Classmancers - A MOBA Esport Story - Part 3

Vol.18 Ch.9: Concerns About the "Softhearted" Kai

They picked Pirate and not Seraph? Yuel frowned. Hmm. Could that imply Winner is the Carry? Or, maybe Cato realized that banking only on the endgame isn't a good idea against us, so they're going for a more well-rounded lineup.

There was no telling for sure what any of this implied. Cato always made his picks difficult to outguess.

Normally, it's best to pick the Top Laner before the second banning phase. Yuel thought. But, if I do that, I'll give Cato a free chance to ban any Mid Laner he wants. That won't bone well for us.

The enemy's Aeromancer pick was a tad tricky, especially considering it was going to be in the hands of either Theorist or Merlin. They were both defensive players who could utilize the Aeromancer's remote farming to stall the game.

To properly challenge an Aeromancer in the lane, it was best to pick a mage with a long reach. There were multiple good candidates on that front, but if Yuel doesn't pick one of them now, then they will all be banned for sure; Cato will definitely pull a nasty move like that.

"Sorry, Ben," Yuel said. "I'd like to pick Mid first if you don't mind."

"No problem at all," Ben reassured. "You know best what to pick."

This wasn't just Ben being his usual submissive self. He really had no reason to worry about the order of picks here.

He can play many defensive classes on roughly the same level. Yuel thought. So, no matter how hard Cato tries to ban Ben's best options, there will always be something left.

Thanks to Ben's background as a former Support player, he knew how to drive many different bruisers and tanks, so he had a big array of options to choose from. As such, it was impossible to seal his defensive options within a single banning phase.

"So, Kai, you're up next," Yuel said. "I was thinking of Sorcerer."

"Same as last time, huh." Kai made a small sigh that was difficult to interpret.

"Do you want a different class?"

"Nah, Sorcerer is fine."

"Then, why the sigh?"

"Nothing, really." Kai rolled her eyes. "It's just that thinking about bashing my head against Theorist's defense again is a little depressing. I almost want to pick a hyper-aggressive mage and go ham on her."

"Would you really 'go ham' on her even if you pick a class like that?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I?"

"Well..." I still remember the title Vincent gave her, the Softhearted Amazon. It sounds silly at best, but I suspect it's actually on point, like most of Vincent's wild titles.

As a class, Sorcerer was definitely more on the defensive side. As such, perhaps it felt more natural for Kai to play the class passively against Theorist.

But, down to it, Kai was more of an aggressive player. She had a solid defense, but her game plan usually involved a mixture of attacks and sidesteps. She carefully dodged incoming attacks while launching counterstrikes of her own.

And yet, none of that came into play when Kai faced Theorist. It felt like Kai never wanted to go on the offensive there, no matter the situation.

She did force herself to attack a couple of times, possibly because she realized her own passiveness. But, in the end, Kai never quite committed to her offense. She only launched a few attacks until Theorist reinforced her defenses, and then Kai gave up.

That's really not like her. Yuel thought. She's supposed to be more competitive than that. If somebody blocks her out like this, she's supposed to get salty about it and search for ways to turn the tables on them.