Chapter 553 - 549: Smurfing

Brandon Marshall might have been grumbling under his breath, but his hands never stopped moving. He was so focused, he didn’t even notice the two people standing behind him.

A team fight was about to break out. As the team’s Magic Core, Brandon Marshall was the carry with the highest burst damage. The drawback of mage heroes is that they’re squishy, with low health, making them easy to get one-shotted. They are also prime targets for enemy assassins.

The moment the team fight began, Brandon, eager to push forward and deal damage, immediately gave away his position. The enemy jungler, a Flying Mantis, seized the opportunity, pounced on him, and killed him with a single combo.

The screen instantly went gray!

"Fuck!" Brandon Marshall yelled. "What’s with that damage? I died to a single Q-A combo?"

With their main damage dealer dead, the rest of the team instantly fell apart. They scrambled in disarray as the enemy team picked them off one by one. Brandon anxiously barked out commands, "Fall back, fall back! Defend the base, defend the base!"

His teammates started shouting over each other. "Forget the dragon! Go back and heal!"

"Help me with red buff, or they’re going to invade and take it."

"Wait for Brandon to respawn! Don’t get overeager... Shit, I bought the wrong item."

In short, it was total chaos—a complete free-for-all.

Jameson Stone was dumbfounded. ’If this is the skill level of the Esports Club,’ he thought, ’then I could make the cut too.’

Ethan Sterling, however, just sighed quietly. He had formed teams before, even making it to the national tournament and facing off against pro squads. He and his old teammates had played together daily to build synergy, so he knew better than anyone that a team could not afford to be disorganized.

All it took was one person with good macro awareness to be the shot-caller; everyone else just had to follow their lead.

Teammates needed to trust one another. They couldn’t be blindly overconfident, and they certainly couldn’t be selfish.

That last play from Brandon was a perfect example: he’d shown no regard for his teammates, let alone the enemy’s positioning. As a result, the other team seized the opportunity and nearly wiped them out.

But Ethan could also tell this was just a casual get-together for fun. There was no need to judge it by the standards of a professional tournament.

Before respawning, Brandon opened the in-game shop to buy an item, but he hesitated for a long time, clicking around indecisively.

Ethan couldn’t take it anymore. He quietly spoke four words from behind him: "Build Golden Body first."

Brandon instinctively turned at the sound of the voice and recognized Ethan immediately. "Hey! The freshman!"

Ethan smiled, gesturing for Brandon to focus on the game. "The enemy jungler is clearly targeting you. If you build a Golden Body first to negate their lethal damage, you’ll have a chance for a counter-kill."

"Alright, you got it," Brandon said cheerfully, immediately buying the Golden Body.

The item’s core function was to be used right before taking fatal damage. It would turn the user into a golden statue, making them untargetable and invincible for two seconds.

During that time, however, the user couldn’t move or cast abilities. Still, it could often save your life or even create an opportunity for a counter-kill, working wonders in the right situation.

"Be careful. The enemy jungler is in the top-side jungle, and he’s going to come gank you. Keep your finger on the Golden Body button," Ethan said, watching the screen.

The words had barely left his mouth when a dark shadow suddenly leaped out from the brush to the side.

It was the Flying Mantis again!

Luckily, Brandon had bought the Golden Body, and his reflexes were quick. He activated it instantly, turning into a golden statue right where he stood. All of the Mantis’s abilities missed, putting them on cooldown.

Two seconds later, the Golden Body’s effect wore off. The Flying Mantis had no time to escape, and with its abilities on cooldown, it was completely helpless.

Brandon unleashed a burst combo, securing the counter-kill and collecting the shutdown bounty.

"Nice one, Brandon!"

"Nice!"

Brandon was pumped. He glanced back at Ethan. "How’d you know where he was?"

Ethan explained quietly, "After you died in the last team fight, they took the dragon on the bottom side of the map. He most likely cleared out his bottom-side jungle camps while he was there. So, I figured he’d be moving to his top-side jungle to clear those camps next."

"You gave away your position while clearing the minion wave in the top lane. The Mantis is a fast hero with a dash, so there was a high chance he’d come for you. If it weren’t for that Golden Body, you’d be dead again for sure!"

Brandon was impressed. "You figured all that out? Hey, why don’t you shot-call for me for a bit? Help us turn this game around."

"You’re almost ten thousand gold behind. A comeback’s going to be tough," Ethan stated matter-of-factly.

Besides, he’d noticed the five of them had zero coordination. They were basically all just doing their own thing.

Plus, the overall rank of the match was clearly not very high. All it would take was one skilled player on the enemy team to completely stomp them.

"How about I take over for you? You can watch from back here," Ethan finally couldn’t resist offering.

His hands were itching to play. It was mainly because their gameplay was so bad it was making him anxious just watching.

"Sure, go for it. Show me what you’ve got," Brandon said, getting up from his chair. He announced to the others, "The freshman’s taking over for me! Listen to his calls."

Ethan rubbed his hands together and sat down. The keyboard and mouse felt unfamiliar, but it didn’t matter. Playing at this rank was an overwhelming curb-stomp for him.

In other words, smurfing.

Jameson leaned in closer. Back at their old high school, he’d heard rumors that Ethan used to play in professional tournaments, but he had never actually seen him play. He couldn’t help but feel a surge of curiosity and excitement.

In less than two minutes, Ethan had cleared out their side of the jungle and even used a long-range ultimate to snipe two kills from his teammates. His gold count instantly shot up to the highest on the team.

He explained as he played, "You’re a carry. The two most important things are: one, stay alive or die as little as possible, and two, secure your farm. That’s how you get enough gold to pump out more damage. So, take the kills you need to take, and farm every minion wave and jungle camp you can."

When the next team fight broke out, Ethan stayed at the very back of his team’s formation.

"The enemy assassin is definitely eyeing you. Right now, it’s a battle of patience. As long as your biggest threat stays hidden, you stay hidden. This is especially true when your life-saving abilities like Golden Body and Flash are on cooldown. Always track their positions so you don’t get picked off."

"Assassins, like Magic Cores, are all about burst damage. But an assassin has to commit hard to a fight, which is riskier. Comparatively, you have a slightly higher margin for error."

No sooner had Ethan spoken than the enemy Mantis clearly lost its patience. Unable to find Ethan after the team fight started, it revealed itself and pounced on the team’s other carry: the marksman.

But the marksman usually has a Support by their side for protection, making them harder to instantly kill.

The moment Ethan saw the Mantis reveal itself and unload all its abilities onto the marksman, he finally stepped forward to deal damage.

With the primary threat neutralized, his window to deal damage was wide open. Mages have relatively short cooldowns, and in that team fight, Ethan unleashed an insane amount of damage. Thanks to his perfect mechanics, not a single one of his abilities missed.

Brandon’s blood was pumping as he watched. "Fucking awesome!"

Ethan said, "Just remember one simple truth: you can’t deal damage if you’re dead."