Why did I commit that blunder? Fiona started analyzing the entire sequence of events from the start. Overall, I do not believe I had the wrong idea. If not for Average's unexpected arrival, I would have certainly killed Venus.
On paper, Fiona engaged her target properly. She baited out the Jet Stream and established a favorable position with Night Hunt. She could not think of any mistakes she had committed up to that point.
And yet, it all led to a massive blunder. Fiona frowned. The enemy turned the situation around by adding an unexpected piece to the equation.
She could take the easy way out and claim that the enemy shot-caller simply "outplayed" her, but that would be running away from responsibility. After all, the enemy could only "outplay" her when there was an underlying flaw in her tactic.
I am fully aware that Aegis is the more experienced shot-caller, but admitting that does not improve me as a player. It is more fruitful to investigate the concrete reason for my defeat.
In this case, Fiona's plan fell apart when Average showed up. In other words, the enemy shot-caller beat Fiona's gank by adding an unexpected piece to the equation. What could Fiona have done differently back there?
Of course, the easiest answer was that she could avoid going for the gank in the first place. However, that meant missing on a great opportunity to gain an advantage for the team.
I do not like that defeatist mindset. Fiona asserted. I want to believe that the opportunity itself was real. It should have been possible to strike Venus down in that situation. But, I had to be more precise with my decision-making to achieve that.
To put it simply, the enemy used numbers advantage to crush Fiona's plan. In that case, what if Fiona brought numbers of her own to counter that kind of scenario?
I told Cornelia to retreat earlier so I could take over, but was that really the right call? Fiona wondered. If I kept her nearby for a little longer, she could have helped me out.
Alas, Fiona chose to do everything herself. There were multiple reasons for that, none of which sounded particularly convincing in hindsight.
First of all, the enemies were pushing Mid at the time, so it seemed mandatory to send somebody to help over there. In addition, Fiona suspected that Corenlia's presence in Top would get in the way of the gank.
Perhaps, therein lies the big difference between Aegis and me. Fiona thought. From the mid-game onward, he orders his troops to stick together to avoid scenarios like these. Meanwhile, I have a bad habit of taking an entire task upon myself. It appears that the way I utilize my teammates is severely flawed.
It was not like Fiona did not trust her teammates or anything like that. She was simply a realist who analyzed everybody's skill as objectively as possible.
Cornelia had her strengths, but she was the team's biggest problem child. Therefore, integrating her into a critical play like this harbored great risk. Nonetheless, Fiona should have calculated better before deciding to boot Cornelia out of the scene.
This is not the first time I have been forced to deal with dilemmas like this. Fiona thought. The skill level of our players is an ever-present issue.
Compared to the competition, the Valkyries was a team composed of amateurs. This severely limited Fiona's tactical scope, as she could not trust her allies to execute the most optimal plays when those had a certain degree of skill requirement.
Things cannot stay this way. Fiona asserted. I must figure out a way for the team to move forward.
There were two general approaches to improving the situation, both coming from opposite philosophies. One way was for Fiona to focus on leveling up by herself, to reach the point where she could carry the team even in competitive games. Alternatively, she could slow down her own progress and instead focus on bringing the rest of the team up to speed.
The latter is better on paper, of course. Fiona thought. However, there is a lot of uncertainty in that approach. I can attest to my own progress, but I cannot guarantee that the others will improve fast enough for the regionals.
This was the typical issue with team sports. No matter how hard Fiona trained and how strong she became, in the end, victory and defeat were largely at the mercy of the entire team's performance.
At least in volleyball, Fiona had a solitary dominant weapon. By polishing her serving technique to the extreme, she was able to score many points without being dependent on her teammates.
However, Classmancers did not have an option like that, at least not as far as Fiona was aware. Playing Jungler felt the closest to that idea because it granted Fiona the freedom and flexibility to strike as she pleased, but it was not enough. She still needed the rest of the team to perform adequately in order to secure kills. After all, the term "gank" was invented for "gang kill", implying teamwork.
As such, a solution was required. Either Fiona will step up her game in a major way, or the rest of the team will.
Ideally both, but we do not have the time to split our focus. The regionals are right around the corner.
So, which was the correct move here? It was too difficult to answer at this time. The only thing that was certain beyond a shadow of a doubt was that, currently, the Valkyries were not up to par.
『DEFEAT』
With that, the curtain dropped on this one-sided scrim. StormBlitz won with an overwhelming 4-1, proving they were indeed among the region's best.
As for the Valkyries, they still had a lot to work on...