“! One more!” Ignis waved her troller and grin beamed on her face. It made her look like a brat who wao mess around. Even though Yuel lost terribly in the previous game, it was hard to hate Ignis’s attitude. She was really just a Cssmancers geek. “One more!”

  “May I?” Yuel turo Howard, who held the most authority in this house right now because Ignis was totally hammered.

  “You got no choice,” Howard's lips curved into a smirk. “Once you start pying her when she's drunk, you better be prepared to py her own until she knocks herself out.”

  “Yep~” Ellen added with an impish smile. “Be ready to stay here aaaaaall night~”

  “That’ll be a problem,” Yuel had no pns staying over. “But I'm not in a hurry so I'll py as many matches I .”

  “Good, good!” Ignis nodded repeatedly and exaggeratedly, making it feel like her head will fly off her neck at any moment. “That's the spirit, Chesskid!”

  “The name's Yuel.”

  “Nooooope. You're Chesskid. Real pros use their nicks,” Ignis puffed her cheeks, leaving no room fument. Thinking about it, Yuel also referred to her as “Ignis” even though that's her IGN and not her real name. What was even her real hat kind of information wasn’t always trivial to find online. Pro pyers were really best known by their niames and not any real name. But, even so...

  “It’s not Chesskid,” Yuel argued. “It’s Chessmaster.”

  “Pft, yeah, right! You’re ten years too young to have such a coky name!”

  Actually, this name was your brother’s idea...

  “So, Chesskid suits ya just *hic* right now.”

  “Is that so,” Yuel made a face. He felt obligated to shoot something back. “I didn't see you calling Howard and Ellen by their niames.”

  “Weeeeell,” Ignis shrugged. “Wardy is Wardy and Elly is Elly.”

  You’re making so much sehat you’re blowing my mind!

  “She just hates her real name,” Ellen whispered. “So, she wants everybody to call her Ignis.”

  “What's her real name?” Yuel asked in a whisper.

  “It's Heather.”

  “Don't see a problem with it,” Yuel shrugged.

  “Nuuuuuu!” Ignis roared out of the blue. “I'm nooooo Heather! I'm Ignis! IG-NIS! Drill that into yo *hic*!” She poked Yuel's temple as if to transmit this data into his brain.

  “Fine,” Yuel ceded. “Ynis.”

  “Damn right, kiddo! All hail Ignis!” She threw both hands in the air to celebrate.

  What are you, five? Yuel sighed. “I’ll call you Ignis, so you call me Chessmaster.”

  “Nope.”

  Gah! This woman! I swear...!

  “If you don't like it, then ! Try and *hic* me, Chesskid.”

  “You're on,” Yuel ched the troller. Despite the huge skill gap between them, he'll do it. He'll beat Ignis, somehow. There had to be a way.

  “That's the spirit.” Ignis grinned. “You got trashed real bad st round, so I'mma boost you to Lv.10. Or, you need more?”

  “Five levels is fine,” Holy, sidering the oute of their previous game, it's possibly Yuel needed more than that to fight Ignis on equal footing. But, Howard cimed he defeated Ignis sistently with a handicap of five levels, so Yuel had to try it too.

  “e at me then.” Ignis tinkered with the settings and instantly locked her pick. Yuel didn't hear any sounds of scrolling across the sele s, so Ignis obviously picked Warriain.

  “Um, I know you picked Warrior,” Yuel said. Despite the suboptimal ditions of this match, he still wao keep things fair.

  “Yeah,” Ignis admitted. “Whoever wins gotta stay with that css for round.”

  “Huh? Why?”

  “House rules!”

  “I see,” In that case, knowing that Ignis picked Warrior wasn't cheating. On the trary, it's information Yuel was expected to abuse acc to these “house rules”. An iing rule, which was undoubtedly created to give the loser a ce to get revenge. After all, knowing the enemy's pick ahead of time was huge in 1v1.

  Not to make excuses or anything, but Yuel lost so badly in part because Ignis saw his Knight pid picked Warrior in response. Yuel didn't think of it as a ter pick at the time, but it's clear Ignis sidered it as such. At least, she must have pyed the Warrior vs. Knight matchup enough times to know how to overwhelm Knight as a Warrior.

  Now, it’s Yuel’s turn to ter-pick. This was a ce. With a five-levels handicap, information about Ignis’s pid some experience pying against her Warrior - Yuel will e up with a much better game pn this time. The skill gap between them was undeniably huge, but he should be able to reduce it with proper pnning and preparation.

  Now then, how should he go about tering Warrior in 1v1? sidering Ignis’s overwhelming strength, Yuel needed a css that’d enable him to py more defehis time around. Goio-head with Ignis will spell death to him, he barely even touched her in their previous fights.

  Therefore, a led css was a good starting point. Preferably, oh sistent DPS rather than burst, because Ignis always knew how to dodge at all the right moments. In other words, Yuel needed a marksman. Bonus points if it has some good escape tools to help thwarting Ignis’s offense.

  Elf seemed like a good option. It could snipe from afar and could get out of sticky situations with Elven Leap. It ur defensive Carry pick for a reason.

  Maybe this is how Howard adopted that defeyle of his. Yuel wondered. If Hoys against somebody as strong as Ignis every day, it's only natural to develop a defensive mentality ahat much better at defending. Even Yuel, who favored offeactics, resorted to thinking about defense. Ignis was su overwhelming oppohat he couldn’t even imagine himself going on the offensive and winning against her, not in a million years.

  But, was that really good enough? Unless Yuel scores at least one kill, he’ll never win the 1v1. Even with his advantage of five levels, Elf's attacks won't be a threat unless Yuel actually nds them. Unfortunately, based on past experiending shots on Ignis was a huge challenge in its ht. Yuel wasn’t some sharpshooter like Lars, so he couldn't reliably snipe an elusive enemy like Ignis.

  The only way he had to cheat around this issue was with the Elf's ult, Nature's Embrace, which rooted an enemy in pce. Ignis will dodge any obvious attempts to root her, but Yuel was fident about nding at least one successful hit, sidering the ult’s long distand fast casting speed.

  But, what's ? Suppose Yuel roots Ignis and turns her into an easy target for his shots, will he be able to kill her before the root effect runs out? A difficult calcution. It will greatly depend on what items they start with.

  Yuel will most likely be able to kill her if he buys a crit item and scores some critical hits while Ignis is rooted. But, that like rolling dice. Critical hits will be very insistent with just one crit item.

  Not to mention, this whole py will fall through spot if Ignis buys se to e the root of Nature’s Embrace. This wasn’t good enough. Yuel needed something more decisive.

  The general idea of pining Ignis in pd shooting her down was good, it's probably the only way he could ever hope to kill her. But, to actually kill her tanky Warrior in one py, he needed a marksman who could pack a punch. He needed more DPS, or at least a way to temporarily boost his DPS to threatening levels. A defensive css like Elf didn’t cut it.

  So, what marksmen could pin Ignis in pd deal a lot of damage... Rahat’s an iing idea to explore. If he -

  “!” Ignis pouted. “*hiething already! Let's py!”

  “Just a sed.” Yuel almost reached the solution he was looking for. He only had to determine whether Ranger was good enough to-

  “Diiiing dooong! A sed passed.”

  “Fine...” Yuel sighed and picked Ranger. He no choice but to trust his rough estimation and make this work. Somehow.

  During the loading s, Yuel kept thinking about various sarios and how he'll checkmate Ignis. As he went over the most on variations of how 1v1’s early game usually pyed out, he became more and more fident about this pick. If his calcutions were right, Ranger had a very real ce of checkmating Ignis!

  For the first item, Yuel built M Star. It provided attack power and crit ce, but both in small doses. The crit ce of the attacreased every time he failed to score a crit, but that's all this item had to offer. It was on the cheaper side, but Yuel had a reason to do things this way.

  With the leftold he had, he purchased Blink. If push es to shove, he'll have to rely on blinking for the checkmate he had in mind. Whether he'll be able to correctly blink amidst the unfolding situation, that remaio be seen.

  With M Star and Blink, he was ready to leave the base. The decision he had to make was regarding the jungle camp to start from. Last game, he attempted to invade Ignis’s blue camp to score an early kill on her, but she dodged him and took the red buff instead.

  Will Ignis go for the Ogre Camp again? Perhaps. But, Yuel really wao snatch that power buff for himself. Ranger didn't need much cooldowion or MP5 for 1v1, but power was of utmost importance. Yuel had to able to deliver as much damage as possible to create the checkmate he envisioned.

  Therefore, he headed for the Ogre Camp. If he finds Ignis there, he try killing her on the spot. If not, he'll simply take the buff.

  “Hehe,” Ignis chuckled. “Thought I'll be going for red again? Too bad! I'm doing blue this time!”

  “What? Impossible. 't believe it.” Yuel rolled his eyes.

  “I totally fooled ya, Chesskid! Haha.”

  “Oh no. I've been outsmarted.”

  “Totally! I’m just the *hic*!”

  As long as you’re enjoying herself. Yuel shrugged. It's better for him if Ignis doesn't suspect a thing and keeps uimating him.

  Yuel defeated the ogres and took the red buff, while Ignis beat the wraiths and took the blue buff. They both arrived in the the same time.

  Yet again, Ignis started with Spiked Buckler. In other words, she most likely bought a utility skill as well. Blink again? Or, maybe se? It’s probably se to ter Ranger’s CC. Yuel already prepared himself for this worst-case sario.

  With all his pnning and preparation, how will he fare against Ignis this time around? Will he be able to force her into the checkmate he envisioned? Now, the real fight was about to begin!