The final game between StormBlitz and Leopards began. If StormBlitz take this game, they’ll be at 4-1. That’ll guaraormBlitz’s victory in today’s scrimmage right away. Yuel had to win this game, no matter what.

  Have to... win... ugh. The harder Yuel tried to trate, the stronger fatigue beat him down. It was all too much. He had been juggliween supp, shot-calling and being a captain. He rained for wearing so many different hats in one game.

  Fortunately, he got away with pig Warlock this time. That should lessen the deaking he had to make during team fights, which were always the most chaotic parts of the game. By simply booting Eldritightmare, he’d blind the entire eeam at o even became a meme in the Cssmancers unity that Warlock required only oton to py.

  Still, Warlock was sidered an intermediate difficulty css and the reason for that were his various invocations. The first two spells, Eldritch Bst and Eldritch Field, were straightforward damaging spells. One was a line skillshot and the other was a circle AoE, as simple as mage spells could get.

  However, what made the css iing was the third skill: Invocation. It allowed the Warlock to pie of multiple bonus effects and add it the spell he casts.

  For example, using Power Invoade the spell deal more damage, whereas using Slowdown Invoade the spell apply a slow oarget. There were five invocations in total, so the Warlock’s kit was very izable. Pig the right invocations for the right situations was key for pying Warlock effectively.

  All these options made Warlock a somewhat plex css, but Yuel kly whivocations to focus on in which sarios. So, it was a no brainer for him. Ohe purpose of eavocation was uood i, the deaking process became rather straightforward.

  The enemy was at low HP? Hit them with a Power Invocation. The enemy was fleeing? Hit them with a Slowdown Invocation. Everything was down to simple sarios like that. In addition, activating an invocation required a mere button press and the effect will apply on the spell regardless of when that spell will be cast. In other words, there’s no taxing meical skill involved. Perfect for Yuel.

  During the ning phase, Yuel mostly used Power Invocation to help Lars clear the ne faster. He also zoheir ne oppos, boBreaker and SkyKnight, by extending the range of his spells with a Radius Invocation. Going bad forth betweewo effects, his job on ne required minimal mental effort.

  Yuel was tired, but maintaining this basic routine was as natural as breathing. He repeated these as like a mae, without even thinking much. As long as her side goes on the offense of all a sudden, Yuel won’t have to make any split-sed decisions or analyze chaotic situations.

  Surprisingly, Breaker really didn’t initiate any fights. Did she prioritize farming safely to take full advantage of the Pirate’s passive? Or, was she perhaps wary of the dominating dispy of skill Lars showcased st game?

  Whichever it was, there wasn’t much fighting going on in Bot. And, Yuel didn’t pin.

  “, dude,” Lars pouted. “Let’s rush them a little.”

  “No.” Yuel retorted. “Stay bad keep shooting from afar. You’re pying Elf, your advantage is range. Use it.”

  “Geh, fine.” Lars made a fad tinued shooting ser beams from the bae. When using Elven Sight, the range of his basic attacks was rgely extended and he could snipe minions from far away. And, not only minions. He also she enemy Pirate and Lumimancer whenever he had the ce.

  Even though Elf was a defensive css by nature, it was actually pretty good at exploiting the enemy’s defensiveness as well. If the enemy doesn’t aggress, the Elf will simply shoot them from afar. Bit by bit, that’d exhaust the enemy’s HP.

  That’s all the more effective when in the hand of a godlike FPS pyer like Lars. His point-of-view ged to first-person during Elven Sight, being like his beloved first-person shooters. Lars felt right at home. His already absurd accuracy was enhanced even further, allowing him to nd shots across half the ne evehe enemies were trying to be cautious.

  “Tch,” Jennifer clicked her tongue as a ser beam hit her. “What’s with this guy?” Even though she tried to sneak out of firing range, Gunz somehow nded a shot on her anyway. Freaking aimbot inate.

  Like, what the actual heck? These snipes were hitting her across half the ne. Putting aside how difficult it was to nd shots on moving targets from that distance, Jennifer ecifically trying to dodge these shots. She practiced such sarios before and knew how to handle Elf’s led shots. Or, at least, she thought she knew, but Gunz's shots found their way tardless.

  Also, what’s with that stupid sci-fi skin? Gunz's Elf wore a helmet and was dressed in futuristic armor. He also wielded a ser gun instead of a bow, which fired green ser beams instead of arrows. First Trickshooter, now a freaking StormTrooper. Always “Gunz”, huh. A cool skin there, dammit.

  Skins were insequential, but this irritated her. Here she was, BO-Breaker, pying a NON-BO css. It’s like she gave up on her identity, just because it was a little hard to py bo against Gunz. Grrrrr!

  “You sure you don’t want to aggress?” Albert asked. “That Elf is too good of a sniper. We keep losing HP fr to dodge his shots.”

  “I know, dang it.” Jennifer hissed. Yeah, they were kinda getti at the moment. Gunz's snipes repeatedly puheir HP bars, f them to retreat after a while. Running around and doing sudden dodge rolls hardly affected that aimbot scum, so stig with defense clearly didn’t work that well for them. Going on the offensive didn't sound like a bad idea, but...

  “Nah,” Jennifer shook her head. “Let’s keep farming for now. Once I get enough gold advao outbuild them, we’ll rush these scrubs.”

  “Well, pying Pirate safe during the early game is good and all...” Albert didn’t finish that thought. The Pirate’s early power was retively weak, but it pensated for that with Plunder, a passive which granted extra gold upon st-hitting. Therefore, by framing effectively, eventually, Jennifer will earn substantially mold than Gunz and will be able to finish an Lv.3 item faster.

  But, as a fellow pyer who knew how to py Carry, Albert felt that Jennifer’s approach was too x. Farming safely was good and all, that’s the standard strategy for Pirate. The current situation called for a, at least in his opinion.

  Elf wasn’t a particurly strong Carry for 1v1 and 2v2, so Jennifer should be able to overpunz in a fight. If she takes the fight to Gunz, she should be able to either kill the guy or injure him enough to force a retreat. Either result would be great.

  But, what did Albert know? Jennifer was the best pyer oeam, so she surely had her reasons. He decided to keep quiet a her do her thing.

  She’s pying it safe. Yuel cluded after Breaker’s pystyle for five minutes now. She never pushed hard or initiated fights, she’d rather stay in the bae and keep dodging Lars’s snipes. Even when Yuel asked Lars to move a little forward, Breaker didn’t bite and insisted to py defehis experiment proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Breaker had no iion going on the offensive for now.

  As far as Breaker’s build was ed, it was standard so far. Solid, but standard. Yuel was half-expeg to see something as absurd as bo, but there were no surprises. Between how Breaker prioritized farming safely and her orthodox build, it didn’t seem like she nning to do anything out of this world. Was she going to py standard meta Pirate? Really? It was a bit disappointing.

  Perhaps that’s how she pyed when she wasn’t using bo. In fact, that’s more in lih the general image Yuel had of the Leopards: they all pyed by the book, best at piloting and teria csses. Until now, Breaker’s niche bo pystyle was an anomaly in this strictly meta-orieeam.

  Did their coach force her to ge styles? Not surprising, sidering how Lars outpyed her bos st game. If Yuel’s hypothesis was correct, then Breaker was really going to py a standard meta Pirate this game, possibly something she didn’t quite enjoy. A bit unfortunate, but Yuel didn’t have the luxury to pin. This increased StormBlitz’s ces of winning, so he was thankful.

  The situation in Bot remained unged for a long time. Every time both sides finished clearing minions, they retreated to their baes and waited for the wave. Lars mao sneak a few snipes on the enemies during these downtimes, but otherwise not much was happening.

  After enough minion waves, this routied enough of the enemy’s HP to force them to retreat to base. This made Breaker occasionally miss on some exp and gold, but she made up for it by earnira gold from her passive, Plunder. As a result, she maintained a gold advantage over Lars.

  As the game started shifting toward the mid-game, Yuel rotated to help in Mid. Gilbert was in a deadlock against the new Mid Laner who was subbed in, so Yuel hoped to turides in their favor.

  “Don’t try pushing,” Yuel warned Lars before leaving the ne.

  “No problem, mom.” Lars chuckled.

  The enemy Lumimancer was removed from Bot thanks to a gank by Dan, so with Yuel rotating it’d bee a 1v1 in Bot between Lars and Breaker.

  How was Breaker going to py in this sario? Holy, part of the reason Yuel wao rotate from Bot was to see what’d happe. Breaker’s performan the uping 1v1 sario should determine whether she had something up her sleeve or was really just pying a standard Pirate.

  “Their Warlock is missing,” Jennifer warned. “Gotta be rotating to Mid.”

  Finally, she was left in a 1v1 situation against Gunz. The pesky Support pyer, who had beeing in her way every damn game, was out of the picture. This was the opportunity she had been waiting for!

  Gunz was untouchable while supported by Chessmaster because that pesky Chessmaster was a freaking expert at finding openings in the enemy’s offense, he probably even had a diploma and everything. But, in a straightforward 1v1 , Jennifer was gonna kick Gunz's ass!

  Still, she didn’t act right away. First, she firmed that the Warlock successfully reached Mid. That sneaky bastard liked pying mind games, so Jennifer could never be too safe.

  , she firmed that the enemy ancer was still jungling in Top Jungle. Awesome! Nobody was gonna interfere with this 1v1. This was her moment! Showdown time! She had been holding back this whole time, eating tless so the face, just to eil this very moment!

  Her gold advantage already kicked iing her get oem ahead of Gunz. She clearly had the DPS advantage now. As long she delivers the first strike - she was gonna kick his ass for sure!

  Right before the minion waves were fully cleared, Jennifer initiated her assault. The opening attack was her than her ult: Release the Kraken! Landing this opening strike would give her more than enough advantage for the rest of the fight. She gonroy this Gunz dude!

  “Release the-” The Pirate’s familiar sound cue resounded.

  “Dan,” Yuel called out. “How fast you get to Bot? I suspect this 1v1 won’t end up nicely.”

  “Hmm,” Dan pondered. “I get there pretty fast if I use Haste with quadra Accel, but that’s quite the iment.”

  “Please do. If we get a kill on their Carry as a result, it’ll be huge for us.”

  “Okay, I’m on it.”

  Meanwhile, in Bot, Lars had to front Breaker’s assault. “Release the-” A sound cue he had heard tless times in his Cssmancers career. The big tentacle dude was ing!

  Crap! Lars had to dodge! Fortunately, Elf had Elven Leap, so he should be able to jump out of the Kraken’s range. Easy, no sweat! He watched Trever dodge his Krakens many times before, just like that. He also dodged some of Trever’s Krakens... Wait. Wait, wait, wait!

  His finger was about to press on the Q key, but it froze. No, it was too soon. Until the Pirate finishes shouting “Release the Kraken!”, it’s still possible to cel the ult and cast it again right away. Trever tricked Lars tless times like that, so he not gonna fall for it again! He gonna wait until the very st nanosed, yo!

  Not even dodging? Jennifer sneered. With the rea speed Gunz showcased so far, she expected him to at least dodge the ining Kraken. She already pyed out the couple moves in her head from there: she cels her ult, closes the distah Backfire on and casts Kraken again, this time hitting for sure!

  But, turned out Gunz's defense was utter crap. He couldn’t even dodge the Kraken, just because she caught him a little off guard while minions were still on ne. What a disappoi. Fine by me, eat the Kraken right in the face! Makes it easier for me, hmph.

  “-the Kraaaaaaken!” Her Pirate fihe dramatic shout. The legendary sea monster erupted from the ground, emerging on the surface to destroy everything in rahat StormTrooper Elf was totally done for- ... or not!?

  Right as the Kraken was to crash Gunz, his jetpack lit up and unched him into the air. It had a stylish animation, but it was the same skill Jennifer had been anticipating all along: Elven Leap! Except, it came way ter thahought.

  So, Gunz waited for the very very VEEEEEERY st moment before dodging. Fuuuuuu! Was that even gonna work? Jennifer had no idea! She had never seen Elven Leap cutting it so close against Kraken. Normal people would dodge as soon as they , not wait a light year first. Dang it.

  And, it worked. Gunz just barely slipped away from the emerging Kraken. It was such a close call that it almost looked like a lucky dodge. No, it HAD to be a lucky dodge. No way Gunz khat shit would work. Just no way...

  When did he learn to dodge like that!? Yuel’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets when Lars somersaulted through the air and dodged the Kraken’s tentacles by a hair’s breadth.

  Unbelievable. Lars was a gss on, so his defense should be terrible. No, it actually WAS terrible. That’s a fact.

  Yet, Lars somehow beautifully dodged that Kraken. He didn’t take the bait and patiently waited for the very st moment. He leaped away only after Breaker could no longer cel her ult. It almost looked like a pro level py.

  Elven Leap being capable of dodging Kraken i split-sed was very specifiowledge. Even Yuel didn’t know how close Elven Leap could cut it until he saw Trever pull off such clutch dodges against Lars’s Pirate. Whether it was Elf, Seraph or any other Carry with a dodge skill - Trever always khe best way to dodge Kraken. If he lived in a fantasy world, people would use him as an Anti-Kraken ward for sure.

  After fighting against Trever on a daily basis, Lars must have absorbed this knowledge and made it his own. Trying to teach that goof about these iions would be a waste of time, but after seeing Trever abuse them in a against him - the knowledge was burned into Lars’s mind. Literally “monkey sees, monkey does”.

  Even though Trever was booted out of the team, a part of him was still here and pushed the team forward. Thanks to the experience acquired from Trever, Lars could stand his ground against Breaker’s Pirate! It’s a matchup he experie least a huimes by now!

  Tch, think I gon you get away!? Jennifer roared internally. That damn scrub, leaping away i moment like that. This shit ain’t over! Perhaps her initial pn was ruined, but she still had more tools in her arsenal. She won’t let this golden opportunity slip from her! She’ll get this kill, right here and now!

  Jeurned around, showing her back to Gunz. Then, she fired Backfire on, bsting herself toward the spot Gunz where was gonna nd!

  Unfortunately, the knockback alone wasn’t strong enough to get her all the way across. Therefore, she extended her travel distah a timely Blink, activating it right after the knockback. With this advanced maneuver, she reached Gunz right as he was about to hit the ground!

  How’s that, sucker? Yo ass is mine! During this quick move, she sed her gun for a saber through “Wield Cutss”, the Pirate’s sed skill. By sacrifig her attack range, she gained increased attack power, peion and speed. She gonna wreck Gunz from close quarters!

  Girl is nuts! Lars’s eyes popped as Breaker darted across the ne like a bullet, seamlessly ing Backfire into Blink. Damn, that was sick! She closed all that distan an instant! And he was still in the air, so he couldn’t do anything about it! Yo!

  Oh boy, she switched to cutss too? Lars noticed the saber in Breaker’s hand. Yeaaaaah, she gonna wreck him good if this turns into close bat. He hafta get outta her range as fast as possible!

  Elven Leap was ceble into a roll as soon as the Elf’s leg touches the ground, Trever pulled that stuff many times before. Dude always dodged Lars’s shots in a nick of time like that. So, Lars could do it too!

  What angle did Pirate’s cutss swing have agaihere’s no time to think! He just had to trust his instincts, honed by the tless dodge rolls he performed against Trever.

  As soon as his Elf hit the ground, Lars rolled to the side. The Pirate’s cutss came straight at him, thirsting for blood. Breaker swung it down at lightning speed, but... it whiffed.

  Just barely, very barely, Lars evaded the attack by diving underh the bde. If the sword swing was just a little lower, it would have sshed right through him. But, it missed! He dodged the attack without a scratch! Woooooohoooooooooooo! Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!

  W-Wha? Jennifer froze. She... She missed. She freakin’ missed. Her ssh just... How. What. Bullshit.

  Unfortunately, it really happened and she had to deal with it. So, what’s ? Should she keep pressuring Gunz and try beating him in a 1v1? Or, was this a good time to retreat?

  Her build was oem ahead of Gunz and said item was even at Lv.2 already. So, she had the DPS advantage, right? She should able to deal with a mere Elf.

  Um, how did Pirate pare to Elf at this stage of the game in term of pain? Pirate was weaker than most Carries during the early game and needed gold advao pete. Was her oem advantage big enough to overwhelm Gunz’s Elf?

  Gaaaah! Processing this shit required too much brain power. She tried painting a fwless picture of victory in her head, but it always came out smudged. It wasn’t clear enough. She wasn’t whether she had the necessary strength to kill Gunz right now.

  So, what it gontack or retreat? She had to make the choice- PEW. The sound of a ser beam firing off.

  Gunz fired as soon as he recovered from the roll. The green beam pierced through Jennifer’s shoulder, erasing over 10% of her HP. FUUUUUUU!!!

  That’s it, the choice was made for her: she had to get the hell outta here! In a battle between squishy pyers with high DPS, whoever he first blow had a huge advantage. Her ces of winning tanked after this hit, so her only option was to get outta here as fast as-

  “Nuuuu!” Jennifer smmed oable with her left hand, whiow became useless. Why? Because freaking branches appeared under her feet and rooted her i was Nature's Embrace, Elf’s ult.

  Gah! Of cunz used that shit! Jennifer should had expected it and rolled aside or something! Dang it!

  This sucked hard, but she had to make do with the hand she was dealt. She sed her cutss fun and turunz. She couldn’t move from this spot, but at least she could still rotate his allowed her to shoot Gunz until the root wears off.

  She took aim and fired, but her bullet didn't reach. Of course it didn’t, sidering how far Gunz stood. Pirate’s shot couldn’t fly across half the universe like that.

  heless, Jennifer was hit by a ser beam in response. She was hit, despite the distance. Gunz's ser beams had no trouble reag her.

  That’s the nasty bo of Nature’s Embrad Elven Sight. By itself, a mere root effect retty damn underwhelming for an ult. However, bined with the raension of Eleven Sight, Gunz she rooted Jennifer from afar, as if she were a practice dummy. Dang it!

  72%. 60%. 48%. Her HP plummeted with the speed of light! And she couldn’t do shit about it! Gaaaaah!

  She had to get out. As soon as these damn branches evaporate, she’ll dash for her life. Gunz didn’t have Elven Leap anymore, so he won’t be able to chase. Once she gets outta the range of his Elven Sight - she’ll be in the clear! The mental image of her successful escape ainted clearly in her head.

  As soon as the branches vanished, she rolled forward. Ha! Take that, sucker! Her quiade Gunz miss a shot, leaving her with over 20% HP. Gunz least two more hits to finish her off. She gonna make it out alive!

  “Weeeelp,” Lars smiled awkwardly. He nded one more hit on the fleeing Breaker, but it wasn’t enough to finish her off. She was outside the range of his Elven Sight and he didn’t have any means to chase her. “She got away. I was so close, yo!”

  “No problem,” Yuel said. “We got her.” While he was saying that, Breaker already got all the way back to her Turret.

  Yeah! I’m fast as fuck, boi! Jennifer grihe Turret’s area was right in front of her. Once she crosses the line, she’ll be- Oh shit. A wild ancer appeared!

  “You serious!?” She thundered. Where did that fucker e from!? He was like oher side of the map st time she checked! Sure, ancer had a movement speed buff ability, but was he THAT fast!? ancer? More like, Sonicer!

  Well, shit. There’s ing outta this one, so she just fired at that Sonic a few times befetting dead.

  An enemy has been killed!

  “Man,” Lars twisted his lips. “I didn't get an assist on that.”

  “You still did well.” Yuel nodded in approval.

  “Oh?” Lars’s eyes sparkled. “Haha, I did, didn’t I? That was some inteuff right there! I showed her how this is done, yo!”

  “Yes, yes.” Yuel nodded, already regretting uttering words of praise. Feeding this goof with the smallest hint of approval was bound to put him on the high horse.

  Still, Lars truly did well. He tapped into the experience he acquired from Trever and deflected Breaker’s attack, even turhe tables on her. It wasn’t a stretch to call it “good defense”. Brr, the mere sound it gave Yuel the chills.

  What’s even more iing about this exge were Breaker’s pys. She started well with “Release the Kraken”, a rather meta opening. She undoubtedly po cel it after baiting Lars’s Elven Leap

  However, that idea backfired. Lars didn’t take the bait and ended up baiting the Kraken out of Breaker instead. The Kraken was summoned, but it couldn’t nd a hit. A total waste of an ult.

  Still, Breaker recovered quickly and closed the distah Backfire on + Blink, aiming to overwhelm Lars in melee bat. The beautiful Bliension for her travel distance was on the wilder side, but the idea of taking the fight to close quarters was a standard approach against Carries.

  Overall, until that point, her game pn was orthodox enough and she executed it perfectly. There’s no doubt she practiced these pys enough to pull them off in any situation. That was in lih her pitch-perfect execution throughout the day and the Leopards’ overall mastery of meta csses.

  However, missing the ssh with her cutss threw Break off ba’s the sed time things didn’t go her way. She seemed puzzled, bewildered. For a brief moment, she just stood there in shock.

  This suggested she didn’t know this match half as good as Lars did. She knew how to py Pirate in general, but she didn’t know how to specifically pilot it against Elf. It was a very specific matchup and uanding it required experiehe kind not easily obtained from normal practice. Especially, not from practice which focused entirely oa, for Elf was a mid-tier css.

  In other words, Breaker learned and practiced the meta pys, but she cked the “streets knowledge” for niche and specific sarios. That poio a ck of experience, in a simir, yet different, way from Freezer. While Freezer seemed rusty, Breaker was ht inexperienced. She covered it up by effectively exeg orthodox pys, but she couldn’t hide it from Yuel’s eyes.

  After Breaker missed her saber ssh, she froze for a moment. Even though Yuel was busy in Mid at the time, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from Lars’s monitor. He saw it all. It was just a small freeze, but he saw everything in that moment. In that brief period, Breaker’s true nature revealed itself.

  The ever-fident Breaker was at a loss about her py. For a sed, she hesitated. That never happened when she pyed Pyromancer, aside from maybe truly extreme sarios.

  Until now, she has always bounced back from any unfavorable situation and immediately went for the best option. It’s like she was guided by instincts honed over thousands of battles. But, that didn’t happen with Pirate. She didn’t know what’s the best move, so she stopped to sider her options.

  Holy, Yuel didn’t kher what was the “right” choice for her at the time. She most likely pondered whether to tihe attack or retreat, as these were her only logical options at the time.

  In term of strength, Pirate had an advantage over Elf in that sario. Pirate was a retively weak Carry at its base, but the same applied to Elf too. The same irate pensated for its weakness with gold advantage, Elf pensated for it with range.

  Therefore, when forced into a 1v1 at close quarters, Elf would lose its main advantage and would fall bato being a subpar Carry. With Breaker’s gold advantage, which already pushed her ahead by oem, she clearly had the upper in term of stats. But, apparently, she didn’t quite see it.

  The only real sideratio for her in that sario was whether she could match Lars in a 1v1 in terms of meical skill. Maybe it’s the she had, but that’s unlikely. Breaker didn’t seem like the type to fear her oppos without a good reason. It’s true Lars dispyed some amazing pys as Trickshooter, but there was absolutely no reason to believe he could do the same as Elf.

  So, no matter Yuel twisted it, Breaker’s momentary freeze was most certainly a result of her inexperience. And, this one freeze cost her the whole fight. It Lars to she first hit on her.

  Even after surrendering the first attack, Breaker actually still had the upper hand in term strength. But, she didn’t see that. As soon as she was hit, she backpedaled areated.

  With Breaker’s course of a decided, the situation fell bato familiar territory for her. Besides the hiccup of getting easily caught by a predictable Nature’s Grasp, she overall did a solid job esg from there alive. If Yuel hadn’t asked Dan to head to Bot ahead of time, Breaker would have gotten away scot-free.

  The more Yuel went over the facts, the more vinced he became - Breaker wasn’t a big threat this time around. She wasn’t going to be an easy oppo by any means, but she didn’t stand a ce against Lars, who experienced tless Carry matchups throughout the year. Every time Lars fought Trever, it was a simution of real high-level bat. Lars accumuted plenty of experience of fighting csses which Trever liked and Pirate was among them.

  In fact, Lars fought Trever so much, he barely did any other type of practice. It would be frowned upon for anybody else, but for Lars that robably the perfe of training. With Trever’s knowledge supp Lars from behind, there’s no way Lars would lose to Breaker’s inexperienced Pirate. As far as “streets knowledge” was ed, Lars was the mafia bht now.

  As long as Breaker doesn’t ge her approach, this final game will be in StormBlitz’s hands. That’s the clusion Yuel reached after seeing that one exge between Lars and Breaker. They had this game in the bag! Probably!