Classmancers - A MOBA Esport Story - Part 3

Vol.16 Ch.3: Matthew's Indifference

Clap. Clap. Clap. Cato joined in on the audience's applause.

"Wat?" Ronald blinked with a dumb face. The rest of the team wore equally puzzled expressions.

"I have to say, it was a fine performance by our opponents." Cato smiled confidently as he clapped. "Yes, a fine circus performance, don't you agree?"

He continued clapping, loudly enough to not get drowned out by the thundering applause of the audience. It was important to divert the team's attention from the rest of the scene, to drag them out of that mud they were drowning in.

"I have to admit, they played us well," Cato continued. "Nobody saw these memes coming, so it's no wonder the audience finds this praiseworthy. Seriously, to think that they have memes that they can play at such a high level. This is some bona fide circus."

Cato confidently spouted all of that while his hands continued clapping, almost as if against his will. With every loud clap he produced, a part of him cracked.

This was wrong. This wasn't how today's match was supposed to go at all. The regional champions had no business losing to some memes, no matter how unexpected the picks were or how proficiently the opponents used these off-meta classes.

Nonetheless, Cato continued with this narrative.

"I don't know about you, but honestly, I lowered my guard a little in this match," Cato admitted. "Also, I completely failed to read between the lines during the drafting phase, which is how we ended up with an unfavorable matchup. Seriously, it's almost no exaggeration to say that we lost all the way back during the drafting phase, haha."

Cato's palms started hurting from all the loud clapping he was doing. However, the pain he felt inside overshadowed all of that.

The more responsibility he took upon himself for this defeat, the more numb his palms felt. However, this couldn't begin to compare to the pain tearing him apart from the inside.

"So yes, they really caught us off-guard with that circus," Cato continued. "I say they deserve this applause if nothing else. But, they won't get to hear it a second time. Now that we know they like playing like circus monkeys, we'll have no problem dealing with them next time, right?"

He passed the ball to his team but only silence responded to him. Even though his speech seemed to have some effect on them, it failed to erase the frustration and dissatisfaction they felt.

Cato's teammates probably agreed with him to an extent. However, they struggled to overcome the humiliation that came from losing a clown fiesta game like this.

Fortunately, one teammate finally grabbed that ball and followed up on Cato's opener.

"Yeah, you're right," William said. "They had the element of surprise on their side, that's mainly what got us good. Nobody could've expected something like this. And as you said, many of our problems started all the way in the drafting phase, which was largely your responsibility."

"My, you're holding nothing back, are you~?" Cato smiled impishly, doing his best to hide the irritation he actually felt on this particular topic.

Meme or not, it felt like Yuel strategically outsmarted Cato during this drafting phase, playing him like a fiddle. It was frustrating to no end.

Nonetheless, Cato masked all of that with his smile. This was neither the time nor the place for him to cry about his fragile little feelings.

Right now, Cato was more than willing to take a few hits for the team if it improves the atmosphere. As such, William's brutal words were welcome, as armor-piercing as they were.