The Export

The Showcase: RAPID Part II

Habits and limitations were transparent during RAPID games. APM and muscle memory was too prevalent to override in precise moments and Clarke found himself cycling the same combinations, trying to trade damage in the same ways just to keep up with the pace of Karina. The majority of actions were defensive-Lunges and Quicksteps to avoid Karina's endless projectile blades and short dashes of engagement. A clutch low-block barely kept Arsene alive as Karina warped beneath the sentry to try and end the duel but the depth of the sentry's range warned the opponent away from a trade in kills. 

Warp and the other spells were less vital on RAPID with their reduced cooldown and abundance of mobility abilities and losing early trades wasn't quite as damning as a slow paced game where every increment of gold and resources created different margins to overcome. One or two losses were OK in RAPID if you didn't die. Arsene flared his way to the lane with Hellfire fuelled lunges and Quicksteps but Karina's pressure was instantly upon him again.

Karina's daggers were boomerangs, returning to her after every basic ATK and her abilities added other weapons to her arsenal-Shuriken stars, poison blades and other slender projectiles. Her signature created a  storm of weapons around her for her to either barrage the opponent with or whirlwind slashes into the opponent as she engaged in melee range. Karina was versatile, expressive and deadly and as Arsene fell further behind in gold, health and pressure, Clarke had to worry about her influence on the map. He couldn't let her interrupt the advantageous matchups elsewhere. After a few more exchanges, he recognised the Karina's style-Lupin's habits. Switching weapons allowed animation cancel and reduced the dropped frames between attacks. Of the weapons, the Stars were the quickest and sharpest, then her boomerang blades, the poison darts and finally the melee range crescent blades that lined each of her arms. Like everything he touched, Lupin optimised many of Karina's longer fluid combos, finding the perfect rotations through the weapon to create extended combinations that can be diversified and adapted for different situations-widely known in fighting games as 'mix ups.'

Without realising it, the opponent's practice was showing in his RAPID gameplay. Any player confident enough to wield her in RAPID will have practiced her almost as much as Lupin and when they were practicing in the training arena and sandbox, they'd be practicing Lupin's combos.

Heavy boomerang into shuriken spray as she slashes across the defence, a crescent blade attack charges as the opponent is locked into retreat or blocking frames and from there the adaptability begins. Knowing what he needed to do, Clarke's fingers moved without command removing the processing delay that was limiting him so far. He was as fast as the opponent when he wasn't thinking. As the Crescent Blade charged, he dodged diaginally to stay close to the opponent and posed the first problem. Correctly, the opponent circled him with shurikens to keep him on the defensive and reset the combination into a Modified Shuriken ability that allowed Karina to send forth and recall a raking line of the blades. Arsene had to jump and she was instantly arcing a boomerang to impale him in the air but buffering a lunge with the jump, Arsene slid away in the air and finally had an opening to return some damage. Karina's attacks were so oppressive because her defenses were weak. She balanced kill potential with the ease that she herself can be killed. 

Clarke felt himself relaxing, realising he knew this player, realising he didn't have to try so hard. Fluoro players see any openings and when players see an opening the instinct is to attack. Winter and other players had defeated enhanced players on stage and Clarke was beginning to realise how. Winter always knew what to do, always had an answer to every situation, had experienced it before or played it out in his head. Luring the enhanced player in, you could dictate the progression of the fight into a pathway where your own speed and muscle memory could take over. Clarke tried it as he landed and Karina looked to counter.