SLAM. A heavy tentacle crashed on Lars and shoved him into the ground. He was completely immobile now, a perfect sitting duck for Trever.

"Dang it! I messed up real bad," Lars admitted.

"Don’t worry, it should be fine," Yuel said. "He can't kill you with just that. Retreat to the tower as soon as you stand up. I'll come to replace you on the lane."

"So, I gotta run, huh," Lars smiled wryly. In his head, he understood how this stuff worked. He was playing Elf, a defensive Carry class. Therefore, he always had to run away from earl fights like this. It was lame but it was the best way to secure victory. He understood all that, and yet... meh, whatever. "Okay, I'mma retreat."

As soon as the heavy tentacle released him, Lars made a run for it. He didn't even turn back to check on his opponent. There was neither time nor need for that. He was at a disadvantageous position, so he had to get outta here before he loses for real.

Not even gonna shoot at me or anything? Weak. Trever shook his head. Well, it's smarter to retreat fast like that, so I'll give him that much. But, gotta say, he sure accepted his defeat pretty fast here.

In the past, Lars used to bite back his attacker even in the direst of situations. Even when the enemy cornered him and all the odds were stacked against him, Lars found it in himself to retaliate. Naturally, Lars died a bunch of times thanks to these stunts.

However, this fierce attitude was a part of what used to make Lars a formidable opponent. He was the kind of opponent who could make a comeback from any situation and pull off a miraculous win. It was dangerous to lower your guard against this beast for even a moment.

However, the Lars in this game felt less like a vicious wolf and more like a timid puppy. His famous mechanical skill was definitely present, as evident by how efficiently he cleared minions and how fast he reacted to Trever's Kraken. Nevertheless, a certain spark was missing from Lars's plays. He felt like a fangless beast.

I hope it's just because he’s playing a shitty class like Elf. Trever tried to convince himself. He probably learned he gotta play Elf defensively during the early-game, so maybe that's weighing him down. Then again, why did he even bring Elf to this fight? C’mon, kid. You know your Elf got nothing on me. Where's your Shooter at?

"Is his leap down?" Aron asked.

"Oh," Trever came back to earth. "Yeah, he just used it to get outta my fake Kraken. Haha, goteem!"

"I believe I asked you to inform me when he spends his leap. That's kind of a big deal for me."

"Yeah, yeah, my bad. Things were going so well I thought I might actually kill him myself, haha."

"Spare me the excuses," Aron said. "I could've rotated for a gank if you told me earlier."

"Nah, no dice. Yuel got it covered," Trever said. Just as they started talking, Yuel arrived on the lane for backup. Even if Trever informed Aron in time, Yuel’s rotation would have countered Aron's gank. Probably.

"That's some next-level hindsight you're using there," Alex commented.

"Alright, alright, my bad! Stop chewing me out, you two. Next time, I'll make sure to broadcast to the entire universe that Lars spent his leap. Happy now?"

"Yes." Aron nodded. "So, what distracted you so much?"

"Nothing, really."

"I know you can be an airhead sometimes, but it's not like you to forget something so basic."

"Not sure if you’re praising me or insulting me," Trever narrowed his eyes.

"Just giving you some tough love," Alex smirked.

"I don’t need any love from another dude, thank you very much!" Trever made a disgusted face. "But yeah, guess I was kinda caught up in the moment. I went hard on the offensive and all, so I was all about beating that weakling to a pulp."

"Lars isn’t posing a challenge for you?" Aron frowned. "That Lars, of all people?"

"Yeah, his Elf is always wack like that. Though, he got a little better at playing defense, I'mma give him that."

"Lars and ‘defense’ in the same sentence. What an oxymoron."

"A what? A ‘moron’?"

"Yeah, exactly that." Aron didn't feel like teaching basic English right now. "Hrm, this is peculiar. If Lars is playing defense as well, it seems their entire game plan revolves around defending during the early-game."

"Wouldn't expect that from Yuel in a million years."

"True, it's rather unusual. Maybe he's experimenting with new things."

"At our expense? Wild,” Trever grinned. “He should know he gotta go all-out against pros like us."

"Oh, I sure he knows," Aron said. "And yet, that's how he decided to approach this match. It almost feels like he's not confident about using his usual rushdown tactics at this level of play."

"Well, I dunno and I don't care. We just gotta kick their asses all the same!”

"True that," Aron nodded. Whatever reason Yuel had for picking a defensive lineup for this match wasn't Aron's concern. This was a match and Aron had to win, simple as that. If the enemy was playing defense, then Aron simply had to take down a defensive team, that's all there was to it.

Meanwhile, Lars successfully escaped death and Yuel rotated to back him up.

"Yo, I made it," Lars breathed in relief as he arrived at his tower area.

"You should recall," Yuel said. "I'll fill in for you until you return."

"Okey-dokey," Lars began the recalling. "Not gonna lie, dude almost got me there. I totally fell for that squid play, haha."

"It happens. After all, it’s a 50-50 mixup."

"Nah, dude. That ain't no mixup. I can totally react to the Squid Dude if he actually shows up. But, I was real nervous back there for no reason. Damn, lost like half HP to that thing. Lame."

"At least you're not dead."

"Whoa, somebody is being super nice today for a change?” Lars’s blinked in disbelief. “Where's the usual lecture? Who are you and what did you do to my dude?"

"There's nothing for me to lecture you about," Yuel shrugged. "From what I saw, you were playing just fine. You maintained your distance and didn't fall for taunts. And, you also reacted correctly by retreating from the fight."

"Well, yeah. But, you're forgetting the part where I got smacked hard by the Squid Dude."

"Yes, you didn’t get away scot-free from that surprise attack. But, that’s just because Trever is that good of a player."

"Nah, that dude ain't nothing. I can take him out with my eyes closed!"

"Sure," Yuel shrugged. "The bottom line is, you played just fine. All the recent practice you've been putting into playing smarter seems to be paying off. Maybe playing Mid in the club has a positive effect on you."

"But, I totally lost the fight..." Lars twisted his lips. On one hand, it was awesome he got the approval of the harshest critic in the world. On the other hand, it didn't feel right.

Sure, Lars played decent defense as an Elf should. Yes, he didn't fall for any of Trever's taunts and he stuck to the basic (yet effective) plan of "snipe everybody from afar". And true, Lars quickly retreated from that dangerous close-range fight, which was a good call and all.

But, none of that changed one important fact: Lars totally lost that entire exchange. He fell for the Kraken feint, lost half his HP, and now had to dump the responsibility of defending the lane on Yuel. If this wasn't the definition of playing like a total potato, then what was?

"It's all about the long game," Yuel said. "You can lose a hundred fights if necessary. All that matters is that you win the war."

"Yeah, I guess." It was one heck of a weird idea, but it actually kinda worked sometimes. As long as Lars played it safe and didn't let his lane opponent gain a huge lead, it was still anybody's game.

Lars came face-to-face with that fact more often than ever as he played Mid at the club. He wasn't quite pro material when it came to Mid, so a lot of Diamond and Challenger dudes whooped his ass at first. To combat these mad lads, Lars had to be patient and make sure he didn’t die. Even when his opponent gained the upper hand in the lane, it was fine as long as Lars didn't do anything dumb that got him killed.

Once mid-game arrived, the game became all about team fights. So, Lars no longer had to fight against the strong Mid Laner dude by himself. At this stage of the game, he worked together with his dudes to defeat villains! It was like “Avengers, assemble!” kind of stuff, yo!

So, even though Trever totally mopped the floor with Lars in their brief exchange, everything was fine. This was just the beginning of the game and Lars hasn't lost much in that fight, aside from his pride as a pro-level duelist. He'll make a comeback in no time. Ez.

However, not everybody felt the same about this development.

"Damn," Kai ranted. "We're getting pushed around all over the place."

"True," Yuel agreed. "But, we haven't let them push much. So, they haven’t established any real lane control yet"

"Yeah, for now," Kai said. She had to concede that despite drawing her and Lars out of their lanes, the enemy didn't get to push much during either of these situations.

In Top, before the enemy ganked her, Kai cleared out the enemy minions. Thanks to that, the enemy didn't have a frontline that could tank the Turret. On the other hand, in Bot, Yuel quickly rotated to defend the lane while Lars was retreating.

So yes, both of these times the enemy didn’t get to push much. But, was that really something to celebrate?

You can spin it as you wish. Kai thought. But, it’s clear me and Lars are having problems at our lanes. We didn't lose advantage this time, but who knows what’ll happen next time. Yuel should realize that too. How can he be so calm about this?

"You got a plan?" Kai asked.

"Not in particular," Yuel admitted. "We just keep doing our thing. Our team composition got better tools for team-fights, so that's where we should take the initiative. Until then, we just need to keep ourselves alive and defend the lanes."

"Playing the waiting game, huh," Kai carefully examined the lineups of both teams. "Yeah, we can give them some heat during a team fight. But, what we gonna do until mid-game? We’re not going to get away scot-free every time we lose lane advantage. At some point, they'll break through."

"We just have to make sure that won't happen."

"You serious?"

"Yes, one hundred percent serious. I believe this is the best we can do right now."

"You gotta be kidding me..." Kai shook her head. It'd still be one thing if they were playing defense because they had late-game focused classes. But, Lumimancer and Elf? These were mid-game classes, cut and dried. And, pretty much the same applied to Yuel's Viking as well.

The enemy's Lionfolk and Pirate were also mid-game classes. Even worse than that, Sorcerer was a class that became strong during mid-game and even stronger at late-game. Once he starts spamming Magia Orbs with practically zero cooldown, everybody gonna have a bad time. As such, waiting won’t do them any favors. They had to act. Now.

The hell is Yuel smoking? That's some useless shot-caller. Kai sighed. Seems like I gotta make something happen myself. There's no way we gonna win if I keep letting this Sorcerer walk all over me.

Since she recalled to the base to heal up, this gave her the opportunity to gear up before her opponent did. As such, right now, she should be slightly superior to the Sorcerer in terms of sheer stats. Therefore, it was the best time to strike that guy down!

During the next minion wave, she'll shoot for it. Freezer gonna pay for last time! This time, he'll be the one running with his tail between his legs!