First Blood on the Competitive Stage

"I'm rotating," Nia finally gathered the courage.

"Good," Yuel nodded, then quietly sighed in relief. [Okay, I think my attempt at pep talk worked. Now, we can take out this Dark Knight for good. I didn't tell Nia, but the guy has been getting better and better throughout the match. We need to shut him down now, before he gets out of hand.]

[I gotta get there fast.] Nia thought to herself as she traversed through the jungle. [Ah, but they got a ward somewhere in here, right? That's how they saw me coming last time. Hmm.]

"Can I take the long path?" Nia asked. "I think there's a ward here somewhere."

"There's no rush," Yuel said. "Use the best route you can find."

"Ok," Nia carefully analyzed the mini-map. There were a couple of intersections that served as common warding spots. Mainly, the pathways around the Overlord's camp.

The evil boss hasn't spawned yet, but multiple jungle paths intersected nicely around his camp. In fact, they were so nice, that Nia tried to rush to Top through one of them last time. So, the enemy's ward was most likely somewhere around there.

[If they're warding there, they're probably not warding around our camps.] Nia concluded. There was no hard limit on the number of wards a team could place at the same time, but each player could only carry two normal Wards at a time. So, if they wanted to spam wards, they'd have to keep recalling to base and buy new ones.

Nobody loved warding so much that they'd go through all that trouble. Besides, it cost a pretty penny. So, assuming the enemy warded the Overlord's camp and their side of the jungle, it should leave Stratus's jungle mostly devoid of enemy wards.

[Ok, so I take this route.] Instead of heading straight to Top, Nia circled around allied jungle camps until she finally reached the lane.

[Ok, here goes.] She took a deep breath and activated Shadow Clone. She pondered for a moment whether to send the clone to the lane, but ultimately decided against it.

Sending the clone to the lane was a good bait against aggressive and confident opponents. This usually fell for it and focused their attacks on the clone, allowing Nia to sneak on them.

But, according to Yuel, this Dark Knight was a defensive player. So, he'll probably retreat at the first sight of her clone.

[Sorry, my sister. You have to go over there.] Nia sent her twin sister deep into the jungle, never to be seen again. The clone was unnecessary for this gank. All Nia needed from the Shadow Clone skill was the stealth it granted.

[Ok, careful now.] Nia entered the lane while stealthed. She was already so close to her target, yet the Dark Knight couldn't see her.

[Now, do I hit him once? Or, do I just Izuna?] Nia pondered. The classic setup was to land one basic attack to proc Imperial Spear, then follow up with Izuna Drop. But, this setup wasn't 100% guaranteed, as proven by Lars's inhuman reaction before.

This was the competitive stage. The opponents were top-notch. So, there was a chance some of them could pull a Lars and dodge her setup. Scary.

"Go for the full setup," Yuel said. "I doubt he got the mechanical skill to dodge the Izuna."

"Ah," Nia blinked for a moment. How did Yuel know what she was mulling over? Mind-reading alien confirmed! Scary.

[Ok, here goes...!] Nia emerged from the darkness and slashed!

"Wha-!?" Zeph jumped. An attack!? From where!? There was nobody behind him the last time he checked. And, he was the type to often glance at the jungle, so nobody should've slipped past him. Yet, somebody did! In other words, it an unseen foe.

[Fuck, it's the Ninja!] Zeph figured. [Gotta get the hell out before I get Izuna'd!] He pressed space to perform a Dodge Roll, but it was too late.

The Ninja locked her arms around the big knight and leaped toward the sky. They spun around like a fidget spinner on steroids, then crashed into the ground. It left Zeph at 40% HP. Fuckin' great.

And, that wasn't even the end of it. As soon as Zeph recovered from the fall, a taunt effect reached him.

"Let us fight honorably!" the Knight pointed his blade at Zeph.

[What do you mean "honorably"? It's a 2v1 here! Damn it.] Zeph ranted internally. The taunt forced his Dark Knight to chase the Knight and throw out basic attacks. Zeph temporarily lost all control over his character. The enemy didn't waste this opportunity and struck hard.

"Fuck it," Zeph dropped back on his chair. It was over. The faster he dies, the faster he'll respawn. There was no point resisting at this point. He was dead.

[Did he give up?] Yuel wondered. After the taunt wore off, the Dark Knight got a brief moment of freedom to act. He could attempt to roll away, but he chose to do nothing. [Well, it's over for him either way. It just makes things easier for us.]

『An enemy has been killed!』

『FIRST BLOOD!』

Nia delivered the final blow. The girl liked scoring kills, so Yuel let her have this one. Besides, her gank was what enabled this play and she dealt most of the damage to the Dark Knight. Yuel just tagged along to help things go smoother.

"I-I did it!" Nia trembled.

"Woohoo!" Lars made noise. "Nice kill, dude! We're rockin' this!"

"Marvelous!" Vincent hyperventilated. "As expected from the Vanishing Phantom! Silent, but deadly!"

"It's Vanishing Flower, though..." Nia mumbled. Her cheeks felt a little hot. [I-I just scored a kill! W-Well, it's not such a big deal, right? I mean, I get kills all the time. So, why does it feel so... gufufufu!]

Her heart raced and her body shook like she was having a spasm. It was just one kill, she scored plenty of those before. Yet, it felt like her first time all over again. That satisfying feeling of sneaking up to an unsuspecting opponent and striking them down before they realize what happened. It was the first time she pulled it off on such a grand stage, against a strong competitive opponent!

[Maybe I can do it after all.] Nia clenched her mouse. [Maybe I can play competitively too!]

"Good job," Kai congratulated briefly, then returned to the game.

"Nicely done." Even Yuel, the bully who only ever had mean things to say, was praising Nia for this achievement. It felt great!

Then, what about the audience? They must have all seen that flawless display of skill! They must be thinking Nia was some sort of genius, huehue.

"Lame kill." Julia crossed her arms. "Is that DK blind or something? That gank was so obvious."

"Hmm. Was it, really?" Pip scribbled in his notebook. He drew an ellipse, a rough illustration of the game's mini-map. Then, he added some jungle walls in the form of thick lines. Finally, he drew a line from Mid to Top through the jungle.

"I believe her rotation to Top looked something like this?" Pip showed the path to Julia.

"Something like that," Julia couldn't tell for sure. She was too busy watching the laners fight at the time. Especially, Lars. Why was he playing in Mid? And, why wasn't he mopping the floor with that Nirvana guy? Just, why...?

"That's roughly how the Ninja rotated to Top," Pip continued. "But, Taurus only got wards here, here, and over here. So, she slipped by most of them undetected. The last ward would've caught her, but she was already in stealth at the time. I think that's why the Dark Knight didn't see it coming."

"Huh," Julia carefully examined Pip's scribbling. The sense of art left much to be desired, but at least it got the point across.

[That girl sure chose an odd route.] Julia thought. Instead of heading straight to Top like a good Jungler would, the Ninja took a detour that passed through allied territory. It was a huge waste of time.

Nevertheless, it was thanks to this peculiar route that the Ninja avoided all enemy wards. By eluding the enemy's eyes, she secured herself a kill. It made up for the time she spent on her roundabout rotation route.

"It's probably a fluke," Julia concluded. "Maybe she was going for one of the camps and only then realized she should go gank."

"But, the camps over there were on cooldown," Pip pointed out.

"Well, this team isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, remember? Besides, the wraiths have already spawned, so maybe she was planning to wait for them. As a Jungler, it's a pain to always run around like a headless chicken. Sometimes, it's easier to stop for a while and wait a few seconds for a camp to respawn."

"Yes, you're absolutely right, ma'am!" Pip saluted, seemingly impressed with Julia's words of wisdom.

[Whatever it was, she wouldn't have gotten past my warding.] Julia glared at the Ninja on the screen. That black-haired Rapunzel didn't stand a chance against Julia. [I hope Lars isn't thinking that girl is any good, because I'm way better.]

Meanwhile, in Taurus's camp...

"Hey, Zephy!" Bruce thundered. "The hell was that shit, huh? Did you just let some chick beat ya?"

"Not my fault," Zeph glanced aside. "She appeared outta nowhere and it became a 1v2."

"Should've bought Stealth Wards, idiot."

"With what money, exactly? I got enough now, but at game start? It's either one Stealth Ward or two normal Wards."

"Should've made the right call, fam," Bruce shrugged. "Also, I see you barely made any progress on lane. The fuck, man? How can you get that little tower damage with DK? You're playing the class with the highest early damage, but you're hitting like a lil' bitch."

"I told you DK isn't exactly my best class," Zeph ranted. "Besides, this Knight player... He's pretty good."

"He's [what]?" Bruce spat a laugh. "Hold up right there, man. Do you even remember what team we're playing again? It's Stratus, ya know? The weakest team, remember? It ain't got any good players. Even their captain is a chick because all of them are damn cucks."

"I was surprised too, but that bastard is really good. He countered a lot of my stuff."

"Spare me yo excuses. You fucked up, just admit it."

"Sure, whatever," Zeph sighed. There was no changing Bruce's mind anyway. But, that didn't mean Zeph will go down without throwing any dirt back. "Okay, then they're all scrubs, right? So, where are your kills at? And, your amazing lane advantage? I don't see shit."

"Huh?" Bruce's face contorted.

"C'mon, it should be easy for you to win the lane against these 'scrubs', right?"

"Yeah, these guys are nothing," Bruce claimed with a straight face. "I'm just taking my time with them. Playing with my food, ya dig?"

"Sure," Zeph rolled his eyes. Thankfully, Bruce didn't see that gesture because he was too concentrated on the game. The situation in Bot was far from hot. So much for stomping some "scrubs".

[I have a feeling he gonna eat his words soon.] Zeph thought. The enemy Impaler seemed like a fairly strong player, possibly on par with Chessmaster. She was apparently the team's cap. Zeph and the rest laughed at how Stratus was run by a girl, but this damn chick packed a punch.

[We called these guys trash, but look how we faring against them.] Zeph thoroughly examined the status screen and the mini-map. He has already purchased everything he needed from the shop, so he didn't have anything better to do while waiting to respawn. Might as well kill some time looking at the numbers.

In Top, Zeph died and gave the enemy a great opportunity to push. The Knight and Ninja joined forces and rushed Zeph's tower. They brought it down to 70%, then scrammed before they got their asses ganked.

[Shit, my tower got lower health now.] Zeph clicked his tongue. He has been working so hard to establish lane advantage, yet the enemy overthrew it in a single push. Such bullshit. Top Lane was done for.

Next, in Mid, the enemy had some random dude named Gunz. He was fighting Taurus' captain, the big boi Raymond. They were actively firing back and forth, but neither side established a clear advantage. In short, it was a stalemate.

[These guys actually got someone who can give Ray a run for his money?] Zeph couldn't believe it. Raymond was the best player in the club, no question about it. He was more dedicated to the game than any other senior, so he was supposed to be the team's powerhouse, the unstoppable force that'd propel the team to the top.

Yet, Raymond was struggling against somebody from a lowly team like Stratus. The heck was going on here? Was this some sorta bad dream? Was Zeph still sleeping or something? Nope, this was real life.

[Is it just me, or Stratus is looking kinda strong right now? Where the heck did they get all these good players?] Zeph couldn't wrap his head around this. Was their enemy really that good? Or, maybe the fault laid with Taurus. Maybe this year they were straight trash.

[Nah, no way.] Zeph dismissed the thought. [It's the guys from Stratus playing way better than they should be allowed to.]

Anyway, to summarize, the enemy gained an advantage in Top and enforced a stalemate in Mid. So, the course of this game depended on the result in Bot. Will Bruce prove he's a man and crush that captain chick? Or, will he eat his own words and get his ass whooped?

Either way, Zeph will get a good laugh outta it.