Classmancers - A MOBA Esport Story - Part 3

Vol.18 Ch.47: The Desire to Smite the Monster

Scary. Nia thought as she watched Lars declare war on the enemy's strongest fighters. How can he just walk up to them and say all these things? He should be dubbed "Lars the Million Guts".

Nia could only dream about being this assertive in her communication. Though, it sounded very scary so she probably wouldn't have done it even if she could.

Nonetheless, it was undeniable that she shared many of Lars's sentiments here.

I... I also wanna beat this monster. Nia glared at the alien abomination that was posing as a middle schooler. That thing was definitely no human kid! He was probably a pro player posing as a kid! Scary.

Yes, it was very scary. Even now, thinking back on the battles with that Korean monster sent a chill down her spine. That guy simply seemed invincible.

But, we did kill him once. Nia thought. And, I'm pretty sure I caught him off guard at least twice.

She failed to convert either gank into a kill, but she came very close both times. If her execution was just a little better, she would've sealed the deal there all by herself.

There were good ganks. Nia thought. I should've been able to convert them.

Yet, she couldn't. A gank like this would've led to a kill at least 9 times out of 10 in Ranked, and quite effortlessly too. Alas, things worked differently in the competitive scene.

I always thought the Ranked games we play in the club were very high level. They even have scary Challenger players show up every now and then. Nia shuddered. But, turns out these games are nowhere as scary as the actual competitive scene.

Ranked had scary opponents every now and then, but the Leopards pretty much had an entire lineup of those. And, they had one player that was scarier than all of them combined.

They also came prepared. They've been blocking me out almost the entire time. Nia grumped. I don't know who it was, but somebody among them must've been stalking me 24/7. Sus.

In Ranked, Nia generally had no trouble erasing her presence and striking from the shadows. However, that barely worked against the Leopards.

They knew I was the champion of hide-and-seek so they focused on me from the get-go. Because of that, the element of surprise was completely gone. Scary. Nia gulped. As Yuel said, everybody in the competitive scene spends a lot of time researching each other. I guess this means we're not the only ones who have to suffer through long review meetings...

Yuel held multiple such meetings in preparation for today's scrimmage. At the time, it felt really overbearing, with way too much analysis and information to go through just to beat one team.

I somehow stayed up until like 3 am rehearsing all that stuff, just because the tyrant kept saying how we absolutely must know EVERYTHING no matter what. Then again, it's probably my fault I procrastinated with this homework until the last moment...

All that preparation seemed beyond excessive, but Yuel kept droning about how absolutely crucial it was. And in the end, he was right. Knowing the quirks and attributes of her enemies made a big difference in how Nia approached her decision-making today.

Unfortunately, the same applied to the enemy. These guys definitely studied Stratus, and especially Nia. Them stalkers. They were super prepared for Nia's strats.

This is something randoms in Ranked can't do. Nia thought. They have no idea who they're up against, so they don't know they gotta keep tabs on me. And, Taurus didn't know that either, that's why it was easier against them at first.