Classmancers - A MOBA Esport Story

Vol.6 Ch.16: Luke, the Meme Jedi

On the second day of school, the Classmancers club gathered in the basement room again. Yuel, Lars, Kai, Vincent, and one more guy.

"Heya," The guy saluted with a smile. "The name's Luke."

"Yo, dude. I'm Lars."

"Yuel."

"So," Luke grinned. "I heard you hacked your way into the club? I thought selections are like next week."

"We're just guaranteed to pass," Yuel explained. "We're Challenger rank, so you'll be hard-pressed to find any freshmen who are higher than that."

"Whoa, Challenger!?" Luke jumped. "... how high was that again? Is it higher Diamond?"

"Yes, it's higher Diamond," Yuel retorted sharply. What kind of question was that? Everybody knew the ranks went from Platinum to Diamond to Challenger. I have a bad feeling about this...

"Yeah, dude," Lars tuned in. "How ya don't know that? Challenger is like top tier, yo."

"Yeah, sure sounds like it," Luke nodded. "I just don't really remember all the ranks that are far above my own LUL."

Far above? Yuel's fears began turning into reality. "What rank you are?"

"I'm stuck in like Gold II, I think."

"You think?"

"Yeah, I don't really keep track, haha. Ranked is for tryhards, man."

"...................." Yuel just stood there like a short-circuited robot. He had no idea how to respond to this absurdity. Ranked was for "tryhards"? Then, what did this guy think about the competitive scene? Seriously, this guy...

"So," Lars took over the conversation because Yuel's brain stopped working. "What role ya play?"

"Whichever role I feel like that day," Luke shrugged.

What do you mean "whichever you feel"? Yuel felt like he was about to blow up. Serious players should start off by maining a couple of roles to bring them up to a competitive level! Who recruited this guy!?

"You don't have a main role?" Yuel asked.

"Hmm, I guess you could say I play Top and Jungler the most. After all, that's where all the spicy memes are at."

Memes? Yuel was losing all hope in humanity. Calling people tryhards for paying Ranked and talking about memes... Yeah, it wasn't hard to imagine at what level this guy was playing. How did he even get into the club?

Well, this was Stratus, after all. It was the team that failed to pass the first round at tournaments for a reason. Luke must have gotten in because he had an alright rank during his first year, but he hasn't made much progress since then. Considering the condition of this club, it wasn't hard to imagine why.

"Doesn't seem like Bob is coming today," Kai gathered everybody. "We got five people, so let's go to Ranked as a team."

"Roger!" Luke saluted and leaped on one of the two computers in the room. "First! I'mma play on this one!"

That left only one other computer available. Fortunately, Yuel already predicted this situation and prepared for it.

"You brought your laptop, right?" Yuel asked Lars just to be sure.

"Yep," Lars took out his fancy gaming laptop out of the bag. "Good call telling me to bring it. I don't wanna go through all that controller aiming nonsense again."

"I hope you didn't forget the charger?"

"... Whoops."

"As always, huh," Yuel shook his head.