. "You even used the enemy's own smarts against them!"

"Sometimes, being 'smart' can play against you. This is one such example."

A shot-caller who only ever followed the "smart" plays would often find themselves constrained by the boundaries of "common sense". They would only ever consider the standard "logical" plays, often ignoring the more obscure, chaotic options.

"I'm recalling," Yuel informed. "Luke, make sure you place that ward behind their tower."

"Yep yep, got it!" Luke nodded. "Man, you say you hate memeing and all that, but this play is one heck of a meme too, not gonna lie."

"It's a high-risk high-reward play."

"Yeah, just like my DK Jungler."

"If you say so." Yuel didn't want to start that debate, in part because Luke had a point. There was indeed some similarity between the two here.

Dark Knight was actually a functional Jungler… under certain circumstances. Its potential was mainly held back by the fact it was such an extreme class, one that had to get results ASAP or go bust. That made it a very unappealing pick for Jungler and in general.

However, since avoiding the pick was the "smart" thing to do, it meant most people weren't familiar with how Junlger Dark Knight worked. They had no idea how scary the class could actually get with proper setup.

[Of course, in the same vein, a DK can commit just one small mistake and doom the entire game.] Yuel gulped nervously as his mouse hovered over the Teleport skill icon in the shop. [So, we're really doing this, aren't we? Well, it was my idea in the first place, but...]

Frankly, it was terrifying. This play was borderline insanity.

The team had just gained an immense advantage in Top, so it made the most sense to continue pushing steadily for the win. Alas, this particular team had no such luxury. They had successfully started a snowball but they were also obligated to keep it rolling, or else they'll get stuck in place.

[We either pull it off and possibly win the game, or we fail miserably and lose everything. Nice odds.]

Despite how well everything was going for Stratus so far, in truth, the odds were stacked against them. They had to keep pushing nonstop in order to even stand a chance.

But, if they succeed in gaining the upper hand in the next few critical moments, then the reward will be sweet beyond measure.

The decisive play of the game was upon them. Will they claim the high-reward? Or, will the high-risk eat them alive!?

Yuel had already spent his gold on Teleport, so there was no turning back here. The game was on.

Shortly after Luke placed the Checkpoint Ward, Yuel initiated the teleportation procedure...