A Powerless Shot-Caller

The third game was a mess for StormBlitz. Trever got killed time and again, his misplays became worse and worse with each subsequent battle. Gilbert was pushed back by ComboBreaker and struggled to defend the lane against her hyper aggression.

Compared to them, Roi held his ground better. His lane opponent didn't change anything for the mixup strategy, so it was the same matchup as before. Nevertheless, he was gradually pushed back by the momentum the enemy seized in other lanes. The Viking outleveld him and forced him to play defensively, overtaking the lane step by step.

Worse than anything, negativity seeped into the team's morale. Bickering, ranting and passing blame. Everybody was swallowed by toxicity. Even Yuel fell victim to it, despite his best efforts to objectively analyze the situation from the side. He criticized every misplay his teammates made, got irritated whenever unwarranted blame was shot at him and so forth.

The only difference between him and the rest was how he kept his mouth shut. There were many complaints he ached to unleashed on his teammates, especially on Trever, but he didn't utter a word. Adding more fuel to the fire was the worst he could do right now.

As hopeless as everything seemed, the game wasn't lost yet. At least, not by Yuel's standards. Despite their poor conduct this game, his teammates were good players. They spent over a year in the club's competitive environment, their skills were honed to unbelievable sharpness. Even while haunted by toxicity - they put on a fight, just enough to prevent the game from being lost. The only exception was Trever, who misplayed so hard he didn't resemble even a shadow of his former self.

Still, a comeback was possible. Difficult, but possible. If only Yuel could figure a way to inject positivity into the team, they could overcome this ordeal. But, what could he do? What [should] he do?

So far, he focused on preventing the enemy team from snowballing too hard. If somebody like Breaker were get out of control, that'd seal the game right there. Therefore, he prioritized keeping Gilbert alive and thwarting Breaker's aggressive plays to the best of his ability.

Letting the enemy Carry snowball was equally dangerous, so he also tried protecting Trever from SkyNight. Alas, that proved nigh impossible. Trever was too uncooperative, always charging forward to score a kill on Night.

Therefore, while Breaker was held in check for the most part, Night grew stronger and strong with each time he killed Trever. He didn't come off as a particularly scary player, but a fed Carry was a fed Carry regardless. At this rate, Night will become unstoppable and single-handedly push the game to its conclusion.

[How long can we hold up playing like this?] Yuel bit his lip. All he had been doing was run around the map and put out flames. But, playing defensively didn't solve anything, it only delayed the inevitable. He had to switch gears into offense. The team needed a counterattack plan.

Alas, ideas refused to sprout in his mind. With so much distraction around him, he couldn't collect his thoughts. It's like growing crops on poor soil. Nothing happened. He couldn't see the enemy's weaknesses.

[Focus. Think.] The harder he ordered, the more his mind wandered off and asked stupid questions. How did things come to this? Why did Trever play so poorly? How could such a rift form in the team out of nowhere?

Useless questions. All of them. Just useless. What's done was done, there's no point lingering on the past. He had to figure how to play with the hand he was dealt, that's all that mattered.

How could he stop both Breaker and Night from snowballing? He somewhat managed to keep these two threats at bay until now, but the game already reached its team-fighting phase. Normally, he'd form a plan or twenty by this point. Yet, he still didn't have anything concrete.

During a team fight, most enemies were gathered in one area. Therefore, their mixup strategy should no longer have much impact. He just had to counter Breaker with the information he collected on her in the previous rounds, as she was playing the usual Combo Pyromancer. Countering Night will be harder, because he played Support before. But, Yuel should had watched enough of his Elf plays by now to do basic profiling.

Things looked good. By shutting down these two during team fights, StormBlitz still had a chance! They could still make a comeback!

『An ally has been killed!』

Gilbert fell. How? Breaker and Night were over there, Yuel was keeping them in check. The enemy Jungler was on the other side of the map, so it's not him either. Who else on that team could possibly dish out high damage?

The answer revealed itself: Freezer. Yuel was naive. There were three enemies who benefited from the mixup strategy, not two.

In previous games, Freezer was underfed after facing Gilbert in lane, so his impact on game mostly boiled down to disruptive CC in team fights. But, he played Warlock, a mage with the potential for burst damage. This game, he laned together with Night and scored an assist for each of of Night's kills, so he was plenty fed. If he built power items, his damage will be plenty threatening. And, he certainly did.

He played Support this time around, but his build shifted toward a Hybrid Warlock during mid game. He bought just enough offensive items to make his damage threatening, without entirely sacrificing his defense and cooldown reduction. It was bad news.

Against the aggressive trio of Breaker, Night and Freezer - it took everything just to stay alive. The mere idea of suggesting a counter attack sounded ludicrous. And, if that wasn't enough, the team's bickering only became worse. Everybody were packed in one place during a team fight, so their misplays were easier to spot. It became hell.

"Why did you step in there!?" Roi roared. "You literally gave her the kill, man!"

"Well," Trever shook his head. "Maybe if our Jungler wasn't literally useless and focused key targets for once, she wouldn't be alive by now."

[Ignore them. Focus. Think.] Yuel repeated in his head like a mantra. He couldn't lose to the torrent of toxicity. He was the shot-caller, he had to think up a play that'd solve everything.

"Wait," Dan demanded. "How exactly it's my fault?"

"He's just pissed," Gilbert said. "But, he got a point. You played a little too passive."

[Ignore them. Don't stop thinking. There has to be something.]

"And how is that different from what you were doing?" (Dan)

[I-Ignore them. Keep analyzing the situation.]

"Honestly, you both kinda suck, lol." (Roi)

"Yeah, no balls. Only me and Roi try to get any kills there." (Trever)

[Ugh. Shut up already. Let me think...!]

"Sure, because charging at the enemy without a plan is smart when we're behind." (Gilbert)

"Such an eye-opener! Be right back kamikazing on my opponents then." (Dan)

"ENOUGH ALREADY!!!" Yuel roared and slammed on the table, a jolt of pain ran through his fists. GOD. DAMN. IT. He couldn't take this bullshit anymore! The heck was wrong with them!? Did they come here to win or to roast each other!?

"...."

"...."

Silence. Awkward silence. Cold sweat ran down Yuel's forehead. He felt a thousands eyes on him.

He totally did. He just went and did it. He yelled like a madman at his seniors. Gulp.

"Um, well..." He slowly raised his head, sneaking peeks at his teammates. Ugh! They were staring him down, no doubt wondering "Who the heck this brat thinks he is!?" Damn. He tried so hard to stay out of this mess, but ended up jumping right into it, head first. Everything he bottled inside gushed out.

But, maybe it wasn't all bad. The situation was terrible, but it's also a chance. His teammates finally quieted down and had their attention focused on him. It's a chance to talk some sense into them! While shaking like crazy and sweating bullets, he pressed on.

"L-Look," Yuel gulped. " Um, well, You feel frustrated, I get that." He pushed the words through his throat. "But, arguing isn't going to help. It's a waste of time and increases our chance of losing."

Nobody responded. They kept eying at Yuel, sending shivers down his spine. It looked like some wanted to retort, but restrained themselves to see what else Yuel had to say.

"Instead of blaming each other, how about we work together and try to actually win?" Yuel suggested.

"I hope you got a plan after saying this much." Gilbert retorted.

"Um, about that..."

"Yeah," Trever added. "Show us how it's done, 'genius'. You've been ignoring me for a while now, so you better have something good."

"Ugh." Yuel was cornered. After yelling his head off and dropping all that criticism, everybody expected a magical solution from him. Sure, totally fair! Just shove all the responsibility on him! He dug himself a hole.

Still, it was an opportunity. He had a chance to turn the situation around with the next thing he says. For the first time this game, everybody were going to listen to what Yuel had to say instead of fighting each other. This was exactly the stage he needed! Except, he wasn't prepared yet.

A game winning strategy... He didn't have one, not yet. The team's negativity distracted him too much, making it hard to form any strategies at all. But, that's not to say he was without ideas at all. For the better or the worse, his brain was wired to analyze enemy plays and craft counters on the go.

Therefore, a bunch of ideas already floated in his head. It's just that none of them felt airtight enough, not yet. At least, he couldn't find the courage to suggest any of them. They all involved huge risks and failure would single-handedly destroy the team.

[Should I take a risk and go with something half-baked?] Yuel contemplated. There's a huge risk involved, but there's also the possibility for a comeback. If they make a big play and it succeeds, the team's morale will surely skyrocket. The longer he stayed quiet without providing any comeback calls, the more unrecoverable the team's situation became.

"So?" Gilbert asked again. "You got anything for us?"

"I... I do." Yuel took a deep breath. His heart squeezed, This was a gamble. A huge one. He did his best to maintain a stoic expression, trying to convey confidence. If he doesn't look confident about his own plan, nobody will take it seriously.

[Okay. Think. Which one is the best for this situation?] From a myriad of unpolished tactics floating in his head, he had to pick the one with the highest chance of success.

First, the current situation. Only Yuel, Dan and Gilbert survived the recent team fight. Trever and Roi overextended in a desperate attempt to score kills, leading to their demise. They took out the enemy Viking, but it was a 2-for-1.

In other words, their current situation was a 3v4. On top of that, their most aggressive players were dead. That greatly restricted Yuel's options. In this situation, their best bet was...

"Let's kill the Dragon." Yuel suggested.

"Say what?" Gilbert raised an eyebrow. "In this situation? You serious?"

"Yes,." Yuel nodded. "We're running behind on gold and exp. If we can kill the Dragon, we'll nearly close the gold gap in one go."

"Wow wow wait a second," Trever intervened. "I just died, ya know? Somebody gotta defend Bot."

"After we take the Dragon, we can rotate to Bot as a team." Yuel explained. "The Bot Turret is already gone, so the only substantial progress the enemy can make is push all the way to the Golem. We won't give them enough time for that."

"And," Gilbert said. "I suppose I'm also part of that Dragon hunting team?".

"Of course." Yuel nodded. "All three of us need to be there. I'll tank, you and Dan kill it."

"And, who exactly will defend Mid then?"

"Well..." Yuel gulped, knowing all too well how absurd his next words were going to sound. "We can let them take the Mid Turret."

"Excuse me?"

"I know, it's not ideal. They'll get lots of map control and gold from that. But, Dragon gives more gold than a Turret, so we'll earn more gold from this exchange."

"Lol, you sacrificing Mid for Dragon?" Roi chuckled. "Yuel's Kamikaze Corporation strikes again!"

That drew out a few chuckles from the team. Even though it was a joke about Yuel's suggestion, it injected some positivity into the team. Things were going great! His suggestion was met with some resistance, but he held his ground and kept pushing it. Just by coming together as a team to discuss a strategy, the atmosphere began to shift-

"There's one huge problem," Gilbert stated, striking down the good mood. "Trading Mid for Dragon is already crazy as it is, but there's an even bigger risk you forgot to address: can we even secure the Dragon in this situation?"

"That's..." Yuel knew all the dangers involved, but he hoped to avoid confronting this one. By explaining the potential benefits of his plan, he hoped the team will put their trust in him as usual. He was naive.

"We're down to 3v4." Gilbert said. "If we run into them at the Dragon, they're going to finish us off. That's GG right there."

"True," Yuel nodded, steeling himself. "But, my Sentry Ward there still stands and there's no sign of the other team. They're not paying attention to the Dragon right now, they'll prioritize pushing Mid and Bot."

"Why are you so sure?" Gilbert demanded.

"I agree," Dan joined in. "It sounds suicidal. You have a good reason to believe they won't notice us stealing Dragon?"

"Eh? Well..." Yuel was taken aback. Something was off. It wasn't the first time he suggested a "weird" or "risky" plan, but he didn't meet such strong resistance before. It's weird. It's like they already had their own ideas in mind and intended to dismiss every other suggestion. He had to literally fight to push his suggestion through, even though he was supposed to be the shot-caller...

"Well," Yuel searched for convincing reasons. "They've been ignoring the Dragon a lot in past games, and..." The necessary data was definitely somewhere at the back of his head, but he struggled to draw it out. He went over his list of arguments time and again, but couldn't help but question it. Were these arguments enough? Were they going to convince anybody? Wasn't there more he could say?

A thousand gazes drilled him. It felt like nothing he says will matter. Everybody were set on rejecting his plan. He could feel that in his bones. Did he pick the wrong tactic? Was it even a plausible tactic in the first place? Even he couldn't tell anymore.

How did things come to this? How did everything change so much? Since when a shot-caller had to work so hard to justify his calls? He made a couple mistakes earlier this match, but that alone shouldn't dismiss him from being the shot-caller. And, even they had a problem with him as the shot-caller, nobody spoke up until now. Nobody asked to replace him, yet it didn't seem like they had any intention following his orders either.

Why? What was different? Before, everybody went along with his plans, no matter how risky or unconventional they were. Trever and Gilbert always supported his decisions and let him have his way... Oh, that's what was different: Trever and Gilbert didn't support him this time. In fact, Gilbert objected the most.

All this time, Yuel thought he became a shot-caller who had the trust of his teammates. But, that's wrong. The team actually trusted Trever and Gilbert, not some freshman. Everybody followed Yuel's strategies as long as Trever and Gilbert endorsed them.

Without their approval, he was was voiceless. He wasn't a shot-caller. He wasn't anything. Thus, pushing his ideas through was impossible right now.

"Sorry, my bad..." Yuel mumbled. "Forget what I said. Let's just defend the lanes..."

"So, you got nothing in the end?" Trever scoffed. "What a disappointment."

"Sorry..." Yuel bit his lip. What he wouldn't give to get the usual scene: Trever smacking him on the back, yelling "What a crazy plan! I like it!" This was the first time he realized how important Trever's endorsement was. He couldn't mobilize the team without it. He couldn't do anything.

In the end, Yuel stayed quiet throughout the rest of the game. He let it roll to hell. Screw it. He was powerless anyway, nobody was going to listen to him while he was on Trever's bad side. He had to hope the team will collect itself over the break. Otherwise, they'll lose not only this game, but also the two games afterwards.

[DEFEAT]

Deafening silence. Nobody said anything as the match ended. They shot each other with so criticism throughout the match, that they probably ran out of bullets. Everybody silently stood up and left the stage.

Yuel also left quietly, without exchanging a single world with anybody. This didn't look good. No, that was sugarcoating. It looked [bad]. Terrible.

Will things work themselves out before the next match if left alone? Shouldn't Yuel do something? But, what could he do? Was there even anything a freshman like him could do? Nobody even truly respected him as a fellow teammate.

Even in the team's room, the atmosphere was suffocating. Nobody spoke with each other. Each minded his own business, as if the terrible match right now didn't even happen. Roi was drinking Coke, uncharaersitically silent. Dan fiddled with his phone, without telling any bad jokes. Gilbert leaned on a sofa chair and closed his eyes, blocking out his surroundings.

They just finished a terrible game, in which they bickered and were thoroughly crushed. Yet, nobody felt like reviewing their performance. There was so much to talk about, but the room was dead silent.

Everybody sat silently in their own little corners, but there were signs of something uncomfortable underneath the chill facade. Especially, Trever looked the most irritated out of everybody. From the tapping of his foot to the mean look on his face, everything about him conveyed restlessness.

In Yuel's experience, once Trever got tilted - there's no turning back. When that happened in club, Trever usually called it a day and left. But, what about this situation? He couldn't simply "leave".

Substituting players was allowed in official matches and the same applied to this scrimmage. But, it's Trever, the senior and captain. How could they possible sub him out?

No matter how much Yuel wished to substitute Trever for Lars, there's nothing he could do about it. He was merely a freshman, whose opinion apparently didn't count unless it was first approved by somebody else. He had no say about anything.

But, things couldn't stay this way either. Wasn't there anything he could do? Anything he could suggest? Encouraging others wasn't his forte. He wasn't the type to have pep talks. And, in the first place, he wasn't the type to turn a blind eye to his teammates' misconduct. He couldn't bring himself to say "We just had a bad game. Don't worry, we'll get them next time!"

No, it wasn't just a "bad game". The team self-destructed. Everybody were at fault, Yuel included. And especially Trever, who was the core of the problem in Yuel's eyes. He simply couldn't find it in himself to say "You just had a bad matchup in lane. I'm sure you'll do better next time."

Instead, he wanted to resolve this situation with action, with strategy. There had to be some counterattack the team could use against the Leopards. Once he finds it and shares it with everybody, their spirits should be lifted.

Now that the match was over, he finally escaped the distracting negative atmosphere. Therefore, he could rationally evaluate the match and determine the team's faults. Most of the blame laid with Trever's poor performance, but before that there was the issue of bad lane matchups.

After the enemy switched to their mixup lineup, Trever and Gilbert ended up being matched against problematic opponents. Trever was an aggressive player who easily fell into Freezer's defensive traps, whereas Gilbert was an orthodox player who got overwhelmed by Breaker's hyper aggression.

The two of them were like the team's pillars, gluing everybody together and "permitting" Yuel to play shot-caller. As both of them were overwhelmed by bad matchups, the whole team started falling apart.

Was there any way to address that in the next match? Unfortunately, there's no way to force specific enemies to play in specific lanes. It's possible to ban specific classes to prevent enemies from picking them, but it's impossible to force these enemies out of lanes. Banning Pyromancer and Warlock won't do anything, since Breaker and Freezer surely had alternative classes they could play as Mid and Support. Each team could only ban a total of five classes, so it's impossible to ban every single class these two could play.

This was bad. The enemy's mixup strategy proved to be more lethal than Yuel expected. Not only did it force StormBlitz to adapt from scratch, but it also created more favorable lane matchups for the Leopards. It's the kind of flexibility normal teams didn't have, since each player was normally stuck in a specific role. No matter how terrible of a matchup a player got in lane, they had to figure something out while sticking to their role.

[Wait, maybe we could try that as well?] The easiest way to change bad lane matchups was to move Trever and Gilbert to other lanes. In other words, to use a "mixup" of their own.

Unlike the Leopards, each player in StormBlitz only had one main role. However, everybody in the club were encouraged to pick at least one secondary role. This made them more flexible during practice matches and when playing Ranked.

Fortunately, all members of the second string followed that advice. Therefore, it's possible to move Trever from Carry to Jungler and to switch Gilbert from Mid to… Support.

[Why Support of all things?] Yuel frowned. Moving Gilbert to Support naturally meant Yuel will have to be kicked out of the role. Ugh.

Like the others, Yuel also had a secondary role: Top Lane. As much as he wanted to hold onto the Support role, he had to prioritize the team here. If moving from Support to Top could improve their chances of winning – he'll do it.

So: Trever to Jungler, Gilbert to Support and Yuel to Top. Next, it's possible to move Dan to Mid. All that's left open after that was Roi and the Carry role. Except, Roi didn't play Carry, at least not as his secondary role. His secondary was Jungler, conflicting with Trever's position. This mixup was impossible.

There's still the option to keep Trever as Carry and switch everybody else around, but that defeated the whole point. Trever needed this change the most, otherwise it's pointless. In the first place, even if they were to switch roles around, how well would they perform?

[What am I thinking? We didn't even practice this lineup.] Yuel sighed. They didn't have any experience playing such a lineup as a team in the first place. This second string team was formed a week ago and their practices were fully geared toward competitive matches. Therefore, they only ever practiced their best roles as a team.

They also played some 3v3 along with Lars, because Howard insisted they had to hone their team-fighting coordination. But otherwise, everything was about playing 5v5 as a team. They weren't like the Leopards, who were specifically trained by a coach to play two main roles.

It's useless. No matter how hard Yuel brainstormed, he couldn't come up with a counter plan to their current situation. There's no doubt the Leopards will use the same mixup lineup next match as well. It'll be tough. The best StormBlitz could do was counter-pick as hard as possible in the Carry and Mid roles, giving Trever and Gilbert as much advantage as possible. It might work, but Yuel wasn't confident about it. Damn, he felt so powerless.

"What's with the long faces?" Howard popped up in their room. "Don't tell me you lost?"

"Yeah," Gilbert answered with a deep sigh. "It was pretty brutal."

"Huh. What went wrong? You were so confident after the last match."

"They used their mixup, like you expected." Gilbert summarized the match, but he only covered the simple facts. How Breaker's hyper aggression was hard to deal with, how Freezer punished Trever's aggressiveness during the early game and how the team was at huge disadvantage from there onward. Not a single word was uttered about the team bickering, passing blame and falling apart.

"...." Yuel opened his mouth multiple times throughout Gilbert's summary, but ended up closing it without saying a word. He just couldn't bring it up. Gilbert elegantly dodged around it and nobody called him on it, so it's clear everybody wanted to bury the inconvenient details. Not surprising, considering how embarrassing it all was. They acted like a bunch of salty brats who just started playing yesterday.

"I see," Howard nodded after hearing the bare-bones summary. "Sounds rough. I'd review the replay with you to give you some pointers, but I gotta to do lots of reviewing with my own team. We won the match, but it was far from easy."

"Oh, you finally won one?" Roi chuckled. "You must've stolen our luck, lol."

"Hey now, don't reduce our efforts to luck." Howard said. "We finally adapted to these guys, but they're strong. Not sure we can beat them 3-2, so I trust you guys to go 4-1. We need any seed points we can get before the regionals, so you better win the next two matches." He scanned the members one by one with a sharp gaze, instilling the importance of the next two matches.

"Sure..." Roi put on a forced smile, the rest nodded awkwardly. Nobody conveyed much confidence. They already lost one match, so to go 4-1 they had to win the remaining two. Could this team really do it in its current state? At this rate, they'll surely self-destruct in the upcoming matches.

"Um," Yuel wanted to somehow convey that to Howard, but stopped in the last moment. "Nevermind." Shivers ran across his skin as soon as he opened his mouth. Not sure whether it's just his imagination, but he felt like his teammates will eat him alive if he spills the beans about their poor conduct. They clearly didn't want to bring it up, especially not in front of the club's vice-captain.

"Alright," Howard said. " I'll be heading back then. Remember, I trust you guys. Also, Yuel, come with me for a second."

"Huh? Me?" Yuel blinked.

"Yes, you. I'd like your advice about something, as an expert on unusual plays. Don't worry, it won't take long."

"Sure." Yuel nodded and followed Howard out of the room. What's this about? Did the first string need some help with their offense? Or, did they need him to figure somebody's weakness?

"This should be far enough." Howard came to a sudden halt in the middle of the hallway and turned to Yuel. "Alright then, what you wanted to tell me?"

"Wha?" Yuel was taken aback.

"I'm not blind, you know. You wanted to say something the whole time Gilbert was talking, right? Saw you open and close your mouth at like 90 miles per hour, was pretty funny."

"Ugh..."

"Something you can't say in front of the others?"

"Well..." Yuel gulped. What an unexpected opportunity. But, should he really do it? There's no turning back after that. Once he reveals the whole truth, there's no way Howard will stay silent and about it, especially not after stressing how important it was for the second string to win 4-1.

"There's more to your defeat, isn't there?" Howard's sharp eyes penetrated Yuel to the core, as if seeing through everything. "Gil's summary was a little shallow. You had some bad matchups, I get that. But, how in the world did that make you lose in under 12 minutes? Spill the beans, boy."

"O-Okay." Yuel clenched his fists. As much as he was afraid of backlash from his teammates, he was even more terrified from what will happen if he lies to Howard. It's impossible to hide anything from the vice-captain, it's like Howard could look into people's very souls.

Thus, Yuel decided to speak up. About how Trever became tilted, about how the team bickered and about how they refused to follow Yuel's shot calls. He didn't hold anything back. Everything he bottled up until now came gushing out.

How will Howard react to this information? Did Yuel make the right choice to speak about this behind his teammates' backs? Either way, all he could do right now was keep talking and wait for Howard's verdict.