A clash sound took place as all of us hit the "Accept Match" button that popped up when STORM initiated the scrimmage request.

Scrimmage Mode was underway for our Umbra Warriors match.

Good Game Girls (GGG) versus STORM.

STORM was an official member of the league we played in, and many would label them about somewhere in the middle of the pack. Not particularly amazing. Not particularly awful. Very average in many regards. A great litmus test as far as scrimmage practice goes for this afternoon.

I always loved a chance to scrim. They differed from regular ranked matches we all had to practice in to keep our skills sharp. But in a scrim or on stage, these matches required a lot more effort and coordination as a team to pull off a standard win. I lived for these kinds of games.

Umbra Warriors was a 4v4 game in the MOBA genre. The two sides were Light and Dark, respectively, which faced each other horizontally on the map. For this particular scrimmage, we ended up on the Light side. The name of the game is to work toward the enemy side's "base" and destroy the main structure called Crystal.

To do so, players maneuver their Warriors throughout the map using their abilities to carry out fights and attain various objectives. Because each Warrior brings different aspects to the table, accomplishing this goal of getting to the enemy team's Crystal was never entirely be the same in every match. No two games were ever identical in this regard.

Warriors possessed varying strengths and weaknesses that every player has to account for during any standard match.

The selection process was about to start in our scrim. We entered the character selection screen that showcased all of the game's current roster of warriors. A few dozen to pick from at this point.

Umbra Warriors used an all-female cast of all sorts of types. Whether you wanted a human character or perhaps a monster, the roster usually had something for everyone based on their personal style.

For Draft Mode, the mode was meant to replicate the competitive stage's standard method. This meant the banning phase and picking phase alternated. Before actually selecting your characters, players "banned" Warriors initially. By banning Warriors, this prevented particular characters for the upcoming match. No duplicate bans were allowed. Usually, players banned away Warriors they did not like facing or perhaps it is a character that counters their own individual or team strat.

In the context of an organized team, banning had a lot more weight to it. Each ban, ideally, needed a purpose. You often banned the other team's best Warriors to cripple them in some way, but the other side did the same to you as well. This Warrior Selection process had a lot of chess moves taking place before any of us actually hit the map.

Afterward, the players got to pick the Warriors in between phases (players can always swap around the appropriate Warrior among themselves to make sure the right player ended up with the right kind of pick). It followed a sequence that looked confusing at face value, but it all made sense once you went through it a few times.

The Draft Mode sequence went like this:

Light Ban 1, Dark Ban 2, Light Ban 2, Dark Ban 2

Light Pick 1, Dark Pick 1, Dark Pick 2, Light Pick 2

Dark Ban 3, Light Ban 3, Light Ban 4, Dark Ban 4

Dark Pick 3, Light Pick 3, Light Pick 4, Dark Pick 4

Basically, the setup included pros and cons throughout the steps. When everything was said and done, eight Warriors got banned from the upcoming match while another eight Warriors got played.

"OK, let's see if we can figure out their strat," Kalysta began to guide us while standing over our shoulders. "STORM doesn't stray from the meta that often. They usually play the standard when they can help it."

I was a bit distracted still thinking about Yuuko, but I tried to focus on the selection process. All of us had different ways to cope with the stress, even if this was a scrimmage that did not matter if we won or lose.

Madison was rarely chatty. She often muttered a few words of input here and there. Ngoc was often really aggressive about who she wanted to ban or pick. She challenged Kalysta's strategies a lot, but Kalysta remained stern with her judgments. Finally, Selena always wanted to discuss with what was best our team composition. She always thought about how she fit into the team's puzzle and never cared so much about the individual glory. I enjoyed playing with Selena for that alone.

"Just remember to make me look good," Ngoc arrogantly boasted as she cracked her knuckles. I scoffed to the side as our 30-second buffer time went away. For regular matches, this was the time you were supposed to use to talk about your intended roles and strategies.

The character selection screen had eight boxes, four on the left and right respectively, with our usernames. The center displayed the Warriors for the banning and picking process.

In each of the username boxes, it looked something like this as an example.

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GGG Cougress

[Highest-Rated Warrior Role 1] [Highest-Rated Warrior Role 2] [Ban] [Warrior Selection]

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Essentially, the highest-rated role parts displayed your Warriors' icons with the highest win percentage in their respective roles. So my two best roles were top and then jungler. The icons in these slots purposefully gave the other team an inkling about the kind of characters I played.

Otherwise, players ended up banning/picking random Warriors without enough strategic merit. This was meant to cut down on the "blind" selections to give them more oomph. When other players saw my name box during Warrior Selection, they knew what my best characters were and could thus ban or pick the characters away from me. Or perhaps they wanted me to pick my best characters, which then allowed them to counter me.

There was a lot of strategies here on so many levels. After all, you had to account for all seven other players, not just yourself, when making these decisions.

For each ban or pick, you had 30 seconds to decide on something (you can also choose not to ban). If you went AFK and did not ban someone, the game ate away your ban. If you do so during a picking portion, your pick became random.

"Their best player plays a lot of Thora," Selena chimed in while looking over at the opposing STORM side. A bit fitting that a team named STORM had a player who was good with a Warrior who used lightning powers. "I think Thora would be a good ban here."

"Yes, I agree," Kalysta nodded. "Janis, ban away Thora with our first ban."

"Got it," I replied as I hovered over Thora, the Lady of Lightning's portrait and clicked to ban her. On the Warrior roster, her icon suddenly went red with a big red X through it to indicate the ban.

"Shocking," Thora's voice line played after the ban in a sarcastic tone. A cute touch. A lot of Warriors got annoyed or angry they got banned and would say a line. Thora was a lightning goddess who shocked enemies to death. She had a lot of dangerous spells that were devastating if she could land her attacks on you.

STORM proceeded to ban two Warriors rather quickly without using all of their buffer time between each selection. They banned Esther, the Shining Paladin (a flex pick mostly geared as a top laner or support) and Freesia, the Butterfly Fairy (mostly played as support). Esther was a tank character who could take a lot of punishment. Freesia was a shifty character who caused a lot of disarray when played properly.

"Hmph, sunshine always returns the next day," Esther grunted in her British accent.

"Nooooo! Not me!!!" Freesia's squeaky voice echoed.

Madison decided to comment on what our next ban would be because she felt like it.

"Let's get rid of Kurome. I hate going against her," Madison said unenthusiastically. If no one knew her, some would have thought Madison was sarcastic.

"Sure," Kalysta agreed as she OK'd Madison to ban Kurome, the Shadow Samurai (top laner). Just like that, Kurome got banned as the red X crossed out her portrait.

"You can never truly escape the shadows," Kurome replied in her cool voice fit for a superhero. Kurome wielded a long katana that could magically cut the air to create shadows to engulf enemies in darkness. Her signature aspect of creating a silhouette that mirrored her movements spawned a lot of wannabes. However, a skillful player with Kurome had the potential to wipe the floor with just anyone if played to her full capabilities.

Kurome... That was Yuuko's signature Warrior, I thought. Shoot, there I went again! I just had a hard time concentrating correctly.

"Pick my Warrior first," Ngoc demanded.

"But we haven't discussed what strat we were going to use," Kalysta tried to reason with Ngoc.

"Doesn't matter. I do great on all of my picks. I want to play Kiya this round," Ngoc said without a shred of humility.

"Fine, prove it," Kalysta shook her head in disapproval, but she motioned for me to pick Kiya, the Feline of Fervor (can be flexed as a top or bottom laner) for Ngoc.

"A purr-fect choice," Kiya's voice line said with that cheesy pun. Kiya was a cat goddess who summoned an army of cats to do her bidding. She overwhelmed you with her feline army.

As we played out the Warrior Selection process even further, more bans and picks took place. We strategically made choices based on the previous data on what STORM normally used. Finally, I was allowed to ask for my selection, Joan R. Rogers, the Pirate Princess (top laner). Joan made it through the bans and picks. I was always happy to play my favorite Warrior in the game when I could.

"HILLYARD PRIDE IS ON THE LINE," Joan shouted confidently as Selena picked her for me. Joan was a cocky pirate who called the shots. She fought with a cutlass in hand, swashbuckling her way through opponents.

"OK, let's have a great scrim with STORM," Kalysta jotted down further notes as we geared up for our match.

Good Game Girls (GGG) STORM GGG Cougress - Joan. R Rogers, the Pirate Princess STORM RUBY - Grudge, the Unforgiving GGG Shardine - Zephie, the Gale Harpy STORM Excellence - Saber, the Silver Lycan GGG NGOC-OUT - Kiya, the Feline of Fervor STORM Cinnamon - Korga, the Ogress Peacekeeper GGG Muñeca - Cerulea, the Mystic Mermaid STORM Becky22 - Aleris, the Dwarven Helper