Drafting a Counter

The fourth match between StormBlitz and the Leopards was about to begin. Lars subbed for Trever, eliminating what Yuel considered the biggest of source of negativity in the team. Everybody's spirits already looked a little lifted after the events in the waiting room.

Unfortunately, they spent the whole break dealing with Trever's substitution. As a result, there was no time to review the previous match or discuss counter strategies against the enemy's mixup. Based on how favorable the new lane matchups were for the Leopards, there's no doubt they'll use their mixup again: ComboBreaker will be Mid to overwhelm Gilbert, whereas Freezer will be in Bot to punish aggressive plays.

Even though Trever was no longer the Carry, the issue of dealing with Freezer's punishes remained. Lars, too, was an aggressive Carry. In fact, he was a wilder and less experienced version of Trever, prone to overextensions. This was going to be fun...

Success in Bot Lane will heavily depend on Yuel's ability to lead Lars and prevent that goof from overextending. As long as Lars avoids irresponsibly charging in like Trever, things should work out. Hopefully.

Alas, the same couldn't be said about Mid Lane. Yuel was just one person, he couldn't support both Mid and Bot at the same time. Mid was the most important lane and ComboBreaker was the strongest opponent, so surrendering the lane to her was out of the question.

"Can we please ban their Pyromancer this time?" Gilbert asked.

"Yeah," Roi joined in. "Chick is hella annoying."

"It's so stressing to gank her too," Dan added. "I always feel like she'll destroy me the moment I show up. Combos are SCARY."

Everybody's eyes were on Yuel. He was the captain now. He had the final say.

In truth, they had no obligation treating him as the captain. As far as they were concerned, he was just a freshman, a mere rookie. Nevertheless, they chose to respect Trever's last wish and followed Yuel. Even now, Yuel's authority in the team was still partially supported by Trever's approval. He felt he earned some points by standing his ground against Trever and pushing the substitution through, but that's about it. At the moment, he was still just "the new captain whom Trever vouched for."

[So, they're all set on banning Pyro.] Yuel frowned. The whole scrimmage until now, he had been arguing against banning Pyromancer. They already adapted to how ComboBreaker played the class, so it should be easier to counter her.

However, the situation was different now. Gilbert couldn't handle Breaker's Pyromancer in Mid, so the argument of "adapting to her playstyle" didn't mean anything anymore. Simply being familiar with Breaker's Pyromancer didn't make Gilbert beat her or even be her equal.

Seeing as Breaker picked Pyromancer three times in a row, it's certainly her best class. If they were to ban Pyromancer, she'd definitely be weakened to some degree. But, would it be enough? Judging by her high proficiency with combo and her ability to perform well in any situation despite the playstyle's restrictions – there's no doubt she mastered combo with more than just Pyromancer. She probably had at least one or two more combo classes on par with her Pyromancer.

[Maybe we can ban all suspects? No, there's not enough data for that.] Yuel bit his lip. There weren't many classes which could be played with combo on a competitive level, but there were definitely enough. Each team got only three bans during the first banning phase, so hitting all three of Breaker's best classes was nigh impossible. They didn't even have any hints.

[In hindsight, maybe I should have agreed to ban Pyro during the second game. That way, she'd have to bring out her 2][nd][ best class. Then, in the third game, we could've banned that class too to force out her 3][rd][ best class. Oh well.] No use crying over spilled milk, He just had to deal with the situation at hand. Unfortunately, they were running low on time.

"I need to think," Yuel said. "So, I'll start with Viking." He made the first ban, two seconds before time ran out. It was a rather soft ban, but a safe one. The enemy Top Laner seemed to favor Viking and he'll play Top regardless of whether the enemy will use mixup, so it's a hit. Nobody complained.

"Man," Jennifer sighed. "They sure took their sweet time with this one. And, just to ban Viking? What's the big deal? They also switched out WildDragon. Wasn't he like the captain and stuff? These scrubs make no sense."

"Ban something. Quick." Alex ordered.

"Huh? Who died and made you the boss?"

"Just ban already. They were buying time with their first ban, so they must be arguing about something. Don't give them time to think."

"Got it, got it. Jeez, look who's suddenly all srs bsns. Who are you and what you did to that lazy bum?" Jennifer chuckled and banned Shadow Walker. There was no need to even think since Shadow Walker was currently considered the only S tier class in the game. Nerfs pls.

[Ugh, already back to me?] Yuel bit his lip. He had only one minute to decide the next ban. And, more importantly, to decide what he was going to do about Pyromancer.

Should they ban Pyromancer? It's a critical decision which may single-handedly decide the entire match. And, everybody expected [him] to make this critical decision because he's the captain now. And, it better be a good decision. Yeah, no pressure at all. Gulp.

[Was Trever playing under this pressure this whole time?] No matter how many times Yuel gulped, his throat remained dry. The weight on his shoulders was crushing him, it's incomparable to anything else he ever experienced when playing Classmancers. He always thought being the shot-caller was effectively the same as being the captain since the shot-caller was responsible for many important decisions.

But, he was wrong. Completely wrong. As the shot-caller, he was merely the team's advisor, the strategist. He was merely tasked with providing the team with tactics and ideas. Nothing more was expected from him.

However, as the captain, he was the team's leader. Everybody's eyes were on him, filled with expectations. With his words, his plays and his decisions - he was to lead the team to victory. And, if he can't, that's on him. Nobody would smack him on the back and say "It's okay! Not your fault!" He personally kicked out the guy who had this role and assumed that guy's post. Now, he was the only one who could say such things.

So, back to the problem: should he ban Pyromancer as everybody wanted? How was he to make this important decision under all this pressure!? It's unreal! No wonder Trever crumbled when things went south. Every mistake he made felt ten times heavier due to his position as the captain.

[I think it's better to confront Pyro like before, but...] Yuel's thoughts didn't come together. Despite what he personally believed, the team's requests kept popping in his mind.

["Can we please ban their Pyromancer this time?"]

["Yeah, chick is hella annoying."]

[ "It's so stressing to gank her too. I always feel like she'll destroy me the moment I show up."]

Everybody wanted the Pyromancer banned, only Yuel had a different opinion. But, could he properly explain his position and convince them to follow him? With his mind in a jumble, he had a hard time explaining things even to himself.

[Last time I tried, it was a disaster.] Yuel's hands trembled. He recalled the bitter experience of the previous match when the team refused to follow his shot-calls. His opinion was at odds with that of everybody else, so he was rejected.

Was it going to be any different this time? Just because he became the "captain" didn't mean they suddenly saw him in a completely new light. He was still a freshman, a rookie. They gave him more credibility out of respect for Trever, but he could lose it all in a heartbeat with one bad decision.

If a rift forms between the captain and the team, the events of the previous match will repeat themselves. Last time, the team fell apart shortly after Trever, the captain, crumbled. If Yuel were to fail the team here - it'd be over. Not to mention, morale still hadn't fully recovered from that match. The atmosphere was still strained.

"So, we're banning Pyro or what?" Gilbert asked once the timer hit 30 seconds.

"... yes, I suppose we should." Yuel bit his lip. There's no choice. He couldn't fight against these circumstances. As the new captain, his first task was to get the team on its feet. Therefore, he had no choice but to ban Pyro-

"Lame."

"Eh?" Yuel blinked, his finger froze on top of the mouse button.

"I really wanted to fight that Pyro dude." Lars pouted. "She looks sick, yo. I wanna beat her."

[Oh, right. Lars is here too.] Yuel was so preoccupied with the opinions of the upperclassmen that he completely forgot about Lars. There's one more player here eager to challenge Breaker's Pyromancer, potentially capable of overpowering her (as long as he doesn't mess up like a goof).

"I get that her Pyro is tough for Gil," Lars said. "But, can't ya just counter her in Mid? That's what you do best, dude."

["Just counter her", huh.] Yuel sneered. Lars sure made it sound easy, despite how critical this decision was. How could he be so nonchalant about it? Oh, it's probably because he's not the captain.

That's when it hit Yuel. If he weren't the captain right now, he'd definitely push for countering Pyromancer. There's no reason to fear Breaker's Pyromancer just because the enemy destroyed them with a mixup. The burden of being a captain clouded his judgment. That's no good. He shouldn't succumb to this pressure!

"I'll ban Warlock first." Yuel submitted the ban 5 seconds before time ran out. Everybody agreed on Freezer's Warlock being a pain to deal with, especially after he switched to Support.

They still had one more ban left for this banning phase, so he could ban Pyromancer next time. Until then, in what little time he had, he'll sway the team in his favor!

"Geh," Jennifer made a face "They stalled for time again." And Warlock, of all things? Were they that scared by Alex? What a bunch of scrubs.

"Targeting me, huh," Alex smirked, no doubt proud of himself.

"You better be able to play something other than Warlock." Jennifer snarked. "You haven't been showing your face in practice, so I've only ever seen you play Warlock lately. Please tell me you play other stuff in your free time."

"No problem. Anyway, just ban already."

"Yeah, yeah." Jennifer grumped and picked the second ban. [These scrubs better ban my Pyro next, or I'll be mad for real.]

[Ugh, these guys don't waste any time.] Yuel hadn't finished sorting his thoughts yet, but it was his turn to ban again. Only 60 seconds, that's how long he had to come up with a case for keeping Pyromancer in the game. He had to figure something out!

"I-I think we should keep the Pyromancer after all." Yuel fought his best to stabilize his voice. "There aren't many good ways to counter her in Bot, but Mid is a different story.. There are enough mages who can outreach Pyro."

"But, one of the best is already banned." Gilbert pointed out. True, Sage was just banned by the enemy. Along with Sorcerer, these two classes were known as strong Mid Lane counters to Pyromancer. Normally, they weren't ban-worthy during the first banning phase. However, if Breaker intended to pick Pyromancer again, banning Sage and Sorcerer was a strong move. Sorcerer hadn't been banned yet, but the ban was incoming.

"I'm sure Sorcerer is next," Gilbert argued. "And then what counter do you suggest I pick? Wizard?"

"That's one option."

"You can't be serious." Gilbert made a face. Not surprising, since Wizard was a beginner-friendly class and unpopular in the competitive scene. Basically, it was considered a class for newbies only.

Even so, there were niche cases when Wizard was picked even in the pro scene. Wizard was a simple and straightforward mage, but that's what made it effective against Pyromancer's relatively short reach. Yuel experienced the frustration of this matchup in his very first Classmancers game when he played Pyromancer against an intermediate Wizard bot. Back then, he found a way to defeat the Wizard, but that's because the enemy was a mere bot. Against an experienced Wizard player, a Pyromancer was going to have a bad time.

"Even if you're serious," Gilbert said. "I haven't touched Wizard in at least a year. So, don't count on it."

"I see." It was a shame since it was really one of the counters Yuel had in mind. But, even with Sorcerer and Sage banned, there were other ways to deal with Pyromancer. Especially, a Combo Pyromancer.

The general approach to countering a Pyromancer was by outreaching it and zoning it during the laning phase. The best picks for that were mages with long range, namely Sage, Sorcerer and Wizard. Alas, they were out of the picture at the moment.

However, Breaker didn't just play Pyromancer. She was a Combo Pyromancer, relying on burst damage to swiftly eliminate targets. To achieve that, she had to farm effectively and preferably out level opponents by scoring kills. The one thing she definitely couldn't allow herself was to fall behind on farm, as that'll mess up her whole game plan. If she's under-leveled, there's a chance her combo won't one-shot some opponents. In other words, she'll no longer pose as much of a threat.

Therefore, all Gilbert really had to do was deny Breaker's kills and prevent her from getting ahead in farm. It's enough for him to clear waves at a decent pace while maintaining distance from Breaker. As long as Breaker doesn't get ahead, they should be able to deal with her during the team fighting phase.

One good pick for this strategy was Aeromancer. Its Whirlwind spell summoned a tornado which persisted in an area for a while, dealing damage over time. Its clearing speed was a bit slow during early game, but with enough early power items - it's enough to not be pushed back by the Pyromancer.

Gilbert could cast Whirlwind all the way back from his Turret, without ever getting into Breaker's range. In other words: a turtling strategy. Lars would yap to no end when asked him to play like that, but Gilbert should be reasonable enough to accept it as a viable strategy for winning the game.

Therefore, the Aeromancer pick sounded good. But, was it enough? After all, they were dealing with Breaker, who time and again proved she knew how to handle any inconvenient situation.

Aeromancer was a great defensive option against her, but playing too passively would allow her to exploit this matchup in other ways. For example, a standard counter strategy against turtling was to frequently rotate and gank other lanes. If said ganks were to succeed, they'd let her out level others, defeating the whole purpose of countering her in the lane with Aeromancer.

30 seconds left. He had to make a decision. It's the last ban of this phase. There's no postponing any further. He tapped into the sea of knowledge in his mind, frantically searching for something, anything. Everybody called him a walking encyclopedia, so he had to know a Mid pick which could counter Breaker even more effectively than Aeromancer....!

Alas, no matter how hard he searched, he couldn't find such a Mid pick. If only there was a team formation which allowed Yuel to support Gilbert, then they could handle Breaker. Unfortunately, Yuel was just one person and he had to stay in Bot until mid game, especially now that Lars was playing instead of Trever. So, Yuel couldn't help Gilbert in Mid... Wait, did it have to be [his] job?

There's another role in Classmancers with some similarity to Support. It had the freedom to roam throughout the map and help whichever lane was struggling. It's Jungler.

If Yuel and Lars hold their ground in Bot by themselves, Dan could focus on ganking Top and Mid. This would allow him to support Gilbert more often in lane.

But, there's a problem. ["It's so stressing to gank her too. I always feel like she'll destroy me the moment I show up. Combos are SCARY."] That's what Dan said earlier. He might come off as a bit weak-willed there, but his words made sense.

Ganking a Combo Pyromancer was similar to ganking an assassin: you must take the target down before they can dish out their burst. With Combo Pyromancer's lighting speed casting and medium reach, as well as Breaker's flawless execution, it's no surprise Dan struggled to gank her. She bombarded whoever dared set foot on her lane.

It'd be great if Dan could somehow support Gilbert in Mid without putting himself in danger, but how? There's no choice but accept they had to play defensively in Mid against Breaker. So, it'll be fine even if Dan can't score any kills on her, as long as he helps pushing Mid and forces Breaker to stay in lane.

In other words, they needed a Jungler class which could help with pushing Mid without getting too close to Breaker... Was that even possible?

15 seconds left. There's no time. He had to figure something out. Fast.

He scanned every Jungler class in the game, even low tier ones like Rogue. Actually, if played right, Rogue could potentially fit the- No! Bad! They couldn't pick a D tier class in such an important match. The enemy were going to counter the heck out of it.

There had to be something more reasonable. There had to be a counter. It's Classmancers, the game he fell in love with right after finding a way to kill a Wizard as a Pyromancer by overcoming the disadvantage of range. He refused to concede. There had to be a pick for this situation.

Optimally, he wanted another class like Aeromancer: a class that can clear minion waves while staying away from the wave itself. This was an unconventional requirement for a Jungler, as neither assassins nor bruisers were designed to be played that way... Oh, but the Jungler role wasn't restricted to just assassins and bruisers.

Once he changed the class filter in the menu, he stumbled across a niche class which perfectly met the requirements: Beastmaster. Neither an assassin nor a bruiser, a peculiar class tagged as a "specialist".

5 seconds left. It's now or never.

"Dan, you said you can play any Jungler, right?"

"Yep."

"Does that include Beastmaster?"

"Oh," Dan blinked for a moment, then his lips curved into a smirk. "Of course I can play it. I love me some Beastmaster."

"Good, then I know what we should do." Yuel nodded and proceeded to make the third ban-

『TIME OUT』

"Ah..." He just stared at the screen. It's the first time this ever happened to him. Time ran out. They didn't ban squat. "Um, oops."

"... for real?" Gilbert facepalmed. "I didn't want to interrupt your deep thinking, but man..."

"Ugh," Yuel jerked as everybody's eyes stabbed him, demanding an explanation. Not good. Not good at all, He just screwed up big time. He had to explain himself. Fast. "M-My bad. I was thinking about so many possibilities and... Anyway, I decided against banning Pyro."

"You serious?" Gilbert raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, quite serious." Yuel nodded. This was the decisive moment. Could he convince the team to follow his strategy? This is where he was going to make it or break it as a captain. "We can counter their Pyro with Aeromancer and Beastmaster."

"Aeromancer? Since when that's a counter?"

"It's not, not really. But, it'll let you stay away from the Pyro without losing much farm."

"You want me to turtle, huh," Gilbert made a complicated expression. Turtling wasn't exactly the most fun strategy for most people. Especially, aggressive players like Lars and Trever hated it to death.

But, what about Gilbert? He was neither an aggressive nor defensive player. His playstyle adapted according to the situation at hand. He was a balanced and consisted player. Therefore, Yuel believed Gilbert will agree to this plan

"Can't say I'm a fan of turtling," Gilbert said. "Especially, not when I'm heading into a match knowing I'm going to turtle. But alright, it's one way to fight that Pyro, I guess. But, that can't be your whole plan, right? Because that's not enough."

"Of course," Yuel nodded. "That's where Dan's Beastmaster comes in." He explained the gist of his reasoning:

Beastmaster's special gimmick was capturing jungle monsters and deploying them as minions on lanes. In other words, after unleashing the monsters onto a lane, he didn't need to stick around to watch them fight the enemy wave. The monsters-turned-minions operated independently, just like normal minions.

So, the strategy was straightforward: Dan will capture a bunch of jungle monsters, drop them in Mid and immediately get out. All of that without getting within Breaker's range at all. Between the Aeromancer's Whirlwind and the Beastmaster's minions, they'll rival the Pyromancer's wave clearing speed without getting close to her. In fact, they'll most certainly out push her.

"Sound cool," Dan nodded repeatedly. "Never tried playing like that before, so I'm totally in. There's some more fun stuff I can throw to the mix, like proxy farming with monsters. We can dominate that Mid Lane no problem. Easy peasy."

"Hmm, I suppose it can work." Gilbert nodded, but his eyebrows were knotted. It seemed Yuel failed to sell him on this idea, but at least it wasn't rejected.

"So we facing the Pyro?" Lars pumped a fist and grinned. "Sick, yo!"

"Heh," Roi smirked. "Guess I'll get a few more home runs from her."

Good, morale didn't drop in the slightest. In fact, it probably improved, thanks to the two loud goofs. Yuel messed up huge time by missing a valuable ban, but things worked out. Somewhat. Though far from flawlessly, Yuel cleared his first hurdle as a captain.

After StormBlitz missed their third ban by running out of time, the ball passed back to the Leopards.

"Hooooooh," Jennifer trembled. " I see how it is. You don't think my Pyro is ban worthy, is that it? I see, I see. Heh. Haha. Hahaha! Don't fuck with me!" She roared and banned Sorcerer. "If you don't mind my Pyro, I gonna pick it and tear you apart!"

With that, the first banning phase ended. StormBlitz picked their first class: Paladin, a decent first pick. Generally, the first pick should be a high tier class which can be used in a myriad of strategies and has few counters. A strong pick like that didn't give the enemy much info about the team's strategy, therefore lowering the chances of being figured out and countered. For that reason, the first pick was usually a bruiser or a tank and almost never a mage or a marksman-

"How's that!?" Jennifer locked in her Pyromancer. It happened as soon as the turn passed to the Leopards. Not even a millisecond of thought was spared on it.

"Uh..."

"Err, Jenny..."

"That's kinda...."

The team was stoned. Drafting the Mid Laner so early was already questionable, but on top of that, it's Pyromancer, a mage known for its medium reach. It's like she was asking to be countered!

"Did you seriously just... huh." Alex massaged his temples, feeling his brain was losing cells just from breathing the same air as Jennifer.

"What?" Jennifer crossed her arms. "These scrubs were asking for it! Hmph. Sage and Sorcerer are banned, so I can deal with whatever they bring. Besides, we all knew this was coming, so what's the harm?"

"You ever heard of 'concealing information' from... Meh, nevermind." Alex sighed. There's no use reasoning with a derp like Jennifer, especially when she's triggered. "It's a terrible pick for sure, but... We may be able to use it our advantage. Hmm..." He mumbled to himself.

While still dumbstruck by their captain's rash actions, the Leopards picked their second class: Orc, a Top Laner. The turn passed back to StormBlitz.

"Pyro right off the bat?" Gilbert raised an eyebrow.

"Seems like their captain is very confident," Yuel said. This was a great development for StormBlitz, as it eliminated one of the greatest fears he had regarding his Aeromancer + Beastmaster plan.

Since StormBlitz went first in this draft, it meant the Leopards will be picking the final class of the draft after seeing StormBlitz's whole team composition. So, if the Leopards kept their Mid Laner pick for last, ComboBreaker would get a chance to pick a different mage after seeing the Aeromancer and Beastmaster.

Thankfully, that's no longer possible. The Pyromancer was now locked-in and will undoubtedly be the Mid Laner, so Yuel could proceed as planned.

Still, revealing the Aeromancer and Beastmaster early harbored some risks. Both classes had weaknesses which could be exploited via counter picks, especially in team fights. Therefore, Gilbert and Dan's picks were pushed to the very end of the drafting process. First, Roi picked Knight and Lars got his beloved Trickshooter.

"Sooooo," Jennifer torched the monitor with her intense glare "They got a plan against my Pyro or what?" Now that she cooled down a little, she realized she done goofed. Even with Sage and Sorcerer banned, there were many ways to make her life hard as a Pyromancer. She knew that, yet she went ahead and insta-locked Pyromancer anyway. Jeez, was she a Bronze player or something!? Blegh.

While she was sitting and biting her nail, the drafting phase approached its climax. Only two more positions for the Leopards to decide on: Carry and Support.

"I think I'll go with Pirate," Albert said. "I would've liked Elf against their Trickshooter, but they banned it."

"Wait," Alex said. "Let's leave the Carry for last."

"Hm? Isn't it better to pick Support last? We'll have a better idea how to counter their whole lineup by then."

"Yeah, that's usually true..." Alex shrugged. Explaining his idea was such a drag. "Anyway, it's better to not limit ourselves too much. They probably gonna show us soon how they plan to deal with our Pyro. If their counter is decent, we may want to drop the mixup."

Alex explained the gist of his idea. After some heated discussion, they agreed to push the Carry pick to the end. Instead, they picked Lumimancer for Support. It was StormBlitz's turn again.

[They're keeping Carry for last? Why?] Yuel frowned. Both StormBlitz's Carry and Support were already decided, so what sort of counter were the Leopards afraid of for their Carry? Well, it's not like there's a rule against picking Carry last in such situations, but it's an odd decision to make without a good reason. It's even weirder when considering that the Support was Freezer, who struck Yuel as the smart type. Did Freezer engross this decision? Why?

"Hehehe," Dan cackled like a cartoon villain. "So, this is where we drop our trap card. Hehehe."

"Yeah, let's do it." Gilbert nodded. "Let's see how this Aero + Beast combo is going to turn out."

Neither of them was concerned with enemy's pick order? Maybe Yuel was overthinking it? The drafting phase proceeded smoothly so far, so they could go ahead with the plan and pick Aeromancer + Beastmaster for their last two picks.

Yes, everything had been going well so far, He didn't want to instill unnecessary doubt in the team, so he kept quiet about his unfounded suspicion. He was the leader now, so his words carried weight. If he were to express doubt, said doubt would spread across the whole team.

"They really went for it." Alex smirked. "Let's play with our original formation then. Hmm, so I have to deal with Aero."

"Electromancer is a decent counter." Albert pointed out. "They're pretty even in the laning phase, but Electro can counter Aero's ult."

"Electro, hmm." Alex made a complicated expression. It's really a good counter, but...

"Hah," Jennifer sneered. "As if he can even play Electro."

"And why you decided I can't?"

"Because you don't practice for shit. Say, guys. Anybody here ever saw him play something other than Warlock the last few months?" Her question was followed by awkward silence.

Of course nobody did, because Alex only dropped by the club once or twice a week and barely stayed for even an hour. That's the laziest schedule he managed to get away with without being kicked from the club. If it was in Jennifer's hands, she'd kick that lazy bum all the way to the moon! He was a disgrace to all aspiring competitive players in the world! No, in the whole universe!

"Just because I don't play something in the club doesn't mean I can't play it. Don't go assuming shit with that feeble brain of yours."

"Feeble? What's that mean?"

"Point in case."

"Wut?"

"Anyway, I'll go with Electro," Alex announced. There was some hesitation, but he didn't let it slip through his stoic facade. Real talk, when was the last time he touched Electromancer, again? ... whatever.

With this, the final pick was decided by the Leopards. However, unlike everybody originally expected, said pick wasn't a Carry. It was Electromancer, a Mid Laner.

"Huh?" Yuel cocked his head. What? Electromancer? Why? It made no sense. They didn't have a Carry- Oh. Actually, they did. They had a Carry. They had it all along...!

"I-I think we messed up." Yuel gulped. It finally dawned on him. Why did the enemy pick Pyromancer early without any worries? Why did they postpone the Carry pick instead of the Support pick? This Electromancer pick answered everything.

From the beginning, the Pyromancer was a wildcard. It could be either Carry or Mid. However, everybody, Yuel included, assumed the Pyromancer was definitely going to be in Mid because the enemy will surely use their mixup lineup. Ugh...

"You think they changed formation again?" Gilbert grimaced.

"Ouch," Dan sighed. "You could say... they did a mixup on their mixup, amirite?"

This was a mess up. A huge one. After the devastating defeat they suffered the previous match, it was only natural to assume the Leopards will use the same winning formation. It was unthinkable the Leopards will change it back again after losing twice in a row, but they did. In the very last moment, by simply postponing the Carry selection, they gained the option to decide which formation to go with.

Because of that, StormBlitz's Aeromancer and Beastmaster became weak picks. They were supposed to counter Breaker's Pyromancer in Mid, but that idea went down the toilet. On top of that, Aeromancer's ult was going to be countered by Electromancer's ult in team fights, whereas Beastmaster wasn't a particularly strong Jungler in general. Instead of gaining an advantage in Mid with these picks, the odds were turned against them!

Everybody knew the Leopards could abandon their mixup. Everybody, Yuel included. He should had taken that into consideration, but he failed. He was too concerned about pleasing the team as the new captain and finding a solution for the Gilbert vs. Breaker situation. As a result, he failed to see the bigger picture. He failed the team and he failed as the captain. He failed all over the place.

Invisible weight dropped on his shoulders. The atmosphere around them turned dense and suffocating. It's just like last game, when the whole team fell apart. Negativity seeped into the team and, this time, there's nobody else to blame; it's all Yuel's fault!

"Yo, what's wrong, my dudes?" Lars asked. "If you concentrate this much, you gonna fry yo brains, haha!"

"Well..." Yuel sighed. How could this goof smile so nonchalantly right now? Didn't he understand the gravity of the situation? Did he even understand the situation at all? "We picked Aero and Beast to counter their Pyro in Mid, but they played around that by moving Pyro to Bot."

"Oh, I see." Lars nodded. Apparently, he just figured the situation. Just how dense could this guy be? Well, at least now he'd share everybody's sentiments- "Yo, that's great!"

"... excuse me?"

"I gonna fight Breaker from the start! Best stuff!" He was unfazed by this development. Rather, he... welcomed it? While everybody else complained about facing Breaker's Combo Pyromancer, Lars saw it as nothing more than a fun challenge. What a bizarre goof.

"Besides, why worry so much?" Lars continued. "Aren't they just returning to their original formation? You already mopped the floor with them when they played that way, so let's do that again! No problem!"

These words penetrated the team's negative atmosphere and echoed in everybody's minds. Everybody was speechless, because Lars both made absolutely no sense and perfect sense at the same time.

There were some unfavorable factors, that much was true. However, they already bested the Leopards twice in this formation, that's also true. In the first place, the Leopards resorted to using mixup because they couldn't handle StormBlitz with their original formation. Pressuring the Leopards back into that formation could actually be seen as an achievement! Sort of.

Either way, Yuel was the captain, so he had to say something. Something, anything. Lars's positive attitude created an opportunity to wash away the team's negativity, so he had to follow up on that.

"Lars is right," Yuel said. "They got us good in Mid, but if you look at it another way: [we] managed to kick [their] Pyromancer out of Mid with our drafts. We'll have to pay for that a little, but there's no telling who is really better off in this trade."

"Hm, that's true." Gilbert nodded. "At least, I'm glad I don't have to deal with Pyro on lane anymore. Freezer, on the other hand? I can handle him."

"And," Dan added. "Maybe I can still put my Beast to good use. Just because Pyro moved to Bot doesn't mean she's no longer in the game. I've really been wanting to test Beastmaster in a competitive match, so this gonna be good."

Little by little, morale was restored. Lars's positivity infected the whole team. The negativity from the previous match wasn't entirely gone yet, they were in much better shape now.

Now, everything will depend on their ability to maintain said positivity throughout the match. With Lars being the only member not suffering from that baggage, he was the perfect candidate for becoming the team's linchpin. He could very well generate the momentum the team so desperately needed to fully recover.

But, he was a goof. Was he even aware of these things? Could he pull off such an important task on his debut? And, against a tough opponent like ComboBreaker? As Lars's Support, Yuel will have to lead him in the right direction.

The fourth match was about to begin!