The Shadow Walker Dilemma

It was time for the second bout between the Leopards and Stratus. The players from both sides entered the stage and took their seats.

The Leopards were packing the same strong lineup from before, whereas Straus made one small adjustment to their team composition. The referee made sure to run that change by the Leopards before the game.

"My, have they already replaced Vanishing?" Cato blinked. "That was fast."

"I'm not surprised," Sonya said. "She was clearly underperforming last game, we all saw it in the replay."

"Yes, I agree. In fact, I've used that fact against her multiple times that game."

During the break, Cato and Sonya briefly went over the previous game's replay. The main goal was to reevaluate every member of Stratus, to find any discrepancies between the theoretical analysis of the players' skills and their actual performance on the stage.

As they ran the comparison, VanishingFlower's weak performance stood out like a sore thumb.

"It's unfortunate." Cato shook his head. "I was planning to abuse the fact she's underperforming, but oh well."

"It looks like our opponents are self-aware, at least," Sonya said. "Then again, they replaced Vanishing with Memer, which is a rather questionable decision. I was hoping they wouldn't bring out this... [this creature] against us."

"Haha. A little harsh, aren't we?" Cato smiled. "It's not like Memer is a bad player."

"Yeah!" Ronald joined in. "It's the guy who uses low-tier classes in the jungle, right? Bruh is sick! I mean, I know we gonna stomp him real hard and all, but mad respect for the dedication. Bruh is a real legend!"

"There's nothing praiseworthy about that nonsense," Sonya declared. "Well, I suppose this game will be even easier than the previous."

"Perhaps," Cato said. "You have to admit one thing, though. Memer definitely makes the drafting phase more interesting. I, for one, have absolutely no idea what we should even ban against him."

"Me neither, but I doubt it even matters." Sonya shrugged. "Judging by his past records, he's most likely going to pick a terrible class anyway."

"Yeah, unless what we saw in the previous scrim was a sham," William pointed out. "Maybe this time he'll go meta."

"Possible but I doubt it," Sonya said. "One look at his nickname is enough to tell what kind of player he is."

"Fair enough."

"We'll just have to wait and see," Cato summarized. "Personally, I just don't like it when I don't know which Jungler classes to ban, but it is what it is."

"It's not like you have too much freedom with bans anyway," Sonya said. "We're going second again, so your first three bans are pretty much pre-determined."

"Haha, that's true..." Cato smiled wryly.

He was obligated to also ban Trickshooter and Gunslinger to seal Gunz's strongest weapons. And, since the team was going second, the burden of banning Shadow Walker fell on the Leopards' shoulders once again. Or, did it?

[If we knew for sure that Memer only plays memes, then we could skip banning Shadow. After all, there's no way a memer would pick a top-tier meta class, right?]

Alas, as William pointed out, there wasn't enough data to assert that LegendaryMemer only played memes. The guy participated in only two games in the previous scrimmage, which wasn't enough to determine what kind of player he really was.

Was he truly a mad lad who dared to bring memes to the competitive scene? Or, was it just a hobby? Perhaps he only used memes against teams that he didn't deem threatening enough.

Either way, the upcoming game should clear that up.

As the team finished discussing their opinions on Memer, the drafting phase began. Unexpectedly, or perhaps inevitably, both sides went for similar bans during the first banning phase.

Cato banned Trickshooter and Gunslinger as demanded of him, whereas Yuel banned Warlock and Knight again. These were carefully calculated bans, they were the results of intensive research. As such, neither side saw the need to adjust anything thus far.

[My, our banning phase starts feeling like chess openings.] Cato smiled impishly. [But, the third ban is where I can have some leeway to be creative... if I wasn't obligated to ban Shadow again! Sigh.]

To make things worse, this restriction only applied to Cato. Meanwhile, his opponent had the freedom to ban whatever he wanted for the third pick.

There was no doubt that Yuel chose for his team to go 1st this round in order to capitalize on having more freedom with bans. So, what kind of mind-blowing 3rd ban was he going to show the Leopards? Did he even have anything interesting in mind?

Regardless, one thing was certain - the enemy was taking their sweet time with this third ban. And, Cato had a guess as to why. It was good old paranoia, wasn't it~?

[Ugh, again?] Yuel frowned. [They're not banning Shadow Walker early this time, either.]

Was Cato playing mind games again? Or, did he figure out that Luke wouldn't pick Shadow Walker even if the class was available? Sigh. It was such a pain to try figuring out what that smartass was scheming.

If Stratus' Jungler was anybody but Luke, then Yuel would have had nothing to worry about. After all, Shadow Walker was practically a mandatory class for any serious competitive player.

Even Nia, who strictly played assassins with invisibility, was rather proficient with Shadow Walker. Though, perhaps it was because Shadow Walker did, in its own way, fit the "invisiblity" bill, at least partially.

Alas, Stratus was stuck with Luke for Jungler, of all people. He was the kind of guy who broadcasted to the entire world that he was all about picking memes.

As such, despite how cautious Cato usually was, even he might try to gamble on not banning Shadow Walker this once.

[I might have to ban it myself.] Yuel grumped. [Ugh. It pretty much defeats the entire point of us going first during the drafting phase. What a pain.]

"We might have to ban Shadow Walker," Yuel shared.

"Huh?" Kai tilted her head. "But, we're going first."

"Yes, but there's a chance they won't ban Shadow Walker. After all, our Jungler is..."

"Oh, right." Kai tapped on her black cap. "Hmm."

"If you may recall," Vincent started. "The Leopards pulled a very similar trick in the previous game as well. They waited until the very last moment to ban Shadow Walker, no doubt playing mind games with us. As such, I suspect this is but another instance of that."

"Yes, it might be," Yuel agreed. "But, it's risky. If they pick Shadow Walker, then we'll have a very bad time."

"But, will they, tho?" Luke asked. "I mean, it's these lameos we're talking about. These turtles don't know the first thing about playing offense."

"That's not true," Yuel asserted. "They do focus mainly on defense, but they've shown that they're capable of switching to offense as needed."

"Yeah, after a billion years, maybe." Luke shrugged. "Besides, I don't think they gonna take a risk leaving Shadow unbanned like that. I mean, these guys like playing super safe, right?"

"Hmm." Yuel knotted his brows. [He might be a memeing clown, but he does have some good observations.]

The Leopards of this year were indeed the paragons of safety. They always refused to take risks, no matter how small. Their entire game plan revolved around safely and systematically eliminating their opponents.

That was Cato's entire philosophy in chess, and it bled very strongly into his shot-calling in Classmancers. As such, the more relevant question to ask was this: Will Cato take the risk of leaving Shadow Walker unbanned?

[No, I don't think he will.] Yuel was almost certain. [He'll be playing mind games until the very last moment, but in the end, he'll pull back. At least, that's my impression of him.]

For Stratus, banning Shadow Walker here will bear great implications that'll extend far beyond this game alone.

Once other teams see Yuel ban Shadow Walker in this situation, they'll immediately conclude that Luke couldn't play the class. Subsequently, in all future games, none of Stratus' opponents would ever ban Shadow Walker when Luke is in the lineup.

[That'd put us at a great disadvantage for the rest of the year. And next year too, seeing as Luke is a junior. Ugh.]

The more Yuel thought about it, the more unappealing the idea of banning Shadow Walker sounded. It will lead to too many long-term consequences, so hopefully, this was just one of Cato's mind games...

"Okay, forget the Shadow Walker ban," Yuel said. "We'll leave it to the enemy to ban it."

"Now you're talking like a real man!" Luke gave a thumbs up.

The rest of the team was also on board with this final decision. And so, they moved on to discuss which other class to ban.

But, was this the correct decision? Will Cato really avoid taking the risk? Will he really ban Shadow Walker himself...?