The game transitioned into mid-game. Yuel's team failed to establish the early-game advantages which their lineup desperately needed. Roi was locked out in Top, Julia turtled in Mid and Lars was killed before he got a chance to push much.

This was bad. Extremely bad. Dark Knight and Gunslinger were supposed to carry the team through the early game and that should have opened the path to winning the game during the mid-game. But, the enemy stalled them out all across the board.

What's worse, Taison scored three kills already and that put him on a roll. He was two levels ahead of most players and one level above Lars. A fed Jungler had lots of flexibility with its rotations and ganks because it didn’t need to fear getting countered as much, so it naturally put all the laners on edge. Well, except for one...

“Come at me, yo!” Lars fearlessly charged into the jungle as soon as a Ward exposed Taison. That goof...

“Oh!” Taison exclaimed. “He's coming at me!”

“Back,” Howard ordered. “No need to fight him right now.”

“But, I can totally destroy him-”

“I said BACK. You'll get plenty of chances to score kills before this game ends.”

“That’s right,” Ellen winked. “I'll make sure to arrange some nice situations for you~”

“Tch, okay,” Taison shrugged and declined Lars’s duel invitation. Seriously, what was the deal? Taison could have totally wrecked that loser right here and now. Howard totally commanded like a pussy sometimes, but whatever. As long as Taison gonna get some other good fights later down the road, he ain’t gonna complain yet.

“Hey! Don't run away!” Lars called so loud that his voice pierced through the wall. At least, he had the decency to turn off his mic because otherwise, everybody's ears would have bled.

“I ain't running away!” A reply thundered from the other side of the wall. “I just got more important shot to do right now!”

“My... ears...” Ellen took off her earplugs with shaky hands. That shout raped her ear. “... you alive?”

“Yeah,” Howard answered nonchalantly as if nothing happened. “I figured he'll shout something back, so I muted him.”

“Jeez, thanks for the advance warning...”

“Haha, my bad.”

The entire team was inflicted with stun for two seconds. Thankfully, nobody was in the middle of making any major plays, so they weren't affected too badly.

“Hah!” Lars exclaimed out loud. “I bet you're just sc-”

“Enough already,” Yuel jabbed Lars’s side. “It's bad etiquette to shout during a match.”

“But dude, both Ellen ad Tai keep running away from me! How am I supposed to get my revenge like that?”

“Focus on pushing instead. If you push enough, they'll have to come after you themselves.”

“Oh! Genius, dude! I'mma push so hard they can't ignore me anymore!”

“Just please don't get into unnecessary trouble,” Yuel pled. “Don't 1v1 Taison in areas from which you can't retreat and don't chase Ellen too far.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Does he really get it? Yuel frowned. The enemy must be banking on Lars's gung-ho mentality. After killing Lars once, Taison had been avoiding unnecessary contact and Ellen was the same way. Lars couldn't execute his vendetta on any of them, which irritated him and hampered his judgment.

There was no way an aggressive player like Taison would play defensively like this of his own volition, so it had to be Howard's doing. This was undoubtedly all part of a plan. It was unclear whether this “plan” had an end goal in mind, but for the time being: it has been doing a good job rattling Lars.

How should Yuel respond to this? The optimal solution would be to corner Ellen or Taison in a disadvantageous situation and let Lars finish them off. This way, Lars will deliver his revenge and will be on a roll, so he’ll be able to bring the team back into the game.

But, that was easier said than done. Cornering Ellen was like cornering a fly. She'll find a way to wiggle out of any situation, that was one of her strong suits. Worst of all, even if they manage to somehow corner her, it may turn out she was the one who cornered them instead. It was pointless to even try.

On the other hand, Taison should be an easier fish to bait, but his movements so far have been careful and well-calculated. When Taison played in the club, he was usually reckless and aggressive, but the Taison this game was relatively tame. Howard must have been leading Taison by hand because he understood how important of a piece Taison became in this game. With three kills under his belt, Taison was the greatest threat on the enemy team and best candidate for carrying it to victory. Therefore, Howard made sure to protect Taison well.

If all of that wasn’t hard enough, the enemy team also employed a very defensive game plan during the mid-game. Enemies always grouped in duos and trios everywhere on the map, leaving no isolated targets for Yuel to pick off. Ellen joined Gilbert to push against Julia in Mid, whereas Howard and Taison rotated to Top against Roi. It was much harder to catch anybody off-guard like that.

“You know,” Roi said. “I could really use some help in Top here. It's a 1v3.”

“Sure,” Dan volunteered. “I'll be right there-”

“No, wait,” Yuel objected. “Rotate to Mid instead. With you and me there, we can push against Ellen and Gilbert.”

“Hey,” Roi exclaimed.” What about Top then? They gonna run all me over.”

“Fight them for as long as you can, then retreat. You're still at 0/1 and it's already mid-game, so there's no much you can do. We'll have to use you as a tank.”

“Not much I can do”? Roi clenched his mouse. Yeah, that sounded fair. First, Roi was forced to play that stupid Dark Knight and now he was dismissed as useless because he couldn't get an early-game advantage. How FUN. “... okay, I got it.”

“You okay?” Dan whispered over the shoulder with the mic on mute.

“Sure,” Roi sneered. “Having the blast of my life.”

“If you think we can turn things around in Top, I'll go there-”

“Dan?” Yuel asked. “You listening?”

“Yep,” Dan turned his mic up and threw one last glance at Roi.

It’s okay. Roi just shook his head to dismiss the offer. They were soldiers on a battlefield and Yuel was the commander right now.

“Okay,” Dan nodded in response. “So, I'm rotating to Mid?”

“Yes, please.”

“Roger, cap.”

Dan and Yuel both rotated to Mid and turned it into a 3v2 situation together with Julia. Meanwhile, Lars was left completely alone in Bot.

“Where do I rotate?” Lars asked.

“Just push,” Yuel said.

“Eeeeh? Why only you guys get to have fun?”

“Don't worry,” Yuel smiled meaningfully. “If you push hard enough, they'll come to you themselves.”

“Okey-dokey! I'mma blast that Turret in no time!” Lars booted Fan the Hammer and barraged the enemy tower.

Gunslinger's efficiency fell substantially during mid-game, so, for now, it was best to let Lars grind and push instead of fighting. The power curve of Gunslinger was wild and will pick up again during the late-game, so Lars will just have to be patient until then.

To keep Lars safe, Yuel warded Bot Jungle with Sentry Wards to counter any Teleport tactics. It was a costly operation, but he borrowed Julia's help for it. She was already wasting a lot of gold on Wards anyway, so Yuel just mentioned how important it was to ward Bot Jungle to keep Lars safe, that made Julia cooperate without hesitation. If only she was always this agreeable.

Even though Yuel’s team was still lagging behind, the current position wasn't terrible. Howard, Taison, and Gregory were pushing Top against Roi, whereas Yuel, Dan and Julia kept Ellen and Gilbert busy in Mid. This gave Lars complete freedom to push Bot. Eventually, the enemy will be forced to break their thick defensive formation and rotate to Bot to stop Lars. That should create some openings to exploit.

『An ally has been killed!』

“Damn,” Roi fell. He was about to make his escape, but Gregory denied it with a timely pull of Nature's Grasp. Following Roi’s death, the enemy busted the lane wide open and they’ll take down the Turret in no time if they combine their firepower.

It was an unfortunate, but reasonable sacrifice. The interesting question was: how will this trio move next? Surely, they won't rotate together all the way from Top to Bot, that'll be too inefficient. Then, how will they proceed? There were multiple possibilities.

Option #1: All three of them will stay in Top and keep pushing hard. In other words, they’ll force Yuel’s team to make a move. That’s probably what Yuel would have done in Howard’s shoes, but Howard wasn’t that kind of aggressive player. So, this was unlikely.

Option #2: They’ll all rotate to Mid. An interesting move that might win them Mid if executed well. But again, Howard’s team wasn’t aggressive enough to go for that type of play.

Option #3: Some will return to base and go to defend Bot from there, while the rest will either keep pushing Top or will rotate to Mid. That sounded like the most Howard-like game plan.

There was a very helpful mathematical fact which played in Yuel’s favor here: the number 3 couldn’t be equally divided into two integers. In other words, if the trio in Top splits into two groups, somebody will be isolated for a while. That’ll be a great opportunity to pick somebody off.

『An allied Turret has been destroyed!』

After the enemy took down the Turret, they were about to make the important move.

“Good job,” Howard said. “Greg, you and I will rotate to Mid.”

“Huh,” Gregory pondered. “Isn't it better if one rotates to Mid and the rest push all the way to Golem?”

“It's risky to travel alone. I told you, Yuel always searches for opportunities to pick off isolated targets.”

“That sounds about right,” Gregory had to agree. “Okay, Mid it is then.”

“As for Tai,” Howard continued. “Return to base to heal up. And then...”

The offense in Top came to an end with the destruction of the Top Turret. Taison was seen recalling to base, whereas Howard and Gregory were apparently rotating towards Mid.

I see Howard is really persistent about the lack of isolation. Yuel wasn't amused. The duo traveling from Top to Mid had reinforced defense which made it impossible to pick anybody off and they’ll also turn the situation into a 3v4 once they reach Mid. It was bad news.

『An enemy Turret has been destroyed!』

At least, meanwhile, Lars was able to take down the first objective in Bot. That was some good news. Taison undoubtedly recalled to base in order to heal up and then head to Bot from there, but it’ll take him a while to reach- huh!?

“SURPRISE MOTHAFUCKA!” Was it a bird? Was it a plane? No, it was the one and only - Taison! Coming right at that mofo in Bot!

“Where did dude come from!?” Lars had every right to be surprised. Taison literally appeared behind him on the lane out of nowhere. This was impossible...!

This could only be pulled off with Teleport, but with which Checkpoint Ward? The team had Anti-Ward vision in pretty much every corner of Bot Jungle, so it should have been impossible for anybody to slip in a Checkpoint Ward in one of the few uncovered areas. Doing so would require either clairvoyance or cheats. But, if it the Checkpoint Ward wasn’t in Bot Jungle, then where...?

Don’t tell me, from the lane!? Yuel couldn’t believe it, but that was the only explanation. Somebody must have placed a Checkpoint Ward on the lane itself!

In retrospect, it was a bit odd how easily the enemy gave up on the warding war in Bot Jungle. Howard knew the importance of vision, so he’d never allow the enemy to control Bot Jungle like this unless it was a misdirection all along...

It was a trap, no two ways about it. Yuel thought he found an easy exploit in the enemy’s thick formation but turned out it was a bait. They lured Lars into pushing Bot, just so they could arrange this situation.

Yet again, it’ll be a 1v1 between Lars and Taison. Yet again, Taison had HP advantage because he teleported here from the base. And, yet again, Lars had little-to-no chance of escaping. This was a huge blunder, but the goof definitely didn’t realize that.

“Awesome!” Lars exclaimed. “Exactly what I was asking for!”

This guy... Yuel sighed. There was a difference of about 30% HP between them. Did Lars really think he could overcome that gap in a 1v1 against Taison? Was he even thinking at all? No, probably not. He just wanted to duke it out with Taison and get his revenge.

Unfortunately, there was nothing Yuel could say to help here. Lars's defensive play was poor, so his chances of getting out of this situation by playing defense were slim. Therefore, unfortunately, fighting all-out against Taison was probably the safer approach for Lars. This was going to go south fast...

“Try getting as far away as you can,” Yuel said. “Don't fight too hard if you see you're losing.”

“Don't worry, yo!” Lars fired a shot and hit Taison in the chest. I ain't gonna lose this time! I already know headshots aren’t good against this dude, so I not gonna waste any shots on that. I just gotta keep hitting him till he drops, yo!

Lars fired, rolled, fired, sidestepped and fired again. Taison rolled, fired, sidestepped and rolled. They danced around and exchanging blows. In term of skill, neither had a clear0cut advantage. But...

Huh! Taison sneered. That's all ya got? It’s like ya shooting turtles, kahaha!

Geh! Why is he so fast!? Lars fired one shot right after another, but Taison somehow had enough time to dodge-roll in-between. So fast! No, it actually wasn't Taison who was fast. It's Lars’s shots, they're so slow as heck!

Welp, I guess that's what happens when you don't buy any attack speed. As much as Lars liked Gunslinger, the mid-game always felt so slow. He didn't build any attack speed despite being a Carry because Gunslinger relied on Fan the Hammer for delivering ultra-fast shots. The Attack Speed stat didn’t affect the speed of the shots during Fan the Hammer, so there wasn’t much reason to buy any attack speed items for Gunslinger.

So, Lars mainly had power and penetration in his build. And look at this, even a Jungler was attacking faster than him. He was totally losing face as a Carry, yo!

Can't this cooldown tick faster!? Lars threw glances at the ticking number every couple of seconds. Fan the Hammer was still offline because he just used it to push the tower. He somehow held his ground against Taison with basics so far, but he really needed Fan the Hammer to turn this around.

No choice! I just gonna dodge everything! Lars rolled, then Combat Rolled and then ran around.

The heck ya doing, man? Taison raised a brow. Trying to escape? Not under my watch!

Taison closed in to improve his accuracy. No way he gonna let this scrub get away with this embarrassing performance. Taison gonna destroy that scrub again and prove that he was No.1! He ain’t gonna be overshadowed by Lars anymore!

Duuuude! Lars was backed into a corner. Yeah, this plan to stall for time by dodging shots was a bust. Lars didn’t have the defensive capabilities to pull off such a pro-level maneuver.

Taison was hella savage, he closed on Lars like it was nothing. This ain't good, Lars was already down to 10% HP. He gonna lose at this rate!

But, Lars was still alive and Fan the Hammer finally came outta cooldown. This was the chance to turn things around! Even Taison gonna have trouble dodging headshots against super-fast shots, especially now that they were so close to each other. This was the moment of an overthrow!

Fan dat hammer with all ya got, yo! Lars spun the revolver's hammer and aimed at Taison. It was now or never! Fire! ...dang it.

The bullet didn't miss, but it didn't hit either. Taison just turned himself into a freakin’ coffin. Lars was trying to wreck his life, but dude just went off to sleep!

That's right, Taison smirked. That's exactly what I think of ya right now: you put me to sleep, bro. Too easy!

Geh, what now? Lars fired at the coffin, but the bullet didn't deal any damage. Coffin Slumber made Taison invulnerable to everything, so Lars first had to land multiple basic attacks to pull Taison outta that state. What's even more annoying, that beauty sleep also recovered some of Taison’s HP. It was the most hax skill ever!

Lars has already started the barrage of Fan the Hammer, so he couldn't cancel it. There was no choice but to keep shooting and shooting until he runs out of bullets. And, he couldn’t even use this opportunity to escape because his movement was reduced while he fired. This situation was wack.

My ace went down the toilet. Lars twisted his lips. Welp, this was kinda bad. Like, seriously flippin’ bad. He was forced to spend the entirety of Fan the Hammer merely on kicking Taison outta bed. And, once Taison finished his beauty sleep...

『You have been killed!』

It ended, just like that. Lars lost for the second time. Taison totally got him. Damn it.

So, Lars couldn't do it after all. Yuel shook his head. It wasn't much of a surprise considering Gunslinger was at its weakest during the mid-game due to its reliance on Fan the Hammer. The mid-game was like the uncanny valley of the class because, at this point, Fan the Hammer was already a rather deadly tool, but the build didn't have enough attack power and cooldown reduction to turn it into a consistent threat quite yet. It wasn’t Lars's fault.

“I...” Lars muttered. “I can't beat that dude...”

“Eh?” Yuel was sure his ears were playing tricks on him. Lars? Giving up? That concept should have been alien to that optimistic goof. If Lars loses faith, the entire team will be doomed.

Maybe this match was already over. Howard and Gregory's rotation to Mid forced everybody to retreat. Dan got killed and Yuel was forced to recall to base. Only Julia remained healthy because she stayed far in the backline and only poked from afar every now and then. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much she could do alone against four enemies on the lane.

Yuel’s team lost Mid Lane and Lars was losing any hope of winning against Taison. This was turning hopeless. Maybe they have already lost...

“I can't beat Tai, not yet,” Lars clenched his fists. “I need to get more power first. Mid-game Gunslinger just doesn't cut it. Once I get my build going, I'mma kick Tai's butt!”

He didn't give up at all! Yuel found himself smiling. That's right, what was Yuel even thinking? This was far from over. So what if they lost initiative? So what if they lost control of Mid? So what if Lars lost to Taison twice? There was still a game to play, they still had time to turn things around before late-game!

As the captain and shot-caller, it was Yuel's job to figure out how they could mount a comeback. The enemy defense was strong, but not impenetrable. There had to be a way to break through it! This wasn't over it. Yuel and Lars's ticket to the competitive scene was riding on this match, so they’ll win this second game and earn their spots on the first string!