The drafting phase began. For the first two bans, the Leopards targeted Gunz by removing Trickshooter and Gunslinger from the picture.

“Hmph. So unnecessary.” William scoffed. “You’re being too cautious. I can defeat him even if he plays these classes.”

“Maybe you can, maybe you can’t.” Cato shrugged. “Either way, why should we take the risk when we can just eliminate it entirely with a simple ban?”

“Hmph. Whatever. You better keep your promise and let him play his main classes after we get three wins.”

“Of course, of course. I’m not exactly a fan of being restricted like this during the banning phase, you know? If it turns out his main classes don’t pose much of a threat, then I’ll gladly leave them unbanned in the future.”

With how outstanding Gunz’s performance was with Trickshooter and Gunslinger, it’d be foolish to not ban these classes. However, being forced to ban them also meant that Cato couldn’t ban other classes he might have wanted. It was rather suffocating.

Banning Trickshooter and Gunslinger already took 2/3 of the bans Cato had available for the first banning phase. On top of that, he would sometimes have to ban Shadow Walker too, as it was still unclear whether the class truly fell off from S tier or not.

There was a lot of heated discussion on the recent changes related to Shadow Walker. Regardless, at the bare minimum, the class remained a dangerous A+ threat that nobody wanted to deal with. Though, part of it was probably a result of PTSD from dealing with the S tier Shadow Walker. Humans were such fragile creatures~

Personally, I wouldn’t mind leaving it unbanned against other teams. Cato thought. But, Stratus got Vanishing. I feel like this class is right up her alley.

Nobody has seen VanishingFlower play Shadow Walker on stage, but she seemed to main Junglers with stealth abilities. Therefore, she most likely knew how to play Shadow Walker and could cause a lot of trouble if she picks it.

So yeah, no thank you. Cato and Sonya have already agreed on banning Shadow Walker for the third ban. There were no ifs or buts.

And so, just like that, Cato was forced to burn through all three of his available bans. He didn’t even get an option to make any meaningful decisions here. Everything was scripted ahead of time.

This isn’t exactly my idea of a fun chess game. Cato made a face. So, I really hope our “No. 3” can defeat Gunz and reclaim his No. 2 spot. It’ll give me a lot of breathing room during the banning phase.

Meanwhile, unaware of Cato’s woes, the other team had total freedom with their bans. However, at the same time, it was also difficult to make many “smart” bans against the Leopards. 

They haven’t banned Shadow Walker yet? Yuel wondered. Normally, that’d be the first class you ban when you go second. Are they underestimating us? Or, do they no longer consider it an S tier class?

Shadow Walker’s current standing on the tier list was still a heated debate among top-level players. Now that its most broken build received a nerf, it was yet unclear whether Shadow Walker remained a powerful S tier class or was relegated into a decent A tier.

Either way, even if it’s A tier, then it’s probably A+. Yuel believed. Nia can play Shadow Walker well, so it’d be a mistake for them to leave it open. Not that I’m complaining, of course.

It was an interesting theorycrafting topic, but Yuel didn’t have the time to linger on it. He had to pick one more ban, which was no easy task with the limited information he had at hand.

“Next is Warlock,” Yuel informed the team. “We don’t know whether Theorist or Merlin will be playing Mid, but this is a class they’ve both used to great effect.”

“Sounds good,” Kai said.

It was truly fortunate that the Leopards exposed Warlock as a shared class between their two Mid Laners. There was almost no correlation between the classes their members played, which was the main reason this banning phase was so tricky.

Still, it’s pretty vexing when I don’t even know who’ll be playing in which lane.

Per tradition, the Leopards had two completely different lineups. Both comps consisted of the same members, but all their positions were swapped around. Not a single player retained the same role across the two lineups.

According to an interview with Rodriguez, the Leopards’ coach, this “Mixup” strategy served two purposes.

First, it demanded every member of the team to learn at least two different roles. That turned the players into more flexible competitors, both in mind and body.

In the interview, Rodriguez mentioned that many young players mained a single role. They naively believed that they’ll definitely get to play that role in the pro scene.

But, what would happen if the pro teams they applied to had no open spots for that specific role? If the applicant had no backup roles to offer, then their chances of joining any of these pro teams were nil.

Therefore, Rodriguez drilled the importance of role flexibility from a young age. He forced all members of the club, not only the starters, to pick up at least two roles. 

That’s some good long-term thinking. Yuel agreed. But, right now, it makes my life harder...

That tied into the second purpose of the “Mixup” strategy. With two possible comps in hand, the Leopards could easily adjust their lineup in order to best counter the enemy they were facing.

On top of that, since the two lineups featured the same players, it meant the Leopards could always adjust their plans on the fly even during the drafting phase. They had the freedom to postpone their decisions until after they saw the list of banned classes.

For example, even if Yuel were to ban all the best classes the Leopards used in formation A, then the Leopards could simply choose to use formation B in that game, and vice versa. It was impossible to counter them in the truest sense of the word.

No matter what I ban, I can’t always account for both lineups. Yuel frowned. But at the same time, any class that showed up in both lineups is definitely ban-worthy.

That’s why Warlock was a good ban against the Leopards. In fact, it was the only good ban against them at the moment, as it was the only class that showed up twice with different players.

Merlin and Theorist both played Mid, and both of them used Warlock before. Thus, banning Warlock removed an option from both lineups at once. And unfortunately, with the currently available data, this was the only ban that could achieve this result.

Unbeknown to Yuel, this ban was an even more effective blow than he expected.

“Too bad,” Cato said. “They banned your favorite.”

“What a pain.” Matthew sighed.

“Welp, I told you it’s best to not flaunt your Warlock until you get into a serious game. You reap what you sow.”

“I guess so.” Matthew didn’t have any viable objections to this. It was none other than his own laziness that brought about this result.

Warlock was a high-tier class that was very easy to play, so it was always tempting to pick it. Especially, against weak opponents, playing Warlock made things that much easier and smoother.

“Then,” Matthew started. “I’ll go Aero.”

“Already deciding?” Cato asked. “We haven’t even seen their lineup yet.”

“It’s not like they can pick anything that directly counters Aero.”

“Electro says hi.”

“An overrated ‘counter-pick’ if you ask me. Electro only ‘counters’ Aero if we exchange ult for ult. That’s not a big deal.”

“My boy, you gotta remember this is the competitive scene,” Cato reminded. “Our opponents aren’t just some pushovers from Ranked. Well, at least, two of them aren’t. So, you don’t want to give them any advantages if you can help it, no matter how small.”

“Of course not.” Matthew nodded. “So, I’m trusting you to ban Electro in the second banning phase.”

“My, what a cheeky little...” Cato smiled wryly. “Alrighty, then an Electro ban it is. We don’t really have any other important candidates anyway, am I right, my secretary?”

“Who’s your secretary?” Sonya shot him a look. “But, you’re right. There aren’t any other important bans for the second phase. Though, that may change after we see their picks.”

“True. So far, we can’t infer much about their plans based on their bans alone.”

“Yes. They’re just banning classes that we’ve played in previous scrims.”

“Oh, right. Now that I think about it, you played Warlock too, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did. Though, unlike Matthew, I only picked it once, not every single time I played Mid.” Sonya gave Matthew a judging look, implying the guy dug his own grave.

“No big deal,” Matthew reassured. “Warlock isn’t the only class I‘m maining, you know.”

“Of course it isn’t,” Sonya said. “You’d never make it into the first string if you could only play one class. Though I have to say, you’re really cutting it close with how few classes you actually play. You need to work on expanding your roster.”

“Now, now,” Cato calmed down the discussion. “We can discuss this in more detail after the scrim, alright?”

“Sure.” Sonya nodded.

“I’d rather not discuss it ever, but okay.” Matthew shrugged.

“Alrighty then,” Cato continued. “If nothing changes, then I’ll ban Electro in the second banning phase so you can pick Aero in peace.”

“Yay.” Matthew gave a half-hearted fist pump.

Seriously, he can be such a handful. Cato sighed on the side. He’s a good player, but that lazy part of him holds him back sometimes. Though, in a way, that’s also a part of what makes him so good.

Matthew’s philosophy was best summarized as “quality over quantity”. He’d rather master a handful of classes than dabble in many of them. That mindset was undoubtedly born from the lazy part of his personality.

However, this mentality wasn’t without merit. Focusing on just a couple of classes allowed the player to master them. This often led to exceptionally good performance in matches, far better than what the player could’ve achieved by maintaining an “average” skill level across the board.

Matt is actually among the best players in the region when he plays his best classes. Cato thought. But, Sonya strictly refuses to place him as high as he deserves to be, just because she doesn’t like his attitude on this topic. So immature`

With a Warlock or an Aeromancer in hand, Matthew was definitely a contender for being the “No. 5 strongest player” on Sonya’s list.

The No. 4 spot was recently claimed by Nirvana, the captain of Taurus. He proved himself as a powerhouse of a player, so it was reasonable to assume that Matthew was somewhere below this guy.

Therefore, the No. 5 spot felt just right. Aside from No. 1 to No. 4, there weren’t any other notable players in the region who quite measured up to Matthew, at least not in Cato’s book.

Well, I might be playing favorites here just because I know how good Matthew can get. Cato admitted. But, I really believe he’s high up there. He might seem lazy and all, but he knows how to get the job done. So, even though it’s out of laziness, focusing on a handful of classes allows him to perform very well.

In fact, Gunz was potentially another example of such a player. Though it remained to be seen how well the guy will perform without Trickshooter and Gunslinger, there was evidence to suggest that these two were his exceptional main classes.

Last year, Gunz stopped posing much of a threat after his Trickshooter was banned. Therefore, with both Trickshooter and Gunslinger banned, there was a very good chance he won’t be much of a threat today.

That is, unless he mastered a third class. Cato smiled wryly. We’ll have a very big problem if that’s the case. I mean, we can’t afford to spend all three of our bans on him every game, right? It’s just not practical.

Even right now, Cato had no choice but to spend his last ban on Shadow Walker as dictated by protocol. So, what would he have done if Gunz had a third main class?

I’d have to choose between banning that class or Shadow. It’d be impossible to eliminate both of them at once. Not fun, not fun at all. Cato sighed. But well, at least I got the chance to play around a little with this last ban~

Normally, a team that intended to ban Shadow Walker did so at the very start of the banning phase. It was a "protocol ban" that didn't give the enemy any information, so it was the "safest” ban to start with.

But, that's just a waste. Cato thought. It's not like any of my bans are going to be super informative, anyway. It’s pretty obvious I’m just banning Gunz’s classes, so I can ban things in any order.

As such, it was more fun to keep the Shadow Walker ban for last. It kept the enemy on their toes, making them outguess whether or not Cato would actually ban Shadow Walker.

I can totally imagine the frown on Yuel’s face~ Cato smiled impishly. I bet he’s asking himself “Why in the world they haven’t banned Shadow yet!?!?!?! What is going on!?!?!?”. Ah, this delicious mixture of confusion and frustration~

This was the only joy Cato managed to derive from this otherwise suffocating banning phase. With his hands tied so tightly during this phase, it was difficult to enjoy any of this.

With that said, these mind games weren’t entirely without merit. Confusing the enemy strategist, even slightly, could make a difference.

Once you start wondering about the late ban, you can't easily forget it, can you? Cato snickered. Even if you push the topic to the back of your head, it'll still remain there and will keep distracting you for a while. Oh, the human brain is so wonderful, isn’t it~?

On the competitive stage, amidst the heavy pressure, even the smallest distraction could prove fatal. And, Yuel was probably already struggling with the banning phase quite a lot, so being distracted by the Shadow Walker definitely didn’t make his life any easier~

But unfortunately, all good things had to come to an end. It was time for Cato to select the team’s third ban, which was Shadow Walker, of course.

And so, the first banning phase was over. Next, the game moved into drafting...