58 The Regionals Without Me (1/2)
The competitive stage. The place where each player puts their everything on the line for the sake of victory. An arena where gladiators fight relentlessly through blood and sweat, displaying their strengths and conquering their weaknesses.
In today's scrimmage, Yuel got a taste of this glamorous stage. It was a ruthless war zone, but a glimmering one. Today's battle just ended, yet he already dreamed of playing here again.
”Hey dude,” Lars called out. ”Match is over. How long ya gonna stand there?”
”Oh, right.” Yuel returned down to earth. What did just happen, again? Right, they had a handshaking ceremony and the Leopards left. Everything was a blur. He vaguely recalled Breaker talking about something with Lars and Roi, but he completely out of it at the time.
”You okay? You look like a zombie, haha.”
”Just tired.” Yuel slowly turned toward the exit. Ugh, his legs felt like lead. Each step felt like pushing a car that ran out of gas.
”Dude, you look pooped.” Lars walked up to him and offered a shoulder. ”C'mon.”
”I'm not [that] tired- wah!” Yuel stumbled, almost diving into the floor. So much for acting tough. Ugh. He felt his cheeks heating up. ”... guess I'll take you on that offer.” He wrapped his arm around Lars's shoulder. ”This is embarrassing..”
”Totally.” Lars nodded. ”You gotta exercise more. You've been slacking lately, right?”
”I still jog, at least once a week.”
”Laaaame. You gotta jog every day, yo.”
”Pretty sure that'll break my legs.”
”Nah, it'll be fine! Trust me, you'll have more MP than ever! Can cast yo Tactics Shmactics spell all day.”
”Heh, I'll think about it.” Yuel smiled wryly. Body fitness directly contributed to mental fitness, so it's not like Lars was wrong. However, Yuel's fatigued stemmed primarily from the abnormal circumstances of today's match,
First, he inherited the shot-caller role amidst a helpless situation in the first game. He had to squeeze every last bit of brain power to overcome that ordeal. And since then, he had been the shot-caller every game. That's extremely taxing when combined with playing Support, a role which required sharp-decision making.
However, all of that was still up his alley. Things started getting out of hand once the issue with Trever hit the fan. Yuel was stressed out by the team falling apart and he desperately tried to find a solution, which led to confronting Trever face to face and asking the team captain to step down. An absurd situation. Yuel never dealt with that kind of drama before.
And if all that wasn't exhausting enough, he also became the captain. That loaded further pressure on him, since he had to act like a role model for everybody and hold the team together. Yuel never trained to bear such heavy responsibility during a match. It was nerve-racking.
So all in all, there were too many unforeseeable circumstances and too many roles forced on him. No wonder he was exhausted. No amount of daily exercise could have prepared him for something like this. Even running twenty marathons every day wouldn't build the necessary mental fortitude to deal with that sort of rollercoaster ride.
The only relief he had today was when Lars joining the team. Lars was a high maintenance player, so Yuel had to babysit him a little. But in exchange, Lars steered the momentum in StormBlitz's favor, making it that much easier to win the two games.
”You played well today,” Yuel said.
”Whoa,” Lars jumped. ”You really praising me? That's rare! You sure you okay? Don't die on me, dude!”
”I can give credit where it's due. With that said, we still need to review some of the terrible plays you made, like that one time you died diving under tower.”
”Bah, ruthless.” Lars made a face. ”But we really did it, huh.” His eyes went over the grand stage. ”We finally became pros!”
”Again with that...” Yuel sighed and smiled wryly. ”This is just junior high. And, we only played as a second string.”
”But duuude, wasn't it sick!? We finally got to play on a real stage! There was even an audience and everything! ”
[I bet they were mostly spies from other schools, though.] Yuel kept that observation to himself to not ruin the moment. Circumstances aside, today was really a huge step forward.
Just a year ago, the two of them were just newbies who grinded in Ranked during lunch breaks and after school. They had come a long way, getting to play on a real stage where pro matches were held. But, that's just the beginning.
”We really made it far, but we still got a long way to go.”
”True dat. Next time, we gonna come here as the first string!”
”Yes.” Yuel nodded. [Though, that'll have to wait until at least next week.] Sadly, it's unlikely any changes will be made to the first string so late into the year. The regionals were just a couple of months away and Yuel still hadn't surpassed Howard. But, next year for sure...!
”Sure took you a while.” Gilbert greeted them as they returned to the waiting room. ”You alive?” he asked while throwing a glance at the shoulder supporting Yuel.
”Kinda.” Yuel quickly removed himself from Lars, before anybody else sees this embarrassing scene. Gilbert was fine, but others would make fun of him to no end. And, Julia would definitely tear him apart for this.
Yuel dropped on one of the sofas and exhaled. Thinking of it, he didn't get much sleep tonight. The nap he took before the scrimmage relieved some of that fatigue, but it was creeping back. He was so tired. If not for his teammates being as reliable as they were during the matches, he would have collapsed a long time ago.
”By the way,” Yue; addressed Gilbert. ”Thanks for backing up my shot-calling, especially in the last game. I could barely put two and two together at that point.”
”Well,” Gilbert shrugged. ”I was kinda supposed to be the team's shot-caller in the fist place, so...”
[Thanks for willing to surrender the role to me.] Yuel kept that one inside to not rub any salt.
Gilbert clearly came here today fully intent on being the shot-caller throughout the whole scrimmage. After all, that's the role entrusted to him by Howard. Just how hard was it for him to surrender the role to somebody else? And to a freshman, to boot.
”Really, thank you so much.”
”C'mon, you making me blush.” Gilbert chuckled. ”It's no big deal. That's what teammates do: we support each other. Just because you play Support, doesn't mean you can't rely on others. That's a problem I noticed, you know? You like shouldering everything yourself. It's a team sport. You don't have to do everything yourself.”
”Right.” Yuel had mixed feelings about this critique, but it probably had some truth in it. He really did accumulate a bunch of different roles and overclocked his brain to find solutions for all the problems the team faced. But, it's not like he didn't rely on his teammates at all. For example, he did borrow Lars's help to reclaim the team's momentum, didn't he?
”Well,” Gilbert looked aside. ”To be fair, you were probably meant to be tested as the shot-caller in the first place.”
”Hm?”
”Nothing,” Gilbert shrugged. ”Anyway, I'm off to watch the first string's game. Seems like they're still at it.”
”Oh! ” Lars exclaimed. ”I wanna watch too!” He turned to Yuel. ”Wanna go?”
”Nah,” Yuel shook his head, sinking deeper into the comfy sofa. ”I want to rest a bit.”
”Okay, seeya after the match.” Everybody left. Yuel also wanted to join them, but his body lost all its strength once it dropped on the sofa. So tired. He merely played five games, but it felt like he returned from war. A little nap was in order. His eyes grew heavier and heavier until he succumbed to darkness.
Sometime later, Lars woke him up. The first string match was over, along with today's scrimmage. It's time to head home.
”Who won?” Yuel asked Howard.