Classmancers - A MOBA Esport Story - Part 3

Vol.15 Ch.23: Initiating Berserk Mode

The third minion wave was about to arrive. This is where Luke had to put his Dark Knight to good use and justify this absurd pick.

Yuel had already laid out a detailed plan and Luke agreed to act upon it. The idea itself was solid and it had a decent chance of success in a vacuum. But, there was just one small concern.

Will Cato see it coming? Yuel wondered.

The enemy Jungler was the biggest obstacle to this plan. If Cato happens to position himself near Top when the play goes through, then he'll be able to respond in a timely fashion and thwart the gank in its entirety.

But, it looks like there's no need to worry. Yuel sighed in relief as one of his wards revealed Rook entering Bot Jungle. Looks like you guessed the wrong jungle side, assuming you saw this gank coming in the first place.

Part of the reason Yuel chose to target Top out of all the lanes was because of how unlikely that decision seemed. It was natural to assume that Cato was capable of predicting an incoming gank, but he still had to guess which lane Yuel will target.

A simple "risk vs. reward" analysis would make it clear that ganking Top was the "worst option" out of the three. Stratus already held the advantage in that lane, and ganking a Dragonborn was difficult to boot.

In other words, the team didn't stand to gain much from such a gank. Furthermore, there was a very likely chance they'll waste precious time and resources on it without even securing a kill.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, Top wasn't even an option to consider. And, that's exactly why Yuel picked it.

No matter which lane we target, a successful gank is going to push us ahead by a lot. He reasoned. So, I might as well pick the option with the "smallest reward", but one that has the lowest chance of being actively countered.

And, it seemed that mindset paid off. As expected, Cato analyzed the board state like the defensive player he was. He analyzed the "risk vs. reward" and deduced that only Mid and Bot were valid targets.

It seemed that Cato was rather indecisive when it came to picking between Mid and Bot, so he chose to hang out in the center of Bot Jungle. This way, he was ready to rotate to either lane on demand.

But, too bad for him. By focusing on Bot Jungle, the enemy was about to let Luke slip right past them!

"Their Jungler is eying Mid and Bot," Yuel shared with everybody. "Look out for ganks over there, just in case."

"Sure," Kai responded.

"No problem!" Lars grinned. "I trust ya to alert me if ya see any suspicious dudes around, haha."

"How about keeping watch as well..." Yuel made a face. "Anyway, Luke, it looks like your path is open. You won't have to worry about their Jungler, so gank Top once you're ready."

"Roger!" Luke had every intention of doing that either way. Even if Rook happened to roam around Top Jungle, Luke would've still proceeded with the gank because he needed that First Blood so desperately. A Dark Knight had to rampage during the early-game, or else it'd be nothing more than a Scrub Knight!

"Are you ready to party, Vince?"

"Yes, I was born ready," Vincent reported. "It is time to unleash all the Rage contained within my right arm and deliver death to our foes!"

"Eh, not sure what your 'right arm' got to do with this, but heck yeah! Let's gooooo!"

Luke slipped through the Jungle, hopefully undetected. The enemy's wards should have worn out in that area and there haven't been any signs of Theorist or Rook replenishing them so far, at least according to Vincent's intel.