Beat gained a decisive lane advantage because Marim royally messed up. However, instead of capitalizing on this advantage, Beat decided to retreat to the tower for some reason.
Huh? She's not pushing or attacking? Marim cocked her head. I was sure she'd try to get at least a few hits on me. She struck me as the vengeful type.
Beat opened with a very proactive move at the start of this wave. For a moment, it looked as if she switched gears into her more aggressive playstyle.
However, now, it no longer looked like the case. Beat just retreated even though she had such a juicy opportunity in front of her.
Is she concerned about ganks or something? Marim wondered. Nahum is very far away, but maybe Beat isn't sure about that? It happens sometimes.
It's not like the enemy could see every move Nahum took. Maybe he had happened to dodge some of their wards during his latest rotations, so now they couldn't tell his position for sure.
It's always possible, but I kinda doubt it, though. Marim reasoned. I mean, these guys are playing on a whole other level. It's way too optimistic to assume they're making a mistake.
There was another theory, one that aligned better with the data. Basically, what if Beat had never switched her playstyle in the first place? She never seemed to make such a switch in the middle of an ongoing game, so it made sense to extrapolate that pattern.
If so, perhaps Beat's proactive move was just misleading in nature. Sure, she made a more daring move than usual, but she didn't actually aggress on Marim directly. And maybe she never planned to do so from the get-go.
In the first place, there was never a hint of Beat being aggressive at any point in this game. The girl was playing chill as if there was no reason to care about lane competition at all.
Is it because she thinks I'm too weak or something? Marim twitched. Alright then. I'mma show you what happens when you disrespect me like that!
Alas, Marim didn't get the chance to show anything to anybody in this wave. Beat had already recalled to the base by the time Marim finished cutting down the bowmen.
Heh, look at this bitch go. Marim cracked a laugh. She just came in, wiped out my minions, and then returned to base as if nothing happened. The nerves.
That entire exchange ended up being oddly chill. On paper, Marim came super close to deleting half of Beat's HP. But, in reality, nothing actually happened. And, the entire time, it felt as if Beat wasn't even registering Marim as a threat.
Well, she did get away unscathed, so I guess she had the right to be cocky.Marim sighed. The competitive league is really something else, huh. Just how much do these guys train?Maybe Nahum wasn't that far off the mark when he called them "fanatics". They do give that kinda vibe.
There was a clear skill gap between Marim and Stratus' top dogs. But that was no reason to give up. It's not like she didn't have a fighting chance at all.
We did trash their Orc, so that's proof we can get shit done. We've just gotta be smarter than them and take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself.
Speaking of opportunities, there was one right in front of her. "I'll go steal their hyenas," Marim informed the team as she made her way to Top Jungle. "Pretty sure the camp is still up. I mean, we killed Memer in the middle of his rotation and all."
"Hrm. Yes, it is quite likely the Hyena Camp in Top is available," Nahum agreed with that part. "However, I can't in good faith recommend going after the camp. Their Jungler has already respawned by now."
"So what?" Marim shrugged. "If he gets in the way, I'll just kill him again. He's already lagging behind, so it'll be easy."
"Don't forget that he geared up at the base. He is lagging in terms of level but not in terms of stats."
"Meh. For our classes, early gear doesn't make a huge impact anyway. Besides, I'm gonna clear that camp in a jiffy with my blast, so nobody is gonna have the time to interfere anyway."
"Hrm. I suppose that's reasonable..." Nahum pushed his glasses. Every mathematical model he came up with suggested that this play was going to be immensely dangerous. The risk-reward ratio was questionable at best.
Yet, at the same time, math also demanded this level of early-game aggressiveness for a Dark Knight to flourish. Like with many complex decisions, there was a clash of priorities. One could not simply have all the benefits without any trade-offs.
"Well, if you're so sure it's going to be fine..." Nahum had nothing more to add. He knew there was a low probability of changing Marim's mind when she was this convinced. Even if they continued debating this, Marim would've likely found a way to swindle him into agreeing.
And so, the horizon was clear. Nobody opposed her plan, so Marim rotated to the enemy Hyena Camp. She was about to reel in some big profits!