After a long silence, Yuel finally responded to Nia's confession. "If I had to guess, you were too preoccupied with killing the Orc, right? That's why you didn't notice the Viking."

"Um, well, I didn't focus on him THAT much, but..." Nia tried to argue but her voice grew dimmer with every word. Who am I kidding? I thought about nothing but killing that scary guy back then.

Apprentece was a scary fellow. His mere presence terrorized not just Nia but the entire team. Therefore, she really wanted to slay that demon.

Not to mention, she had a personal beef with him. The way that monster countered her first gank left a scar. It was a horrifying experience she wouldn't forget any time soon.

The second gank was Nia's opportunity to settle the score so she pursued it strongly. Too strongly, in fact. The desire to kill the scary monster blinded her to her surroundings.

And, that wasn't the only thing. Nia admitted. Even before that, I made a misplay because I was too focused on killing him.

After Nia hit Apprentece with Force of Rejection, she then proceeded to fire a shot at him while he was stunned

It was an impulse. Nia admitted. I just wanted to get revenge on him. I think I was possessed back there. Scary.

Sadly, that one little revenge shot was a grave misplay. Nia should've targeted the surviving minions instead. If she did that, then she would've eliminated the minions faster, and then the Turret would’ve been free to shoot Apprentece much earlier.

So, to answer Yuel's question truthfully...

"Ok, yeah, maybe I was a little too focused on the Orc..."

"Figured," Yuel said. "It must've been a stressful situation, given how much HP you had left."

"Very stressful," Nia said. "I felt like I might die at any moment."

In fact, even now, she was still shocked she even agreed to that scary play. Normally, she'd run away from suicidal ideas like thisץ

But, not this time. Nia agreed to attack Top despite being on the verge of death. Yes, she wanted to get back at Apprentece that badly.

"If you executed the gank flawlessly," Yuel said. "Then you could’ve cornered Apprentece that much harder. But, it was unrealistic to expect flawless execution under stressful conditions like that."

"R-Right, it was unreasonable, wasn't it? Yeah, totally unrealistic. Mhm." Nia nodded repeatedly. Despite coming forth and admitting her fault just a moment ago, she was now back to dodging responsibility. Ehe.

"As for Ben," Yuel said. "I don't think you did anything particularly wrong. You arrived on time as I instructed and protected Nia. You did your job, all things considered."

"But, I couldn't protect her from the Viking..."

"Given that Nia overextended there, there was only one play you could go for to help her out."

Stolen novel; please report.

"Yes, I could pull the Viking right as he blinked in."

"Correct." Yuel nodded. "But, that's a highly advanced play with a lot of room for error. Only players with exceptionally high mechanical skill can pull it off on the spot.”

“I see…” Ben wasn’t sure whether to feel up or down about this statement. On one hand, it sounded like he didn’t disappoint Yuel with his performance. But on the other hand, it meant that Yuel wasn’t expecting much from him in the first place…

“Anyway,” Yuel continued. “Neither of you played optimally, so we’ll definitely review the specifics in more detail during match review.”

“Yikes…” Nia made a face.

“But anyway, you don’t have to worry about it. All the responsibility lies with me.”

“Eh?” Nia blinked. “How so?”

“That entire idea was a misplay, a bad call on my end,” Yuel said. “I misread Apprentece. I was sure he wouldn’t rely on his teammates for that push. It’s a conclusion I drew based on minimal data, and it turned out to be wrong.”

Looking back on it now, why was Yuel so convinced that Apprentece won't rely on his teammates? The game had barely started, so Yuel couldn't have possibly gathered enough data to profile Apprentece with any certainty.

Actually no, that was wrong. Yuel started profiling Appretnece before this game even started.

I put too much trust in Howard’s intel. Yuel realized. I doubt he was trying to mislead me, but everything he said was ultimately based on observing just two games. And, these were games against pros to boot.

It's not like Howard had actually seen how Apprentece normally played alongside the Leopards. The circumstances here were totally different from Howard’s observed data.

For example, in the pro scrim, Apprentece played alongside unfamiliar players. Perhaps he wasn't too keen on cooperating with strangers, so he tried to handle everything by himself. Also, maybe he purposely tried to reveal as little as possible about himself to his unfamiliar teammates, After all, he knew that StormBlitz was the Leopards’ enemy.

So, I definitely should've taken all that data with a grain of salt. Yuel criticized himself. I made sure to profile Apprentece as much as possible by myself, but Howard’s intel just made me jump to conclusions.

Some of Apprentece's actions made him look like a self-sufficient lone wolf, which perfectly matched Howard's description. Therefore, Yuel did 1 + 1 right away, without waiting for more reliable data. It was a hasty conclusion.

… or, was it?

Nia did come dangerously close to killing Apprentece back there. Yuel thought. Their Jungler was clearly on standby but it took him a while to get to the scene. I wonder why they didn't just cooperate from the get-go?

That would have made far more sense as a joint operation. Winner was already around Top Lane at the time, so inviting him to join the push should’ve been the optimal play.

And yet, Apprentece started the push alone. And, it seemed like he intended to finish it alone, too.

It's as if borrowing the Jungler's help was a "last resort" for him. If that’s true, then perhaps Yuel’s profiling wasn't that far off the mark. Maybe Apprentece really didn't like relying on his teammates unless it was absolutely necessary.

But, it doesn't change the fact that he relied on Winner in the end. Yuel thought. So, it was still a lapse of judgment on my end.

That's what he explained to Nia and Ben as well. However, they weren't nearly as critical about that rash shot call.

"Was it really that bad?" Nia tilted her head. "I mean, it was scary and kinda crazy for sure, but it almost worked out."

"Yes, I agree," Ben said. "We were very close. And, if I just played a little better, I probably could’ve rescued Nia from the Viking."

"Is that so." Yuel had mixed feelings about their words. On one hand, he was glad that they trusted his shot-calls to the point of accepting occasional mess-ups like this. On the other hand, their words highlighted a core problem with Yuel's shot-calls.

Nia was scared of the plan and only reluctantly went along with it, whereas Ben didn’t have the confidence to go for a difficult play during a stressful situation. These were psychological barriers that Yuel didn’t properly consider in his simulations.

In the end, no matter how Yuel twisted it, the majority of the fault lay with him…