Passing the Baton

Yuel's mother approved the transfer to Skyline Junior High. On the following day, Yuel called Howard to deliver the news.

"Transferring?" Howard frowned. "That's sudden. School starts in two days."

"I know," Yuel said. "Sorry that I drop this on you at the last moment, but I only got the OK yesterday. Or, technically, today in the morning."

"Huh. Is it because of how the selection went?"

"... yes," Yuel admitted. He was dropping a huge bomb on Howard, so the least he could do was offer a convincing explanation for his actions. "Lars and I decided we want to play competitively this year no matter what, even if it means playing for another team. You said it yourself: in any other school, we'd be on the first-string for sure."

"I did say that, but I didn't mean it literally..." Howard dropped on the sofa, his phone still pressed against his ear. "Honestly, you put me in a sticky situation here."

"I'm aware and I'm sorry about it. But, it's already decided. Lars and I are transferring to Skyline."

"Pft, you gonna play on Stratus? Of all things?" Howard produced a dry laugh. "You really expect to get anywhere with that team?"

"I won't know unless I try. But, fear not: I have every intention to win the regionals this year."

"You realize you'll have to beat StormBlitz to achieve that, right? Sorry to break it to you, but there's no chance in hell."

"We'll see about that," Yuel insisted. "Next time we fight, I'll be better prepared. I'll smash your defense to pieces."

"Heh, I'd like to see you try," Howard smirked. Even though Yuel's transfer was going to be a huge pain in the ass for him, a part of him couldn't help but feel entertained by this development.

Thanks to Yuel's bold decision, they'll get another chance to cross blades before high school. And, this time, it'll be on a real stage. It was hard to expect any results from a weak team like Stratus, yet Howard still looked forward to something. Who knew what miracle these two brats could cause?

"What about Julia?" Howard asked. "Is she also transferring?"

"... no," Yuel said. "She'll stay with StormBlitz. After all, she finally got a spot on the first string."

"Does she really prefer her position on the team over Lars?"

"I suppose..."

"Huh," Howard wasn't convinced by Yuel's weak tone but it wasn't his business. This was the first good news he heard this entire conversation. Howard had some big plans for Julia, so losing her would have hurt even more than losing the club's vice-captain.

"Alright," Howard said. "I approve of your transfer."

"I don't remember asking for your permission."

"Haha, true that," Howard chuckled. "Just don't forget to send me everything you worked on for the entrance exam. Because, thanks to a certain rebellious brat, I now gotta handle the entire thing myself."

"About that," Yuel started. "I uploaded all the files to cloud so you can access them from everywhere."

"Oh, innovating, aren't we?"

"I'll give you all the rights to that folder. I tidied up the files and finished the templates for the written exams, with the categories and everything like we discussed."

"So, you finished everything?"

"Yes, I believe so."

"See? You can also deliver good news when you try, haha."

"Finishing everything is the least I could do," Yuel said. "Again, I'm really sorry it had to turn out like this."

"Yeah, yeah. I heard you the first time. Your apologies are cute and all, but they aren't helping me. I still gotta clean up this entire mess myself."

"That's right," Yuel didn't have anything more to add.

They went over the details of the cloud storage and the call ended there.

"Damn..." Howard dropped on the sofa and sighed deeply.

"My, what's wrong?" Ellen waltzed into the living room and sat beside him. "Bad news?"

"Heh, 'bad news' doesn't even begin to describe it. Yuel and Lars gonna transfer schools so they can play in the regionals."

"My, such rascals!" Ellen covered her mouth. "And, you gonna let them do it?"

"What authority do I have? I'm not their mom."

"Hehe, that's true," Ellen patted Howard's head. "Can't believe these two are so rebellious. They're such brats."

"The worst thing? I can't really blame them," Howard smiled wryly. "I may have done the same exact thing in their shoes. Not playing on the main team in the first year is acceptable. But, as juniors? Players of our caliber should be on the team, unless we're talking about some crazy Korean club that got players who were born pro gamers."

In fact, Howard decided to attend Riverstock over Leo after he read interviews about Rodriguez, the Leopards' coach. Rodriguez repeated many times he had a principle of only putting seniors on the main team. He gave multiple reasons for that, but the bottom line: 99% of the juniors in his club had zero chance of making it into the first-string. There were only a couple of rare exceptions to this rule like Fenrir, who led the Leopards' last year.

Could have Howard made it into that special 1% in the Leopards? He didn't know Rodriguez personally, so he had no idea what criteria this coach used for assigning juniors to the first-string. Therefore, Howard dodged that risk by attending Riverstock and joining StormBlitz. It was known as one of the most serious teams in the region and it didn't disappoint him.

So, even though the circumstances were quite different from what Yuel was doing right now, it's undeniable that Howard also picked to play for a weaker team in exchange for a higher chance to enter the competitive scene earlier. As such, Howard understood where Yuel was coming from with that transfer. Howard might have done the exact same thing in Yuel's shoes.

But, with all that said, losing the vice-captain two days before school definitely sucked. This suddenly dumped so much extra responsibility on Howard.

[Great. Just great.] Howard shook his head. His shoulders already started feeling heavy from the weight of all this responsibility.

"What you gonna do?" Ellen asked. "You'll assign a new vice-captain?"

"What else can I do? I need somebody to handle the menial work for me. I have to concentrate on strengthening the first-string so we can win the nationals. The scouts from Grandview want results and they not gonna care about any internal club drama we had."

"Then, who you gonna pick? You still have to choose among the juniors, right?"

"Frankly, I have no idea," Howard went over the option with Ellen. Whoever becomes the vice-captain will eventually become the club's captain, so it had to be somebody who was capable of keeping the team together and leading it.

Taison? The guy was too self-centered for his own good. On one hand, it was a quality which made him pursue strength so he could stand out and perform stronger plays. On the other hand, it was a huge personality flaw that prevented him from giving two shits about anybody else. A guy like him at the top would only care about promoting himself, even at the expense of the rest of the club.

Then, what about Julia? An interesting idea. At first glance, the girl seemed too prissy and immature to handle that kind of responsibility. However, with that said, she has already surprised Howard once when she pulled that amazing aggressive playstyle during the selection match. There was more to the girl than met the eye.

"I think July will be able to handle it if we leave her no choice," Ellen said. "But, expect her to rebel a lot until she gets used to it. Also, I doubt she'll be able to handle being the vice-cap and a competitive player a the same time. As you've probably already guessed from seeing her in action, July isn't exactly a pro at multi-tasking. She's a cute blockhead like that~"

"So," Howard rubbed his temples. "If I make her the vice-captain, I'll pretty much have to give up on her for the regionals."

"Yep."

"Life is never easy, huh." Howard shook his head. With all things considered, Julia looked like the safest pick for a vice-captain. She was far from an ideal candidate for being a captain, but at least she wasn't an entirely self-centered brat who'd assuredly run the entire team into the ground for the sake of promoting themselves.

However, the cost of not having her on the first-string was high. With Julia in StormBlitz, the team had more options to adapt to enemy teams. Julia would be super effective when the team needs more explosive aggression to seal the deal, whereas Gilbert will be more valuable in games that go back-and-forth and require quick transitions from defense to offense.

So, what's more important? Assigning a competent vice-captain or increasing the chances of winning the nationals? It wasn't even a question. Winning the nationals was a must for Howard. He was willing to do whatever it took to secure that victory.

Therefore, even though Julia seemed like the best fit for a vice-captain out of all options, Howard refused to give up on her as an important situational player. Thus, there was only one last option left: Gregory.

[Well, that guy is a piece of work.] Howard smiled wryly.

If a vice-captain only needed the ability to organize things, then Gregory was second to Yuel among the juniors. Even when it came to playing Classmancers, Gregory was the type to research his opponents and to study counters. Sure, he had some bad habits like missing important details and relying too much on cheap tactics, but all of that could be resolved with enough experience and with some guidance from Howard.

However, the problem with Gregory was his attitude. Similarly to Taison, that brat only cared about himself and believed he was the top player in the entire universe. His actions always aligned with self-benefit and he wanted the entire world to revolve around him. That kind of selfish captain would be detrimental to the team.

Still, Gregory was definitely a better choice than Taison, so that's all Howard had left. Will Howard be able to fix Gregory's attitude throughout the year? Maybe it could be done with enough babysitting.

Unfortunately, Howard had no time to babysit. He had to concentrate 100% of his efforts on the upcoming tournament or else StormBlitz won't make it to the top.

But, if nobody fixes Gregory's attitude, StormBlitz will definitely become a trainwreck next year and Howard will be partly to blame. So, should he really throw the future of the club under the bus to prioritize his own interests?

[If Yuel can act selfish, so can I.] Howard reached a conclusion. Frankly, the future of the club was not his concern. He'll graduate after this year, so all that mattered was the here and now. So, even though it went against his better judgment, he'll sacrifice the club's future if it meant gaining a higher chance to win the nationals.

With that decided, Howard called Gregory over in the afternoon. It was best to drop such huge news on somebody in person. It's the kind of delicacy Yuel apparently lacked.

"Excuse me?" Gregory raised an eyebrow. "Me? The vice-captain? The heck did that come from?"

"Yuel is transferring to another school," Howard explained. "So, I need a new errand boy to be my vice-captain, haha."

"And, you want me?"

"Yeah, you're the only other competent guy among the juniors. When I first considered who to pick for vice-captain, it was a close one between you and Yuel."

"Huh, really," Gregory looked unconvinced for some reason. Howard was sure that praising this guy would work like a charm but seemed like it'll be harder than expected.

"So," Gregory pushed his glasses. "What if I refuse?"

"I'll murder your entire family."

"Yikes, that's harsh."

"It really is," Howard chuckled. "But, seriously, would you mind not doing that? It'll make my life at least a million times harder."

"Kek, you really think I give a shit about how hard your life is?" Gregory shrugged. "I mean, there's nothing in it for me. It sounds like a huge pain in the ass."

"If you become the vice-captain, it guarantees that you'll be the captain next year."

"Hmm, that does have some appeal."

"Also, you'll be taking Yuel's spot. That's what you want, right?"

"You know what I really wanted," Gregory narrow his eyes. "I wanted to beat that mofo and show once and for all that I'm way better. This vice-cap job ain't it, chief. Like, is it supposed to be a consultation prize or something?"

"I see," Howard was running out of ammo. As always, Gregory was difficult to handle. Some of Howard's ideas worked on the guy like a charm, whereas others failed miserably.

Worst case, Howard could try applying peer pressure. If that doesn't work either, he'll just make Taison the vice-captain. That brat will surely jump on the opportunity because it promised the captain position in the future. For somebody who wanted to stand out so much, what better role was there than the captain, right?

[Wait, speaking of Taison...] Howard smirked. "Alright, I get what you're saying."

"Really," Gregory raised an eyebrow.

"If you don't want to, I won't force you. I'll just make Taison the captain."

"Wait," Gregory started. "I didn't say I wasn't going to do it for sure..."

[Gotcha.] Howard found Gregory's Achilles heel. On top of being a selfish guy, Gregory also had self-esteem issues. Despite being Taison's duo partner, Gregory ranted about how nobody noticed his "brilliant plays" because everybody only paid attention to Taison. So, this was Gregory's opportunity to come out of "Taison's shadow".

"Look," Howard switched to his stern tone. "I don't have all day. School is about to start and I need to find a vice-captain. This isn't the time for you to play an indecisive princess."

"Kek, rude," Gregory chuckled. "Okay, so what the job entails, anyway? Do I just get to chill and wait until I become the captain?"

"You wish," Howard turned his laptop toward Gregory. It showed that plans regarding the upcoming entrance exam, including Yuel's notes. "For starters, you'll be in charge of hosting the entrance exam. Remember how I did it last year? That's traditionally the vice-captain's job."

"Huh," Gregory squinted his eyes behind his glasses and leaned toward the laptop. The open document was a summary of the exam's three stages, which Gregory was quite familiar with. He thought he left all this shit behind after he got into the club, but now it was here again.

"This sure looks like fun," Gregory rolled his eyes. "We really gotta do this shit? Can't we just pick the new members from a list or something? Like, based on rank or something."

"That's not good enough," Howard shook his head. "Not everybody who got talent starts playing in grade school and not everybody who got a high rank can necessarily become a competitive player."

"But, higher rank players are probably better, right?"

"Yeah, on average that's true. But, our club is small and the school demands it to be competitive. So, we have to look for players who'll be useful in tournaments later down the road. Think about this like the club's future captain. Next year, you'll have to form a team of your own with all these players."

"Like the future captain, heh," Gregory smiled gleefully. He must have really liked the sound of that.

[Alright, so this is one effective way to lure this basic brat.] Howard made a mental note.

"But, ya know," Gregory said. "I understand we gotta be a little picky and all, but do we [really] have to go through all this bullshit? Supervising a race, making quizzes and then playing with all these scrubs... I got a headache from just thinking about all that crap."

"I agree, it's a little excessive," Howard nodded. "I also wanted to cut down some of this hassle when I became the vice-captain. But, we need to play it safe against the school."

"The heck does that mean? You make it sound like the school is our enemy."

"It kinda is," Howard explained. "Like many schools, ours doesn't particularly like the idea of a 'video gaming' club. They pretend to accept it as a sports club but they still got some prejudice against it."

"It's that bad?"

"Yeah, it's basically like this: the soccer club? A totally legit sports club. But, the Mancers club? What the heck is this club that promotes kids to play video games and to grow up as unproductive members of society."

"That's why we can't have nice things," Gregory shook his head.

"The only way our club survives is because we've been convincing the school that we're a super competitive club. That's how this over-the-top entrance exam came into existence. Apparently, the captain at the time had to come up with a convincing way to show the school how serious the club was, so he came with this sort of exam."

"What an absolute mad lad."

"Ironically, this spread the rumor that StormBlitz is a super serious team. In turn, that attracted some strong players to the school and made the team good enough to go far in tournaments. That proved to the school that StormBlitz is a serious competitive team. So, you can thank that guy for the reputation StormBlitz got and for the computers we got in the clubroom."

"That guy is a legend," Gregory said. "Well damn, guess there's no way to get rid of this tradition now. Then, can we at least cut ourselves some work?"

"I'm always in favor of working less but smarter," Howard nodded. "So, what you got in mind?"

"From what I see, we supposedly let anybody who finishes the race to pass the first stage," Gregory pointed out. "Weren't we supposed to only pick the top runners?"

"That's a little lie we tell to test the players. In practice, anybody who crosses the finish line gets in."

"That sounds like horseshit. This race ain't gonna filter anybody like that."

"You'd be surprised how many people it takes out. So many of them give up without even trying."

"I dunno," Gregory shrugged. "I say we filter them REAL HARD. Screw anybody who doesn't make it among the top. We don't need them."

"That's a bold statement," Howard frowned. "If you apply such a harsh filter, you won't give a chance to anybody who is a little less athletic."

"Yeah, screw these guys. We ain't got time to deal with everybody. The more of these scrubs we filter out early, the better."

Gregory's gaze was fixated on the description of the third stage of the exam. There was a side note there that stated this part might take anywhere from one to three days, depending on how many people reached that far. So, [the more people I cut down early, the faster we can get the third part over it. That's some 200 IQ management skills right there, kek.]

"You're not exactly the most athletic yourself," Howard pointed out. "If we used such a strict filter last year, it might have filtered you out too."

"Hey, I'm pretty sure I finished among the best. I trained for that shit all- Ah," Gregory cleared his throat. "Anyway, I say let the slowpokes fail. Ain't nobody got any proof we gonna lose any good players from that."

"It's true, you can't know for sure what'll happen. But, you're willingly taking a huge risk"

"I can live with it. The less candidates, the less hassle."

"Is that so," Howard narrowed his eyes. So, that's what this was all about: the number of people to test. Gregory shined when it came to finding shortcuts and doing less work, so it came as no surprise that this brat figured things will be easier if he kicks out as many candidates as possible during the first stage. Lazy but shrewd.

Yuel's side notes in the document made it clear that the more people there were, the more work the examiners will have to do. He listed factors like how many days were required to properly test everybody during the third stage and how it might be impossible to fit all candidates in one classroom for the quiz in the second stage. No wonder Gregory was shook.

Of course, these notes didn't exist to scare people. Yuel made them because he was meticulous and wanted to make sure he covered all the challenges he discussed with Howard.

On that subject, Yuel was the complete opposite of Gregory. He tried to get as many people as possible into the third stage in order to get as much data as possible about them. No matter how much work it required, Yuel wanted to pick the absolute best players for the club. At the time, it was actually Howard who had to argue against this approach because Yuel's ideas would have put too much strain on the club.

Gregory understood Yuel's notes but took them in the opposite direction. Fewer candidates = less work. That's all Gregory saw it.

[If you really want to surpass Yuel,] Howard thought to himself. [You first have to fix that attitude. You become better by striving to become better, not by searching for easy shortcuts.]

However, Howard kept quiet. He desperately needed a vice-captain and Gregory was the only realistic option. So, he didn't want to insist on hosting a better quality entrance exam because it might him get into an argument with that brat.

Besides, even though Howard wasn't supposed to be involved with the entrance exam this year, at this rate he'll definitely have to split a lot of the work with Gregory. So, frankly, he'd appreciate less work.

[Heh, I'm totally throwing the club under the bus here.] Howard smiled wryly. There was no doubt that applying an aggressive filter would deny the club some decent candidates. Case in point: Yuel barely finished among the top runners in the race while Lars barely passed the quiz. So, if the exam were just a little harsher, these two might have failed to reach the third stage.

[In retrospect, it would have been better if they failed.] Howard chuckled. This whole messy vice-captain situation only happened thanks to them. So, if Howard could go back in time, he would have definitely failed these brats.

Anyway, it was regrettable but Howard had no choice. He had to compromise to make everything easier. If he wanted Gregory as vice-captain, he had to play along with this brat's laziness for now, even at the expense of ruining the club's future. Whatever happens to StormBlitz next year wasn't Howard's concern.

Only this year mattered. In this year's regionals, Howard had to win and win and win, all the way to the top. It was the only way to faze the scouts from Grandview and make them give him the scholarship he needed.

"Alright," Howard started. "You're going to be in charge of the entry exam, so I'll leave all the decisions to you. If you want to filter more candidates based on the race, you're free to do so. Just remember, you'll be the one dealing with the consequences next year."

"Good, now we're talking," Gregory smirked. "Okay, another idea I have is to cut down the number of questions in the quiz. I see Yuel made a new format and gotta admit it's pretty well organized and everything, but it got way too many questions in it."

"Yeah, he said he thinks it'd be fairer if there are more questions. That way, people can focus on the areas they know best. That's why he went through the trouble of categorizing the questions the way he did."

"Such a hard worker," Gregory sneered. "Well, I say we cut like half of this crap and only leave the good questions. It gonna be less work for us to check the exams."

"Sure," Howard gave up on objecting. As long as Gregory does at least a semi-passable job at the entrance exam, they'll be able to put this whole ordeal behind them. That was more than enough for Howard.

And so, Howard continued playing along with all of Gregory's cheap suggestions...