The Ungankable

During the fourth Ranked match of the day, Kai dialed up her independence up to eleven. She blocked out everybody in the room by wearing gigantic headphones and hasn't exchanged a single word with Yuel ever since the match started.

If this were a serious tournament match, Yuel would do everything in his power to fix such a situation. However, this was just a Ranked match and, at this point, he was fed up with Kai's attitude. They won't be playing as a Bot duo in official matches anyway, so there was no reason to bother doing anything special.

Yuel simply played his part as the Support and aided Kai to the best of his ability. He saved her from sticky situations with Aegis and Divine Shield way too often to his taste. Kai wasn't just ignoring Yuel, she also dialed up her aggression. Until now, she was a balanced and calculated player. But, ever since she put these big headphones on, she has been aggressing on her opponents left and right and has been putting herself in danger every time.

Fortunately, most of the time, Kai knew when to retreat. With a little help from Yuel, most of her retreats were successful. However, with such an aggressive playstyle, it was just a matter of time before a disaster strikes...

『An ally has been killed!』

[Here it comes.] Yuel braced for impact. Even though this was a result of Kai's reckless aggression, she'll definitely pin the blame on him. After all, he was the Support. How the hell he didn't perform a miracle to save her, right?

[It's coming. Any moment now.] Yuel kept waiting. And waiting. And waiting. But, Kai didn't even glance at him. She entirely filtered out of his existence.

[So fun.] Yuel rolled his eyes. He couldn't even tell whether being ignored like this felt better than being unjustly blamed for Kai's death. At the very least, not blaming Yuel right away gave Kai some dignity points. But, due to her radio silence, it was unclear what she was really thinking. Maybe she was ranting about Yuel in her head.

Either way, the silence kept Yuel more motivated to keep supporting Kai than insults ever could. So, on top of doing his best to keep Kai alive, Yuel also tried initiating some attacks with Justice Strike but Kai ignored all of them. She turned out to be one heck of a moody brat.

This gave Yuel all the more incentive to not focus too hard on Bot. Instead, he followed the unfolding events in Top. It was more interesting to see how Vincent fared as a Top Laner. Will that clown be able to put on a more impressive performance than Ben? It wasn't a high bar to pass but also not a particularly low one.

Some aspects of Ben's playstyle were great, such as his ability to freeze lanes and his willingness to sacrifice himself for the DPS classes. Did Vincent bring anything to the table that'll surpass that?

Vincent played Spellblade this game, a class he personally requested. For Ranked, Spellblade's versatility was a good tool so Yuel saw no issues with that pick. It seemed that, unlike Ben's defensive playstyle, Vincent leaned toward a balanced playstyle, similarly to how Gilbert played Mid.

Vincent took full advantage of Spellblade's versatility by switching back and forth between the Spell and Blade stances depending on the situation. He stayed in the backline and fired from afar in Spell stance whenever the Viking showed signs of aggression or when there were signs of an incoming gank. On the other hand, when things were quiet, Vincent didn't hesitate to switch to Blade mode and advance to the frontline. His situational awareness and decision-making were polished.

However, with just this type of adaptation, Vincent couldn't gain any advantage in the lane. He played safer when the opponent aggresses and he played more aggressively when the opponent was neutral or defending. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like Vincent was going to win any substantial lane advantage any time soon.

[Should I say something?] Yuel wondered. There were many things Vincent could try to turn this situation in his favor. But, this was supposed to be a test of Vincent's skill so, for now, it was better to stay quiet and watch how Vincent handled the situation.

An interesting development came up. The enemy Viking booted his ult in the middle of the lane in order to catch Vincent off guard on the frontline. However, Vincent must have sensed the danger ahead of time and that's why he maintained his distance. That put the Viking's ult to waste. At least, in part.

The ult summoned a crew of strong viking warriors who attacked the closest enemies in range. These warriors prioritized attacking players over minions, but Vincent was out of their range, so the warriors opted to fight Vincent's minions instead. These vikings were tougher than the average minion, so they took out Vincent's entire minion wave.

Thanks to that, the Viking seized lane advantage. His attempt on Vincent's life ended in failure, but he still won something from this exchange: his minion wave was healthy while Vincent's wave was gone. So, the Viking decided to ride this momentum and push along with his minions.

This was a great opportunity for Vincent to mount a counterattack. The Viking was overextending and Luke was nearby in the jungle. So, it was possible to kill the Viking with a gank.

"Hey, Vince," Luke called out. "I'mma gank. Let's get that guy."

"It's okay, don't bother," Vincent said. "It might look like he's just overextending but don't be fooled. This player got the Ungankable ability! Not a single gank will catch him off-guard! It's an Anti-World personal skill that overwrites reality every time somebody tries to gank him. It makes every gank fail against him!"

"Wow, sounds like a tough nut to crack," Luke nodded as if Vincent's words made perfect sense.

[Is he really buying this?] Yuel rubbed his eyes to make sure this was real but nothing changed. Darn it, his attempt to "overwrite reality" with his Eye Rubbing personal skill ended in failure.

"Wait," Yuel said. "Are you really giving up the gank because of this?"

"Yeah," Luke answered nonchalantly. "Didn't you hear? That guy is the Ungankable! Ain't nobody gonna gank him to death."

"And you base that off what?"

"On Vince."

"In other words, on a load of nonsense," Yuel narrowed his eyes. That was some impressive blind faith right there. Yuel could only dream about people following some of his less straightforward tactics like that.

"I see how it is," Vincent said. "Chessmaster, you're doubting my capabilities as the Arbiter of Talents, do you not?"

"There's not a single thing I don't doubt when it comes to you."

"Haha, that's a little mean," Vincent chuckled but then shifted his expression into a dramatic one. "Then, a demonstration is in order. Meme Jedi, I summon thee! Rain your terror upon this land!"

"You want me to gank, after all?" Luke asked.

"Indeed, my friend. Let us partake in futileness so we can prove this opponent's might."

"Alrighty then," Luke advanced toward Top Lane.

The enemy Viking responded right away. He rolled toward his side of the lane and sprinted into the distance. By the time Luke arrived, there was nobody to gank anymore.

"Well, crap," Luke clicked his tongue. "Ain't gonna catch up to that dude from here."

"As I said," Vincent smiled in satisfaction. "He is the Ungankable! Even though it looked like you'll be able to catch him, his Anit-World skill overwrote reality into one in which the gank fails."

"Yeah," Luke nodded. "Sure felt that way."

"So?" Vincent threw a glance at Yuel. "How do you find this demonstration of the Ungankable skill? As I said, this fellow will not lose to half-baked assaults like these. We can't catch him with simple ganks."

"It was really a timely retreat, I'll give him that," Yuel had no choice but to admit. "But, this was just one attempt. So far, I've only seen you fail one other gank before that. Two failed ganks don't say much."

"That's where you're mistaken, Chessmaster," Vincent claimed. "It's not just two ganks that failed. From the moment the game began, the Ungankable created an invisible barrier around the lane that denies all incoming ganks. The two incidents you refer to are merely the ones in which our Meme Jedi committed to a gank."

"A barrier?" Yuel raised an eyebrow. "This makes less and less sense with every passing moment."

"Actually," Luke started. "I kinda see it now."

"Oh, you do? Please explain."

"You've been seeing me hang a lot around Top, right? Well, I've actually been trying to gank, but it always felt like I won't get that Viking. As soon as I started getting closer to the lane, he started retreating as if he saw me coming from a mile away. It's as if dude got a camera installed here and he watches my every move!"

"I see," Yuel nodded. "Their team must be warding well. Or, maybe that Viking is just cautious by nature and always retreats at the first sign of danger."

"No, no, no," Vincent insisted. "It's the Ungankable! The Anti-World personal skill!"

"Of course it is," Yuel rolled his eyes. "Anyway, if he's being so cautious, you just need to plan the gank in advance."

"You're wasting your time, Chessmaster," Vincent claimed. "You won't get a proper gank on the Ungankable no matter how many times you try."

"You really believe that?

"No, but it sounds cool so I'm saying it."

[This guy...] Yuel sighed. "Anyway, let's try again. I'll help you plan the gank ahead of time."

"It's futile, Chessmaster. Not even your Mystic Eyes will be able to crack the Ungankable."

"Doesn't matter," Yuel said. "Even if the gank fails, it's not a total waste. It still makes the enemy retreat, so that allows you to regain lane control."

"True, but it also makes the Jungler waste his precious time," Vincent said. "Instead of rotating here, the Meme Jedi could've ganked Mid instead. There he got a real chance of getting a kill."

"That's... true, I suppose," Yuel didn't have a counterargument at hand. The enemy Sorcerer has been pushing Lars around in Mid, so a gank over there might be the better choice.

"Anyway, now you know," Vincent said matter-of-factly. "The Ungankable can never be ganked!"

"We'll see about that." There was no such thing as an ungankable opponent. Superpowers or special talents like that didn't exist. Everything could be explained with logic and reasoning.

The Viking was difficult to catch off guard with a gank? Then, either he or his teammates were warding well. Or, maybe he had a habit of playing defensively when he sensed even the slightest hint of danger. Julia often discouraged ganks by employing such tactics. If Vincent played against her, he'd probably dub her "Super Ungankable".

But, that didn't mean Julia was immune to ganks and the same applied to this Viking. Yuel just had to arrange an advanced scenario that'd catch the Viking off-guard.

For starters, they had to decrease the number of wards around Top Jungle. When he recalled to base in order to recover, Yuel bought two Sentry Wards and headed toward Top Jungle first instead of returning to Bot. It wasn't like he was contributing much when he was playing with a partner who refused to cooperate, so he might as well rotate around the map to help others.

[As I thought.] Yuel took down two enemy wards. The fact he hit the jackpot with both his Sentry Wards attested to how heavily warded this area was. There were probably other wards around as well but, at least, Yuel now secured one safe route for ganking.

Of course, the Viking was aware of Yuel taking the wards. So, how will the "ungankable" player react to this development? More or less how Yuel expected. The Viking retreated from the frontline and shortly vanished from the lane.

"Did the Viking recall?" Yuel asked.

"Not sure," Vincent answered. "He went around a wall, so I couldn't see him. He had around half HP, though."

"Okay," Yuel heard what he wanted to hear. The Viking assuredly recalled to base to heal up and purchase Sentry Wards. The almighty "ungankable" player must have deemed it too dangerous to remain on the lane with just 50% HP while he doesn't have enough jungle vision.

"Luke, can you rotate to Top?" Yuel asked. "I want all three of us to push the lane while the Viking is gone."

"Sure thing," Luke finished off the Hyena Camp he was farming and joined Yuel and Vincent in Top Lane.

In terms of raw damage, a Druid wasn't going to help much with pushing. Even with the power items Luke built for jungling, Druid's attacks were slow and didn't speed up the push by much. However, when Druid used his ult, it became a completely different story.

Luke activated Awaken the Ents, which summoned giant tree minions on the lane. They prioritized the enemy Turret above everything and smacked it hard. Their damage scaled with Luke's, so they were more aggressive than one would normally expect thanks to the power items in his build. They were trashing the Turret pretty bad.

The enemy Lancer rotated toward the lane to stop this hard push, but Yuel's wards exposed him. The guy was about to walk into a big surprise.

"Make sure you pull him outside the Turret's range," Yuel said.

"Sure thing," Luke gave a thumbs up. "I may be memeing but I know what I'm doing."

Luke positioned himself near the jungle wall and waited for the Lancer to approach. As soon as the Lancer stepped within range, Luke fired Nature's Grasp through the wall. The branches assaulted the Lancer and grabbed him toward Luke through the wall.

[Clean hit.] Yuel nodded. Memer or not, Luke sure knew how to pilot his Druid. In fact, Luke was probably more skilled with Nature's Grasp than Yuel will ever be. Sad, but true.

Right as Luke finished pulling the Lancer, Yuel struck the poor guy with Justice Strike. It silenced, slowed down and lowered the Lancer's defense. The Lancer hasn't dealt enough damage yet to warrant a stun from justice Strike, but this nonetheless tied his hands.

Vincent followed up on that by activating Aero Barrage, firing three wind blasts in a row. Each hit had a small knockback effect and Vincent landed them all, so the blasts pushed the Lancer far away from the Turret's area.

The Lancer found himself in a 1v3 situation, silenced, slowed down, and far from any safe area. It was over for him.

Unfortunately, Vincent was the only one here who could deliver any sizeable damage. So it was up to him to wrap this up. Yuel and Luke just delivered some basic attacks on the Lancer to pretend like they were contributing to the process.

To do this quickly, Vincent activated Pyro Trail from his Spell stance. It set his body ablaze and spread flames around him. Then, he used his ult, Paradigm Shift, to switch to Blade stance. From there, he used the skill Pyro Blade, which set his sword ablaze.

Covered in flames from head to toe, Vincent now had the ideal Spellblade setup for close-quarters combat. He closed onto the helpless Lancer and burned the poor guy to ashes.

『An enemy has been killed!』

Yuel and Luke made sure Vincent got the kill because, unlike them, Vincent was a damage dealer.

"There goes one half of the Silver Duo," Vincent announced. "What a tragic finale."

"Silver Duo?" Yuel asked.

"Indeed. LaneVortex and LaneSnapper are two halves of a whole," Vincent explained. "You can even tell by their names. They might even be twins! Yes, that has to be the case."

"So, you're saying the Lancer and Sorcerer are a pair?"

"Indeed. They haven't impressed me as much as you and Gunz, but their cooperation is nonetheless something to behold. Therefore, they're the Silver Duo!"

[Interesting observation.] Yuel thought. He hasn't seen the Lancer and Sorcerer cooperate too much this game but they did seem to synchronize some of their plays. That fact, combined with their similar names, probably led Vincent to believe there was some sort of special connection between them.

[I'd gladly investigate that angle in more depth but the "Ungankable" comes first.] Yuel shifted his attention back to Top Lane.

After trio killed the Lancer, they kept pushing the Turret along with Luke's Ents.

『An enemy Turret has been destroyed!』

They took down the tower and gained momentum but Yuel hasn't achieved his main goal yet. He wanted to force the Viking into coming to defend the lane and then gank this "ungankable" player. However, the Viking didn't take the bait.

While the trio was pushing, the Viking refused to come back and defend. Instead, he went around and plucked out Yuel's Sentry Wards. After that, he returned to defend the lane, but he did so from the Golem's area.

"Man, what a tower hugger," Luke shook his head. "He's the type of dude who sees you taking his stuff and just waits until you're done. Seriously."

"So it seems," Yuel nodded.

The enemy Knight traveled all the way from Bot to join the defense effort in Top. So, Yuel, Vincent, and Luke had no choice but to give up on this offense now.

[So, this Viking rather let us push his lane than put himself in danger. Interesting.] Yuel had to come up with more advanced ways to lure that elusive Viking. It was like solving an interesting chess puzzle. The enemy piece he wanted to get was guarded by multiple lines of defense and Yuel had to find a sequence of moves that'll break through that formation.

To that end, Yuel continued pressuring Top. He bought more Sentry Wards to keep up the warding war and he repeatedly borrowed Luke's help for ganking the lane. Alas, killing the Viking proved more difficult than expected.

"I'll grab him," Luke fired Nature's Grasp and it was spot on... but the Viking rolled away!

"I'll cut him off," Yuel appeared from the other side of the jungle and hammered with Justice Strike. However, right before the attack connected, the Viking activated his ult and summoned a brigade of strong mobs.

"This is awkward," Vincent said. The trio surrounded the Viking but they couldn't approach him carelessly. Whoever steps into the range of these vikings will be mobbed to death.

"I'll tank them," Yuel ran in and aggroed all the enemies onto himself. Meanwhile, Vincent and Luke closed in on the Viking.

However, this Viking was quite the artist. He blended with the crowd of vikings and used them as cover. As a result, Vincent's Aero Barrage struck against the mobs instead of the intended target.

In the end, they somehow brought the Viking down to 20% HP but the silence from Justice Strike wore off. As soon as he was free to use his skills, the Viking threw his axe as far as humanly possible and blinked to it. Yet again, the "Ungankable" escaped a gank alive.

Nevertheless, Yuel kept trying various gank variations on this Viking. He even made sure Luke bought Blink for a Blink + Nature's Grasp initiation.

Luke cast Gaia's Protection on himself and blinked into the enemy Golem's area. He fired Nature's Grasp at the fleeing Viking and pulled the target to the edge of the Golem's area. Vincent finished the job from there.

『An enemy has been killed!』

Finally, they toppled the "ungankable"! So, turned out this Viking wasn't so "ungankable" after all.

"You see?" Yuel said. "There's no such thing as an 'ungankable' player. Everybody can be ganked to death."

"Indeed," Vincent nodded. "If you keep ganking the same player the entire game, of course you'd kill them eventually. But, what did it cost you? Everything."

"Did it?" Just as Yuel asked, bad news popped up on the screen.

『An ally has been killed!』

This was just the beginning. A flood of bad news followed...