Classmancers - A MOBA Esport Story - Part 3

Vol.17 Ch.19: Ignoring the Bait

Overall, the exchanges rarely ever went in Yuel and Lars's favor. No matter how hard Yuel racked his brain to come up with efficient counterattacks, they never quite worked out for him. It always felt like the enemy was one step ahead, masterminding the entire play. Rook and Merlin were always ready for anything.

It's like they received professional coaching for that kind of playstyle. Yuel thought. It's similar to Ellen. I've never quite figured out how to counter her poking game plan.

Of course, Yuel didn't spend the past few months idling. Ever since he and Lars lost to Howard and Ellen, Yuel has been studying up ways to counter Ellen's obnoxious poking playstyle. And, he did come up with a few general guidelines, some of which he tried to apply against Rook and Merlin.

But, it's never that easy, is it? Yuel frowned. I also didn't have that much time to work on any of this ever since we joined Stratus, but that's just me making excuses. The bottom line is that we don't have a good counter to this playstyle just yet. So, the best we can do is ignore baits like this one.

"Ignore them," Yuel said. "They're just trying to bait us into attacking."

"You sure?" Lars asked. "Like, I think it's the first time they're coming at us this game, right? And, this is right after Nia tried to gank, so ain't no way that's a coincidence. I'm tellin' ya, these dudes be trying to use this opportunity to attack for real! We can hit them back real hard!"

"No, that's just what they want you to think," Yuel explained. "I bet their Jungler is lying in wait nearby, waiting for us to step forward."

"Dang, seriously? Thinking of it, I haven't seen him in a while."

"Yes, some of our wards expired," Yuel said. "And, it looks like Winner figured out some of our warding tendencies, so he's playing around them."

Just as Nia did a good job solving the enemy's "warding puzzles", Winner replied in kind with solutions of his own. Despite how many wards Stratus has been placing across the jungle, they rarely ever caught Winner in the act.

Any Jungler worth his salt had to be familiar with the popular warding spots and determine which spots the enemy favored the most. Playing around all these warding spots greatly boosted the success rate of ganks, as well as put the enemy on edge.

As Lars said, Winner hasn't shown his face on the mini-map for a while now. The last time a ward exposed him he was still back in Top Jungle, but that was a while ago. Therefore, Winner could very well be in Bot Jungle at the moment, biding his time until Yuel and Lars get baited into attacking.

"Okay, let's drop that idea then." Lars gave up on the counterattack idea and retreated from the frontline in response to the enemy's approach. And naturally, as the one who suggested playing safe, Yuel was going to do the same, right?

Actually, before I leave... Yuel stepped forward and aimed his Eldritch Blast after infusing it with Radius Invocation.

WHISH! A ball of black miasma shot straight toward Cato!

Thanks to the buffed attack range from Radius Invocation, it was safe for Yuel to strike first in this situation. The Eldritch Blast hit Cato before he and Merlin even got into position to shoot back at Yuel.

Clearly, the enemy at least somewhat respected Warlock's reach, therefore Cato placed himself in front of Merlin from the get-go. As such, even if Yuel wanted to shoot at Merlin instead of Rook, it would've proven impossible from his current position.

Basically, Cato was playing as proper Support here, shielding his Carry with his own body. This entire setup revolved around the idea that the Support himself was usually a lower-priority target, therefore it was fine for him to soak a few hits for the Carry.