Classmancers - A MOBA Esport Story

Vol.8 Ch.2: Playing Ranked with Randoms

Nia's qualifier match began. It was her third qualifier in total and she has lost the previous matches. So, she better start winning if she doesn't want to get stuck in Bronze.

To help with that, Yuel watched over her match like a coach. While the match was loading, Nia glued herself to her phone.

"Tipmancer again?" Yuel asked.

"Mhm," Nia gave him a small nod but her eyes kept scanning the details in the app. It had some good news and some bad news.

The good news: Wizard had a favorable lane matchup against Pyromancer during the early-game. Wizard's passive, Wisdom, granted flat magic power and penetration right off the bat. That put Wizard slightly above the competition early on and her spells also had a better range than Pyromancer.

However, there were also huge bad news: the enemy Dark Knight in Top Lane! That thing was a monster. Even without Tipmancer, Nia had more than enough terrible experiences fighting that early-game bully. It was a super OP class. It was best to steer clear of it.

"What Tipmancer got to say about this lineup?" Yuel asked.

"Pyro ez. DK scary."

"Yeah, I had a feeling it'd be something along these lines. Wizard got a good matchup against Pyromancer and Dark Knight has a dangerous early-game, something like that?"

"Mhm."

"Well, that omits some crucial information."

"Such as?" Nia titled her head.

"For starters, Pyro will only be a favorable matchup for you in the first ten minutes or so. Before long, its burst damage will outdo the Wizard. So, if played smartly, a mid-game Pyro will have the upper hand against Wizard."

"That's terrible. Nobody told me about that," Nia pouted as she scrolled back and forth on her screen. There was no such advice in Tipmancer. Where did Yuel draw that info from? It gotta be some ancient alien wisdom, no doubt.

"Tipmancer can't teach you the entire game," Yuel said. "It's a nice app but, like any app, it has to be constantly maintained and updated. So, whoever fills it up with info can't cover too many specific interactions. They have to be as general as possible to make sure the info is correct and will remain correct in the upcoming patches. It's the same thing with the info you find on the wiki. It's either going to be very surface level or if it covers something specific, there's a chance it's outdated.

"Hmm," Nia twisted her lips. "So, I have to kill the Pyro a bunch of times until mid-game?"

"That's one way to overcome the problem. But, that's unrealistic in general."

"Why?" Nia tilted her head.

"You won't always fight players who are easy to get kills on."

"Hmm, how about this Pyro, then? Can I beat it?"

"How should I know? The match hasn't even started yet."

"I thought you knew everything."

"Pretty sure I've never claimed such a thing."

"Disappointing," Nia said. "Ok, I'll try to outlevel him early somehow."

"That's the idea," Yuel nodded. "The other thing Tipmancer probably doesn't mention, is that your team will have to pressure Top to prevent Dark Knight from snowballing. You have to prevent an unfortunate development like the one with the Orc during your entrance exam."

"But, it's dangerous to fight DK early."

"True, but somebody has to challenge it."

"Don't wanna." Nia puffed her cheeks.