Classmancers - A MOBA Esport Story

Vol.3 Ch.6: A Powerless Shot-Caller

The third game was a mess for StormBlitz. Trever got killed time and again, his misplays became worse and worse with each subsequent battle. Gilbert was pushed back by ComboBreaker and struggled to defend the lane against her hyper aggression.

Compared to them, Roi held his ground better. His lane opponent didn't change anything for the mixup strategy, so it was the same matchup as before. Nevertheless, he was gradually pushed back by the momentum the enemy seized in other lanes. The Viking outleveld him and forced him to play defensively, overtaking the lane step by step.

Worse than anything, negativity seeped into the team's morale. Bickering, ranting and passing blame. Everybody was swallowed by toxicity. Even Yuel fell victim to it, despite his best efforts to objectively analyze the situation from the side. He criticized every misplay his teammates made, got irritated whenever unwarranted blame was shot at him and so forth.

The only difference between him and the rest was how he kept his mouth shut. There were many complaints he ached to unleashed on his teammates, especailly on Trever, but he didn't utter a word. Adding more fuel to the fire was the worst he could do right now.

As hopeless as everything seemed, the game wasn't lost yet. At least, not by Yuel's standards. Despite their poor conduct this game, his teammates were good players. They spent over a year in the club's competitive environment, their skills were honed to unbelievable sharpness. Even while haunted by toxicity - they put on a fight, just enough to prevent the game from being lost. The only exception was Trever, who misplayed so hard he didn't resemble even a shadow of his former self.

Still, a comeback was possible. Difficult, but possible. If only Yuel could figure a way to inject positivity into the team, they could overcome this ordeal. But, what could he do? What should he do?

So far, he focused on preventing the enemy team from snowballing too hard. If somebody like Breaker were get out of control, that'd seal the game right there. Therefore, he prioritized keeping Gilbert alive and thwarting Breaker's aggressive plays to the best of his ability.

Letting the enemy Carry snowball was equally dangerous, so he also tried protecting Trever from SkyNight. Alas, that proved nigh impossible. Trever was too uncooperative, always charging forward to score a kill on Night.

Therefore, while Breaker was held in check for the most part, Night grew stronger and strong with each time he killed Trever. He didn't come off as a particularly scary player, but a fed Carry was a fed Carry regardless. At this rate, Night will become unstoppable and single-handedly push the game to its conclusion.

How long can we hold up playing like this? Yuel bit his lip. All he had been doing was run around the map and put out flames. But, playing defensively didn't solve anything, it only delayed the inevitable. He had to switch gears into offense. The team needed a counterattack plan.

Alas, ideas refused to sprout in his mind. With so much distraction around him, he couldn't collect his thoughts. It's like growing crops on poor soil. Nothing happened. He couldn't see the enemy's weaknesses.

Focus. Think. The harder he ordered, the more his mind wandered off and asked stupid questions. How did things come to this? Why did Trever play so poorly? How could such a rift form in the team out of nowhere?

Useless questions. All of them. Just useless. What's done was done, there's no point lingering on the past. He had to figure how to play with the hand he was dealt, that's all that mattered.

How could he stop both Breaker and Night from snowballing? He somewhat managed to keep these two threats at bay until now, but the game already reached its team-fighting phase. Normally, he'd form a plan or twenty by this point. Yet, he still didn't have anything concrete.