It's a Total Shitshow
“It's a total shitshow.”
The coach summed up our situation perfectly. Yeah, it was a total shitshow.
Everyone had seen it coming, and I'd even braced myself for it. But it exploded way worse than I'd imagined—bad enough that I was worrying about the others' mental states and keeping an eye on the mood.
“Well, we saw it coming.”
Surprisingly, though, no one seemed to be cracking.
Kim Hanseo was still as naive as ever. Yuseung? This was his daily routine. No need to mention myself, and Jang Seonho had even been through relegation before. Everyone was holding it together better than expected.
Everyone except Seo Seohui.
We'd agreed on a jungle carry comp, but we didn't pull it out right from the start. In game 1, we went with a standard ADC carry setup.
We picked a bunch of botside-focused champs that could buy time up top and support the ADC, then tried to play around bottom—but we got crushed.
Milky Way Hynix's ace was their bot lane. Our uncoordinated duo couldn't handle them, and the game snowballed from laning phase onward.
After that clean loss, we pulled out the promised jungle carry comp in game 2, and it went a bit better. We picked botside support for the top and mid, managed to stall into teamfights, and dragged it out.
But we couldn't land a single proper engage in those fights and lost anyway.
Game 3? Nothing to say there. We needed to test different comps, so we stuck to jungle carry basics like game 2 but went more aggressive—and got wiped out.
It was a gap so wide that Milky Way refusing to scrim us again wouldn't have been a surprise.
Sure, we were a brand-new team learning the ropes, but no one expected this big a difference.
No one showed outward disappointment, at least. They weren't the type to break over something like this.
But Seo Seohui was visibly beating herself up.
“Seohui, you can't get all up and down over one scrim set.”
“...Yeah.”
The coach noticed right away and tried to console her, but she didn't have the experience or maturity to shake it off that easily.
“Gonna hit the bathroom real quick.”
“Yeah, cool off.”
I got why she was like that.
Bot got punished hardest in all three games, and objectively, it was more her issue than Jang Seonho's.
Support wasn't even her original role—she wasn't scouted for it, had zero experience, and on top of that, she was the only girl on the team.
Staying unshaken would've been impossible.
But mentality was key. Like the coach said, it was just one scrim, three games. Crumbling this hard? Sorry, but that wasn't pro material.
Once she left, the coach addressed the rest of us.
“Still, I think you all did as well as you could.”
“...We got fucking wrecked.”
Jang Seonho muttered it, but the coach caught it.
“Winning would've been the real shocker. I saw some direction out there, though.”
“Didn't we plan it all in the meeting earlier?”
“That was the basics. This is diving deeper.”
The coach started with top and went around, giving feedback. Since we were all together, it focused on team ops first, not individuals.
Personally, I thought top was fine. There was a teamfight disagreement mid-game, but it was a debatable spot. The issue was unclear call priority causing confusion, not the opinions themselves.
Being a former top himself, though, the coach gave Kim Hanseo pretty detailed notes. Arang was sitting next to him too, for reference.
Kim Hanseo took it flexibly, and Arang occasionally raised her hand with questions. Guess she was following my advice to sponge off him.
After top, it was jungle—
“Jungle: pass.”
—no, mid.
Makes sense—Yuseung hadn't done anything wrong. Sure, junglers usually help laners, and that's partly true, but in pro play, laners support the jungler as baseline.
Jungle fights are laner-assisted from the start. Getting pushed in lane means you're losing jungle priority too.
And Yuseung maximized what he could within those limits. Nothing to critique so far.
Mid feedback was light too. I retired due to mechanics, not macro. The coach just suggested alternatives—didn't call mine wrong. Said it was closest to optimal, even.
The one meaningful note?
Operate based on the team's current level.
That was it.
Bot feedback time—and right on cue, Seohui came back.
Had she splashed cold water on her face? Her bangs were damp.
“I'm back.”
Bot got way longer feedback than top. From minor misjudgments to mistakes to straight skill gaps—the coach tore into every bit.
Jang Seonho and Seohui just sat silent, absorbing it. The coach called them out.
“I can't dictate your bot matchup perfectly. You two gotta figure that out yourselves for now. My word isn't gospel—don't just sit there quiet. Speak up if something's off, push back if you disagree. Listening won't win games.”
Spot on, but not easy for underage kids with thin pro experience. Jang Seonho started chiming in a bit after that, but Seohui still looked off.
Feedback wrapped, break time. Next up: MSC quarters, Starforce Gaming vs. Pioneer.
We chatted about the scrim and MSC. Seohui was the only one quiet—and soon she dipped to the bathroom again.
As we watched her worriedly, Yuseung suddenly nudged me.
“Hey! What?”
“Go check.”
“Huh?”
“Can't be me going. Same girl—has to be you.”
...Yeah, he couldn't follow her into the bathroom. Normally the captain should handle it, but no choice here.
I ended up going after her. She was already gone when I stepped out. Checked the women's room—she was face-planted in the sink with water running.
“Hey, hey! What the hell?!”
I yelled in panic, and she jerked her head up, startled.
“Ah, fuck...! You scared me! Why yell like that?!”
“Y-you're the one dunking your head! I got more scared!”
“Just cooling off.”
That explained the wet hair earlier.
“The scrim got to you?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“...Want me to listen if you're okay with it?”
Not sure if confronting her like this was right. I sucked at handling girls, had no clue what to say—best I could do.
At least she didn't seem pissed.
“Pfft, why so tense?”
Wait, casual speech—maybe she was annoyed.
“Just frustrated. Didn't think I'd be some prodigy, but not this bad.”
“Everyone's like that.”
“Liar. You—no, unnie?—anyway, Dice won from the start and hit first division, right?”
Yeah, that's how it looked on the surface.
“Probably. But honestly? I got smashed in my first scrims too.”
“...For real?”
“Wasn't born good. Yeah, you sucked today. But did the others play great? Nah. We all sucked, so we lost. First time today—future's unknown. Might keep sucking? Then mope, rage, overcome later. No need to start now.”
“But it's different for me.”
She softened a bit at my words, then went gloomy again.
“I'm not like the others. They were picked for skill. Me? No options but me—that's why they took me.”
Not entirely wrong.
“I'm the worst on the team. Arang hit Challenger solo top, and I? Got lucky to scrape by. Even climbing Grandmaster now—Pudge, I mean unnie, carried me.”
Arang was hitting her hard. Same gender, similar age—Arang solo'd to Challenger, coach's pick.
Seohui? Pretty much no alternatives.
“There were other candidates, right?”
“Mad Dog kids. No real difference from me. Picked me for marketing 'cause I'm a girl.”
Exactly.
“Thanks anyway. Feels a bit better getting some comfort.”
She thanked me for this lame chat, said she was fine-ish. Nothing more I could say—time to let her go.
“Wait.”
I stopped her.
“Why?”
No magic words. Couldn't bullshit her.
Let her go like this, support mentality shatters—team's done. Even for the team, not just her, I had to do something.
Think. Recall. A way.
Flashed: Seohui—Crisu—was originally ADC. Knowing the ADC mindset as support? Definite edge.
But maybe... maybe that's what's holding her back mentally, beyond game stuff.
Maybe she's thinking too much like an ADC. She needed a shift.
“Seohui.”
“Yeah.”
“Let's study.”
“...Huh? What?”
“Free wins.”
You need the support mindset.
“...Joking?”
“Dead serious. Repeat after me.”
The support mindset.
“The support mindset...”
Carry? You do it.
“You do it... Wait, what?”
“Carry? You do it. No chit-chat—repeat. I'm the support.”
“...I'm the support.”
“So this scrim loss?”
“This scrim loss?”
“Was 'cause ADC fucking sucked.”
“...You are joking, right?”
Joking? Hell no.
“Remember? Some team had a team motto?”
“What's that?”
“Like a family creed. Listen up.”
Flexible thinking, don't blame others. Great words—but real meaning?
“Flexible blame-shifting, don't think.”
“...Haha.”
“Don't self-blame.”
She stared, laughing in disbelief. Yeah, absurd. Infuriating. Maybe thinks I'm mocking her. But double down—be shameless.
“We're not even at the self-blame or rage stage yet.”
“...Guess not.”
“Chill. Game loss? Think: 'Our mid's three-time runner-up brain made her fumble the carry.' Like that. Oh, include Yuseung too—he fumbled once.”
She couldn't hold it—snorted despite herself.
“Ahaha, th-that wasn't supposed to be funny...”
“Laugh if you wanna. Looks good.”
Mission accomplished.
She burst out laughing.
“Ahaha... God, you're no good at this comfort stuff, unnie. Total idiot.”
“Th-that bad?”
Best I had. Worked, though—good enough.
“But seriously, no clue what half that meant? Still, one thing's clear.”
“What?”
“You're super cute, unnie.”
She bolted before I could respond. Stunned, I chased.
“Hey! After all that effort cheering you up!”
She didn't stop—headed back to the room and yelled.
“Hey, Jang Seonho!”
“What, why?”
And dropped it.
“Unnie says we lost 'cause you fucking suck!”
“You crazy bitch!”
Total chaos.