Division 3 Promotion/Relegation (12)
It hadn't been long since that bitter defeat, but the one-on-one training session with Yuna dragged on until 5:30 AM before finally wrapping up.
After forcibly sending Yuna back to the dorm—insisting she needed rest for condition management—I could finally crash on the practice room sofa.
But I didn't get to sleep for long. The chatter from the players who had arrived woke me right back up.
"Huh? Isn't that Coach?"
"Looks like he slept here."
"Should we wake him to practice together?"
"Nah, don't. He seems exhausted."
"Without even a blanket... Should I cover him with my jacket?"
Ugh... so noisy...
Woken by their voices, I barely pried open my heavy eyelids. Right in front of me was Sera, who had taken off her outer jacket, leaving her in a tank top, draping her clothes over me.
"Eek?!"
Not realizing I was awake, Sera gasped when our eyes met, quickly covering her chest and shoulders with her arms as she backed away two steps.
"I'm not sleeping."
"C-Co-Co-Coach!? Were you... sleeping?"
"I was, until your yapping woke me up."
I deliberately averted my gaze, giving Sera time to grab her clothes and put them back on without too much embarrassment. Yawns kept escaping me, and my eyes still refused to stay open. Judging by the sunlight, it wasn't our usual arrival time...
"What time is it?"
"11 AM."
Two hours earlier than our normal practice start.
"Why'd you all come so early?"
"It's the only day we have to practice."
"You actually rested properly, right? Condition management is a pro's duty too, like I keep saying."
"We rested plenty. If we rest more and fail to promote, you taking responsibility? We're practicing, so help us out, Coach."
Seona cleared her throat with a smug look, puffing out her chest. Seeing how they'd bawled their eyes out yesterday only to shake off the loss so cleanly made me both proud and relieved—I couldn't help but chuckle.
There were four players in the practice room.
"No Yuna?"
"Yuna unnie seems wiped. No matter how much we called, she wouldn't get up."
"Yeah, let her rest. She pushed way too hard until sunrise yesterday. If needed, I'll go wake her, so don't worry."
"Got it. Then we'll practice with you, Coach, and let Yuna unnie sleep—"
Mid-sentence, something clicked for Seona, and she tilted her head, staring at me.
"But how'd you know Yuna unnie practiced until sunrise yesterday?"
"I saw her."
"You woke up from hearing her leave?"
"No, we practiced together."
"Aha!"
Seona smacked her fist into her palm with a satisfied nod. Then she immediately clasped her hands together and bowed her head.
"My bad! We won't bug you for practice help, so rest more, Coach!"
"I'm wide awake now, you idiot. Cut the act and queue up. I'll coach you through it."
###
Yuna arrived at the practice room just past 1 PM.
Late, but considering how hard she'd worked until those wee hours, I let it slide and slotted her straight into the practice games.
I had her pull out the new champion right away—the one she'd drilled until dawn. It was a champ that demanded insane team synergy, so one-on-ones alone wouldn't cut it.
"Yuna unnie, new champ?"
"Yeah."
"Coach, is this really okay? We won't have time to practice other champs, and that's our main we used against Peacemaker."
"That was the plan originally. But we got crushed by their champ pool yesterday, and watching the games, I saw our aggro ping-pong comp struggles a lot."
"Specializing might not be perfect, but it'll help a ton. My bad for not expanding your pools sooner. And how could I ignore Yuna coming to me bawling for help?"
"I-I didn't bawl!"
"You sure?"
"Ughhh... J-Just start practicing already!"
Seeing Yuna's face turn beet red, I dropped the teasing and got down to business.
From there, we scrimmed until dinnertime, focusing on team synergy. Against a Division 3 team, we went 1-2, but it helped integrate Yuna's new champ pretty well.
After the three games, Yuna collapsed, drenched in sweat, panting heavily. She'd worked her ass off in-game, burning through energy like crazy.
"Huff... huff... I'm dying here."
"Good work, Yuna unnie."
"You practiced this in just one night? You're a freak, unnie."
The others had felt firsthand how hard Yuna grinded in-game, so despite yesterday's fight, they were all past it now, wiping each other's sweat.
"No scrims tonight, just bot lane games. Shower, eat, rest, and be back by 7."
"Got it!"
Once they headed to the dorms, I returned to the meeting room. The losers' bracket match between Team Ridel and Team Brilliant was about to start. The winner would face us, so as coach, I needed to analyze this game too.
Still an hour until kickoff—maybe I could snag a quick nap...
Knock knock knock.
No rest for the weary.
Someone knocked on the meeting room door, forcing my eyes open again. Was there some force out there dedicated to crushing my humble dream of a catnap in this chair?
Groaning, I stood and opened the door.
Yuna stood there. She hadn't gone back to the dorm yet—sweat still soaked her from head to toe.
"At least you knocked this time."
"Coach, did I do good?"
Out of nowhere, Yuna hit me with that question. Ever since yesterday, she'd been hounding me about her performance—during practice, after, and now.
Always brimming with confidence, but after it shattered so brutally, she craved my validation.
"Did I do good? Can you say I play well now? Or am I still trash? What's my level at?"
"Depends on the benchmark."
"By your standards?"
"You're bad."
My blunt straight ball made Yuna flinch, hurt flashing across her face. She clamped her mouth shut, glared, then asked:
"Where exactly?"
"Ally care timing's late, support/join timings are off sometimes, ult kill secures are weak. Mana management's sloppy—so you miss grabs when you need to hold enemies. Overfarming means you rarely draw enemy vision when it counts. Skill usage speed is way below my bar—"
"S-Stop! I get it! I'm bad, okay?!"
As I kept going, her hurt expression deepened until she couldn't take it, waving me off to shut me up.
"So you'll teach me how to fix it today, right?"
"What do you think I signed up for with this team?"
"Once you teach me, I'll get good, yeah?"
"Who do you think's teaching you?"
To my counter-question, Yuna gave a faint smile.
"Eternal Combat solo queue rank 1, the best gamer I've ever seen, guy with skills that could dominate pros but coaches a women's academy team for some reason—our team coach."
"You think I'd teach you and you wouldn't get good?"
"No way. Just checking."
Yuna shrugged with a grin and turned to leave. Hand on the doorknob, she tossed one last question over her shoulder.
"Coach, you said I'm bad by your standards earlier. What about promotion/relegation level?"
Her eyes sparkled with expectation.
I gave her the answer she'd love most—while being straight facts.
"You're amazing."
Only then did a bright smile bloom across Yuna's face. Hearing "good" from me meant that much?
"That's all I needed for now."
###
That night, the players dove deep into practice games. I scratched my head watching the promotion/relegation results.
"This is suspicious."
2-1, Team Brilliant win.
Team Ridel from Division 3 was now headed to academy league. Team Brilliant advanced to the finals against us—for the guillotine match.
I'd figured Ridel had at least a 6-4 edge, maybe 7-3, and most experts agreed.
But the result flipped expectations, centered on Oh Sujin's completely revamped playstyle.
Team Brilliant was known for "bed combat"—turtling with universal defense on Mechanic, pushing all lanes with teleport boots. But against Ridel, they flipped the script.
Sujin ditched pure defense on Mechanic. Using her ult to reset skills and most item cooldowns via mech redeployment, she went full aggro.
Ditching the iconic suicide robot march for space defense, she hammered foes with lasers and heat-seeking missiles nonstop.
She even built Core Buster—trash cost-efficiency but top-tier active nuke—and Shipstick, the intel champ endgame king that turns enemies into sheep on active—for infinite CC chains.
Flipping two years of playstyle overnight? Proof Brilliant and Sujin had bled for this since our match.
It'd be no cakewalk.
But I trusted my players' growth from that brutal loss.
I shared the results and Brilliant's new style with the team, discussing counters, cautions, and strategies through strategy talks to cap the final night.
Time flew by, bringing the moment to end our fateful grudge with Brilliant—ongoing since that first public scrim.