Yuel started the long-awaited match review, the dreadful ritual that’ll expose everybody’s weaknesses in public. His first victim was Kai.

“Let’s start from the first game.” Yuel played the video. The first scene showed Kai recklessly picking a fight against TheLegend and almost getting herself killed.

“We’re really going there, huh?” Kai averted her eyes. They had just started the meeting and she was already shuddering. It looks like Luke was right for once. This thing is going to be one serious public shaming rollercoaster.

“Please make sure to watch it,” Yuel insisted. “I know it’s hard to come face-to-face with your mistakes, especially the embarrassing ones, but you have to get used to it.”

“Yep,” Lars followed up. “Take it from me, yo. When we just started playing together, Yuel reminded me 24/7 that I’m a total scrub, haha.”

“I don’t think I ever called you a ‘scrub’.”

“You didn’t use the word, but that’s what you were basically saying. Anyway, the point is, dude made me sit through tons of scolding lectures like this. Was it fun? Nope, not at all. But, I’m still alive, right? And, I think I’ve gotten pretty good thanks to that.”

“No pain, no gain,” Vincent added. “There is no doubt we all will encounter countless hardships along the way. However! Overcoming these hardships shall steel our hearts and make us better players than we ever before!”

“Alright, alright.” Kai sighed and turned back to the screen. Everybody and their mom were on her case, so she couldn’t wiggle her way out of this. Just you wait until your turns. I wanna see you talking big then.

“Okay, so about this play,” Yuel continued. “Let’s watch it first from start to end.”

In the video, Kai assaulted TheLegend, got into an awkward 10 IQ duel, and the entire thing ended with her running for her life. It was a beautiful Bronze-quality performance.

Just kill me. Like, right now. Kai facepalmed with both hands and hung her head. This might just be the most embarrassing moment of her life.

“Let’s keep watching,” Yuel insisted. “There’s more.”

Next, it showed another stupid fight she picked against TheLegend. After that, there were two examples of reckless fights she picked against Renegade.

In all these cases, Kai recklessly took the initiative and went on the offensive. And, every time, it ended in a disaster. She either barely made it out alive, or she didn’t survive at all.

“In Games 3 and 4 in particular,” Yuel said. “These deaths gave the enemy tremendous momentum. It won’t be an exaggeration to say they sealed the team’s fate.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Kai didn’t have the willpower to resist. She felt naked in front of the crowd. This video laid bare her most embarrassing mistakes. She was hoping to sweep all these embarrassing moments under the rug, but there was no escape from her scrubby past.

“Now, let me ask you this,” Yuel leveled a question to the audience. “What was the recurring mistake in all these examples?”

“Kai got her ass whooped real hard!” Luke laughed.

“Yes, that was the end result,” Yuel agreed. “But, even if she won some of these fights, I’d still count them as misplays.”

“Wut?” Luke cocked his head. “How will it be a misplay if she wins? That shit makes no sense.”

“Victory or defeat, that’s just the end result. It’s the decision-making process that matters. Do you agree, Kai?”

“I think I know what you wanna say.” Kai sighed. “You’re saying I picked bad fights.”

“Yes, that’s right. Can you explain what was so bad about them?”

“Well, I didn’t really have anything going for me in these fights,” Kai explained. “No life lead, no power advantage, no better positioning. Nothing, basically. There wasn’t any good reason to believe I’d win, except for thinking I’m better than these scrubs.”

“I’m glad you figured it all out by yourself.”

“Well, thanks. I’m not an idiot, you know? You saw how many times I tried that shit and it blew up in my face. I had to learn a lesson at some point.”

“If you understand this much, then that makes things easier,” Yuel said. “Since you know what you did wrong, do you mind sharing what led to these misplays and how you plan to improve for the future?”

“What led to them, huh.” Kai smiled wryly. My own damn arrogance, that’s what.

Kai was Challenger rank in Duel, so she thought she was some hot stuff when it came to fights. In fact, just as her rank implied, she crushed most opponents in 1v1s even in the MOBA mode. So, whenever she had to 1v1 somebody, it usually made sense to assume she gonna win.

Alas, that kind of thinking was too naive for the competitive scene. The players who gathered there were all strong.

It’s like these rare cases when Kai happened to encounter an exceptionally powerful opponent in Ranked. Except, in this case, the entire enemy team was stacked with opponents of that caliber.

Unfortunately, she didn’t realize that in time. She allowed her anger to get the best of her, which made her attack every bastard who insulted her. And, the end result was usually far from positive. As Luke put it, Kai got her ass whooped.

“I underestimated our opponents,” Kai summarized. “I thought I’ll beat them easy in a 1v1, but that clearly didn’t happen.”

“That’s correct.” Yuel nodded. “You may be a Challenger in Duel, but the players you’ll face in competitive matches will be just as good. So, even when you think you’re stronger than your opponent, you should always assume it’s going to be a hard fight in which nothing is guaranteed. Which means, unless you have a clear advantage, you should avoid challenging them alone.”

“Yeah, I already figured as much.”

“The same applies to everybody here.” Yuel looked at each of them in order. “Don’t start fights unless you have a leg up on your opponents. This is a common bad habit from Ranked, especially for those who play Duel. No matter how good you think you are, you should assume your opponents are going to be just as good.”

“Yeah, that sure applies to everybody,” Kai said. “That is, except for Lars.”

“Me?” Lars pointed at himself.

“Yeah, you.” Kai shot Yuel a look. “I agree with what you’re saying, but you don’t follow your own suggestion. You let Lars fight 1v1 multiple times even when he had nothing going for him. Care to explain why Lars is an exception to that rule?”

“Lars by himself isn’t an exception,” Yuel said. “If he starts a fight without a clear advantage, I’ll stop him too.”

“You say so, but you let him fight alone many times during the scrimmage and he didn’t have any big advantages in any of these cases. For example, that one time he fought the Berserker while pushing Bot. The odds were stacked against him, but you approved it.”

“It’s was a difficult decision to make,” Yuel admitted. “I mulled over it for quite some time. In fact, it took me so long to reach a decision that it was almost too late.”

“But, in the end, you still approved it.”

“Yeah, I did,. Lars is strong in 1v1s, but not to the point he can consistently win against competitive opponents. Normally I’d stop him, but it’s a different story when he’s playing Trickshooter or Gunslinger. With these classes, I believe his skill level transcends common sense.”

“Huh, sounds like you’re playing favorites.” Kai rolled her eyes.

“I admit, it sounds like bias,” Yuel said. “But, you should know what I’m talking about. You have been dueling Lars every now and then, right?”

“Sure have.”

“So, how often do you win against his Trickshooter and Gunslinger?”

“Eh...” Kai opened and closed her mouth. She had nothing. Did she ever win against these two classes?

She did score a clutch victory once by outsmarting Lars, but other than that...

『DEFEAT』『DEFEAT』『DEFEAT』『DEFEAT』『DEFEAT』『DEFEAT』

She could only recall the red letters informing her of her downfall. There was no question that, with Trickshooter and Gunslinger, Lars was in a league of his own.

“Well? I assume you haven’t won much.”

“I-I won a couple of times...” Kai averted her eyes.

“Did ya?” Lars cocked his head. “Pretty sure ya beat me only once. That was a sick game, tho! Totally fooled me with that backdoor, haha.”

“I see.” Yuel nodded. “So, you beat his best classes in Duel once. That’s very impressive in its own right, but it sounds like you used the rules of Duel mode to your advantage. You didn’t actually defeat him in a proper 1v1, did you?

“Yeah, I guess I didn’t.” Kai gave up.

“So, there you have it,” Yuel said. “I’d normally stop Lars from picking reckless fights, just as I’d stop anybody else. But, when he’s playing Trickshooter or Gunslinger, I just can’t imagine him losing a fight, even against competitive players. I hope this answer satisfies you.”

“Yeah, sure.” Kai didn’t exactly like it, but it was a reasonable compromise.

“Of course, I’ll be keeping a close eye on things,” Yuel said. “The further we go, the stronger our opponents will be. So, we might eventually run into opponents even Lars won’t be able to handle, not even with his best classes. If that happens, some adjustments will be in order.”

“C’mon, that ain’t gonna happen!” Lars flashed his teeth. “Bring ‘em on, yo! My Shooter and Slinger gonna make quick work of them!”

“Well said!” Vincent hyped things up. “That’s the unbeatable Insane Beast of the Apocalypse that I know!”

“So, let’s summarize.” Yuel cut off the excitement before it derailed the meeting. “Kai, make sure to work on your bad habit of challenging players to duels. I recommend practicing this in Ranked. From now on, pretend that all your opponents in Ranked are strong competitive players and play accordingly.”

“Sounds like an annoying handicap.” Kai made a face.

“Yes, considering how often you win duels in Ranked, that’s definitely going to be a handicap for you. But, in the long run, it’ll help you develop better habits for real matches. Of course, if you can think of better methods to practice it, then go for it.”

“Got it. I’ll work on it,” Kai promised, both to Yuel and to herself. However, that wasn’t all she promised. With all that said, I still think this is a waste. I mean, I don’t grind Duel just to get that pretty rank. I wanna get to the level where I can consistently win 1v1s against anybody, even competitive players.

Kai was Challenger rank in Duel, so she was supposed to be a major threat to the enemy team. And yet, Taurus didn’t care about her combat skills in the slightest. They never showed any signs of being scared of her and they didn’t think twice before picking a fight.

Worst of all, many of the fights didn’t go her way. That only further made her look like a weakling who couldn’t fight back. It was pathetic.

Each time I messed up, they probably laughed their damn asses off. I bet they were all like “Look at this girl, thinking she can play video games.” There’s no way I gonna sit there and let our next opponents laugh at me. I’ll make everybody fear me as a 1v1 specialist!

But, that was easier said than done. Everybody was strong on the competitive scene and Kai only experienced the tip of the iceberg so far.

The Taurus they fought had plenty of strong players, yet the team wasn’t even considered that “good” compared to previous years. And, it definitely couldn’t begin to compare to powerhouses like StormBlitz and the Leopards.

I’ll have to fight even stronger opponents from here on out. Kai clenched her fists. If I want them to respect my dueling skills, I have to improve more, a lot more. Honestly, it almost sounds like an unachievable dream right now.

But, it was very much possible. In fact, there was one clubmate who had already reached that higher plane of existence: Lars. The guy legit instilled fear in his opponent as an unbeatable powerhouse.

I have to get to the point I can put up a fight against his Shooter and Slinger. Once that happens, I’ll become somebody my opponents have to respect. That was Kai’s main resolution for the near future.

Of course, as promised to Yuel, she’ll work on developing better habits. She’ll get used to avoiding 1v1s in which she didn’t have a decisive advantage.

However, at the same time, she’ll also work on boosting her dueling skills. And, the first milestone would be to fight Lars’s strongest classes on equal ground.

It’s a long-term project, but I’ll get it done before the regionals.

If all goes well, even powerhouses would soon recognize her as a threat. And, with that strength, she’ll carry the team to victory as the captain!