The last game between Stratus and the Leopards was about to begin. The players from both sides entered the stage and took their seats.

The roster on the other side of the stage included many familiar faces: Rook, Theorist, Merlin, and Winner. However, there was also a new Asian player.

So, he really exists. Yuel gulped. I remember seeing him earlier at the back of the stage. So, it was really him.

Shortly, the referee came over to inform Stratus about the enemy's recent substitution. "Your opponents subbed out AbsoluteChallenger for Apprent... Eh, Apprentece? It's like Apprentice, just with 'e' instead of 'i' at the end."

Everybody became a little tenser after learning that Apprentece indeed existed. Everything Yuel told them about the guy must have come rushing back.

I hope I didn't scare them too much. Yuel thought. A little bit of tension is healthy for their concentration, but too much of it can backfire.

Especially, Nia was always the first one to lose heart when facing "scary" opponents. Thankfully, that hadn’t happened yet-

"Scary."

... okay, now it did, Nia uttered her promised catchphrase. With just this one word, she amplified Yuel’s worries exponentially!

But, so far, she looks fine. Yuel thought. Maybe her success in the previous game filled her with confidence?

Nia was on the high horse until a few minutes ago. Back then, if Yuel barged in and immediately hit her with the info about Apprentece, it would’ve brutally kicked her off the high horse. She might’ve been in shambles right now. Thankfully, Vincent eased everybody into that serious talk, so the impact of the news was minimal.

They don’t look flustered. That's good. Yuel nodded. Now, I just have to pray that Apprentece isn't the kind of monster who can easily steamroll us.

There wasn’t enough information to tell anything for certain. Apprentece might be as strong as an ascended being from a higher plane of existence, or he might be a regular, strong middle-schooler.

In case Appretnece can really rival Western pros, Stratus might end up getting thoroughly annihilated...

No, I won't let that happen. Yuel asserted. Heh, it’s ironic. Here I am, worrying about everybody's morale, when it might actually be me who’s the most nervous about this.

The team's chances of winning might be riding on Yuel's ability to discover an exploitable weakness of that new, pro-level player. No pressure.

If I can't do this, then it’ll be a very uphill battle. But, right now, I simply don't have enough information to go by. Yuel frowned. Howard probably feels the same way, that's why he wanted us to drag this mysterious player to the stage.

Howard’s intel suggested that Apprentece was a very aggressive player, but that was circumstantial evidence. Apprentece was playing that game in “examinee mode”, so he probably wanted to show off his skill to score points with the judges.

I had to play under similar circumstances during StormBlitz’s entrance exam, so I know the kind of pressure it puts on you. Yuel thought. So, I can’t conclude that he’ll also play this aggressively under more “normal” circumstances. But, I still feel at ease having Ben in Top, just in case Apprentece turns out to be hyper-aggressive.

Then again, it wasn’t even guaranteed that Appretnece would even play Top. He might’ve picked Top during the pro scrim because it’s the most independent role, so there was no telling whether it was actually his best role.

Truly, there were too many unknowns around Apprentece. The more Yuel tried to deduce, the more questions popped up in his head. With enough reasoning, he could cast doubt on every piece of information he had.

As such, the only way to "counter" Apprentece during the banning phase, if only a little, was to ban the typical meta Top Laners. The most obvious option for that was Knight, the ever-popular versatile pick.

Since the Leopards were going first in this game, Yuel started by banning Shadow Walker according to protocol, and then he banned Knight.

The enemy's first two bans were their textbook choices: Trickshooter and Gunslinger. They always made sure to seal Lars's strongest tools, as any smart team should do.

It's always those two, but not Elf. Yuel frowned. It really doesn't pack the same punch, does it?

On one hand, it was a good thing that the enemy didn't ban Elf. Despite everything Yuel had said, Elf was still undoubtedly Lars's 3rd best class, so it was very kind of the enemy to leave the class open for grabs.

At the same time, the fact the ever-cautious Cato didn't register Elf as a threat spoke volumes of the skill gap that existed between Elf and Lars's best classes. It was his “3rd best class”, but its performance was incomparable to that of Trickshooter and Gunslinger.

Surely, in a few weeks, Lars's Elf will reach the necessary level to terrorize the competition. Alas, that day wasn't today.

Hmm. They're sure taking their time with the third ban. Yuel thought. Are they scheming something?

The enemy's first two bans were instantaneous, yet the third one took a while. The Leopards were probably buying time to discuss something, but what?

Did my Knight ban stump them in some way? Yuel wondered. No, unlikely. Knight is a general-purpose class, so it couldn't be a key part of any big plan. Then, what's taking so long? Is Cato just dragging things out for fun? I can see him do that.

Dragging out the suspense was definitely the kind of thing Cato would do just for the kicks. However, it turned out that wasn't the case this time...