"Next, Ben," Yuel said.
"Y-Yes!" Ben jumped. This was his first time on the chopping block in a forum like this, so it was only natural to be nervous.
"Overall, your debut wasn't bad," Yuel said. "You were cracking under pressure at first, but you overcame that over time."
"Y-Yes, I'd like to believe so too." Ben nodded. "It was all thanks to everybody encouraging me." He bowed multiple times to his helpful teammates.
"No need to be so formal, dude," Lars said. "We're all besties here, right?"
"I wouldn't go THAT far," Kai interjected. "But yes, we're a team. It's fine to rely on each other every now and then."
"Indeed! Victory can only be achieved through the power of friendship!" Vincent made noise. "We're all nakama who work hard and support each other!"
As usual, half of Vincent's words were incomprehensible to the average person. Nonetheless, his loud excitement made the message clear enough.
"With that said," Yuel continued, addressing Ben. "I hope you won't need this kind of 'warmup' every time you play on stage. It'll put us at a great disadvantage at the start of every match."
"I-I'll do my best to not drag you down..." That's the best Ben could promise. He knew he couldn't fully conquer his nervousness, but he felt like he was getting better at it. At least a little better. Maybe. Hopefully.
"I actually have some advice on this topic," Kai said. "Remember how nervous you were during your first time? Burn that experience into your memory. Then, the next time you play on the stage, think back on that experience and remember the fact you overcame that shit."
"Wording aside, that's good advice," Yuel agreed. "Is that a technique you also use?"
"Huh? Me? No way." Kai scoffed. "It's just a good tip I picked up. I don't need that kind of stuff."
Hmm. Yuel had his doubts. Thinking of it, she spoke to Ben a lot when he was nervous. It almost felt like she understood what he was going through. So, maybe she's also coping with a bad case of stage fright?
Then again, almost everybody had to deal with it to some extent, save maybe for goofballs like Lars. Either way, that was enough discussion on the topic. Next, Yuel moved on to analyze the specifics of Ben's performance.
"As far as your typical defensive playstyle is concerned, you performed well," Yuel said. "You successfully shut down Challenger's aggressive playstyle, so subbing you in was the right move."
"T-Thank you very much!" Ben jumped. He couldn't believe that he was praised by the ever-critical Yuel!
"Yuel is sure buttering him up, huh," Kai whispered to her peers. "I can't be the only one who finds this unsettling, right?"
"Yeah, it's hella sus," Lars agreed. "I bet Yuel is getting all the positive talk out of the way first so he can then deliver a brutal blow afterward!"
"Oh, the cruelty!" Vincent exclaimed. "The Chessmaster's ruthlessness knows no bounds!"
"Scary." Nia added oil to the fire.
"I can hear everything, you know…" Yuel made a face. Seriously, these guys. First, they said I don't praise enough, and now they complain I praise too much. So, what in the world am I supposed to do!? He felt like smacking each and every one of them.
"ANYWAY," Yuel continued strongly. "Let's talk about the main issue that I believe you should be working on."
"Oh, here it comes!" Lars made noise.
"The Chessmaster's brutal carrot and stick!" Vincent added.
"Yeah, yeah..." Yuel sighed. "Anyway, I want to talk about your cooperation with Nia, and with Junglers in general."
Yuel played the video compilation that Vincent prepared for this topic. The clips showed how obvious Ben was when an allied gank was on the way.
There weren't enough good examples for this just in the Leo scrim, so Vincent stitched together segments from various online matches as well. It must have been a lot of work, but Vincent never complained.
"We can go over each of these plays in more detail later if you want," Yuel said. "But, it should be clear from all these examples that you have to polish your acting. As it stands, you make it difficult for your allies to come over and gank your lane. That's a critical issue for a defensive player like you."
"Yes, I understand," Ben said. "I'll work on it!"
"Good." Yuel nodded. "That's all I have for you. Next, I wanted to talk about Luke, but he isn't here, so we'll skip over to the other troublemaker..."
"Gufu..." Nia made a face and raised her hand. "Yes, Troublemaker here, reporting for duty…"