Classmancers - A MOBA Esport Story

Vol.9 Ch.4: Scrimmages About to Begin!

The season of scrimmages began. Schools arranged official Classmancers matches among themselves and carried them out throughout multiple months.

Winning scrimmages determined the seeding of each team for the regionals. The more wins, the higher the seed. The higher the seed, the easier it'll be to make it to the finals.

In a sense, the scrimmages were like the beginning of the regionals. By winning a lot during this phase, a team could easily secure itself a high spot at the regionals.

This system was in place to lower the odds of a good team being eliminated early. For example, it prevented StormBlitz and the Leopards from running into each other early in the tournament.

Last year, the Leopards and StormBlitz were the first and second seed respectively, so they were guaranteed to run into each other only at the finals. Any lower seed had to beat both of these tycoons in order to take the regionals.

As much as I'd like to take on strong teams, I rather avoid the Leopards if possible. Yuel thought. His primary goal was to get a rematch against Howard. In addition, he promised his mother to take the regionals this year, that was the condition for transferring schools. If he fails to deliver, he'll have to stop playing Classmancers...

Unfortunately, dodging the Leopards at the regionals won't be easy. Even if Stratus becomes the second seed, they'll still have to fight the third seed at the semi-finals. And, the third seed will assuredly be either the Leopards or StormBlitz in that hypothetical scenario. So, Stratus will have to fight back-to-back against these two teams in the semi-finals and in the finals.

We need to get the first seed. Yuel concluded. Only this way, the team will have a chance to dodge the Leopards at the regionals. However, getting first seed pretty much meant proving they were currently the strongest team in the region, so it was like a catch-22.

Each team had to partake in at least three official scrimmages and the win rate was going to determine the seeding. In the case of a tie, the seeding from previous years will be taken into account. And, given Stratus' history...

We'll lose in every single tie. Yuel frowned. The only way around it was to arrange more scrimmages in an attempt to increase their win ratio. For example, winning 2 out of 3 matches yielded 67% win rate, whereas winning 3 out of 4 yielded 75%.

So, even if a team couldn't beat one of the strong rivals in the region, it could prey on the weaker teams to boost its seeding. The only time this method didn't work was when the rival team had a perfect 100% win rate. In that case, said team could only be beaten via a tiebreak. Or, worst case, it was possible to challenge the team to a scrimmage and that'll serve as a tiebreak that relies on skill, not legacy.

However, right now, this was like putting the cart before the horse. First, Stratus had to actually prove its worth. It had to overcome the stigma of being the "worst team" in the region.

There was only one good thing about being considered weak: it meant all other teams will want to scrimmage with Stratus. The reason? Easy wins. Stratus was the was "bottom tier" team, so everybody would gladly farm them.

In fact, Stratus' reputation was so bad, that some teams with some self-respect didn't even bother requesting a scrimmage with them, like StormBlitz did last year. It was a "waste of time", as Aron put it. Even though it meant StormBlitz could get an easy extra win that way, it won't teach the team anything and it won't help the players improve. It was questionable whether it'd even work as sparring for StormBlitz.

It's sure not fun to be ridiculed like that, but this is good for us. Yuel thought. He didn't want to hold a rematch with Howard during a mere scrimmage anyway. They'll settle everything at the regionals.