"Let's take a five-minute break," IronWall suggested.

There were no objections. Everybody must've been a little tired after the last game, which certainly dragged out longer than it was necessary.

Jin welcomed the recess as well. He revitalized himself by drinking half of his water bottle in one go.

It was crucial to stay hydrated at all times to not lose concentration, especially during such important matches. The coaches in Korea drilled that creed into him, so drinking water between matches became as mandatory as breathing.

There are a few more minutes left. Jin thought.

Everybody else was taking a break, but he didn't have such leisure. The upcoming game was going to be his last chance to prove himself today, so he had to come up with a winning game plan.

Honestly, as an individual player, I believe I performed alright. Jin analyzed. The rest of the team is the real problem. They're far too weak. And, it doesn't help that they're hellbent on playing defense 24/7. Can I change anything about that?

Jin didn't dare to complain during the game itself. He was cautious to not cause a rift between him and his teammates.

But, now was the perfect time to voice his opinion on the matter, as a fellow teammate who was going to play with all of them again.

"May I have a word?" Jin called out to the captain.

"Sure," Howard answered and stepped forward. "By the way, I gotta say, you're being way too polite. We're all middle schoolers here, right? No need to be so uptight."

"I still getting used to the language."

"Oh, is that so? You're pretty fluent, so I thought you've mastered it by now."

"I'm still Gold rank, at best."

"Haha, alright." Howard smiled. "So, what is it? You got such a serious look on your face."

"I want to talk about this team's game plan."

"Oh, what's this? Trying to get info on the Leopards’ rivals?"

"No, I have no such interest," Jin replied honestly. It's not like this team will pose a threat to me even if I have to compete against them with the Leopards.

"Then,” Howard continued. “What kind of ‘game plan’ are we talking about here?" 

"This team’s defensive game plan," Jin specified. "This team excels at defense, I can tell. But, it too defensive. We can't defeat pros with this method."

"Well, that's a hot take if I ever heard one." 

"Hot take...?"

"A controversial opinion," Howard explained. "It’s a way to say that people would disagree with what you just said."

"So, you disagree?"

"Yeah, for the most part," Howard said. "But, it looks like you got some experience playing against high-level players So, shoot. What do you think we should do in order to win?"

"It simple,” Jin said. “The team needs better offense. At least some players need to be able to attack after defending. Without that, we never win no matter how long we defend."

"I see your angle." Howard nodded. "Honestly, it's not like this team's offense is bad or anything, you know? It's just that it's dangerous to go on the offensive against pros until you have an advantage."

"But, how that advantage ever going to appear? By waiting on the defense? Maybe it works against school teams, but against pros?"

"Touche."

"Sorry, what?" 

"It means you made a good argument," Howard explained. "It's not even English, I think. Probably French or something.”

“Huh. So, you agree?”

“To a certain extent, yes. I admit, our current game plan has never brought us even remotely close to winning against the Sweepers. But, then again, it's not like we're exactly expecting to win in the first place." 

"You're not expecting to win...?"

"Oh, my bad. I phrased that poorly,” Howard admitted. “Of course, we're trying to win as hard as we can. But, we know that our opponents are much stronger, so we're not exactly expecting to get any easy wins from them."

"So, you fight with the mindset that you probably will lose?"

"Well, not quite,” Howard insisted, even though it was just a matter of semantics at this point. “We recognize that our opponents are stronger, so our top priority is to survive against them for as long as possible. But, of course, if we get an opportunity to turn the tables on them, then we'll take it."

"Classmancers is no survival game," Jin criticized. "No matter how strong your opponent is, you have to search for opportunity to attack." 

"Attacking involves a lot of risks, especially against pros. We can’t do that often." 

"Yes, risky plays are bad if happen a lot. But, it necessary to take a risk sometimes. When you play against a better opponent and you only play safe, then you never defeat them."

"Heh, this sounds like something that guy would say."

"Sorry?" 

"Just talking to myself here." Howard smiled wryly. "Anyway, I get what you're saying. As long as we play it safe, we won't be creating any big opportunities for winning.”

“Yes.”

“In truth, I’ve been focusing mainly on testing the team’s defense during these scrimmages. I want to see how our defense holds up against pros, and find what areas we still have to work on." 

"That doesn't sound like a winning game plan." 

"It totally doesn't, does it? Haha." Howard laughed. "I'll be real with you, I didn't even consider it was possible to win at our current level. I mean, I also entertained such ideas at first, but it didn't take long to realize the huge skill gap between us and pros."

"So, you gave up on winning?" 

"Not quite. I'm just trying to make the most out of these matches,” Howard explained. “I focus on the team's strongest points, like its defense, and test how efficient they are against pros.”

“But, that doesn’t win games.”

“Yes, it’s harder to win this way. But, we’ll be instantly destroyed by them if we don’t focus on our strengths. So, we have to stick to defense if we want to have a fighting chance at all. Any talk about winning can only come after that."

"Hmm." Jin wasn't sure how to respond. So, for him, testing out the team’s skills is more important than winning. Instead of taking calculated risks in order to get a chance to win, he would rather play it safe and stretch out the precious scrim opportunity. There is some merit to this mentality, but I think it’s a waste.

By the end of the day, the pros were just regular opponents. There was nothing special about them except for their high skill level.

Therefore, it was best to treat them as such and fight hard in order to seize victory. That was the ultimate form of practice. It simulated real matches as accurately as it could possibly get, which should help the team grow the most.

Then again, I was never in charge of an entire team. Jin thought. Maybe priorities change somewhat when you’re in those shoes.

Perhaps it was reasonable to allocate a few of the matches for testing out specific team skills. However, it was definitely a sin to waste all the pro matches on that alone.

But, it’d be rude to phrase things like that. So, Jin took a moment to consider his words.

"I understand your position,” he said. “But, can I ask you to change that approach for one game? I want to aim for a win and show we can fight back, not only defend."

"In other words, you want to leave a good impression that badly, huh."

"... yes, that’s how it is." Jin considered denying it for a moment, but this captain should be reasonable enough to understand.

"We can switch to a more aggressive game plan," Howard said. "But, are you absolutely sure you want that?” He paused for a moment as if contemplating something. “I really shouldn't be sharing this info with an enemy, but let's just say that our ‘best offense’ is still a work-in-progress."

"Meaning?"

"We have a player who can provide great offense, but it comes at the cost of creating many, many openings in our defense. I actually tried using her offense a few times before, back when I believed we had a chance at winning. But, let's just say it convinced me to stop doing that for now, haha."

"I see." Jin realized he was probably asking for too much.

By the end of the day, his teammates for this match were low-caliber players. They weren't playing defensively just because they wanted to, they were just that much more confident in their defense than in their offense.

Depending on how flawed their offense is, this entire idea might backfire horribly. Jin reasoned. From what I’ve seen so far, this team's defense is about the only good thing about it, so we might be in real trouble if we seal away that trump card.

"Alright, I understand," Jin said. "In that case, may I play the offense? The rest of the team can keep playing defense like usual. I only need the team to back me up when I open an attack. Is that possible?"

"An interesting idea. Sure, we can try that." Howard nodded. Julia might actually synergize well with this sort of game plan, but I prefer her to sit this one out. I don’t want to show her playstyle to the Leopards before we get to play them. Besides, she's not ready for this level of competition; she’s far too unstable as it stands.

Therefore, Howard rejected the idea of having Julia play as the team’s offense. However, he had no qualms about Jin fulfilling that role. In fact, the more this guy revealed about his skills, the better.

This is all precious info. Howard thought. The possibility of us facing this guy at the regionals is still not off the table. So, I have to use this opportunity to study him as much as possible.

With that, the team's new game plan was decided. The StormBlitz players will focus on defense, their strongest point. Meanwhile, Jin will be in charge of organizing attacks, which the rest of the team promised to follow up on.

As far as Jin was concerned, this was a good arrangement. He achieved his goal of shifting the team’s playstyle, ever so slightly.

I should be able to leave an even better impression this game. Jin clenched his fist in confidence. I'll show them that good offense can stump even these so-called “pros”.

With the plan set in motion, Jin was slated to impress the judges in this game and earn himself a spot on the pro scene. Or, so he believed...