After instantaneously banning Trickshooter and Gunslinger, Cato slowed down for the third ban.

  "So," Cato started. "Are you absolutely sure you want to gh with this pick?"

  "Yes," Jin affirmed. "Do I need repeat it again? Yes, yes, and yes. You asked me ten times already."

  " you bme me? What you're suggesting is borderline insanity."

  "No. It’s off-meta but viable."

  "Yes, it's teically 'viable' but..." Cato didn't like it, not eve. The idea Jin suggested stood against everything Cato believed in.

  And, Cato wasn't alone here. Jin's loud annou shocked everybody.

  "Is it really necessary to cause this much trouble for us?" Sonya asked. "Frankly, ygestio mesh at all with our team’s usual game pn."

  "No problem," Jin assured. "You do your thing, I do mine. Simple."

  "My, I guess I missed when they annouhat Mancers has bee a single-pyer game," Cato retorted.

  "There is no flict between pns. You handle defense while I handle offe works."

  "Except, this ‘offense’ you're suggesting is beyoreme."

  "It works fine,” Jin insisted. “Only danger is if I not do well during early-game, but that won't happen."

  "My, such fidence. Or, is it arrogance?"

  "Oppos of this level are nothing. They shouldn’t have given you trouble."

  "How nice of you to say that to your teammates..." Cato frowned, and so did Sonya and William. The worst part was that they didn't have a good retort to this accusation. Their performaoday was indeed far from satisfactory.

  The only one who didn't particurly care about any of this was Mattheas silently watg the entire exge from the side. But, after seeing everybody slump like this, even he had to say something.

  "Stratus is a pain to deal with this year, they're a lot better than expected. Holy, they're pretty good."

  "Perhaps,” Jin said. “But, not good enough to give trouble tional champions."

  "I dunno to what high standard you're holding us, but we're all just middle schoolers, you know?” Matthew said. “The only differeween us and them is that we receive professional coag and have a better enviroo practi. We're not that different, really."

  "That's not how a champion team should be thinking."

  "I’ll be real, I don't care what a 'champion' should be like,” Matthew retorted. “Besides, we're not even 'champions' at anythi."

  "This attitude is no good."

  "Sorry, but her is yours."

  They stared each other down for a few good seds. This was a rare example of Matthew actually taking on the fight and speaking his mind. As, his motivation for these things ed long...

  "Whatever." Matthew shrugged. "As far as I’m ed, do whatever makes you happy. Just please don't e g to us ter if it turns out the enemy was better than you expected."

  "I won't,” Jin asserted. “I have good assessment of the Stratus' skill by now, that's why I know Orc will work."

  Yes, Orc, that's the pick Jin wao gh. It was the long-lost sibling of Dark Knight, another hyper-aggressive css that was only relevant during the early-game.

  With that said, uhe meme that was Dark Knight, Orc was at least sidered “viable” meta-wise. But, it was incredibly niche, and food reason.

  Basically, only cocky Top Laners picked Orc. When there was a good reason to believe that the Orc pyer would be able to steamroll their ne oppo, then Orc suddenly became a passable pick.

  Jin definitely satisfied that dition to a T, but in the end, he was just one pyer out of five. The rest of the team also had to pick csses, and theirs won’t mesh with Orc’s aggressiveness at all.

  Therefore, logically, it was absurd to even suggest something like this, especially for such a critical game. A, Jin was doily that.

  "Why 't you piething more reasonable?" Cato asked. "If you just want an aggressive css so you domihere are plenty of meta options, like Viking."

  "Not good enough,” Jin said. “The game needs 'impact'. The audiehinks Leopards are weak right now. That has to ge."

  "My, how nice of you to think of the Leopards’ reputation,” Cato said. “But, there’s no need for anything grandiose. We just o win, that’s all.”

  "A champion team o do more than that" Jin asserted. "It has to be a goal other teams strive toward."

  "Oh my, are you quoting the coach there?"

  "I like this idea," Jin admitted. "Coach is correct. For a weak region like this, it very good to have strohat gives others a goal to work foals are important fress."

  "True, I won't argue with that,” Cato said. “But, do you really care about any of this? Or, is this just something you're using as an excuse?"

  "Hmph..." Jin gnced aside. He be sharp sometimes. Annoying.

  Indeed, Jin's real motivations y elsewhere. He did genuinely agree with the coach's views oter, but her this region nor this team was his .

  This region is unsalvageable. Jin thought. In Korea, elementary students py at a higher level than this.

  Seriously, all of this was like a sad joke. Even the so-called "champions" of the region weren't anything to write home about. The only member of the Leopards who stood out from the bunch based on older footage was Fenrir, the captain of the previous year.

  That was a real pyer, with genuine skill and experience. He was somebody who dedicated much of his life to the game, and it showed. That guy was on a whole different level than these amateurs.

  As, it turned out that pyers like him were few and far between in this region. This year, the Leopards didn't have anybody of that caliber, aher did StormBlitz. And, naturally, Stratus didn't have anybody like that, either.

  If I had to say, Aegis, Chessmaster, and Gunz stand out from the rest a little. Jin admitted. But, each of them is fwed in different aspects. Sht now, they're no good.

  Aegis paid a lot of attention to his teammates and helped them cover nearly all their ots, which was impressive. However, his overall approach to shot-calling was too passive, the same issue Cato suffered from.

  Uhose two, Chessmaster was a creative shot-caller who delivered ued attacks from unusual angles. However, many of his tactics were borderline gambling with a high ce of failure. It’s just that the pyers in this region weren’t good enough to expose that artist, that’s all.

  And finally, there was Gunz. This guy undoubtedly had the best meical skill in the region, possibly rivaling even Jin’s. However, that godlike meical skill seemed to be limited to a handful of csses. In short, the guy cked the necessary experiend fio sistently dominate games.

  He has a lot of talent, but he hasn’t been through the hell I was. Jin thought. That’s why I’m sure I go toe to toe with him in battle, despite how impressive his coordination and reflexes are.

  If it were possible to fuse Aegis, Chessmaster, and Gunz into one person, then that pyer would undoubtedly be very strong, most likely even strohan Jin.

  But, as it stood, the trio’s impressive talents were scattered around, buried under piles of fws. Therefore, none of them yer Jin saw as a threat. Subsequently, his overall i in the region was ent.

  So, Cato ot on. It’s not the team’s image or the region that Jin really cared about.

  I’m more ed with my owation here. Jin thought. There are probably people whoing to monitor my performan this joke of a petitive se. If I don’t deliver impressive results, I won’t be able to score any points.

  The Leopards had already lost two games against Stratus, the former "weakest team in the region". To make things worse, one of the defeats was at the hand of a Dark Knight Jungler meme, which was inexcusable no matter how Jin twisted it.

  I wasn't present iher game, but for some people that’ll be just details, Jin sighed. I already imagihat ignorant old man saying nonsense like "How could you allow this to happen!? I thought you were a ese wonderboy!"

  Ro wasn't the kind of man who bothered to uand the entire picture. He only picked out the few things that stood out to him aher hyped them up to death or nitpicked them with a passive-aggressive approach.

  I have to make sure he ’t do anything like that with this game. Jin thought. I’ll run Stratus into the ground so that Ro’s rea will be “Wow! The ese wonderboy destroyed the petition!” … I’m Korean, though.

  Unfortunately, it robably a bad idea to share this reasoning with the rest of the team. As such, Jin had to hahis topic carefully ahem some politically correswers.

  "I just want to leave a good impression this scrim," Jin finally responded Cato's inquiries.

  "Good impression for whom, I wonder~?" iled meaningfully. "Surely, not just for the audience over there, right? You have very little reason to care about them, I wager."

  "Good impression for everybody."

  "Heh, let's leave it at that." Cato decided to not pursue the topiy further, mainly because they were running out of time for the st ban. I'm sure he's just trying to score some points with the Sweepers' higher-ups. I’m definitely not a fan of his idea, but I'm sure the Emperor knows what he's doing. He's not Ronald, after all.

  Iy, most of Cato’s s regarding the Orc pick were probably irrelevant. After all, the Emperor pyed on a whole different level. No matter how good Stratus was, Jin was certainly going to crush them.

  I'd say the only real danger is if Yuel e up with some nasty strategy against Jin, but I doubt that happen in one game. Cato thought. I mean, Yuel doesn't have the fai idea of just how strong Jin actually is. By the time he realizes it - the game will already be over. My, how dreadful~

  "Alright, fine,” Cato ceded. “You have your Orc."

  "Good." Jin nodded in satisfa.

  "Are there any particur Top csses you wao ban?"

  "Unnecessary. Let them pick whatever. I'll win regardless."

  "Such boundless fidence…" iled wryly. He waue back, but the timer was tig. There wasn’t much more time for pig the final ban, so he had to settle on something ASAP.

  "In that case, I was thinking of banning Ninja." Cato turo Sonya. "What does my secretary say about that?"

  "How would I know? Ask ‘your secretary’ yourself once you hire one."

  "My, the denial is strong with this one~"

  "Yeah, sure." Sonya made a fad pushed up her gsses. "I like the Ninja ban. It'll be informative to know what's the css on her list, and whether she py it as well."

  "It's probably Drht?"

  "Yes, most likely.” Sonya nodded. “She pyed it once against Taurus, but she didn't leave much of an impression that game."

  "Hard to say if that was her fault, though. That game was hard for Stratus in general."

  "True. That's why seeing it in a again be informative."

  "So, we're of the same mind here." Cato nodded. "Gd to know that my secretary always has my back~"

  "Yes, I'm sure your imaginary secretary is all over you.”

  "Oh, she's quite real, I assure you."

  "Yes, she's real alright. In your dreams."

  "Heh, cheeky."

  And so, Cato finalized the st ban. He sealed Ninja, Vanishing's primary css.

  Will the sneaky girl pick Drow ? Will she perform well with it? Only time will tell...

  DarkestCymore