บท 199: Who Will Be the Jungler?

Carry: Kai (Beat)

Support: Vincent (InformationBlackhole)

Mid: Lars (Gunz)

Top: Yuel (Chessmaster)

Jungler: Nia (VanishingFlower)

"Say what?" Luke raised an eyebrow. "I think you somehow got my name mixed up with Nia's, haha."

"Nope," Kai answered matter-of-factly. "For this scrimmage, Nia will play Jungler first. You'll be a sub."

"Wha..." Luke blinked and gave her a funny look. Heh. Hah. Haha! This was the joke of the year, that's for sure. "You really gonna let this newbie play instead of me? Are you for real right now?" He gave Nia a look... Or, at least, he planned to do so. But, he couldn't find her anywhere. The girl was under the table a moment ago, but she vanished without a trace. Goddammit, this stupid ugly vanishing bit-

[Nah, calm down. No need to get mad.] Luke took a deep breath. [This is just a joke. Kai is just pulling my leg. And, if by any chance she's serious about this shit, everybody else gonna side with me anyways. Everybody can see she's clearly playing favorites for a fellow girl. Captain or not, ain't nobody gonna let that shit pass.]

"I'm serious," Kai said. "It was the most difficult decision of the lineup, but that's how it's going to be."

"Hey, everybody, are ya hearing this nonsense?" Luke produced a dry laugh. "She's playing favorites for Nia again."

"No, she's not," Yuel said. "I'd also like Nia to play Jungler. We discussed it thoroughly and agreed on this."

"Hah, you did," Luke twitched. "Okay, then what about everybody else? Any of you think Nia should be the Jungler?"

"Don't worry, dude," Lars patted Luke's shoulder. "You're an awesome Jungler. I'm sure ya still gonna get to play some matches. Just show 'em what ya got during the scrimmage and they gonna pick ya next time for sure!"

"That's right," Yuel followed up. "Scrimmages are great opportunities for us to test team lineups. At the moment, Kai and I agree that Nia should be the Jungler. But, that may change depending on how the scrimmages play out. Nothing is set in stone yet."

"In other words," Vincent made noise. "Our Jedi Knight must overcome a trial to become a Jedi Master!"

"You guys are all so serious here," Luke smiled wryly. What a naive fool he was. All this time, he believed his Jungler spot was secured. After all, his only competition was some greenhorn freshman girl. He had this one in the bag. Ez.

Except, he totally didn't. This year, Stratus gonna be a serious team unlike the world has seen before. It was filled to the brim with tryhard energy and everybody was legit aiming for the top. They were serious when they were talking about taking the regionals.

[This ain't what I signed up for.] Luke thought. The Stratus he knew was a laid-back team that cared firstmost about having fun. But, that only applied last year. This year, they became tryhards all of a sudden with powerhouses from StormBlitz joining them out of nowhere.

"Welp, alrighty then," Luke shrugged. "Less work for me then. Am I, like, excused from the scrimmage?"

"Definitely not," Yuel answered. "As I said, we'll be using the scrimmages for trying different things out. I'd like to see how you perform in a competitive environment as well. Aside from your meme picks, you [are] a good player. So, you might surprise and prove that your memes hold up in that environment."

"So, it all comes down to whether I can get shit done with my picks, heh," Luke smirked. "Alrighty, ya got it. Give me just one shot, that's all I need. I'll prove you my memes got what it takes. I'mma take the world by storm! All these meta slaves gonna feel like scrubs after I mop the floor with their unoriginal picks, heh."

"Yes, use the Meme Force!" Vincent hyped it up. "Fight on, Luke Memewalker!"

[But seriously, I SO didn't sign up for this shit.] Luke turned away and spat a sigh. This was supposed to be an easy-going club. Classmancers was just a game for him to meme in. Yet, somehow, he found himself in a situation where he had to prove his skill to everybody. How did things even come to this? [I blame Yuel's tryhard aura. Sigh.]

Welp, in for a penny, in for a pound. Luke signed up for this, so he might as well try to do what he could. As long as it doesn't become a total pain in the arse, he'll keep trying to improve his legendary memeing skills and aim for that spot on the first-string.

After all, tournaments were cool and he never got to participate in any. Somebody like him, with average skill at best in every field, never had the opportunity to stand out from the rest. But, with Classmancers it was possible. The opportunity was right there, right in front of him. He just had to reach out a little harder to grab it.

[Welp, I'll just keep doing my thing and hope it works.] Luke concluded. Working hard was a pain in the arse, but he was a part of this club, so he better do what he can. Tryhards or not, he had pals in this club. So, if he can help them win without sacrificing much in the process, he'll do it.

"So yeah, congrats on the role and all," Luke addressed Nia, wherever she was. "But, ya better watch out! This memer is right behind ya, ready to take the role back!"

"Y-You can have it..." A weak voice resounded from somewhere.

"Say what?"

"I-I'll be fine without it. I can give it to you for free. That's how generous I am."

"The heck are you even at?" Luke looked under the table, behind the table, and over the table. There was no trace of the phantom.

"She's over there," Yuel pointed at the cardboard box sitting at the corner of the room.

"Where? Behind it?" Luke checked behind the box from every possible angle. "Don't see anything."

"She's inside."

"Wha-!? You gotta be pulling my leg... or not." Luke opened the box and found a pile of black hair inside. Suddenly, the hair floated right in front of him! "Jesus almighty! This ain't no horror movie here, girl!"

"What are you even doing there?" Kai made a face. "Come over here."

"Bully," Nia pouted and gave Yuel a look, blaming him for exposing one of her best hiding spots. Was it even impossible to beat this ESPer at hide-and-seek? Did Yuel place a bug on her so he could track her anywhere and everywhere!? She better contact the police...

"What's wrong?" Kai asked. "You should be happy about being picked."

"I-I'm fine without it, thank you," Nia nervously glanced aside.

"Huh? Why?" Kai blinked. "You've been practicing so hard all this time. You telling me you weren't trying to become part of the main team?"

"Um, no really?" Nia clammed up. Judging by everybody's looks, something about her words struck them as odd. But, why? [Should I make a run for it? The door is open. I can break through before anybody notices...! Yeah, right.]

Even Nia didn't have the mastery to slip away unnoticed while so many eyes were locked on her. Well, probably. Who knew? Maybe it'll work. 3, 2, 1... GO!

"Hold it right there, young lady," Yuel said.

"Guh! I only took one step..."

"I've seen you slip away enough times to know where it was going."

"Gufu..." Nia puffed her cheeks. Out of all the opponents Nia has ever faced, Yuel was proving to be the toughest. Perhaps he was the final boss of her entire stealth career!

"So, let me get this straight," Kai continued. "You've been working your ass off in training and all, but you don't even want to play competitively?"

"I rather not," Nia answered. "It's scary."

"What's so scary about it?"

"Everything. You play on a stage. Everybody is watching. It gonna he uploaded to YouTube too. People gonna laugh at your misplays. Scary."

"Upload to YouTube?" Kai raised a brow. "You're overestimating this competitive scene. Some matches get uploaded, but it's usually only the best teams. And, even though there's an audience, it's not that big."

"But, it's still there, right?"

"I don't think anybody gonna come watch any of our matches. At least, not until they realize we're a team to watch out for this year."

"But, at some point, they'll come and judge everything I do. Scary."

"Stage fright, huh." Kai scratched her head. [This is a problem. Maybe we'll have to use Luke after all.]

"Don't worry, dude," Lars flashed his teeth. "Everybody's nervous on their first time. You get used to it. Before long, ya gonna become addicted to that pressure. You gonna start going to tournaments just to show people how good ya are!"

"Not everybody is like you," Yuel retorted. "Some people have stage fright." [Especially, a girl who always hides from everybody, even from her clubmates. Sigh.]

"It ain't just about me," Lars said. "I've seen a bunch of dudes in the basketball club who were scared shitless of playing at the regionals and stuff. But, once they got into it, there was no stopping them anymore! Stuff just works, yo!"

"I agree that the best way to get used to something is to repeat it multiple times," Yuel said. "But, the first time is always the hardest."

"Just gotta shoot for it, yo!"

"If it was that easy, we wouldn't be having this conversation..."

The room fell quiet. Nobody had an immediate solution to Nia's stage fight problem. For a scaredy-cat like her, the mere mention of a stage with an audience terrified her to the core. The mere possibility that some people will come to watch the scrimmage was horrifying. Frankly, this problem was probably beyond Yuel's powers.

"So, um," Nia spoke up sheepishly. "I think Luke should do it. He's a good Jungler. Number one memer. Can beat anybody ez. Yeah."

[Heh, I've never heard praising that sounded more forced than this.] Luke chuckled. [What's with this chick? First she takes away my role, and now she's pleading to give it back. What a troublemaker.]

Welp, it suddenly became easy for Like to get his Jungler role back. He could just nod to Nia's fake praise and that'll probably seal the deals. Everybody else was at a loss regarding Nia's problem, so they'll probably give up and surrender the role to Luke.

[Let's be real, I'm the better player anyway.] Luke wasn't trying to boast or anything, it was a simple fact. Nia was an alright player and she has been improving, but she was still a greenhorn compared to Luke. It wasn't really her fault; everybody started out as total scrubs during the first year. Nia still had a lot of room for growth, but no substantial growth ever happens in a matter of days. It'd take months for her to get anywhere near Luke's level, if not years.

With enough time, this weird girl might become a better player than Luke. She has been training way more hours than him every day and all that jazz.

However, at this very moment? Luke was a league above her. It wasn't even a competition. Surely, even Yuel would agree with this assessment if he could put aside the meme issue for a second.

So, for all intents and purposes, Luke should be the one playing in the upcoming scrimmage. And, in the scrimmage after that. And, in the regionals as well. Luke was Stratus's Jungler, no question.

And yet, Yuel and Kai unanimously voted for Nia over Luke. It was rare as heck for those two to agree on something like that. It's like Hell and Heaven making a truce or some spooky shit.

[I'm sure they also know I'm the better player, so they probably have their reasons.] Luke reasoned. Most likely, they wanted to see Nia in action and test how efficient her sneaking tech gonna prove in srs bsns matches. If it works against high-level opponents, it'll be a riot. And, if it blows, they can always fall back to using Luke. Ez option select.

In a way, Nia's refusal to play could be seen as an early failure. The girl bailed out before the matches even started, that's all there was to it. Luke was the backup plan all along, so he could just step in and assume his role as intended.

[And, I'm fine with that shit? Really?] Luke smiled wryly. It's like winning because your opponent defaulted. If he gets his role back like this, it ain't gonna prove anything. Everybody still gonna think that Nia was the better player and that Luke's memes were poop.

[Welp, it's ain't like I gotta prove anything to anybody.] Indeed, he didn't join the club to become number one or any such tryhard nonsense. That hassle wasn't for him, it was pointless. No matter how hard one worked to get to the top, there was always somebody standing higher above. So, like, why even bother?

In the first place, that's kinda the reason Luke jumped on the opportunity to join this club. It was about playing a video game and the team was lazy, so he thought he wouldn't have to get too serious about any of it. At least, that's how it should've went...

["We gonna take the regionals this year!"] That's the kind of nonsense these daydreamers have been saying. It was hella dumb. There was no chance this tiny team stood any chance against all the powerhouses out there.

And yet, somewhere deep inside, their determination touched him. What if this crappy team really makes it to the top? What if its hard work will pay off in the end? Maybe, just maybe, they could go places if they trained hard enough. Lars and Yuel were two tycoons and Kai wasn't too shabby either, so the team had some aces for sure. Maybe reaching the nationals wasn't just a dream.

Unbeknown to any of them, Luke has been deepening his research of the memeing arts recently. He couldn't be assed to stay for long training hours in this basement clubroom, but that didn't mean he was done with Classmancers the moment he left, far from it.

After coming home and eating lunch, he dug up lots of memeing. info online. He also watched some top-level memers and tested interesting interactions.

[Hasta la vista, tryhards!] That's what he imagined shouting in his opponents' faces after mopping the floor with them. They'll never see it coming! Memes will reign supreme!

Something small like tier lists won't stop him! And, something as small as stage fright shouldn't stop Nia either. If she loses against something silly like that, that'll be a real shame.

On the surface, Nia didn't seem particularly interested in hitting it big in the competitive scene. But, just like Luke, she probably wanted to try her hand at some high-level matches and do well on the competitive stage. That'll give them a cool story to brag about. ["Hey, listen! I was in this one tournament and I whooped some ass!"] Stuff like that.

Therefore, Nia should go for it. She shouldn't bail out using a weak excuse like stage fright. Dodging the serious stuff was Luke's job around here, he didn't appreciate others walking on his turf.

[Welp, I ain't gonna go out on a limb for her here.] Luke shrugged. [But, guess I'll say what I can. I gonna get the role either way in the end. ]

"Hey, Nia," Luke started. "You should give the tournament a shot. No need to worry if you mess up or anything. You got a reliable sub, don't forget that. If ya can't handle it, I'll just step in to replace you. Ezpz solution, zero pressure."

"Ah, right," Nia's eyes opened wide. She didn't even think about it. [Right, I can dump everything on Luke and slip away if I can't take it anymore. Yeah, ez.]

It sounded a little mean, but not really. Luke looked like a guy who could handle himself. So, Nia will try going far as she can, then bail out if things get rough.

In truth, she wanted to try her hand at the competitive scene. It was a place where everybody played like crazy, right? There were definitely going to be a bunch of bullies out there, but the matches will be interesting. Nia will get a chance to sneak up on difficult targets and assassinate them. It'll be fun. Probably.

"I-I'll try it," Nia decided. "I'll try to play and see how it goes."

"Great," Kai smiled. "So, we're settled then."

Nia sheepily turned to Luke. "T-Thanks."

"Don't sweat it," Luke scratched his cheek. [Damn, why is it that when I impress a girl with my chad aura, it can't be some cutie? All we got in this club are a Bro Gril and a Ghost Chick. Life is harsh, man.]

With that, the lineup for the upcoming scrimmage was decided. Nia will start out as the Jungler and perhaps Luke will replace her later. How long will she last? Will her stealth abilities work out? Everything was up to her mental fortitude, which wasn't exactly her forte...

There was only one last role left to decide, one which wasn't tied to any specific position in the lineup. It was the shot-caller role. An optional position that not all teams had, but was highly recommended for high levels of play.

Often times, the captain was expected to be the shot-caller. It only made sense that the one at the top would also issue global orders. However, in truth, the skillsets required for each role were rather different.

Some had the aptitude to be both captain and shot-caller, like Howard. However, some only excelled in the tactical department and didn't exhibit the necessary leadership. Yuel was one such example.

On the other hand, Kai was a self-centered player who always pushed her own agenda through, no matter who opposed her. It was the trait that allowed her to get to the top of the club, but also one which restricted her ability to take others into considerations. She firstmost cared about her own situation during the game, so she had little time and ability to follow the situations of other players.

Therefore, Kai was the captain but not fit to be a shot-caller. She had the highest authority, but she couldn't issue many global orders for others, unless it was something involving her own lane situation. Kai didn't like to admit that, but she knew it was true. Therefore, she agreed to let Yuel be the shot-caller, on a condition.

["If I don't like your tactics, I'll overrule them,"] Kai stated. Being the shot-caller made it clear whose job it was to monitor others' situations and give them helpful advice, but it was nothing more than that. Being a shot-caller didn't give that player the ability to make all the decisions for the team.

[In short, she wants to stay in control.] Yuel smiled wryly. For Kai, being the captain meant something special, so she wasn't going to compromise on the benefits that came with that role. Yuel will be like a dog on a leash, a leash that Kai had the authority to pull as she pleased in case he misbehaves.

[Fine by me.] Yuel thought. Having absolute control of the chessboard was great, but it was hard to manage both roles at once. Yuel will focus on the tactics and Kai will handle disputes and such. It should take a load off his mind.

"I'll be the shot-caller," Yuel announced proudly to everybody. He explained to them the gist of what the role entailed.

"But," Kai added. "If you have to choose between my word and Yuel's, you know who to follow, right?" She gave each of them a serious look.

"Yes, ma'am!" Vincent saluted.

"Yes, ma'am!" Luke joined in for the lulz.

And so, the club meeting came to an end. The lineup and roles were all decided. From now on, the team just had to train, train, train some more until their first scrimmage. Their first opponent Taurus!