Moments before the warm-up period ended, Rodriguez went on stage to give one of his usual speeches. To start off, he got everybody’s attention with a BIG THUNDERING CLAP.

“Ah!” Everybody jumped at the explosive sound. No matter how many times they’ve heard it by now, they could never get used to the sound of a bomb going off right next to them.

And so, Rodriguez’s speech began. As usual, it had a rather lengthy intro about the Leopards’ image as the regional champions and how the team was expected to perform spectacularly in order to inspire others to work harder.

However, this time, Rodriguez cut to the chase much faster.

“With all certainty, your opponents today are a league above the previous ones you’ve faced, so make sure you don’t underestimate them. Stratus was known as a weak team for many years, but that has nothing to do with their lineup this year.”

“Yes, sir,” Cato replied and the others nodded in approval.

“With that said,” Rodriguez continued. “I’m still expecting you to win three games in a row. Stratus indeed has some very talented players, but remember - each and every one of you is a first-string player of the Leopards. Therefore, on this team, each and every player is talented beyond measure. I know that for a fact, for I’m the one who handpicked you for the first-string.”

Rodriguez reminded them how everybody on this team went through two long years of advanced training in the club, save for Ronald who was a year younger than the others. The four seniors accumulated priceless experience, both in the club and in practice games against pros, making the team ready for almost anything that might come their way.

The coach’s lectures always got needlessly lengthy like that, but they did their job of instilling the players with confidence.

And, they’re also great at applying pressure. Cato twitched uncomfortably. He was the captain of this prestigious team, so everybody placed their expectations on him. It was no easy burden to carry.

But, there’s no such thing as effortless world domination. Cato smiled impishly. If I want to command this army of minions and dominate the world with them, I got no choice but to subject myself to some stress and pressure. So, I gladly accept this burden.

While the coach droned on, the other team was also mentally psyching itself for the upcoming match. Stratus didn’t have a coach to give them a speech, so they had to improvise.

After they warmed up enough, the entire team grouped up at the back of the stage. They joined together with the subs who had to sit this game out, by Lars’s passionate request.

“Let’s do this, yo!” Lars thrust his hand forward, signaling the others to do the same.

“Are we seriously doing this?” Kai made a face.

“C’mon, yo! We should turn this into a tradition!”

“I agree.” Luke placed his hand on Lars’s. “This is what all the cool sports teams in the movies do, right?”

“Indeed!” Vincent also placed his hand. “This ritual shall announce our comradery to the universe and grant us access to the unbeatable power of friendship!”

“Honestly, it’s a little embarrassing,” Yuel said. “But, I think it’s good for the team’s morale.” Thus, he placed his hand all the same. 

“If you say so...” Kai couldn’t be the only one to object, so she joined in on the ritual.

“Then, me too.” Ben also joined in after everybody else agreed.

“C’mon, Nia,” Kai urged. “You too.”

“Gufu...” Nia wobbled closer to the pack, with her eyes half-closed. Her steps were so unsteady that it looked like she’ll collapse at any second.

Eventually, Nia successfully reached the pack and brought her hand closer... but completely missed the mark and tripped forward, landing with her face on the pile of hands.

“Zzz...”

“Is this girl for real? Haha!” Luke laughed. “She’s one heck of a riot.”

“Nia, that’s not the body part you’re supposed to place here...” Kai criticized with a muffled chuckle.

“No big deal.” Lars proceeded with the ceremony as if everything was in order. “C’mon! One, two, three!” They raised their hands simultaneously, ignoring the human head lying on top.

“Gufu!” Nia got tossed away to the distance.

“Haha!” Luke laughed. “That was some big yeetus!” 

“Nia, you okay?” Kai asked, but she didn’t get a response.

“Zzz....” Nia already seized the opportunity to take a nap on the floor after being yeeted.

“C’mon, wakey-wakey. The match is starting up.”

“Zzz...”

“Everybody in the audience is watching,” Yuel added. “You don’t want to sleep on the floor in front of them, right?”

“Gufu!” Nia jumped on her feet with an unexpected burst of energy. Then, she slowly, very slowly, turned her eyes to the audience. A shudder ran through her once she registered the sheer number of the people watching her every move.

“I-I’m going!” Nia strode toward her chair with robotic motions. For the better or the worse, her stage-fight finally kicked in.

It was both a blessing and a curse. The pressure might help keep her awake, but it’ll probably also hurt her performance in the process.

I really hope she’s going to be okay... Yuel frowned as he went back to his seat. After taking a deep breath, he finally came to a decision. Well, that settles it. I was already thinking of turning the first game into a “test run” of sorts, and now it looks like I have no choice but to treat it as one. Before anything else, we first need to see how we measure up to our opponents.

In the two scrimmages the Leopards have had thus far, the regional champions thoroughly decimated their opponents. With that huge skill gap, the matches didn’t look like anything that even remotely resembled a competition.

As a result, it was difficult to tell where the players of Stratus stood compared to that powerhouse. Were they close in skill level? Or, were they terribly far?

I’m sure Lars and I will be fine. Yuel thought. And, Kai should have no problems either as long as she plays like her usual self. But, what about the rest? And overall, how do we measure up to the Leopards as a team? These are questions we have to answer before anything else. Without that information, it’s impossible to form a reliable game plan.

“Listen,” Yuel started. “Do you remember how I mentioned before that we might want to treat the first game as a ‘test run’ of sorts? Keep that in mind as you play this game. This isn’t a tournament match and it’s a best-of-five, so it’s more important for us to gain information from this game than to outright win it.”

“And like I said last time,” Kai argued. “I don’t like the sound of that. It’s almost like you’re telling us that it’s fine to throw the game.”

“I’m not saying you should be fine with losing. You should definitely strive to win as much as you usually would.”

“Then, what’s the difference?”

“The only difference is right here.” Yuel pointed at his temple. “It’s a mentality thing. When I say ‘test run’, I mean we should pay extra attention to our opponents in this game and try to draw out as much information as possible from them. Especially, information concerning the gap between our skill levels. Mainly, whether it exists and how big or small it is.”

“So, basically,” Lars said. “We gotta test how much stronger we are!”

“That’s one way to look at it, I suppose.” Yuel smiled wryly. “Consider this a discovery game in which you are free to try things out, even plays you’d otherwise be reluctant to try. The goal is to understand our opponents as much as possible, and to understand where we stand compared to them.”

“I still don’t get it,” Kai said. “For example, what do you gonna try out for this ‘test run’?”

“It depends on how exactly the game develops, but for example, I’ll probably try out some less conventional shot-calls. Also, I’m making Lars pick something other than Elf for this game.”

“Say what!?” Lars jumped. “What do you have against my Elf, dude!? Where did he hurt ya, yo!?”

“We discussed this before, remember?”

“Nope.”

“Is that so.” Yuel sighed. “Basically, I want to see how you measure up to our opponents without Elf.”

“Why tho?”

“They’re assuredly going to ban Trickshooter and Gunslinger, so Elf is the only last resort we have at the moment. We need more information before we can decide whether this is the right stage for revealing this ace.”

“Oh, so it’s like a trump card!” Lars grinned. “Okay, gotcha. So, the first game we just gonna chill and use some standard stuff. But if we lose, then we gonna go all hardcore on them, right?”

“Something like that.”

“Okay, I’m down! Heck, I’mma show I can beat them just fine even without Elf. I don’t even need to pull out my strongest classes today, yo!”

More like, you CAN’T pull most of them out. Yuel corrected. And, your Elf is definitely strong, but...

There were some concerns regarding Lars’s power level with Elf. The goof definitely spent a lot of time polishing the class over the past few weeks and he improved a lot. But, was his Elf even close to his Trickshooter and Gunslinger...?

“Okay, I think I see you mean by ‘test run’,” Kai said. “Basically, you’re saying we don’t have to go all-in with everything we got. We can start out by testing the waters.”

“Yes, exactly,” Yuel said. “It’s a rare opportunity for us to face such a strong team, so it’s important to first understand where we stand. There’s still a lot we don’t know about them, so if we go all-in right off the bat - we might crash and burn horribly due to a lack of information. And worst of all, we’ll be giving them a lot of information in that situation.”

“Indeed, indeed.” Vincent nodded. “We mustn’t show them all our trump cards right off the gate, for it shall give them plenty of time to brew a counter-attack. Firstly, we shall conduct an experiment and interrogate our foes for information!”

“... I guess that’s one way to phrase it.” Yuel rolled his eyes.

“Okay,” Kai said. “I actually have a class I wanna take for a ride. I’ve been working on my Bomber over the past week, so I’d like to test it out in a serious match.”

“Bomber, huh.” Yuel gave it some thought.

Bomber was a class with a very high skill-ceiling, one that demanded mastery of execution in order to be utilized optimally. It demanded the player to be aggressive yet calculated in order to reap maximum benefits, as it was necessary to regularly attach bombs to enemies in order to deal big damage.

As a result, Bomber was considered decent in the meta, but its usage rate was bogged down by the amount of dedication and mechanical skill required to master it. That wasn’t a big issue in the pro scene, but in Ranked the execution barrier made the class scarce even in Challenger rank matches.

Kai has been frequently picking Bomber in Ranked over the past few days, so it wasn’t a bad idea to try it out on stage during the first game today. But, was it worth it?

It’s not like she’s “bad” with Bomber. Yuel though. I just think she’s still a little far from fully utilizing the class. Bomber is only high-tier when optimized. Otherwise, it’s a rather mediocre class.

With that said, it was a rather aggressive but flexible pick. It had the ability to dish out a lot of burst damage, but it also provided great artillery support for teamfights. Therefore, in theory, it was a very strong pick against a hyper-defensive team like the Leopards.

“Sounds good to me,” Yuel finally replied. “If you want to test your Bomber against the competitive level, then this is your best chance to do it without risking elimination. But, are you sure you want Bomber of all things? I saw you trying many different mages over the past month.”

“Yeah, I’ve been trying to level up my skill in many of them. I wanna make sure I’m ready for anything.” After all, the last scrimmage really showed me how much skill I’m still lacking. I have a lot of room for improvement.

“Are you sure you don’t want to focus on a few main classes like Lars and Nia do? You might be spreading yourself too thin by focusing on so many different classes.”

“Huh. Says the guy who plays the entire roster.” Kai rolled her eyes.

“It’s a different story for Support,” Yuel explained. “Unlike you, I don’t have to directly overpower anybody in a fight. So, I have a lot more leeway in that sense.”

“But, you’d still be able to provide better supporting with a class you’ve properly mastered.”

“True, but I don’t think it’s worth the cost. I believe it’s more important for a Support to be flexible and counter-pick efficiently, rather than mechanically excel with specific classes.”

“I’d say flexibility is pretty damn important for Mid too.”

“It’s important for every role, but it’s more important for certain roles than it is for others.”

“Yo!” Lars interjected. “No idea what you two arguing about over there, but the referee dude be staring at us. I think he wanna start things up.”

“Right.” Kai and Yuel disengaged from their debate and gave the referee their attention.

“Anyway, I’ll be picking Bomber,” Kai declared in a whisper.

“Okay, if that’s what you want.” Yuel didn’t argue any further. If anything, this was a good opportunity for Kai to get a reality check. Of course, I’ll be glad if she performs well. But, either way, it’ll be a good lesson for her.

As both sides quieted down, the referee went over some final rules. It was the usual routine that followed the protocol to a T.

And then, finally, he announced the beginning of the drafting phase. The long-awaited clash between Stratus and the Leopards was about to set off!