The Gap Between Practice and Experience

『You have been killed!』

Jennifer stared at her screen, twisting her lips. She done goofed. She done goofed HARD. Even though she's the one who started the attack on Gunz, she's also the one who wound up dead. And she would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for that meddling Chronomancer. Dang it.

Still, even without the Chronomancer's unexpected gank, she knew the truth: she played like trash in that 1v1. Gunz almost destroyed her. The most she managed was to barely slip away alive.

Why? How? Jennifer thought she was piloting Pirate decently back there. She started off with Kraken to bait out Elven Leap. When that didn't work, she instantly closed the distance with Backfire Cannon + Blink and planned to wreck Gunz from close range.

There shouldn't have been any issues with these plays and she pulled them off pretty smoothly, if she can say so herself. Yet, none of them worked!

The Kraken bait didn't work and her saber slash missed. Both times, Gunz pulled off crazy clutch dodges, but somehow his plays brimmed with confidence. They... They weren't flukes. Jennifer understood that now.

Gunz wasn't even fazed by the fact he dodged these attack by a hair's breadth. He immediately connected one play into another without delay. He leaped over the Kraken, dodged Jennifer's slash and immediately shot her.

The only one fazed by this absurd development was Jennifer. After being thwarted twice in a row, she was put in a difficult spot. She had to decide whether to keep pushing this clunky attack or to call it a day and retreat.

While Jennifer was mulling over her options, Gunz went on the offensive without a second thought. From start to end, all his plays were so damn fast, so natural. It's like he had experienced this exact scenario a thousand times already. He knew all the best moves, like some freaking time traveler from the future.

Well, jokes aside, the guy must have practiced Elf to death to play so naturally. But then, what about Jennifer? She also practiced Pirate a lot because Coach insisted. That's how she knew to farm effectively early on, to open a fight with a Kraken bait and to corner the enemy Carry into melee combat. These were strong meta plays she learned and practiced to perfection.

Then why? What was the problem? Didn't she learn and practice how to play Pirate? What was the difference between her and Gunz? It felt like she was missing something. There was something Gunz possessed that she didn't, and that's why she got her ass whooped. It kinda sounded like an excuse, but it really felt that way.

"What a headache." Jennifer sighed.

"I think you should've pressured him more during the early game," Albert said.

"Hm? You talking about Gunz?"

"Yeah." Albert nodded.

"Hmm, but isn't that kinda bad? I mean, Pirate is kinda trash during the early game, so I gotta play defense and farm hard."

"True, Pirate is a bit weak, but the same goes for Elf. Even though Elf has great range, it's a mid-tier class because it doesn't have many tools for fights and its stats aren't that high. So, Pirate can pressure Elf during the early game."

"Hoh." Jennifer nodded.

"You didn't know that?" Albert raised an eyebrow.

"A-Aahaha, of course I did!" Jennifer forced a huge smile. "I'm just impressed how much you know about these classes! I mean, Carry is your secondary and all, but you sure know your stuff!"

"I see." Albert nodded.

[Phew! Dodged that bullet.] Jennifer secretly sighed in relief. Seemed like Albert was convinced-

"Sorry, I should have said something earlier." Albert continued. "Coach told me to speak my mind, but I was sure you know what you're doing. Sorry, didn't know you're not familiar with the Pirate-Elf matchup."

"Geh!" Jennifer jumped. "I-It's not like I'm not familiar it! It's just, ya know. my own personal playstyle and stuff! This is my pirate way, believe it!"

"Really." Albert narrowed his eyes. "Thinking of it, I don't even remember seeing you play Pirate during practice matches."

"Well, that's... ya know." Jennifer looked away. "You must've missed it. I mean, I don't take Pirate into real matches that often. I mostly practice specific plays and situations in training mode, haha..." A dry laugh. As she was saying these words out loud, she was beginning to realize how wrong all of this sounded.

"I see," Albert had a difficult expression. "Well, what's done is done. I can't travel back in time to stop your death, but from now on I'll make sure to throw some advice your way when there's a chance."

"Hey, if you got something good to say - speak up. I always listen." Jennifer gave a thumb up. [Especially, I gotta listen REAL good when it's about shit I don't know. Man, even Albert seems to know more about Pirate than me, and I'm supposed to be the one maining Carry. Derp.]

Jennifer somehow wiggled her way out of this discussion without embarrassing herself too much, but Albert's question still lingered in her mind. Did she even ever play Pirate during practice matches? Hmm, probably like two or three times? Yeaaaah, most of her knowledge and experience came from practicing Pirate in training mode.

Oh, that's it! That's what she was missing! The difference between her and Gunz must have been their experience!

Gunz reacted quickly and naturally as if guided by instinct. To become so natural, he must have played lots and lots of Elf in real matches, against real opponents who were out to murder his ass. He didn't just "practice" Elf, he went out there and kicked the shit outta people with it.

That must be it. That's how he knew Elven Leap was fast enough to dodge Kraken in the last moment, and that he could quickly cancel it into a roll to dodge Jennifer's slash. He knew this Elf vs. Pirate matchup a hundred times better than Jennifer.

He's good. He knew every aspect of this matchup. Gunz was a world apart from Jennifer, who never faced an actual Elf player as a Pirate. She only knew the general theory behind fighting an Elf, and even that was on the weaker side. Elf was just a mid-tier class, so it didn't warrant much attention. Yeaaaaah, derp.

And even beyond the matchup, turned out Jennifer's mastery of Pirate... well, it wasn't exactly what she thought. She did take Pirate to Ranked from time to time, due to Coach's pesky demand to play every relevant Carry class at least once a month. The few times she played, she simply executed the strong meta plays she practiced and nobody complained about her performance. She felt pretty confident.

But, now she knew: it wasn't good enough. Ranked wasn't the same as competitive. Coach always said that and Jennifer understood it at the back of her head, but it's the first time she experienced it on her flesh like that.

Unlike in Ranked, here she couldn't get away with just knowing the gist of her class. This was a competitive environment. Each player here polished their main classes to almost perfection, the way Jennifer did with her combo classes.

There's no way she could go toe-to-toe with them as Pirate, a class she never bothered to truly master. She had been underestimating it, thinking it's easy because it's a high tier meta class. But like with any other class, she needed high mastery and tons of experience to make it work.

As the game progressed, Jennifer was forced to acknowledge this fact time and again. Every time she clashed with Gunz - she was overwhelmed. His reaction was faster, his plays were smoother and he countered everything Jennifer threw at him.

It's like Gunz knew exactly what Jennifer gonna do next before she even figured it out herself. Actually, "knew" was probably the wrong word here. That Gunz fellow didn't strike her an intellectual. It's his robust experience, which was carved into his instincts. He didn't even need to think, he just acted.

Jennifer knew how this shit worked because she was exactly the same way when she played combo. She practiced and played combo to death,. At some point, it became as natural as breathing. She didn't even need to "think" much, she just did what seemed "right" and it worked most of the time.

But, it was a long road. At first, playing combo was hella though. It required fast, but careful, decision making. Jennifer often found herself pausing in the middle of a heated fight, unsure what should be her next move. Of course, that pretty much always led to being killed in some lame way and getting scolded by both her teammates and Coach. Geh, them memories.

Anyway, things were crappy like that for a while. She even considered quitting combo multiple times, which meant quitting Classmancers altogether. But, Coach insisted things will get better. He always said "Just give it another month or two. If you work hard, you'll develop the intuition for it."

Jennifer already developed some respect for Coach by that point, something she never had for any teacher in her entire life. Coach was a really competent teach, not like the those who lecture you to death in class about shit you couldn't care less about. Thanks to his intense training regime, Jennifer leveled up from "Weakest Freshman" to "Average Player".

So, she decided to trust his guidance and continued working hard on her combo. Eventually, it paid off. After experiencing countless combat scenarios, watching replays of her mistakes, getting advice about them and simulating them in training mode - her combo playstyle finally came together. There was virtually no situation she couldn't deal with, she no longer paused to ponder her options.

Even when it was some absurd situation she hadn't experienced before, her honed instincts guided her. It didn't mean she always executed the best plays, but they were generally hella good. And so, she successfully graduated from being a combo pleb and was ready to take on the world!

But, she couldn't be arsed to go through this long process with non-combo classes. She was busy polishing her combos, so she had neither the time nor the interest to work on non-combo classes. Okay, may she DID have the time, just not the motivation. Like, combo was the real shit, that's where it's at. Screw other classes.

Besides, it's fine, right? Meta classes were a lot easier to play anyway, right? So, there's no need to pour tons of hours into them. Surely, it was enough to just practice them from time to time, right?

Well, Coach said Jennifer was wrong about it, but she was sure it'll be A-OK. She did practice these boring classes from time to time, so she shouldn't have any trouble playing them in a competitive match. At least, that's what she thought.

Turned out she was an idiot. Only now that she faced Gunz, she realized her foolishness. Pirate was higher tier than Elf and was even somewhat of a counter to Elf, so she was supposed to wreck Gunz apart. But, he owned her ass.

Even while getting tips from Albert, Jennifer still couldn't score a single kill on Gunz. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't paint a mental image or victory against Gunz.

Every time she assaulted Gunz from an advantageous position, it somehow turned into a near-death experience for her. She eventually got killed one more time during her attempts, but at least this time it was a proper gank which turned the situation into a 1v2. Phew, at least she didn't let Gunz destroy her in 1v1 again... wait.

[Am I seriously happy I died from a gank and not from 1v1?] Jennifer facepalmed. [The heck am I saying? I still died. I got rekt. There's nothing to be happy about, dang it!]

At some point, "winning the game" was overshadowed by "don't lose to Gunz". After realizing how embarrassing her Pirate skills were, she had been preoccupied with how to not embarrass herself any further. Getting a kill on Gunz, or at least beating him up enough to force a retreat. Something, anything. She had to prove she's not just some scrub.

So, she focused only on that and got repeatedly wrecked in the process. Dang it. It's impossible. She couldn't win against Gunz this game. At this point, she had no choice but admit it.

The difference in their experience was too much. It's not a gap she could close by trying hard or getting a few tips from Albert. It's frustrating, but her only option was to play defensively against Gunz. In other words, to give up.

[And how exactly we gonna win like this?] Jennifer chewed her lips. If she, the Carry and captain, quakes in one's boots, then who gonna lead the team to victory? Nobody.

Momentum was on the enemy's side, so at this rate, they'll rend the Leopards asunder. Especially, Gunz was growing into a larger and larger threat with every second.

No, defending won't cut it. Gunz had to be stopped, or the Leopards won't have a future. But what could Jennifer do? How was she supposed to take down that beast!?

"Man," Jennifer sighed. "This is rough. I can't figure out how to deal with Gunz."

"Then don't?" Albert shrugged. "If all we gonna do is turtle to not lose the lane, I can do it alone. You can go gank other lanes."

"Hoh!" Jennifer exclaimed. "That's not a bad idea! You should really speak up more often, Al. You actually got a head on your shoulders."

"Unlike a certain somebody."

"Okay, I changed my mind. Don't ever speak again."

"Heh."

[Okay, I'mma do it!] Jennifer cracked her knuckles. [Al got it right. I gotta think bigger. It's not just between me and Gunz, there are other fish in the water too. This is a team game, not a 1v1. If we can wreck the rest of these scrubs, we can win!]

As soon as she regained her fighting spirit, she noticed a great opportunity in Mid. The enemy Sorcerer and Warrior fought 2v2 there, then got ganked and it became a 2v3. The gank didn't go smoothly and both sides disengaged, but Sorcerer and Warrior were both low on HP.

Jennifer wasn't too far from Mid, so maybe she could do something with this. No, she WILL do something! Yes, she saw it! The picture of her, standing on top of two corpses! She had it! Her groove was back!

Instead of heading to Bot as planned, she dashed to Mid through the jungle. By the time she arrived, the Warrior escaped into the jungle on the other side. Tch, that's one corpse gone from her picture

Oh well, no big deal. The Sorcerer was still there, running along the lane toward his Turret. Easy! She gonna cut him off!

Jennifer switched from gun to saber and waited behind a jungle wall. Once Sorcerer got into range, she blinked through the wall and appeared right in front of him.

[Eat shit!] Jennifer delivered a lightning speed slash, cutting across the Sorcerer's chest. And another slash! However, this time she missed.

The Sorcerer vanished right before the blade struck him again. He blinked past Jennifer and continued running away. Sneaky bastard.

[Not bad, but not good enough!] Jennifer activated Backfire Cannon, with her back still turned to the enemy. It pushed her backwards and placed her right beside the Sorcerer again. No escape!

Another slash! Down to 18% HP. And, another one! This time she had to shoot, because the Sorcerer was gaining distance. Bam! Clean hit! Down to 7%! One more hit and it's over!

Jennifer took aim and... Huh? A wild Warrior appeared! He rolled into the scene stood in between Jennifer and her target. Didn't that scrub retreat to the jungle?

Well, that didn't change a damn thing, because the Warrior only had 5% HP. What did he even hope to accomplish by returning? Sacrifice himself for a teammate with higher damage? How noble.

In Jennifer's picture, there was still a dead scrub crushed underneath her foot. Will it be the Sorcerer or the Warrior? No matter which, she gonna turn that picture into reality.

In fact, this development was awesome. Jennifer wanted the Warrior dead a hundred times harder. Why? Because bastard had been giving her shit this entire day, parrying shots like he's in the Matrix.

[Not this time, boy!] Jennifer grinned as she aimed her gun. Unlike Pyromancer's big fireballs, Pirate's gunshots were tiny projectiles. That Matrix-wannabe won't get to parry shit this time!

Jennifer fired, her aim locked on the fleeing Sorcerer. With all said and done, the damage dealer was the bigger fish. So, either she'll hit the Sorcerer like originally planned, or the Warrior will step in to take the shot in the face. Either way, somebody gonna get dead! So, who gonna be the corpse from Jennifer's picture!?

[You better focus on the batter when pitching.] Roi licked his lips, his eyes locked on Breaker's movements. Already at two strikes, the cleanup batter found himself in a pinch! He had only one chance! The enemy pitcher was tough, known for her trademark pitch: Pirateball! Fast, compact and deadly! Could the team's cleanup handle it!? The fate of his entire team rested on his shoulders!

[Okay, let's goooooo!] Roi swung his giant bat. The Pirate's shot was notably larger and slower than a real-life bullet, but it was still tiny and fast. If Roi playing Knight, he'd be struck out for sure.

Fortunately, he was Warrior this time and dressed in a baseball skin to boot. His bat was giant and he swung it faster than Knight ever could. He gonna show these guys parrying like they have never seen before! Even against Pirateball, he gonna slam it out of the stadium!

『HOME RUN』

Huge colorful words popped up in front of him. It was a gimmick of his baseball skin. Normally, that message would say 『PARRY』. He did it!

"Bullshit..." Jennifer's jaw nearly hit the desk. D-Did that just really happen? Seriously? Her shot was... parried. It was freaking parried. That tiny fast bullet. Parried. Dafuq.

Was she dreaming? Pinch, pinch. Nope, seemed like the real world. Ha. Haha. HAHAHAHA! Interesting! [Fine1 Bring it on! You wanna be one to die so badly, then I'mma grant your wish!]

This ain't over yet. She refused to give up on her beautiful picture. There's one corpse drawn there and she gonna recreate it in reality!

Besides, she had been wanting to get back at this baseball idiot for a while now. Like seriously, who called themselves CleanupHitter? And that baseball skin, too. The guy was trying way too hard, thinking he's some major leaguer. Jennifer gonna strike out his ass!

She actually played a little baseball in grade school, and as the pitcher no less. So, there's no way some wannabe gonna hit her shots!

Hitter already displayed his ability to parry high balls, even when they were tiny bullets. Then, how about a low ball? Yeah, a low ball, right at his feet! Warrior couldn't possibly hit a low shot due to how he swung his blade, so that's where she gotta shoot!

But, there's a catch. A low shot was easier to dodge, so there's no guarantee Hitter would even try to parry again. After all, why parry when you can easily sidestep?

Nevertheless, throwing low was the best bet. So Jennifer had to shoot low, but without making it obvious she was going to shoot low. A breaking ball would do the job in baseball, but this was Classmancers. Just like Warrior's swings were restricted in movement, the same applied to Pirate's shots. Jennifer only had fastballs at her disposal.

However! That's where her practice comes into play! There were barely any opponents online who relied on parrying, so Jennifer dragged club members into her anti-parrying practices. They were second rate batters at best, but she had to make do with that.

Not the most professional training in the world, but it helped her develop some useful techniques. One such technique was what she called "Pretend to Shoot High, Then Shoot Low in the Last Moment!" It's like a pro level play and stuff!

Jennifer aimed her gun at Hitter's upper body. But when she actually left-clicked to shoot, she swiftly lowered her gun and fired toward Hitter's legs. Surprise, bitch!

[I knew you'd go for the legs!] Roi grinned as he stepped forward. Aiming at the legs was basic knowledge for anybody who ever read tips about bypassing parries, and Breaker clearly did. She already used this strat against him a couple of times today, so he knew it was coming.

Waving her gun like that, pretending to aim for his upper body. Not the worst acting ever, but it's just a cheap attempt at misdirection. It not gonna work on a real cleanup hitter like Roi!

By moving forward, he could hit the incoming Pirateball before it went below his reach. A tricky parry, but he did it!

『HOME RUN』

Two home runs in a row! Ezpz.

"You shittin' me..." Jennifer froze. What. How. Bullshit. Did he seriously just parry that? But, but, but! This move worked on everybody in the club! No matter how many times they saw a low shot like this, nobody could ever parry it! What's with this guy!? He's nuts!

"Nothing personal, lol." Roi grinned as he blinked forward, appearing behind Breaker.

"Crap!" Jennifer shook her head and concentrated on the enemy beside her. Did Hitter just enter her range out of his own volition? What a fool! He's done for!

Jennifer switched to her saber and turned toward Hitter. [I wanna see you parry THIS!] She slashed. There's no way Hitter could dodge this one. It's over! This will snuff out his remaining... 45% HP? Huh? Wait, wasn't it like 5% a moment ago? What the heck!?

Oh. OH. OOOOOOOOH! Hitter actually went and did it! He built Flag of Rebellion, which restored HP after each successful parry. It's a crappy item with shit stats for its price, but in the hands of this baseball maniac... Damn, he got her good. What a guy.

Jennifer's saber slashed across Hitter's chest, but it was far from enough. He still stood firm and retaliated with Fearless Charge, pushing Jennifer back. And what's behind her? The enemy Turret! Fuuuuuuuuuu!

BAM. A huge bolt hit her like a bomb, punching down her HP from 80% to 55% in an instant. And what's worse, she had no escape tools! She spent both her Blink and Backfire Cannon on her failed attempt to kill the Sorcerer. Kraken was on cooldown too. [Fuck my life.]

And if all this crap wasn't enough, Hitter also booted his ult: Swordwhirl. He turned into a human fidget spinner and smacked Jennifer with his oversized bat. Then smacked again and again and again. Each strike slowed her down and lowered her defense, making the situation a million times worse with every passing moment.

[No way outta this, huh.] Jennifer chewed her lips. Another undodgeable Turret shot rained on her and Hitter kept beating the shit outta her... Yeah, she was royally fucked. It was over. Trying to escape was pointless.

So instead, Jennifer stood her ground and struck back. At least, Hitter would be forced to retreat right away if he loses enough HP.

She delivered three strikes in succession, bringing Hitter down from 45% to 25%. But, that's as far as she could go.

『You have been killed!』

[He totally rekt me.] Jennifer sighed and dropped back on her chair. There's nothing she could even say here. Hitter just played hella well. Jennifer was confident about the anti-parry techniques she practiced, but she was forced to realize yet again: real matches were a world apart from practice.

Hitter surely worked on his parries a lot, both in practice and in real matches. It must have been easy to rack up experience, considering any ranged opponent was a potential practice partner. It was completely different from Jennifer's anti-parry practices, which were restricted to Practice mode due to how rare parrying was on their level of play.

It was hard to improve when all her practice opponents were scrubs who couldn't parry for life. It'd be awesome if she could practice anti-parrying against Hitter, he was hella cool- Er, ahem, like, he was pretty good at parrying! Yeah! Above the level of a scrub, at least. Hmph.

Anyway, this wasn't the time to think about this stupid stuff. They still had a match to win. Their chances looked grimmer with every passing moment, but Jennifer won't back down just because she died a couple of times. Hell no! She gonna fight hard until the bitter end, even if it means getting repeatedly stomped due to her lack of experience! Let's goooooooooooooooooooooo!