Classmancers - A MOBA Esport Story - Part 3

Vol.17 Ch.1: The Softhearted Amazon

"Oh, that thing..." Yuel made a face. "Yes, you mentioned that Kai might be laxer against female opponents."

"That's BS," Kai denied immediately. "We already went through that, and I'm pretty sure I made it clear: I'm not gonna go easy on anybody. Male, female, trans, whatever. If they're my opponent, then I gonna mop the floor with them all the same!"

"Indeed, I'm certain that this is what you genuinely believe in your heart." Vincent nodded. "Nonetheless, I suspect that reality doesn't quite align with that belief you claim to have. After all, I've seen much evidence that supports the existence of your Softhearted Amazon trait."

"You've seen what, exactly? Me going easy against girls? That never actually happened."

"Did you not say that sometimes you go easy on female opponents during PE lessons?"

"Well, yeah, because it's usually that easy." Kai admitted. "Most of the girls there barely know how to play, so if I tryhard, then I'll just stomp everybody."

Really, the competitive level in girls' PE lessons was a joke. It felt like half the girls there didn't even care about competing at all.

And, even among the girls that did compete, Kai often felt like she was head and shoulders above the others. It was unclear whether she was naturally gifted or whether it was her competitiveness with boys that pushed her skill that high up. Either way, playing any ball game against girls during PE lessons was too much of a no-brainer for her.

As such, Kai only had two options in these situations. First option: go all-out and dominate the game. This usually made the girls complain about how much of a "tryhard" Kai was.

Second option: play in "chill mode" without trying too hard to destroy her opponents. Of course, she still made sure to perform well and lead her team to victory, but at least nobody complained anymore.

Most of the time, Kai picked the latter option, as uncharacteristic as it might've seemed.

"But, that's only in PE," Kai insisted. "In Mancers, I don't ever hold back."

"Is that so." Vincent clearly wasn't convinced. As the Arbiter of Talents, he was certain that he knew anything and everything about his teammates' special traits.

"In that case," Vincent said. "Allow me to pose you the following question. On a scale of 1 to 10, how salty do you consider yourself after failing to make any substantial pushes in Middle Lane?"

"Eh, like 5/10, I guess?" Kai shrugged. "I mean, I just didn't find any good opportunities to push in this particular game, but I'll definitely find some in the next one."

"There, I rest my case."

"Huh?" Kai cocked her head. "You proved what, exactly?"

"I shall let Chessmaster draw his own conclusions from this exchange."

"Hmm." Yuel thought long and hard about Kai's answer. Indeed, it wasn't too hard to spot the contradiction here. Basically, for some reason, Kai didn't sound nearly as competitive as she usually was.

Normally, Kai would rant to no end about failing to defeat her lane opponent. But, for some reason, that wasn't the case against Theorist. Kai simply waved off the whole thing by saying she "didn't get any good opportunities". This was rather uncanny.

I didn't take Vincent that seriously on this point until now, but I'm starting to see what he meant. Yuel thought. It's not as if Kai "goes easy" on girls per se. It's more that she's less competitive against them.

Perhaps, somewhere at the back of her mind, Kai didn't register female opponents as a real threat. It would be ironic, considering how much the girl herself hated it when others underestimate her based on her gender.

Or, maybe I'm reading this whole thing backward. Yuel thought. Maybe it's just that losing to boys automatically triggers her and pushes her to be more competitive, whereas losing to girls just fails to recreate the same effect.

In other words, it was a double-edged sword. Against males, the salt of losing pushed Kai to the edge. Sometimes it allowed her to outperform herself, but other times it also made her lose sight of herself.

Meanwhile, against females, none of that happened. Kai didn't get tilted from losing, but neither did she feel salty enough to push herself to the limit.

Now I also understand why Vincent was able to bring this up in the first place. Yuel thought. He's usually all about finding players' strengths while completely missing all their weaknesses. So, I've always thought it's weird that he, of all people, would come up with this "Softhearted Amazon" trait, which sounded like a weakness.

However, it turned out that this trait was a two-in-one deal. It had its fair share of negatives, but it also had some positives.

So, where does that leave us? Yuel knotted his brows.

Based on Vincent's evaluation, Kai will continue being chill in Mid so long as her opponent was Theorist. This meant Kai's performance will be stable and she won't ever go off the rails, but it also suggested she won't try too hard to bust through Theorist's turtling.

So, I can't rely on her to build any momentum. In other words, it's up to Lars and me to get something going in Bot.

Hopefully, with Nia back in commission, Stratus will be able to pick up the pace and create some good opportunities to attack. However, the way things stood right now, there was one more issue the team had to wrestle with.

I've come to terms with the fact that Mid will probably remain at a standstill, but there's also Top to consider. Yuel thought. Over there, we were pretty much under the enemy's thumb, so we have to change that somehow. There IS one thing we can try, but...

That'll be a big, experimental change. Perhaps, it was too big for Stratus to afford at this stage in the match...

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