Chapter 474: Memes Be Dreams...

[Phew, okay.] Yuel sighed in relief after seeing Vincent return to the base without accident. With that, the worst-case scenario was averted.

[Honestly, I'm surprised Challenger chose to join the fight instead of pushing the lane. That was very unexpected.]

It was more logical for Challenger to stay on the lane and push while Vincent was absent. The guy could've dealt substantial damage to the tower if he pushed it in Berserk mode along with a full minion squad.

But instead, Challenger left the lane right after Vincent and joined the fight. That gave the minions enough time to duke it out among themselves and eliminate each other, leaving the lane barren.

And, what did the enemy gain for giving up this opportunity? They managed to secure a kill on Luke, but that's pretty much it. Of course, Luke's death was a painful outcome for Stratus, but not nearly as much as the hypothetical push on Top would've been.

[Did Cato approve of this decision? In fact, did he approve of ANYTHING that had just happened there? It sure doesn't feel like it.]

That entire play felt like something that Winner and Challenger came up with on their own. They must've completely disregarded Cato's opinion on anything here.

In fact, even back in the replays, many of the duo's joint plays felt like they went against Cato's methodology. Those two often strayed from the Leopards' ever-defensive playstyle.

[I should've taken a better note of this.] Yuel thought. [This means two things. First, I should expect this duo to go for plays that Cato would never approve of. Second, because such plays aren't carefully planned by Cato, it means there might be some glaring openings in them.]

That was very important to keep in mind, but realizing that now probably won't help in this particular game. The current board position looked almost unsalvageable.

Of course, Yuel continued to issue shot-calls as usual in an attempt to turn things around. He ordered Luke to switch to a defensive build, and he started roaming around to help create opportunities on lanes.

Alas, it was to no avail. The team failed to bust through the enemy's tight defenses in Mid and Bot. Only Top had some occasional holes to exploit, but the enemy had too much momentum there.

『An ally has been killed!』

"Baaaaakana!" Vincent held his head dramatically. "A thousand apologies, Chessmaster! I underestimated my foe but for a fleeting moment, yet this is the outcome."

"Challenger capitalized well on that opportunity," Yuel said. "In general, he's getting a little out of control."

The more Challenger widened the exp gap between him and Vincent, the fiercer the guy's offense grew. He frequently pushed Vincent back and dominated the lane via brute strength.

In turn, Vincent was forced to retreat more often and play safer, which made him miss on some precious farm in the process. That only further widened the power gap between them. As a result, Challenger kept growing stronger while Vincent was becoming weaker and weaker.

Normally, it was the Jungler's job to put an end to such a vicious cycle. Alas, Luke couldn't do much on that front, not after shifting to a defensive build.

Of course, Luke rotated to Top as often as he could to provide backup, but that backup did precious little for overturning the situation. It just barely delayed the inevitable.

『DEFEAT』

Until the very end, Yuel was unable to turn the situation around. He focused on taking down Challenger, who had the most openings among the Leopards, but all his schemes fell through.

Yuel even went through trials and tribulations in order to arrange a duel between Challenger and Lars, but even that wasn't enough to stop Challenger's snowballing momentum. Since Challenger was so much ahead in terms of farm, that duel ended in a draw.

[As I thought, the Dark Knight rerun didn't work out.] Yuel sighed on his way down the stage. This was the outcome he predicted long before this game even started, yet it still frustrated him nonetheless.

[We have to get a second win as fast as we can to force out their Korean player.] Yuel thought. [We don't have time to waste on experiments with Luke's memes.]

Down to it, the DK meme was the main source of their problems in this game. If only Luke was willing to play a proper aggressive class that wasn't so fragile, then the team would've still had a chance to turn the game around at any point in the game.

[Even though Nia is also a troublemaker in her own right, I so wish she was playing instead.] Yuel sighed. [Seriously, why do our Junglers have to be so problematic?] He sighed once more.

"Hey, why are ya sighing like an old man, dude?" Lars massaged Yuel's shoulders. "You're taking this too hard, yo. Gotta loosen up a bit."

"How can I 'loosen up' after a game like this? They showed us they have no problem adapting to Luke's DK and that's the only aggressive option he has at the moment. Now, I have to find a way to make Setup Junglers work against that tight defense..."

"But hey, at least Nia woke up."

"Oh!"

Indeed, Nia was there, sitting on the sofa and munching one of Ben's sandwiches like a hamster. She was takings bites so small that it felt like it'll take her an hour to finish the whole thing.