A successful gank on Top Lane, that’s the first thing that had to happen this game. Not only for boosting Nia’s morale, but for Yuel’s lane situation as well.

The Dark Knight has warmed up by now. His Dark Blast struck true, annihilating Yuel's entire army in a single hit. The defense buff of Chivarly was no longer enough to keep anybody alive.

Yuel had no way to combat a pressure of this magnitude. The only way to break out of this predicament was with Nia’s help.

However, Nia wasn't her usual self right now. The stage fright still haunted her. During the previous rotation, she chose the shortest route, which was uncharacteristic for a sneaky assassin like her. It’s as if the pressure was rushing her, demanding immediate results.

Naturally, that didn’t work out for her. To perform well as an assassin, Nia had to be calm and composed. She had to carefully analyze her target's movements and decide when was the best time to strike. Normally, she was proficient enough at that, but not right now.

So, before Yuel could get anything going, he had to figure out how to make this girl calm down. In other words, he had to come up with some sort of pep talk.

That’s SO not my strong suit. Yuel frowned. He knew how to efficiently command his teammates' actions, but not their hearts. That's probably why he was here, in Stratus, right now. Howard could do both, therefore he was StormBlitz’s captain.

“You played like a group of cogs that didn't fit together.” Aron's words echoed in Yuel's head. Indeed, Yuel wasn't good at keeping his team unified and motivated. He had a bad habit of assuming that his teammates were as motivated and as determined as him. Therefore, it was enough to come up with good shot-calls for them, the rest will work out on its own.

But, his teammates were neither robots nor chess pieces. He couldn't just give an order and expect them to execute it flawlessly. There were many factors involved when trying to make a successful play. Yuel always assumed he was taking them all into account, but he really wasn't.

There was much more out there. There were factors that went beyond skill, map state, build, level, match up, and all the other dry details. In particular, the one factor Yuel always neglected was the personal issues of each player. Unfortunately, those issues sometimes overshadowed everything else about a play, single-handedly determining its success or failure.

It was thanks to problems like these that Yuel failed to defeat Howard during the selection match. And now, he was facing the same exact issue, this time with Nia. If she keeps playing sloppy like this, she'll eventually bring ruin on the entire team.

So, this problem had to be addressed, no question about it. But, how? What should Yuel say to somebody who was nervous about their debut in the competitive stage? What could possibly reassure this girl?

I believe there was some advice for situations like this. Yuel searched his memory. The answer might be hidden somewhere in there.

After Aron pointed out Yuel’s biggest flaw, there was no choice but to start digging. Yuel searched many videos and articles that covered the various aspects of teamwork and team morale.

Unfortunately, a lot of the videos were surface-level. They filled up 10 minutes of content with generalized advice, in order to squeeze in as many ads as possible. Still, it was better than nothing and Yuel tried to adopt some of those techniques.

Unfortunately, he didn't get to practice them much. Playing Ranked wasn’t stressful enough for the people in the club, so barely any serious issues surfaced. As a result, Yuel rarely ever had the need to fix anything.

However, in this scrimmage, a major problem has already presented itself. And now Yuel, with his nonexistent experience, had to resolve it. What were the right words in this situation? What would make a nervous teammate calm down?

No, that line of thinking is probably wrong. Yuel recalled one piece of advice that stood out. For best results, it was best to think on the personal level, to consider the person Yuel was trying to encourage. Generic one-liners of motivation would only go so far.

So, what kind of person was Nia? What were the main things that unsettled her? What helped her calm down? By finding the answers to these questions, Yuel could come up with something that worked best for Nia. It’s like finding the enemy’s elemental weakness and striking it.

What makes her nervous? Yuel thought back on what kind of girl Nia was. They spent a couple of months together in the club and Yuel used much of that time on teaching her game knowledge. So, he could claim with confidence that Nia was a tough customer. It wasn’t hard to point out at least one problem she had, or even twenty of those.

First of all, she didn't like being in the center of attention. Or, even being seen by others for that matter. To this day, she maintained the bad habit of vanishing within the clubroom by running away to some remote corner. Yuel moved aside many boxes and tables to minimize the number of good hiding spots in the clubroom, but Nia was like a cat, she always found new openings to squeeze herself into. Sigh.

For somebody like her, playing on a stage was naturally uncomfortable. The gallery for this scrimmage was rather small, but it was there, with its eyes focused on the stage. That mere fact put heavy pressure on Nia. Therefore, it would be great if she learns to ignore the crowd and focus on doing her own thing.

Another issue was Nia’s confidence. She had a natural aversion toward plays she wasn't 10000000% sure about. Every time Yuel suggested a play that didn't sound 100% fail-safe, Nia grumped in response and argued back. Recently, she was becoming more and more cooperative, but the core issue never truly disappeared.

For example, it took lots and lots of training before Nia started feeling comfortable with ganking Dark Knights during the early-game. Only after she accumulated enough positive experience from repeating such ganks, she grew accustomed to executing them on-demand.

Nevertheless, a part of her never stopped doubting. There were times when she tried to gank a skilled Dark Knight and things went horribly wrong. After that, for the rest of that day, Nia would refuse to gank Dark Knights.

Such negative experiences burned themselves into her mind. Whenever there was the slightest hint that the enemy Dark Knight might a strong player, she became reluctant to execute a gank. It took a lot of requesting and pleading until she’d finally give in. Sometimes, even that didn’t help and she didn’t gank the Dark Knight the entire game...

Maybe she’s thinking this Dark Knight is strong as well. Yuel considered. After all, this is a competitive match. By default, it’s assumed that the enemy will be strong. Well, except for when people think about Stratus, I suppose.

Nia wasn't the type to underestimate her opponents, she only knew how to overestimate them. She rather be safe than sorry. So, she must have assumed that DragonMaster was a strong Dark Knight player.

Is he, though? Yuel pondered.

At the beginning of the match, DragonMaster put on a weak performance. However, the guy has been steadily improving from there. By now, he played like a decent Diamond rank opponent. He cleanly wiped out Yuel's minions and push hard alongside his minions. So, despite his slow start, DragonMaster was definitely a decent player. He won't be an easy nut to crack.

But, that’s not something I should tell Nia. Yuel smiled wryly.

His past self would have honestly laid out all this information, to ensure his teammates had an accurate understanding of the situation. However, doing so will only have an opposite effect on Nia right now. Most likely, she was already overestimating the guy in her head. If Yuel adds more oil to the fire, he won’t be getting any ganks from her for the rest of the day.

So, do I tell her DragonMaster is weak? That'd be a lie. But, was it a bad lie? Was there any harm to it? Not in particular.

Some psychological articles about motivation encouraged such tricks. They suggested that, sometimes, it was a good idea to paint a more positive picture by bending the truth a little. It’d keep people motivated without outright lying to them.

Yuel was rather averse to such practices because he believed objective information had great value. However, there were times when sharing objective information caused more harm than good. This was one such scenario. If he tells Nia that DragonMaster was at least a Diamond level player, she might wrongly assume that the guy was an ungankable monster.

On the other hand, if he tells a little white lie and says that DragonMaster was a mediocre player, it'll fuel Nia with confidence and help her calm down. It’ll probably boost the success chance of her gank as well, thus becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Yuel will claim that DragonMaster was weak, therefore the guy will end up looking weak.

Besides, in the first place, terms like "strong" and "weak" were subjective in many ways. DragonMaster was a decent laner, but he didn't seem particularly skilled in combat. Even somebody like Yuel managed to dance around some of DragonMaster’s attacks. The guy was playing it safe and compact, a mentality far removed from what the ideal Dark Knight should strive to be.

As far as Nia was concerned, a target was "strong" or "scary" when it could mount a counter-attack that might get her killed. However, DragonMaster didn't come across as a player who'd give Nia much trouble. In fact, there was a good chance he'll avoid combat altogether and choose to retreat if ganked, just like he did last time.

So, in Nia’s terms, DragonMaster definitely wasn't a "strong" or “scary” player. So, it won't even be much of a lie to tell her that.

Okay, let's give it a shot. Yuel took a deep breath. This sort of thing wasn't his forte, but he spent the last couple of minutes thinking about all these angles, so he felt confident about this idea.

"Nia, listen," Yuel started. "I know you're still nervous, but-"

"Am not."

"Yes you are," Yuel gave her a look. "Anyway, listen. No need to be so tense. This Dark Knight should be your favorite type of target. He's the type to retreat instead of fighting. So, even if you can't get a clean kill on him, he'll likely run away and you'll be fine."

"A DK who plays it safe? Weird."

"I agree, but that's how he plays. If you need proof, look no further than my tower HP. Look how healthy it is."

"Ah, true," Nia cocked her head. Still at 85% HP? That's one heck of a healthy tower against a Dark Knight. Normally, when Nia hasn’t ganked Top until this point in the game, the Dark Knight would bring the tower to 50% HP, sometimes even lower.

However, this Dark Knight only reached a measly 85%. Part of it was definitely because Knight was a decent defensive pick and Yuel knew this matchup. But still, only 85%? That's weak.

Yeah, I can probably make quick work of this guy. Nia nodded to herself. That DragonMaster guy was supposed to be a big deal since he got to represent Taurus, but maybe he wasn't all that. Besides, players who played defensively were the best. They usually let Nia get away scot-free even when she failed a gank.

But, I can still mess up. Nia gulped. There were countless eyes spearing her from the crowd, judging her every twitch. If she fails to deliver a good gank, everybody will laugh at her and call her a noob. Can't let that happen. Absolutely can't.

"Also, if you’re worried about messing up," Yuel continued. "It's okay. Everybody messes up once or twice during their debut match. You're not the only one who is nervous. Even this Dark Knight seems on edge."

"Eh? Really?"

"Yeah, he seriously underperformed at the beginning of the game. I almost won the lane against him, can you believe that?"

"No way..." That DK sounds like a Bronze player.

"So, it's fine,” Yuel said. “Most of the players on stage are nervous to one degree or another. Even if you mess up a couple of times, nobody will hold it against you."

"Ok," Nia nodded. So, she just had to do it, right? She'll rotate to Top again and gank the heck outta that weakling Dark Knight. Maybe things won't go that smoothly, but it's okay. This was her first competitive match, so her teammates will understand. After all, they’re like... um, f-friends, I guess?

"O-Oh!" A jolt coursed through Nia. That's right, she was playing together with her friends right now. “Friends”, something she never really had before.

Sure, she used to be on good terms with some classmates, but she never hung out with any of them. However, the people in Stratus were different. She spent hours with them on a daily basis. Everybody here has already seen Nia fail countless times during club practice.

Many failed gank attempts. Many poor decisions. They saw them all. Yet, they didn't kick Nia out for it. Sometimes they got a little mad and Yuel lectured her for hours, but they never gave up on her.

So, even if she fails to execute a flawless gank here today, it'll be okay. It'll be disappointing for sure, but she could try again and again until she gets it right.

The audience probably gonna eat me alive, but... Nia braced herself. It was okay. She'll be okay. This gank will definitely work...!