Classmancers - A MOBA Esport Story - Part 3

Vol.16 Ch.18: Stratus' Tame Lineup

If the Leopards were indeed planning to use their other formation in this game, then that would flip the entire playing board on its head. The Absolute Duo will split up and occupy Top and Jungle, creating aggressive threats at two different parts of the map.

While it wasn't a big deal that Challenger moved to Top, Winner switching to Jungler meant serious business. As the Jungler, he was free to attack lanes on demand. He wasn't anything like the passive Jungler that Cato was.

And, there are other potential problems with that formation, like the new duo in Bot.

Rook and Merlin were a peculiar Bot pair. They were both theory players with just passable mechanical skill, which didn't sound like a very balanced pair.

With that said, they both understood their own flaws. Therefore, this Bot duo focused on fortifying their defenses and biding their time until the right moment. In essence, they played the laning phase with the mentality that they could lose a few battles if it meant winning the war.

It's hard to predict how our matchup will go down. Yuel thought. We'll either bust through their defenses or they'll be a pain in the neck from start to end. Though, I suppose this will be good practice for the rematch against Howard and Ellen.

These two defensive duos played differently from each other but their essence was the same. Both pairs played defensively in order to avoid losing the lane. They focused most of their efforts on studying their opponents and adapting to them.

In fact, Merlin dialed that mentality up to eleven by playing Elf and absolutely nothing else in all the games he was Carry. It was like a match made in heaven. Elf was the best defensive marksman and Merlin was a serial turtle.

In every replay we watched, his Elf's turtling always got to the enemy. Yuel thought. It always ended up with the enemy cracking under frustration and making one careless attack, which Merlin and Cato never failed to capitalize on.

This playstyle strongly reminded of the tricks Ellen used. Lars also fell for many such traps in the past, including in the fateful battle for StormBlitz's first-string.

But, Lars had gotten much better since then. His experience as a Mid Laner taught him to be more independent in the lane.

In Mid, Lars couldn't rely on Yuel to clean up every mess he created. So, he had to start playing more carefully and methodically, which included seeing through enemy traps. As such, surely he'll be able to handle whatever turtling Merlin was planning to pull.

But, I still rather weaken Merlin as much as possible across the board, just in case. Yuel thought. Especially, since there are two easy picks that'll weaken him while strengthening us.

"I'm usually not a fan of opening the draft with picks like that, but let's go with Elf and Sorcerer."

"Sweet!" Luke whistled. "We're going hard right at the start, yooooo!"

"Indeed, this is quite the bold strategy," Vincent agreed. "Is it truly wise to reveal both of our damage dealers so early? It sends our enemies the invitation to counter-pick."

"True, there are some risks," Yuel admitted. "But, it allows us to counter the enemy while simultaneously picking good classes for ourselves, so nothing is lost."

"I'm totes for it, dude!" Lars gave a thumbs up. "That Merlin dude plays Elf too, right? So, we gotta steal it first!"

"Oh, wow." Yuel blinked in surprise. "Did you actually pay attention to this detail when we were reviewing the Leopards?"

"Hey, of course, I did, dude! I remember seeing Merlin's Elf and I was like 'Dang, this dude be turtling!' It was a real painful sight. Reminds me of how Ellen goes about her business."