As the discussion about the sandwiches died down and everybody finished their portions, it was time to discuss their plans for the upcoming game. They still had about 5 minutes to strategize.
I normally try to plan out most things by myself, but I'm a little lost on this one. Yuel frowned. I didn't expect us to actually win that game, especially not that easily.
Even though he extensively studied the Jungler Dark Knight meme and learned how to build a strong team around it, Yuel didn't expect it to actually work in the competitive scene, especially not against the Leopards. It was truly an absurd game.
It was no wonder that the audience saw fit to applaud Stratus for the result. Most of them probably came here to study the two teams in a businesslike manner, but thanks to the memes they got a fair share of entertainment as well.
But, I doubt it'll work for us again. Yuel frowned. The DK meme only worked the first time because we had the element of surprise. I managed to mislead Cato during the drafting phase and that gave us the edge. But, next game, they'll be ready for us.
The Leopards weren't the kind of easy opponent who'll get stumped by an unconventional comp. They'll surely adapt for sure.
Most certainly, the Leopards now registered Stratus as a potential "threat". As such, they'll take the next game far more seriously than the previous two.
So, how do we proceed from here? Yuel glanced at the log that was lying on the sofa. Nia was still fast asleep.
She wasn't making any breathing sounds, so it was easy to mistake her for a corpse. This used to give Yuel a fright in the past but he got used to it by now.
She won't be waking up any time soon. Yuel could tell that much at a glance based on past experiences. At best, she might be ready to join us for the 4th game. But, knowing this girl, anything can happen.
There was no telling for sure when this sleepyhead will decide to return from the realm of slumber. Even back in the club, she sometimes knocked herself out for a few good hours in the afternoons. Truly, this girl was as unreliable as it could possibly get.
So, Luke has to be the Jungler next game, too. Or, does he?
Ben was an option too. His jungling skills paled in comparison to Nia and Luke's, but at least Ben was awake right now and he wasn't a memer. So, he was available to play and he should be able to use a solid Jungler class that'll fit the matchup.
There wasn't enough time to train him into a proper Jungler sub, but I made sure he gained a fair share of jungling experience over the past few weeks.
This was a side project that Yuel had been working on ever since Ben returned to the club full-time.
Once Ben started attending every training session like the others, it became clear once again that he was a hard-working member. He followed instructions to a T and didn't complain about staying overtime. Truly, an exemplary competitive player.
Since Ben was so willing to cooperate with whatever training regime Yuel came up with, Yuel decided to run a few experiments by placing Ben in various different roles. This revealed that Ben was a rather well-rounded player.
The guy had the most experience playing Top and Support, but his solid defensive playstyle also extended nicely to Mid and Jungler as well.
The only role he stumbled in was Carry. Ben wasn't proactive enough to lead the team's offense, and he didn't have any outstanding mechanical skill to make him a serious threat.
Nonetheless, the guy adequately handled 4 out of 5 roles. On top of that, he was a hard worker who went along with any instructions Yuel gave him. So, it was a waste to keep him as nothing more than a sub for Top.
Thus, in the short time the team had to prepare for today's scrimmage, Yuel made Ben gain some experience as a Jungler. The guy's performance was still rough around the corners, but there was potential there.
In time, Ben might become good enough to become a permanent replacement for Luke.
But, is he ready to take the stage today as a Jungler? Yuel knotted his brows. No, probably not. Is it worth subbing him in anyway so he gains some experience? I doubt it. That's like throwing him to the lions.
Making a debut on the competitive scene was already stressful. And, debuting with a role that wasn't Ben's main would only make the experience that much more traumatizing.
Ben already had more than enough confidence issues, so Yuel didn't want to add any more to the list.
I should avoid traumatizing him. Yuel concluded. It's best to eventually sub him in as Top, a role he's more confident with. Well, at least as "confident" as you can call ever Ben...
There was another option: sub Ben as Top and let Vincent play Jungler. Yuel had already tried this formation a couple of times during club practice but the results were a little lackluster to his taste.
Vincent was a knowledgeable player with great versatility, capable of playing offensively, defensively, and anywhere in between. These all sounded like great traits for a Jungler but they were also his downfall.
Basically, Vincent was too versatile for his own good. He had robust game knowledge about dealing with all enemy classes and he had the ability to adjust his plans on the fly based on how the game developed.
This all sounded very promising on paper, but it sometimes proved disastrous in practice.
As a Jungler, Vincent built items that countered the builds of other players, and he made plays that tried to sabotage predictable enemy plans. As such, his decision-making seemed very solid on a play-by-play basis.
Alas, things became a mess in the long run. His game plan lacked any sense of coherence because he constantly tried to respond to the latest interesting developments. It was a prime example of trying to achieve too many things at once, only to fail at everything in the end.
The only games in which Vincent performed well were the uneventful ones that had little to no interesting developments from the enemy side. In those games, Vincent could maintain a largely consistent game plan from start to end.
Alas, most games weren't like that, especially not against Diamond and Challenger ranks. The opponents there frequently chained strong plays one after another, so Vincent found himself chasing his own tail as he tried to respond to everything the enemy threw his way.
These games were such a disaster. Yuel sighed. I had to constantly keep him in line so he doesn't lose sight of what was important.
He had to frequently advise Vincent about which items and plays to prioritize among the endless options that occupied Vincent's mind. As long as Yuel did that, Vincent followed the orders like a good soldier and performed adequately as a Jungler.
But in the end, even after all that trouble, there wasn't anything too outstanding about Vincent's performance. The guy did his job well for the most part, but that's all.
It was very exhausting for me, though. Yuel sighed. It's almost as if I had to play both Support and Jungler at the same time.
In those games, Yuel wasn't allowed to take his eyes off Vincent for even a moment. At any given point in time, Vincent was capable of making an unexpected decision that seemed "good" on the micro-scale but proved to be a terrible waste of time on the macro-scale.
In conclusion, it will prove difficult to utilize Vincent as a Jungler in real matches, especially against the regional champions.
I already have my hands full dealing with so many things during these games. Yuel thought. I don't have time to babysit Vincent.
No matter how many times Yuel considered this idea, he always came to the conclusion that putting Vincent as the Jungler was off the table for today. In short, neither Ben nor Vincent could replace Luke at the moment, especially not against the Leopards.
So, we're stuck with Luke again, huh. Yuel sighed deeply. I feel like we've spent so much time working on our problems after the previous scrim, yet we still haven't resolved many of the team's core issues. Sigh.
They had about a month to work on all the issues they discovered in the previous scrimmage. Yuel held an extensive match review that presented everybody's problems, and Vincent even edited clips of all the important plays.
So, they certainly put a lot of effort into studying their problems and discussing how to work on them. And, these discussions bore some fruit, but not nearly as much as Yuel hoped.
For one, our Junglers didn't take the criticism to heart. Yuel sighed once again as he glanced at the sleepyhead on the sofa. No matter how many lectures Yuel gave the girl about her problematic sleeping schedule, the troublemaker did little to nothing about it.
Likewise, Luke remained the same memer he was before. He apparently did some secret training with Dark Knight in order to "surprise" the team today, but in the end, it was just another meme. No matter how much blood, sweat, and tears Luke put into perfecting this meme, it'll forever remain unusable at the competitive level outside of surprise attacks.
Maybe I should have allocated more practice hours to preparing a third Jungler. Yuel criticized himself. Anyway, it's too late now. We're already here and about to head into the third game, so we have to decide on our next lineup now. Ugh, what options do we even have here!?
It seemed that another round of Luke's memeing was inevitable. Were there really no alternatives at all...?
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