章 129: The Challenge of Gauging Teammates' Skill

The team played a few more ranked matches together. They retained the same positions across all games: Yuel as Top, Lars as Mid, Luke as Jungler, Kai as Carry, and Vincent as Support.

The more games Lars played, the more natural he became as a Mid Laner. He no longer had to ask how many wards to buy or where to place them. At least, not every five minutes.

He still often turned to Yuel for advice, but there was nothing wrong with that. Yuel had much more game knowledge in that area, so it made perfect sense to consult him.

"Hey, Chessmaster," Vincent called out. "I think they got a Sentry Ward around here. Where did they place it? What do your Mystic Eyes see?"

"I'm not an oracle, you know," Yuel made a face. "Based on how the enemy has been moving, I'd say it's somewhere around here." Yuel drew a rough circle on the mini-map.

"Alright, sounds promising," Vincent placed his Sentry Ward in the center of Yuel's circle.

"Yep, it's right here, alright" Vincent cut down the enemy's exposed Sentry Ward. "The Mystic Eyes of Weakness Perception never fail! They reveal all the wards in existence!"

"It was just an educated guess," Yuel retorted. He didn't appreciate his deductions being associated with some nonsensical superpower.

It was all deduction, really. Yuel remembered the few occasions when the enemy team reacted to incoming ganks ahead of time and matched that data against the positions of the gankers at the time. No mystic powers were involved.

But, Vincent wasn't the only one to frequently consult Yuel.

"So, tell me, man," Luke said. "What are the power levels of these guys? Who should I be focusing?"

"The game just started a few minutes ago," Yuel retorted. "How do you expect me to know?"

"C'mon, don't keep secrets," Luke grinned. "I know ya got all these guys figured out. Who is the weakest link?"

"You think too highly of me," Yuel made a face.

Ever since Yuel advised Luke to gank the Lancer in their first game, Luke developed the impression Yuel had some godly powers to deconstruct the entire enemy team in an instant. That gank was just one occasion of noticing that the enemy Lancer might be less skilled than the rest of the enemy team, but Luke thought it was some sort of superhuman read. Sigh.

"I did notice one thing," Yuel said. "Their Vampire seems to hang much longer in Bot Jungle than in Top Jungle. Maybe he's waiting for an opportunity to gank Bot, so he hangs out nearby for a while."

"That all ya got?" Luke made a face.

"I told you I don't have anything solid yet."

"I mean, I guess that's something," Luke shrugged. "Alrighty then, I'mma go see if I can surprise the guy."

Half a minute later, Luke indeed found the Vampire hanging around in Bot Jungle. He snuck up to the Vampire while in stealth and delivered a surprise attack which almost led to a kill. Unfortunately, Vampire escaped in the last moment by turning into a bat and flying away.

"Welp," Luke shrugged. "Couldn't kill the guy but at least he's out of the game for a while and his ult is down. Okay, time to steal some of his camps!" He fearlessly ventured into enemy territory and attacked jungle camps.

[That was impressive judgment.] Yuel thought.

Luke took a small piece of information and converted it into a strong play. The idea of ganking the Vampire in Bot Jungle crossed Yuel's mind several times but he wasn't sure Luke will be able to execute such a play. After all, Luke was playing Rogue again. However, Luke had full confidence and his own skill and almost ripped the Vampire asunder with that surprise attack.

With that considered, did Yuel misplay by not ordering this gank earlier? He wasn't the official shot-caller of the team yet but he nonetheless carefully observed everybody's performance and called the shots as necessary. So, he should've been the one to arrange the gank on the Vampire but he failed to do so.

[Is there any way I can tell for sure when this kind of play will work out?] Yuel was at a loss. If he could always confidently order such attacks, the team would win so many more exchanges.

Alas, Yuel didn't know how to calculate the outcome of such fights because he couldn't measure Luke's skill. There was no telling whether that memer would be able to give the Vampire a fight in a 1v1 situation.

Yuel could only predict the outcome of such fights when there was a big skill gap between the two players. For example, Lars was much stronger than the majority of the players they met in Ranked. So, Yuel could trust Lars to win 1v1s against virtually any opponent they encountered. However, the same couldn't be guaranteed for Luke.

[I better find a way to measure player ability for both allies and enemies.] Yuel concluded. He had no idea how to go about this at the moment but it was an important side project for the future. If he finds a way to accurately estimate the outcome of such fights, it'll push his shot-calling quality through the roof.

However, for now, Yuel could only rely on the knowledge he had at hand. It was up to Luke to make use of the info Yuel provided. Sometimes, things worked out great and Luke made a strong play. Other times, Luke overestimated himself and things blew up in his face.

"Ah, shit!" Luke cursed as the enemy Viking turned the tables on him. He followed Yuel's prediction regarding the Viking's position in the jungle and snuck up to the enemy while stealthed.

Yuel's prediction was on point and Luke approached the enemy carefully, so all the odds were in their favor. With all that considered, the gank was definitely going to be a success, right? Wrong. The gank blew up in Luke's face.

The Viking was aware of Luke's position and struck first. The Viking grabbed Luke with Takedown despite Luke's stealth. There must have been a Stealth Ward somewhere in that area. Yuel failed to take that possibility into account.

The Viking smashed Luke into the ground and summoned a group of warriors through his ult. The warriors ganged on Luke and ripped him apart.

『An ally has been killed!』

"One does not simply gank a Viking," Luke sighed and shook his head.

"That's why I didn't want to suggest it," Yuel said. "It wasn't an impossible kill to score but there wasn't enough data to determine whether you'll succeed."

"Meh, at least your info was on point," Luke said. "You never know what gonna happen, so I just went ahead and gave it a shot. Didn't quite turn out like I hoped but hey,: no pain, no gain."

[That's not exactly a healthy approach for competitive play.] Yuel mentally retorted. In a serious competitive match, a single misstep like this could spell defeat. There would be no time to run experiments like this to gather information.

Therefore, it would be ideal if Yuel could predict such outcomes ahead of time. Naturally, it was impossible to correctly predict 100% of the outcomes. However, if he can get it right at least 80% of the time, it'll become a weapon. He'll gain access to a large variety of new options and will be able to mobilize his teammates much more efficiently.

What did Yuel need to ascend to that level? At the moment, he had no idea. It was obvious he needed a deeper understanding of his teammates' mettle but that was easier said than done. There was no better example than Luke to illustrate the biggest problem at its finest.

Luke was playing meme classes and had an overall lacking competitive spirit. Nevertheless, in the first match, he exhibited a profound understanding of how to play Rogue even against high-level players. He practically generated the team's entire momentum on his own, to the point Rogue looked like a strong class.

However, in the second match, things were different. This enemy team was much better prepared for dealing with a Rogue. They placed Stealth Wards in more secluded areas which were harder to guess, which made them hard to clear with Sentry Wards.

Yet, despite their obscure locations, these Stealth Wards did a fine job exposing Luke's gank attempts. Only a few of his gank attempts went smoothly. Most of the time, the enemy turned the tables on him before he got to try anything.

So, in this match, Luke's performance was in tune with the fact he was playing a meme. Unlike the first game, he didn't come across as a reliable Jungler and Yuel didn't feel confident entrusting this memer with big plays. In fact, over time, Rogue became a liability this match because Luke fell behind and couldn't do his job as a Jungler.

『DEFEAT』

The outcome was only natural. A Jungler who couldn't get kills or help on the lane was like a waste of a player slot. The rest of the team played well, so this defeat was mostly thanks to Luke's Rogue. Once he got shut down, he had a hard time catching up. Such was the harsh life of a Rogue player.

However, Luke's Rogue was only one reason for the team's defeat. In theory, with flawless godlike shot-calling, Yuel should've been able to guide Luke toward making plays that would've salvaged the situation. Even a simple Pawn could threaten the Queen if the board state was arranged appropriately.

So, what Yuel could've done differently to arrange more favorable situations for Luke? Unfortunately, this wasn't a competitive match so Yuel didn't have any data on the enemy in advance. But, even if he had the data, could he have drawn any smart conclusions to that end? Could he have successfully estimated how Luke will fair against these opponents?

[Could Howard do it?] Yuel pondered.

Howard definitely had a deeper understanding of his own teammates, that's how he mobilized them so efficiently. To be able to defeat Howard, Yuel had to reach the same level of understanding. Only then, his shot-calling would truly rival Howard's. But, how could Yuel reach that level? He couldn't begin to tell.

Either way, based on the outcome of this match, it was clear Luke's Rogue, as amazing as it was, had a limit. It worked against some teams in Ranked but the truly competent teams will eat him alive. Therefore, it was best for him to drop his memes and switch to a proper meta class. And yet...

『LegendaryMemer picked Rogue』

"Again?" Yuel asked. "You saw how hard the previous team countered your Rogue. You still want to play it?"

"Of course," Luke answered without batting an eye. "I like picking a class and sticking with it the whole day. Makes it easier to git gud."

"I feel ya, dude," Lars said. "Practicing one class the whole day is hella fun. Really makes ya feel like you're getting better."

"Yep, exactly," Luke nodded. "I feel like I fine-tune my game after every match. By the end of the day, it's like I'm the number one player with that class!"

"Totally!"

[Maining one class a day, huh.] Yuel smiled meaningfully. It wasn't a bad practice and Lars really loved it.

In fact, Lars was doing exactly that right now. Yuel only advised picking Aeromancer for the first match in order to get Lars used to Mid. However, Lars stuck with Aeromancer for the following matches as well. It seemed he wanted to keep polishing his Aeromancer skills until he was satisfied.

And, truly, Lars's Aeromancer became better and better with every game. During the first game, Lars's laning was impressive but his teamwork during team fights was on the weaker side. However, after the game, Lars figured some things out thanks to a healthy dose of criticism from Yuel. In the next game, Lars properly did his job as an Aeromancer during team fights.

But, Lars still had many other flaws he had to iron out. For example, his lack of rotations. Aeromancer could rotate quickly so Lars should do that more often. That was the next bit of criticism Yuel gave Lars.

"Yo, my dude, I came to help," Lars rotated to Top Lane and ganked the enemy Knight from behind. The gank was a little too predictable and the enemy slipped away, but at least Lars showed an initiative to rotate. This was a big step-up compared to the previous games.

Truly, Lars has been showing great improvement with every match. It was impressive.

[I know this is in part because Aeromancer isn't one of his main classes, but still...] Yuel found this gradual powering up interesting.

Lars had complete mastery over Trickshooter and Gunslinger so, with those two, he could draw out his maximum power from the get-go. On the other hand, with secondary classes like Aeromancer, Lars's initial performance was shabby and he first had to "get into the zone" with the class.

This had big implications for competitive play. It implied Lars would greatly benefit from playing multiple games in a row with the same secondary class. And, on the flip side, it also meant Lars usually couldn't draw out his full strength right away with such a class.

Even back during the selection match against Howard, this was probably a big factor. In the last match, Lars went with Seraph, a class he played almost as rarely as Aeromancer. It was a class that could barely even called "secondary" for Lars, so Yuel didn't expect a mind-blowing performance.

But, what if Lars could have played Seraph better back then? Even if just a little? If Yuel made Lars warm-up as Seraph before the match and gave the goof more pointers, perhaps Lars would have performed slightly better. That extra bit of powerup might have made all the difference between victory and defeat.

[I have to keep this in mind for the future.] Yuel made a mental note.

Unfortunately, all this line of thought proved to him was how complicated this topic was. He wanted a way to gauge his teammates' skills to mobilize them more efficiently during a match, but there were countless parameters in this formula. He had to take into account how skilled the teammate was in general, how much experience they had with every class, how warmed up they were with each class, and the list went on. It was like an unsolvable math problem with too many variables.

『An enemy has been killed!』

"Great job!" Vincent exclaimed. "I told you, you should always trust the Meme Force, Luke."

"Haha, damn right," Luke grinned. "Didn't think I could take that guy from 80 to 0 like this but he really wasn't a big deal."

"It's because he wasn't dedicated enough," Vincent stroke his imaginary beard as if he was a sage. "That guy was just playing top tier, I could sense that in each of his plays. But you, my boy, are different. You're playing a meme but you're dedicated to it in flesh and soul. That's why you reigned supreme!"

[I guess that's one way to gauge skill,] Yuel rolled his eyes. [Maybe I should also start coming up with silly skill names and gauge players based on their list of 'talents'. Yeah, right. Not going to happen.]

And thus, the question of gauging teammates' skills remained unresolved. If Yuel could find a way to better estimate the abilities of his allies and compare them against their opponents, his shot-calling will improve by at least ten times. He'll be able to optimize the fights his teammates pick and to predict ahead of time how most battles will play out.

Alas, this seemed like an impossible task to solve. It required some sort of deeper understanding that Yuel couldn't quite grasp at the moment. Was this challenge even possible for a human being? How did Howard do that?

Unfortunately, nobody was there to answer these questions. For now, Yuel had no choice but to stick with the usual tactics. He planned his shot-calling around weaknesses in the enemy's formation and struck where it hurt the most. This approach was always effective, aside from when he was fighting Howard.

The next time Yuel clashes with Howard, will it be enough to only target enemy weaknesses? Will he be able to break through Aegis with just that? Probably not. Yuel had to up his game for the next fight and he felt like the answer laid in optimizing the way he mobilizing his teammates.

But, how to improve in that area in a meaningful way? At the moment, he couldn't begin to tell...