The Scrim Goes Awry...

『DEFEAT』

Once again, Fiona found herself staring at these blood-red letters. It was the second game the Valkyries lost in a row. Both times, it was a teammate's blunder that led to this outcome.

In Game 2, Cornelia overextended and got countered by Hitter and Average. In Game 3, Karen insisted on giving chase after Athena, only to get double-teamed by Athena and Avergae.

And, both times, I specifically warned them against these plays… Fiona sighed.

For the most part, Fiona believed she was doing a decent job domesticating Karen and Cornelia into good obedient girls. About 95% of the time, the two troublemakers faithfully followed Fiona's instructions. This was a huge step up compared to when the club was only formed.

Nonetheless, that remaining 5% is still an issue. Fiona thought. In high-level games, one mistake is all it takes to lose the game.

Essentially, Karen and Cornelia were like dormant volcanoes. Most of the time, they posed no danger. However, when they erupted, the results were devastating.

And, this issue becomes that much bigger when the enemy is aware of it. Fiona thought. I suspect Athena has already profiled Karen as an impulsive player, and I have no doubt Yuel Fermond will do the same after examining today's footage.

A public scrimmage was bound to expose the Valkyries' weaknesses to everybody. Furthermore, anybody could easily purchase a replay of the match directly from ProCenter, and it was not just a raw video but an integrated in-game replay data with all the advanced analysis features.

In most sports, players would kill to get their hands on intel at least half as detailed as this. For the most part, it was only possible in board games like chess.

Yet, Classmancers has such features as well. It is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, the accessible replays helped the Valkyries prepare for today's scrimmage. On the other hand, StormBlitz also prepared for today's scrimmage by using the same exact technology. It was a double-edged sword, the downsides of which were seen clearly in games 2 and 3.

In a similar fashion, StormBlitz dominated game 4 as well. At this point, the Valkyries' morale was noticeably plummeting to the point they were barely posing a challenge. 

Even Andira is underperforming now. Fiona sighed. This is starting to feel like a rerun of the Leopards scrim…

Unlike Karen and Cornelia, Andria was always level-headed. She was not the type to give in to momentary temptations and such, therefore her issues did not come to the surface in the form of overextending or picking unfavorable fights.

Instead, Andria's issue was her motivation. The more the team lost, the less the girl was motivated to fight for the win. Instead, she became preoccupied with not losing even more, which naturally transitioned her into a defensive playstyle.

Before things got to this point, Andria actively tried to find weaknesses in Adapting's playstyle. She even tried to bait him into unfavorable positions. Essentially, she was playing for the win.

Unfortunately, unlike how things played out with Venus, Andria could never make Adapting commit a misplay. Nonetheless, her frequent attempts kept Adapting on his toes. He had to think twice about launching offense or rotating to another lane.

However, at some point along the way, Andria had simply given up on everything. As a result, the Valkyries fell into a dysfunctional state by game 4. The enemy ran all over them at this point.

Cornelia continued being a ticking bomb that blew up at random points, Karen picked unnecessary fights, and Andria stopped caring. As a result of all of this, Lua also started losing heart and got distracted by the negative atmosphere around her, which led to a couple of uncharacteristic misplays.

It appears that everything is up to me. Fiona thought. But, one chess piece cannot win the entire game when the position is this disadvantageous...

Despite the sorry state of the team, Fiona tried her best to not lose heart. She continued weaving one quick play into another in the hope of taking down StormBlitz. She believed that executing successful plays would lift the team's spirits and restore their confidence.

Alas, she never quite achieved anything notable. She scored a handful of kills by finding a few rare opportunities, but overall, there was almost nothing she could do against StormBlitz's iron-clad defense.

More often than not, the enemy slips away in the end. Fiona frowned. Repeated failures like these are not healthy for the team's morale.

Alas, hard as she tried, Fiona could not achieve any more than that. StormBlitz simply did not give her the opportunity for that.

I was hoping their defense would start cracking as time goes on, but so far it hasn't happened. Fiona thought. Despite how much they are dominating the game, they are still cautious enough to not commit any mistakes.

Most likely, the defeat StormBlitz suffered in the first game was still fresh in their minds. Because of that one blunder, they refused to let their guard down even when they had absolute board control.

Well, this is to be expected from competitive players. Fiona nodded in approval. I have heard that the competitive level in the West is lacking compared to other parts of the world, but the skill of the Leopards and StormBlitz inspires confidence.

In particular, StormBlitz was a miracle of a team. They did not even have a coach, yet their competitive level remained this high over the years.

On the other hand, the Valkyries did have a coach, but even that did not help them to overcome this adversary...