Once the laning phase of the match came to an end, Yuel left Trever alone in Bot Lane and roamed around the map. At this point of the game, the Support’s role became similar to that of the Jungler’s: he traveled across the jungle and ganked lanes. Except, as a Support, Yuel didn’t have the burst damage of a real Jungler, so his job was to set up kills with his CC.

“Their Warlock is going to rotate to Top after clearing this wave.” Yuel said. “Aron, can you help me gank him?”

“And you’re sure he’ll rotate?” Aron asked. “He may try pushing the lane.”

“Deduct points from my grade if I’m wrong.” Yuel answered boldly. That was his new way of dealing with Aron’s interrogations. Attempting to explain his reasoning in real time only made him needlessly nervous and confused. So, instead of dealing with that stress, he decided to sidestep that problem.

“Very well.” Aron invaded the enemy jungle to cut off the Warlock’s predicted rotation path.

Just as Yuel said, the Warlock showed up. Yuel pulled the Warlock close with Nature’s Grasp, then Aron leapt on the victim and rent him asunder.

『An enemy has been killed!』

Flawless execution. Time and again, Yuel proved his ability to predict the enemies’ movements and to strike their weakest spots. What started off as Yuel harassing the enemy Pirate soon developed into him terrorizing enemies all across the map. The ones who actually scored kills and made impressive plays were his teammates, but the mastermind behind many of these plays was none other than Yuel.

Aron told everybody to follow Yuel’s suggestions as part of the test, effectively turning Yuel into the team’s shot-caller. Aron still handled the big strategic decisions, but everybody were obligated to follow Yuel’s tactics as well. This allowed him to easily move his allies around as he saw fit. Of course, it also came with the pressure of being graded for each important decision he made, but he got used to that by now... sort of. For the most part. Yeah, no problem. Gulp.

With his authority as the shot-caller, he made his teammates catch predictable enemy gankers off guard and turn the tables on them. In addition, he told his allies to ambush enemies who farmed jungle camps at predictable times. And, on top of all that, he predicted the escape routes of injured enemies and pulled them through walls with Nature’s Grasp.

He didn’t simply punish misplays, he also exploited the predictable habits of his enemies. The higher he climbed in Ranked, the less and less obvious mistakes his enemies made. Therefore, only punishing “mistakes” was no longer enough. He had to analyze and deconstruct every little move his enemies made, all for the sake of catching them off guard in one important play.

As expected, his current opponents were as bulletproof as the enemies he met at high ranks online. In fact, they were possibly the strongest opponents he had ever faced so far. Catching them commit an outright mistake was nigh impossible, but exploiting the weaknesses in their playstyles was still within Yuel’s expertise. As long they were humans, he could find flaws in their plays.

“Wow! You rock, bro!” Trever grinned as he scored yet another kill off the Pirate thanks to Yuel’s advice. At some point, Trever promoted Yuel from “Rookie” all the way to “Bro”. That was the top respect title, apparently.

After killing the Pirate three times, Trever gained a huge advantage in Bot Lane. He was two levels ahead of the Pirate and the enemy’s Turret was about to crumble. But, that’s all. Despite the huge advantage in the lane, that’s as far as he progressed.

It was understandable, considering Ranger was, at its core, an assassin class meant for jungling. “Ranger Carry” was an unconventional built, which worked relatively well because of the Ranger’s basic attacks: long-ranged arrow shots befitting a real Carry.

When built with enough attack speed and critical chance, Ranger functioned similarly to a Carry. Nevertheless, its ability to push lanes still didn’t quite live up to that of a real Carry class. That’s one reason why Yuel picked Druid.

“Let’s take down the Turret.” Yuel advanced toward the enemy Turret. The Pirate was dead and the Paladin was off helping another lane, so the Turret was defenseless. However, there were no allied minions in range thanks to the Pirate’s efforts, so attacking the Turret was suicide. That is, unless they somehow “created” minions to tank the Turret’s shots. The Druid’s ultimate ability did exactly that.

Yuel activated Awaken the Ents, summoning a giant living tree. With the closest “enemy” in sight being the Turret, the Ent fearlessly invaded the Turret’s area and slammed it with giants fists. Naturally, the Turret retaliated against the invader and shot back at the Ent. While the Turret was focused on the Ent, Yuel and Trever approached the tower and attacked it.

Since he was playing Druid Support, Yuel built defensive items which raised HP and defense. The Ent’s stats scaled based on the Druid’s stats, so the Ent benefited from similar increase in HP and defense. As such, the Ent didn’t deal much damage to the Turret, but it could tank shots for a while, just long enough to allow Trever to take the Turret down.

『An enemy Turret has been destroyed!』

With this, Bot Lane was one step closer to being dominated by Yuel’s team. From picking a synergistic Support class and up to outwitting enemy players - Yuel showcased his skill all across the board. As hard as Aron tired to nitpick, he found virtually no faults with the way Yuel played.

If there was one thing that could be called a “weakness”, it’d be Yuel’s mechanical skill. During some chaotic and unpredictable situations, he struggled to land his skill shots. He missed more than a couple crucial Nature’s Grasp shots during team fights, putting the whole team at a great disadvantage. Nevertheless, his mechanical skill was overall at a satisfactory level, especially since he had enough brains to make up for it. He knew how to avoid difficult situations and how to create favorable ones, ensuring that his medicore mechanical skill wasn’t going to be a hindrance.

In addition to Yuel terrorizing the enemy team with his tactics, Aron and Trever also put on a strong performance.

To make up for being an inferior Carry, Trever took advantage of the Ranger’s true purpose as a Jungler. He roamed across Bot Jungle and stole camps from the enemy’s side of the map. Thanks to his passive, Beast Hunting, he dealt +20% damage to jungle camps with his basic attacks. On top of that, the multi-purpose skill, Wolf Companion, allowed him to summon a wolf that clawed a group of creeps with an AoE cone attack. Thanks to these factors, he cleared jungle camps swiftly and effectively,

In addition, Trever used Ranger as an assassin. After Yuel predicted that the enemy Warlock was about to head toward the Ogre Camp, Aron and Trever both darted to the destination. Aron got there first and leapt on the Warlock, but he failed to finish the job and allowed the Warlock to escape into the jungle.

However, that was actually part of the plan, since the Warlock was forced to flee a in direction which led straight to Trever. It was a pincer attack. Trever easily deleted what little remained of the Warlock’s HP.

Despite the constant bickering between Aron and Trever, they cooperated surprisingly well. They barely exchanged any words to arrange that pincer attack.

“I’ll scare him from above.”

“Roger.”

That’s all. With just that short exchange, both of them knew exactly what to do. It was clear they had plenty of experience playing this unusual “Two Junglers” composition. Each of them farmed on a different side of the jungle in order to maximize total farm, but they still often ganked lanes together from opposite directions. It was a truly high level teamplay.

With Yuel’s precise predictions and the strong combo of Aron and Trever, their team dominated the flow of the game. The momentum Yuel started by setting up two kills on the Pirate hadn’t waned since then.

“Shit! Why it’s always me!?” Mark slammed on the table. It was already the fourth damn time he died this match! His KDA (Kills/Deaths/Assists) stood at a lousy 0/4/0, he was a goddamn feeder at this point! He was making the worst impression possible on the examiners!

He thought picking Pirate would allow him to play safely. His plan was to freeze enemy progress on the lane by quickly clearing minions, so he could then farm nearby jungle camps at leisure. With the gold bonus from Plunder, he planned building his items faster than his opponents and start murdering everybody at late game. It’s not like he had any chance beating veterans from the club on even grounds, so it was best to avoid fights until he got the stats advantage.

Alas, all he achieved was a terrible 0/4/0 score. Not only that, but many of his chances to farm jungle camps were stolen from him. The enemy Ranger counter-jungled way too damn hard, clearing most of the camps on Mark’s side while Mark was dead. It was bullshit.

Based on the stats, the rest of his team wasn’t doing much better. None of them was feeding as hard as him, but they all had negative KDA scores. Only the Paladin, played by Howard, had a passable 0/0/2. They were getting rekt so hard it wasn’t damn funny!

“Is this match even balanced!?” Mark cursed. “You sure you didn’t put the best players on that team? This shit is unfair!”

“Chill.” Howard commanded. “Being tilted will only make you commit more mistakes, right?”

“Yeah, but...” Mark clammed up in front of Howard’s icy glare.

“I get where you’re coming from. You think you gonna leave a terrible impression by feeding so much, right?”

“Yeah, exactly! How am I supposed to show my skills when my whole team is getting rekt!?”

“You’re right, this match feels kinda skewed, doesn’t it? Maybe the way we decided the teams wasn’t entirely balanced.” Howard smiled wryly, then his eyes turned sharp. “Anyway, are you really gonna let this situation get to you? Like it or not, but you gonna play on the losing team many times in the future. Hundreds of times, maybe even thousands. What you gonna do about it? Cry like a little bitch each time?”

“Eh!? I... I... no.” Mark trembled. Why did he deserve any of this? He was trying his best this whole match, yet everything crumbled around him. Nobody was there to tell him “It’ll be alright” or “It’s not your fault”. The full weight of the responsibility was placed on him, his poor performance directly contributed to the whole team’s downfall.

But, precisely because of that. he wanted to win! He wanted to pass this damn exam and play competitive Classmancers! He wasn’t some whining little bitch! He’s suck it up and keep fighting! “No matter how shitty things get, I’ll try to win!”

“Good, that’s the spirit.” Howard smiled and smacked Mark on the back. “Playing from behind is also an important skill to have. You can still make plenty good impressions by showing us how good you’re at that. Heck, maybe you can even help us make a comeback!”

“Right! I'll do my best!” At some point along the conversation, Mark’s frustration was replaced with a burning fighting spirit. So what if he died four times? He could still do it! He just had to farm jungle camps faster and to push Bot Lane to reclaim it!

“I only hope you aren’t planning to farm more camps or to aggressively push your lane.”

“Wha...?” Mark was dumbfounded.

“Working toward a comeback is fine and dandy, but don’t forget you’re lagging behind by three levels already. I’m sure you hate math as much as the next guy, but you can’t argue with numbers.”

“Wait, so you’re telling me to hug the Golem?”

“Don’t get killed, defend the lane and farm enough to stay relevant in team fights. How you gonna achieve all that is up to you.”

“Okay, got it.” Mark clenched the mouse and returned to lane with renewed determination. He wasn’t passionate about playing defense, but that’s what he had to do right now to score points. “I’ll hug the Golem for a while and slowly push forward. I can outclear the Ranger, so I should be able to overtake the lane eventually.”

“I trust you.” Howard nodded. Though, try as you may, I don’t see you passing this exam.

Howard provided airtight Support the whole time, but Mark still somehow got himself killed four times. The first two times were real shockers, even Howard was caught off guard. So, he didn’t count them against Mark. However, the next two deaths were clearly Mark’s own fault.

After dying twice, Mark should had played more cautiously. The enemies figured out his greedy mindset as a Pirate player, so he should had steered clear of jungle camps while enemies were still around. In addition, he should had avoided direct confrontations with the fed Ranger.

Alas, Mark kept repeating these same mistakes. It took him two more deaths to finally wake up and start thinking about his situation. And what was his conclusion? The match was rigged! The teams were unbalanced! He didn’t do anything wrong!

Yeah, that rookie was no good. All Howard could do now was give him advice and pointers, in hope he’d learn from them and become a better player in the future. But, as it stood, Mark didn’t cut it.

That Druid, though. Howard squinted his eyes as he went over the match’s stats. The Druid had a 0/1/6 KDA score. The enemy team had 8 kills in total, so it meant the Druid was involved in 6 out of 8 kills. On top of that, as expected of a Support, he didn’t steal any kills from his teammates and only scored assists.

He sure plays airtight Support. What was his name again? “Yuel”, I think? Now that Mark was no longer of any importance for the exam, Howard shifted his attention to the other rookie. In fact, he had been waiting for Mark to be rendered irrelevant for quite a while now, ever since the two shocking kills Trever scored on Mark in under three minutes.

Placing a bear trap in that jungle entrance to trap Mark wasn’t Trever’s idea. Howard could claim so with confidence, he had played numerous games with Trever by now. Even though Trever had decent decision-making skills, he wasn’t exactly what one would call “smart”. There was no way he’d ever go for such a roundabout play. In fact, he must had been baffled by these plays himself, even though he was the one who technically executed them.

In other words, somebody else advised him to play that way. Was it Aron? Possible. Aron was good at nitpicking others’ misplays, so he could had arranged that kind of move to punish the rookie. After all, he knew Mark was an examinee.

But, that couldn’t be right. Even though Aron often came off as cold and merciless, he wouldn’t bully an examinee like this, especially not in the early game. After all, that’d kill the whole purpose of testing rookies in the first place. Nah, it wasn’t Aron.

But then, who came up with that impressive bear trap play? There weren’t any other club members on the enemy team who fit the bill. As such, only one option remained: Yuel, the other examinee. It was unthinkable, but there was no other option.

“Man, they’re wrecking us!”

“Them traps, yo! Since when Trever is so smart!?”

“He and Aron are seriously tryharding! It’s like they forgot this is an exam.”

The whole team was in a disarray. They were struck at unexpected times from unexpected directions and were overwhelmed.

None of them even realizes what’s going on right now. Howard rubbed his eyes. The only one tryharding is that rookie over there. He’s totally running over us. It’s not even funny anymore.

Mark was wrong in his earlier accusations. The 4 veterans on each team were carefully picked to balance each other out, while taking into account the role each rookie played. Therefore, the teams were balanced. Or rather, they should had been balanced, provided the two rookies were roughly of the same skill level and balanced each other out.

Despite all that, the current match was almost like a one-sided massacre. Howard’s team looked like a bunch of noobs playing against pros, it was beyond humiliating.

That rookie must be full of himself right now. Time to teach him a lesson or two. Howard smirked. I’m sure Aron has seen enough by now, this exam is as good as over. He wouldn’t mind if I get a little serious, would he? Right? Yeah, let’s just do it.

The two teams were meant to be balanced. That is, as long as Howard didn’t exhibit the full extent of his power. Until now, he was nothing more than a “decent Support” for his teammates. He didn’t make any obvious mistakes, but neither did he make any impressive plays. Now, this was going to change.

“Heh, you’re right, guys.” Howard grinned as he addressed his teammates. “Aron and Trever are tryharding too much, so let’s return the favor. I’ll get serious now.”

“That’s alright? It’s just an exam.”

“No problem.” Howard said. “Besides, we can’t host a proper exam unless both teams are balanced, can we? I’m sure Aron and Trever are just trolling us, trying to make us look bad in front of the newcomers.”

“Damn, these two!”

“Let’s get them back, yo!”

The team switched gears. Their irritation was replaced by a burning desire to crush their enemies. This change in atmosphere was soon going to become apparent for the other team as well.

“The Warlock is rotating to Bot.” Yuel pinged the mini-map to show the route he predicted. “Trever, can you cut him off?”

“Roger!” Trever activated Wolf Companion, summoning a wolf mount, and rode to the destination at full speed. It was going to be yet another easy kill for sure! Yuel’s predictions rarely missed the mark, each and every one of his plans was amaz-

“Gah!? The heck!?” Trever jumped. He flanked the Warlock as planned, but the Warlock wasn’t alone! At some point, the Pirate stopped hugging his Golem and entered the jungle as well. Instead of ambushing the Warlock, Trever somehow found himself ambushed by both Warlock and Pirate!

“Shit shit shit agh!”

『An ally has been killed!』

Despite being overleveled, Trever couldn’t handle this 1v2. It was the first time the Pirate scored a kill on him. Gah, so frustrating!

“Don’t fuss so much over it.” Aron said. “Just get him next time.”

“I know, I know. Grrr.” Trever growled and tapped on the table, watching his respawn counter sloooowly ticking down. He made that one death look like the worst catastrophe that ever befell humanity.

“Sorry, it was my miscalculation.” Yuel said. “I didn’t expect the Pirate to be there, he should had been busy clearing the minion wave.”

“Nah, don’t worry, bro. That shit was impossible to predict.”

It was indeed... strange. Yuel couldn’t wrap his head around that play. His tactics were certainly not without flaws, but he was very confident about that specific flanking play. There shouldn’t had been any factors that could had foiled that play, yet there was...

Why did the Pirate change his mind all of a sudden? He had been hugging the Golem for a while, defending the lane and avoiding deaths. Yet, for some reason, he headed deep into the jungle at the worst timing possible.

Was it a fluke? Perhaps the Pirate went for a jungle camp and accidently ran into Trever. No, that didn’t make sense. Considering he wasn’t spotted by any of Yuel’s Wards, it meant the Pirate skipped all the good camps on his way. Nobody saw him coming.

Maybe the enemy team saw Trever’s movements via a Ward and prepared an ambush? Impossible. Yuel warded that whole area with Sentry Wards, which exposed all nearby enemy Wards within its field of vision. There shouldn’t had been any enemy Wards anywhere along Trever’s flaking route.

Then how!? How did that absurd play came to pass!?

“What are you doing? Retreat!”

“Eh? Ah!” Yuel failed to react in time. He was surrounded by multiple enemies, but he was totally out of it. That cost him dearly.

『You have been killed!』

“What’s wrong? That was a noobish mistake.” Aron said with a stern voice.

“Sorry, I just...” Yuel bit his lip. First, Trever died because of his miscalculation. Now, he himself died due to not paying attention. Ugh, one disaster after another. His team started losing the momentum it had maintained for so long.

Calm down. Overthinking this won’t get me anywhere. Yuel took a deep breath. He wasn’t completely over it, but he had to move on. He’d just have to make up for his mistakes with the next play.

The opportunity to redeem himself soon presented itself. Aron flanked the enemy Viking, but failed to finish the job. The Viking escaped at the nick of time with almost zero HP. Chasing him into enemy territory seemed hopeless at first glance, but Yuel thought otherwise.

“I’ll pull him through the wall.” Yuel announced. There was an allied Ward along the Viking’s escape route, so his movements were visible even through the jungle wall. Grabbing him would be-

“Eh!?” Yuel blinked. Suddenly, that area of the map went black. The Ward should had had one more minute left, so it didn’t vanish because it ran out of time. No, it was actively destroyed by an enemy player, right at this critical time.

“Seems like grabbing him isn’t going to happen now.” Aron shook his head.

“Yeah, sorry...” Yuel bit his lip. Due to his shot-call, Aron rushed over there instead of pushing the defenseless Top Lane. They could had taken down the Turret if not for this wasted time. By the time they returned to Top, the enemy Warlock was already there to defend it.

How did this happen? Why would they go out of their way to destroy a Ward in such a niche spot? Yuel couldn’t wrap his head around it. He purposely placed that Ward in a very ineffective location to avoid detection. The Ward’s sole purpose was to expose fleeing foes, allowing Yuel to grab them and pull them back.

Yet, despite how niche the Ward was, the enemy team went out of their way to deploy a pricey Sentry Ward, just so they could destroy Yuel’s Ward. It was absurd, he didn’t understand anything anymore. It’s like somebody was trolling him.

And, that wasn’t the end of it. Weird things kept happening left and right, throwing Yuel’s predictions off . Enemies didn’t rotate as he expected, didn’t push where he expected and didn’t go for jungle camps when he expected. It felt as if all the pieces on the board were breaking their rules. All the data Yuel accumulated about the enemies until this point was rendered useless.

“There’s nobody here, bro!” Trever announced as he arrived in Bot Lane, following Yuel’s advice. “Oh, shit! Look, they’re all pushing Mid instead! Damn!”

“Why...” Yuel couldn’t believe it.

『An allied Turret has been destroyed!』

Why was this happening?

『An ally has been killed!』

Nothing went Yuel’s way. The few weaknesses he discovered in his enemies were no longer effective, he couldn’t pierce through their defenses anymore. Did he lose his touch? Or, did the enemy team transform into an entirely different beast? He couldn’t tell.

“Hey, what’s wrong, bro?” Trever asked. “You ran out of brain juice or something? Haha.”

“I... I don’t know.” Yuel bit his lip. Everything was going so well until recently. What changed? He now looked like an idiot spouting nonsense, none of his predictions came true.

“Brain juice? Don’t be stupid.” Aron sneered. “Nothing changed. At least, nothing on his side.”

“Then, something changed in the enemy team? Please, tell me!” Yuel begged. He couldn’t bear this situation any longer. What was going on? Why was this happening? Where did he go wrong? It drew him mad!

“It seems that bastard decided to get serious.” Aron stared at his screen with a complicated expression. He considered his words for a while, but ultimately decided to share the information. “It’s Howard. The one who changed the team’s rhythm and shut down your tactics, it must be all Howard’s work. That’s what happens when he gets serious.”

“Eh? But it doesn’t make any sense! I’ve been targeting each player individually!” Yuel cried. “I’m making my plans based on each player's individual patterns, but that stopped working now. Sure, sometimes the Paladin just gets in my way out of nowhere. But, most of the time, the players themselves outplay me!”

“Put yourself in the enemy’s shoes for a second. Tell me, do you think they realize that, most of the times, they get royally screwed because of your tactics?”

“That’s...” Yuel never bothered to think about that. What did the enemy team think of this match? Did they realize Yuel called most of the shots? It never mattered before.

“The way they see it: they’re getting outplayed by all players from our team, especially me and Trever who scored the most kills.” Aron explained. “But, in practice, there’s only one main shot-caller on our team. Sounds familiar?”

“Then, you’re saying my feeling of being outplayed by the whole enemy team is wrong? That I’m only being outplayed by Howard? But that’s... absurd.”

“You thought you’re special?” Aron sneered. “A good shot-caller is necessary in every serious team. I have to admit, you’ve showcased ability that goes beyond standard ‘shot-calling’, but you’re not the only in the world with such talent.”

“Then, you’re saying Howard is like me...?” Yuel trembled. It was the first time he ever faced a player like that.

“Yes, he’s a lot like you.” Aron nodded. “But, at the same time, he’s nothing like you. He’s like your antithesis, if you will.”

“Antithesis...” Yuel mumbled as he stared at the Paladin on the screen. Suddenly, his understanding of the map changed entirely.

Above the map itself, there was another invisible layer. It was a layer only Yuel and Howard played on, a chessboard which decided the fates of both teams.

Until now, Yuel had been toying with the chessboard as he wished. However, now he had a fearsome opponent sitting on the other side. Their true battle had just begun.