“What I told Lars applies to everybody here,” Yuel said. “We’ve pretty much played all our cards in this scrimmage, so you can expect all our future opponents to know everything we’re going to bring to the table. So, it’s a good idea to innovate some of your gameplay before the next match.”

“But,” Kai interjected. “The same way they gonna know our tech, we also gonna know their tricks. They can get our replays and we can get theirs.”

“Correct,” Yuel agreed. “Especially, a lot of data should be available on the Leopards because their tradition is to scrimmage against every team in the region.”

“Every team!? For real!?” Luke jumped. “Man, these guys don’t skip leg day.”

“Yes. they’re quite busy. They’ll have their first scrimmage in two days, and then another one a week and a half after that. So, we’ll have two of their matches to study before facing them, whereas they’ll only get to see one match of ours”

“Information advantage!” Vincent pumped his fist. “I love the sound of that! The underdog shall triumph over the regional champion thanks to the power of information!”

“That’s only provided they’ll actually show all their cards in these two games,” Yuel said. “They have a big club, so they can rotate many different players for these scrimmages. I’ve studied them last year, so I know a few things about how their coach operates.”

The Leopards had the biggest middle school club in the region because their school treated it as a prestigious sports club. Their club was far superior to the rest of the Classmancers clubs in the region, so much that it was the only club with a professional coach.

Since the school passionately supported the club and urged students to join, naturally the club housed many players every year As such, the Leopards had the luxury to rotate through many different players across their many scrimmages.

And, that’s exactly what their coach did. Instead of making the Leopards’ first-string play through all the games, the coach often let other players fill in every now and then.

“Based on what I observed last year,” Yuel explained. “They start out most games with their first-string. Then, after the first couple of games, their coach makes a call.”

If the Leopards’ first-string overwhelmed the enemy, then it was time to rotate players around. Essentially, such weak opponents lost their rights to compete against the Leopards’ best. Such was the inevitable fate of many teams in the region. Most of them only lasted for 2~3 games before being deemed unworthy.

In fact, in Stratus’ case, the call was usually made after a single game. That’s all it took to convince the Leopards that Stratus was no competition for them.

StormBlitz was one of the few to consistently earn the right to fight until the very end. Last year, they held their ground against the Leopards’ first-string during the entire scrimmage and even won. Though, they ultimately lost at the regionals.

“So,” Kai said. “If they start subbing different players against us, it means they don’t consider us a threat?”

“At the very least, it means their coach doesn’t consider it necessary to go all out against us to win the scrimmage. So, he’d most likely choose to sub out the first-string in order to minimize the amount of data they show their rivals.”

“Tch, cocky bastards.” Kai clicked her tongue.

“Personally,” Vincent said. “I believe this is an act of mercy on Mr. Rodriguez’s part.”

“Mercy?” Kai raised an eyebrow. “They’re literally making fun of their opponents.”

“Not at all,” Vincent argued. “Mr. Rodriguez would only ever sub out the first-string when it overwhelms the opposition too much, to the point it’s not even a competition. In other words, only when the other team is completely, utterly, and thoroughly crushed.”

“Okay, so? It doesn’t change the fact he looks down on that team.”

“No, no, no, you misunderstand. He doesn’t look down on them at all. He masterfully gauges their skill level with the eyes of an experienced veteran and only then makes the appropriate call. That’s because, if the Leopards’ first-string is found too powerful for the enemy team, then the scrimmage will lose its value for both sides. The strong won’t get enough challenge, whereas the weak will struggle to learn any valuable lessons from their crushing defeats.”

“And?” Kai asked. “Are you saying that justifies switching out their best players for some second-string guys? I don’t like that. I rather keep fighting against their main team even if it means losing. What’s the point of fighting their weaker players when we have to beat their first-string at the regionals anyway? That’s dumb.”

“Hmm. Indeed, that is also true.” Vincent nodded. “Nonetheless, I claim that’s a mentality you can only maintain as a strong player from a strong team that actually holds a chance of winning. For example, suppose we play against the Leopards and get completely destroyed in the first three games. Would it not be better to lower the difficulty a little at that point?”

“Hmph. Lowering difficulty is for losers. You gotta keep challenging that Expert difficulty until you nail the perfect score.”

“As expected from the ironclad amazon.” Vincent nodded with a meaningful smile. “Nevertheless, I believe my take on the topic is far closer to how the average joe would see it. If the team stands no chance, they rather fight the Leopards’ second-best players. This way, both sides will get to experience a fair challenge that’ll help them improve their mettle. It’s a win-win for everybody! Indeed, such ingenious planning from Mr. Rodriguez!”

“You really like sucking up to that guy, huh.” Kai made a face.

“I admit, I hold admiration toward Mr. Rodriguez,” Vincent said. “He is the only one in the region who agreed to become a coach for a middle-school Classmancers team. From what I gathered, most coaches prefer to work with high-schoolers, given the unruly nature of younger students.”

“I can see that. I wouldn’t want to deal with brats either.”

“However! Mr. Rodriguez is different. He deemed it necessary to lead the younger generation from an earlier stage of their lives, so he dedicated himself to the task. The man is doing God’s work at the expense of his own life!”

“A little melodramatic, but I get what you’re saying.” Kai nodded. “So, you admire him for that?”

“That and much more!” Vincent proclaimed loudly. “His principles and teaching techniques deserve endless praise! He evolved the Leopards from a no-name team into the reigning regional champions they’re now! Even if another middle-school coach were to show up in our region, I’m sure they’d struggle to compete against the many accomplishments of the genius Mr. Rodriguez.”

“Well,” Yuel interjected. “I don’t mind you being a fanboy, but you have to look at things objectively.”

“Meaning?” Vincent tilted his head.

“There might be some goodwill in Rodriguez’s intentions when he rotates players during scrimmages. Maybe he really wants to keep the competition fair and challenging for both sides. But, you can’t deny the fact these rotations are also very convenient for the Leopards. The fewer opportunities the first-string gets to show its full power on stage, the harder it is to gather data on them.”

“That is also correct,” Vincent conceded. “However, I claim that’s a secondary consideration at best. If Mr. Rodriguez truly wished to hide the first-string, he wouldn’t issue so many scrimmages for the team. After all, his principle is to hold a scrimmage against every team in the region. That does not sound like the actions of somebody who is trying to be secretive, does it?”

“You’re right about that, I’ll give you that much. But, this is yet another example of a ‘goodwill’ routine that benefits the Leopards too.”

“How so?”

“Playing against many different teams has its own benefits. For one, it pretty much guarantees that the Leopards will become the first seed at the regionals. Even if they happen to lose a couple of scrimmages, it will barely hurt their overall standing. These few losses will be a negligible percent from the total number of matches they play.”

“But, didn’t they only get 4th seed last year? They suffered many defeats. The big number of scrimmages they’ve gone through definitely played against them that year”

“I suspect that’s intentional,” Yuel said. “They probably wanted to avoid facing StormBlitz at the finals.”

Last year, StromBlitz’s first-string triumphed over the Leopards’ first-string in the scrimmage. However, it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing for StormBlitz. They only won because the scrimmage ended up being a long, drawn-out fight.

At first, StormBlitz was losing and struggled to adapt to the enemy. However, little by little, they started gaining momentum and turned things around.

It came as no surprise that the StormBlitz of that year was a slow-starter, given it had adaptive late-game players like Aron and Ellen on the team. Both of them were at their strongest after they’ve thoroughly deconstructed their foes, and doing so usually took a while against strong opponents.

Once StormBlitz finished adapting, they went on a winning streak and ultimately defeated the Leopards. That must’ve left quite the impression on Rodriguez. He probably figured it was best to avoid meeting StormBlitz at the finals, which was a best-of-five match.

The rest of the tournament was best-of-three matches, so the Leopards had a very high chance of winning there. As such, it was very much possible the Leopards went on a losing streak in the following scrimmages in order to lower their seed all the way down to 4th. The 4th seed was guaranteed to run into the 1st seed at the semi-finals, and that’s exactly where the Leopards eliminated StormBlitz from the tournament.

“So,” Yuel said. “I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but I find it hard to believe Rodriguez is the ‘holy man’ you think he is. He’s a shrewd coach, no doubt about it. Though, personally, I respect that part of him.”

“I see, I see. A shrewd strategist respects his kin.” Vincent smiled meaningfully. “Very well. I concede that your conspiracy theory has some footing. I won’t deny that it’s definitely possible and not out of the question that Mr. Rodriguez occasionally pulls some strings to secure the Leopards’ victory.”

“You bet he does,” Luke said. “The school gave that bruh a huge club and all them nice conditions. They gonna fire his ass if he can’t at least take regionals, haha.”

“Sounds about right,” Yuel agreed. “I don’t know the man personally, so I can’t confirm or deny how much he cares about ‘fair’ scrimmages. But what I do know, is that he absolutely wants to see the Leopards take the regionals every year and he’s willing to use any weapons at his disposal to that end. So, with that in mind, it’s only natural to assume he rotates players during scrimmages to benefit the Leopards as well, not only to hold ‘fair’ matches.”

“Very well,” Vincent conceded. “I still believe in Mr. Rodriguez’s good intentions but your hypothesis sounds plausible too. Either way, we can conclude that the Leopards won’t necessarily reveal all their cards in the two scrimmages we’ll get to witness.”

“Correct. We’ll most likely uncover many new things once we face them ourselves. So, in that sense, the enemy will most likely have the information advantage. That is, unless we develop new weapons for the next scrimmage.”

Yuel glanced at every club member in order, making sure they were all attentive for this final part of the meeting.

“First, I suggest you all work on the problems I’ve presented here today. After that, it’ll be a good idea to start thinking about how you can improve your performance further. Maybe there’s a mechanical skill you can polish or a good class you can get more experience with. There are many ways to go about this. If you feel like you’re stuck, it’s always a good idea to discuss this with the rest of the club.”

“You mean, discuss it with you.” Luke snickered. “Ya know, I just realized something. You’ve been lecturing our asses for hours now, but I haven’t seen the part where we roast you. You ain’t gonna pretend you played perfectly, are you?”

“Not at all,” Yuel answered. “I considered adding the critique I have toward myself to the meeting, but there’s too much of it and most of it is very high-level. Not to mention, it’d be difficult to present these misplays via footage.”

“Heh, sounds like excuses to me. You just don’t wanna be roasted, admit it.”

“Hmph. Very well.” Yuel pulled out a stack of papers from his bag. “If you insist, we can go over my misplays as well. It should take about 4 hours.”

“What the heck?” Luke flipped through the stack of papers. There were loads of timestamps and notes about many different plays. It was kinda like the contents of today’s meeting, but...

“Bruh, is this the Bible?” Luke made a face. “Look at all this text! There’s no end to it! Stahp it! Stahp!”

There were walls upon walls of text under every single play, analyzing the plays with unbelievable depth.

“Dang, I bet ya really like Geometry, doncha?” Luke cracked a laugh as he found some pages with complicated diagrams. Of course, he understood these weren’t just some abstract ass geometric shapes like the boring ones they teach at school. Nah, these were all legit drawings of map positions and team formations.

“Man, maybe I should’ve listened a little harder during Geometry lessons because I can’t make head or tails of this, haha.”

“It has nothing to do with Geometry,” Yuel said. “I doubt anybody here will be able to understand these diagrams unless I explain what specific information I was trying to present there. But, if you insist that we should discuss my misplays too, then let me teach you.”

“Haha, fun...” Luke realized he stepped on a landmine. This bruh is a mad scientist! I shouldn’t have said anything! RIP.

“Haha, just give it a rest, dude.” Lars patted Luke on the shoulder. “Yuel is always harsh as heck on everybody, but that’s actually just his ‘nice’ mode’”

“Fo real? You telling me he’s holding back when he roasts us at like 1000 degrees?”

“Yep, he can do way worse. Like, way, way, WAY worse. But, he holds back to not make us feel like total scrubs.”

“Welp, I already feel like a total scrub after today’s review so thanks for nothing I guess, haha. So, like, when does he get all serious?”

“Usually when dude criticizes himself,” Lars explained. “If ya think he was harsh on anybody here today, then just imagine he’s like ten times harsher on himself. He’s that kind of dude.”

“You kidding me...” Luke glanced at the stack of paper again. All these text walls and diagrams must’ve taken a long ass time to make. And, they all seem to be critiques of Yuel’s own shot-calls. There was an in-depth analysis of every single play, covering everybody’s positions, mentioning the various important factors to consider, and going over the different options Yuel could’ve gone for, including pros and cons.

Bruh legit sat down for HOURS to write this HUGE self-hate Bible. Luke smiled awkwardly. There are papers, papers, and more papers of mistakes he made. This is insanity!

“So?” Yuel asked. “Do you want me to discuss my own mistakes as well? I haven’t finished analyzing all of them thoroughly but there’s enough material for a couple of hours.”

“No, no! It’s alright!” Luke replied in a hurry. “Forget I asked, man. Please spare me the lectures. I hate Geometry!”

Everybody laughed at Luke’s nonsense. With that, the match review came to an end. They discussed many things here today and everybody found at least one area they had to improve on during the upcoming weeks.

For most people here, it was their first time sitting through such a long and intense Classmancers meeting, so the club agreed to disband for today without any training. It was best for everybody to go home, take a rest, and reflect on what they’ve learned here today.

Of course, Yuel and Lars had every intention to do their after-school training routine as usual. Yuel was already used to straining his brain for long periods of time, whereas Lars... Well, that goof probably didn’t even use much of his brain in the first place, so he was fine.

“I present thee the blue key that’ll lead you to the sealed records of your achievements!” Vincent passed around a link to the folder in which he stored all of today’s videos. His mom had a premium account for a lot of cloud storage, so he borrowed some of that space for his recordings. And, turned out there were additional, yet unseen, videos in that same folder.

“Behold my videocraft!” Vincent made noise. “I ripped apart the main video, cutting it down into smaller bits for your convenience. Each and every one of you can find a video dedicated personally to them.”

“That’s really convenient,” Yuel said. He didn’t even request such a thing, yet Vincent went the extra length to ensure everybody could make the most out of this match review. This guy is usually such a clown but he pulls through when it counts the most. And, that’s why I need him to help me one more time so we can wrap up this match review in the truest sense.

There was one club member who wasn’t present here today and was absent back during the scrimmage as well. One elusive club member who dodged all the harsh criticism he undoubtedly deserved.

Why was Ben getting a free pass for all of this? Vincent surely knew the answer.

Enough is enough. Yuel decided. It’s time to get to the bottom of this problem.

Either Ben was a part of this club or he wasn’t. This team was aiming to win the regionals, so they needed any manpower they could get their hands on. As such, the situation with Ben had to be resolved ASAP.

“Well then!” Vincent said loudly after noticing Yuel’s lingering gaze. “Excuse me, but I have to run today! Indeed, I have a lot of work in my packed schedule! Farewell, my friends! Let us meet again someday in this Den of Undiscovered Potential!”

Vincent paced toward the exit with quick strides, almost as if running. No, in fact, he was running away! But, Yuel was prepared for the possibility.

“Wait,” Yuel grabbed Vincent’s shirt from behind. “We still have one unfinished business.”

Yuel wasn’t going to let this topic slip away. Not this time.