Since Roi refused to stick around and help Yuel practice parrying, there was no choice but to find somebody else.

“Why me?” Julia grumped.

“You’re not busy right now, so why not?” Yuel asked. “You can think of it as target practice.”

“Well, whatever.” Julia shrugged and sat down. “May as well practice my aim.”

“Thanks.”

“Hmph, I’mma shoot you so hard you gonna regret wasting my time.”

Why does she always seem eager to practice when it involves shooting me? Yuel smiled wryly and logged into the practice match. “Can you pick Elf? It shoots long arrows, so they’re easier to parry.”

“Huh? But I don’t play Carry. You said it’s like target practice for me, right? So, I’mma go with Pyro.”

“Eh? But-”

“Deal with it. Rather, you should be thankful I’m wasting my time on you at all, hmph.”

“Alright, got it...” Yuel sighed. Pyromancer’s fireballs were also susceptible to parries, so it wasn’t the worst pick in the world. However, the fireballs were nowhere as long as the Elf’s arrows, so hitting them was going to be even more difficult. As if Yuel didn’t already have enough trouble parrying the “easy” arrows. Sigh.

In this fashion, whenever he had some free time in the club, he practiced parrying with another club member. He tried recruiting Lars as his permanent practice partner, but that goof got bored after just 2 minutes and started shooting wildly. Even Roi was reluctant to parry against Lars’s swift shots, so Yuel had no chance. Getting beaten to a plump wasn’t much of a practice.

Thus, most of the time, he ended up practicing with Julia. She usually had some free time on her hands, because she didn’t have any particular training regime to follow. Similarly to Yuel, she absorbed knowledge from seniors and polished on her basics.

“Stop dodging already, idiot!” Julia barked. “Weren’t you gonna parry my shots? Stand still so I can shoot you!”

“Sometimes it’s better to dodge.” Yuel rolled aside, dodging another fireball.

“Gah! Die already!”

You’re aware this isn’t an actual match, right? Yuel sighed. Julia was a bit heated up for the practice, so he was forced to parry against an opponent who genuinely sought his death. Perhaps it was good practical experience, but it was harsh on somebody with poor mechanical skill. Learning anything from this practice was rough while being constantly shot in the face. Somewhere along the way he was forced to improve his dodge rolls to cope with her, which wasn’t all bad.

But really, Julia took this too seriously. As the practice progressed and Yuel got more used to parrying and dodging her shots, she grew increasingly irritated. At some point, that unleashed her aggressive side, which Yuel only ever witnessed when they practiced alone.

It also happened back during the summer vacation. Whenever he taught her new offensive techniques and made her try them out on him, she went full gas and bombarded him as hard as she could. She definitely had the makings of a strong aggressive player, but she never used that style in real matches, or even in practice matches.

Apparently, Ellen worked on drawing out that part of Julia. They did special training to get Julia more comfortable with playing aggressively, in hope to incorporate that aggressiveness into her otherwise passive playstyle. They couldn’t practice it too often though, since Julia was reluctant to show that side of herself when Lars was nearby.

So, how did Yuel know all that? Well, he was forced to help with Julia’s special training. According to Ellen, the easiest way to draw out Julia’s flame was to make her compete against Yuel. In fact, at some point, it felt like Yuel’s parrying practice transformed into Julia’s aggression training. It’s Ellen who repeatedly pushed Julia to help Yuel with the parrying practice, so there’s no doubt that fox planned this transformation from the get-go. It wasn’t bad though, since it meant they both gained something from these sessions.

Before long, the pre-tournament season began for junior high school teams. The club’s main team, referred to as the “first string”, had scrimmages with other schools every other week. The schools competed for points which determined their seeding in the regionals later this year. Schools with the highest scores would have to play less matches to reach the finals, a major advantage.

The same way players picked their competitive nicknames, each school’s team had its own competitive name. Inside the game, that doubled as the name of the guild to which all club members belonged. For Yuel’s club, the guild name was StormBlitz.

Unfortunately, he didn’t get to debut as part of StormBlitz in any of the scrimmages. In fact, none of the freshmen were picked for the first string. The seniors said it’s only natural for rookies to not be picked during their first year, but it was still frustrating. The competitive scene was right there, right in front of him! Yet, he wasn’t allowed to touch it.

Even so, Yuel kept practicing hard every day. Aside from parrying, he also got many jungling tips, mainly from Dan. Along with Support and Top, the third role Yuel could play well was Jungler.

Dan prided himself in being able to play any Jungler, even unconventional ones like Cryomancer Jungler and Druid Jungler, which utilized the CC of Support classes to function as Junglers. Contrary to Yuel’s theoretical knowledge, many of these weird ideas were surprisingly viable as long as the player knew what he was doing.

Aside from that, he also researched and analyzed many pro games with Aron, who was arguably the most similar player to him in the club. Just like Yuel, Aron closely analyzed the patterns of his opponents and formulated how to efficiently take them down. The main difference between their playstyles was the point in the game at which they put their research to use.

Yuel preferred exploiting enemy weaknesses as early as possible, whereas Aron waited until late game to finish processing the data. Therefore, while Yuel’s tactics were put to use throughout the whole match, Aron’s tactics only came online during late game. On the other hand, said tactics were more bulletproof than Yuel’s, because Aron collected more data before drawing any conclusions.

For example, Aron usually saw through Ellen’s tricky plays and wasn’t fooled by them. The more Yuel got outplayed by Ellen, the more he realized the value of waiting longer before forming his offensive tactics.

“Taking your time to analyze the enemy more can be a good thing.” Aron explained. “But, the way I see it, one of your strong points is your ability to make fast and accurate deductions. I don’t know how well it’s going to work in the pro scene, but at least against opponents your age it’s plenty enough.”

“Unless said opponent is Ellen.” Yuel grumped, coming out from another match where she played him for a fool.

“Yeah, Ellen is a tough customer.” Aron nodded. “But, opponents like her are rare in my experience. Also, I hope you don’t think she’s outplaying you without putting any effort. Your presence forces her to play her hand earlier into the match, which leaves her fewer tricks for late game. That really helps me figure her plans.”

“I see.” Yuel never considered this interaction before. From his point of view, he simply got outsmarted by Ellen. Therefore, he never thought about the lengths she went to to achieve that result. It felt good knowing he also indirectly pressured her, that it wasn’t a one-sided bullying from her side.

Nonetheless, he didn’t like this reality. Howard had the ability to shut down his tactics and Ellen had the craftiness to outsmart them. They were only middle schoolers, so Yuel’s opponents were bound to become stronger and stronger as he grew up. There’s no telling for how long his quick deductions would stay effective against competitive players.

Therefore, he took some time to practice late game deduction, similar to how Aron did it. He and Aron watched and analyzed some pro games, sharing their deductions and how they reached them.

They also analyzed recordings of enemy players for upcoming scrimmages. Even though Yuel never got to play in any of StormBlitz’s scrimmages, he studied their opponents just as thoroughly as the first string and offered some insights during strategy meetings. He ensured he’s ready to play whenever the team needed him, doing everything he could to better prepare himself for his eventual competitive debut.

Half of the school year gone by. Yuel, and all other freshmen, only worked on honing their skills and gaining experience. In Ranked, Yuel, Lars and Taison reached the Diamond division by playing premades with other club members. Julia and Gregory weren’t too far behind, sitting at Platinum I and Platinum II respectively.

Despite these achievements, none of them got to play in a scrimmages even once. They apparently didn’t even climb high enough to become reserves for the first string. One time, Ellen got sick before a scrimmage and had to be replaced. Lars was excited about the possibility of replacing her as the Carry, but Trever was picked instead.

This reality was frustrating but not too surprising, considering the first string was composed mostly of third year students, save for Howard and Ellen. The next players in line were juniors and seniors who didn’t make the cut, so freshmen had no business playing in official matches yet, not even as reserves.

Taison and Gregory voiced their frustration with this reality every other day, believing themselves worthy of debuting right away. Lars was also quite restless about it, spouting something like “I wanna play an official match! Let them at me, yo!” at least once a week. Yuel shared their sentiments, but simply continued practicing, believing his efforts would eventually pay off.

As if answering the rookies’ prayers, Howard made a special announcement regarding the upcoming scrimmage against the Leopards team.

“They got a first string and a second string over there.” Howard explained. “According to scrimmage rules, both teams can pit their second strings against each other to earn extra points. None of the other teams we faced so far were confident about their second string, so they never brought up the idea. But, the Leopards are different. They requested to challenge our second string as well.”

“Wait, we have a second string?” Lars exclaimed.

“Not an official one, but we can form a temporary second string for this scrimmage. From those who aren't in the first string, we’ll pick the best player in each role and form a team out of them.”

“Oh! Oooh!” Lars’s eyes sparkled. “Did my time finally come!? I’mma do this, yo!”

“Khaha, no way it’s you, dumbass.” Taison sneered. “They gonna pick da best Carry! You all know that’s me, right?”

“You think you’re better? Fight me, dude!”

“I’mma 1v1 yo ass!”

“Alright, that’s enough.” Howard clapped loudly, returning order to the club room. “Sorry to inform you, but none of you made the cut. You didn’t forget we have Trever, right? So, guess who is getting the Carry role.”

“Geh! That dude! Every. Single. Time!”

“Damn, just graduate already, you scrub!”

“Haha, too bad for ya.” Trever grinned and rubbed their hairs. “Try again next year, kids!”

“Alright,” Howard continued. “Here are the players me and Aron picked for the second string: Trever as Carry, Gilbert as Mid, Roi as Solo, Dan as Jungler and Yuel as Support.”

“Eh?” Yuel was dumbfounded. What did Howard just say? Who was playing Support? In an official scrimmage? In an actual competitive match!?

“Ah...” Yuel’s lips trembled as he faced the other freshmen. Everybody had been working hard these past six months, they all thirsted for comeltive scene. Yet, in the end, only Yuel made it. He overflowed with a mixture of joy and guilt.

“Great job, dude!” Lars gave a thumb up. “Go show them what you got!”

“Eh?” Yuel blinked. Lars wasn’t frustrated? Even though he didn’t make it? Even though Yuel’s first debut was going to be with Trever as his lane partner?

“Don’t worry, I’mma follow ya real soon!” Lars clenched a fist and bumped it into Yuel’s chest.

“Heh, you better do.” Yuel smiled softly. They both pursued the same stage, so they were going to meet there eventually. It just so happened Yuel got there a little earlier, that’s all.

“Good job.” Gregory smirked and pretended to clap. “Now, go out there and mess up real hard, so next time they pick da best Support, kek.”

“Keep dreaming.” Yuel retorted.

“Officially,” Howard continued. “The captain of the second string team gonna be Trever. But, you all know he’s not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, right?”

“You mean he’s an idiot, right?” Taison laughed.

“What was that?” (Trever)

“Gah!?”

“Anyway,” Howard turned to Yuel. “I trust you all to support him when it comes to shot-calling and team strategy. Especially you two, Gil and Yuel. Consider yourselves ‘very influential vice-captains’ in this second string.”

“Got it.” (Yuel)

“Fine by me.” (Gilbert)

“We don’t have any data on their second string.” Howard explained. “We can only assume they’re good, considering their coach thinks they’re ready to play in a scrimmage. Work on polishing your teamwork as much as possible until the match, you have a week. That’s all for this meeting.”

And so, an unofficial “second string” was formed, with the intention of beating a second string of unknown potential. This was going to be Yuel’s first debut in the competitive scene, he couldn’t help but feel giddy! It wasn’t as impressive as playing on the first string, but it was going to be his first taste of the competitive scene all the same!

First, he’d exhibit his skill in the second string. Then, he’d overtake Howard’s spot and debut in the first string. Finally, he’d get to the nationals and make a name for himself as Chessmaster. The path ahead never looked clearer!