The Evolution of Luke's Memes
The Evolution of Luke's Memes
[Honestly, I doubt Kai alone could've reinvented the club. It's all thanks to Yuel and Lars. They gave Stratus second wind. Like, we're getting carried HARD by these pros.]
With Yuel and Lars on the team, Stratus had a real chance to make it big on the competitive stage! But, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, at least not for Luke. On the contrary, this development put him on the spot.
[Suddenly, I became the "villain" of the club.] Luke shook his head. [I became that guy who is "too lazy" because I don't train 24/7, and somehow I'm the one who "drags the team down" because I meme. Like bruh, I literally used to be one of the most serious players in the old Stratus, what gives?]
In a blink of an eye, everything about the club changed. Now, Luke's dedication to the game suddenly didn't live up to the new standard.
[I mean, I knew I wasn't tryharding, but that was the whole point. I was memeing because I didn't wanna be a sweaty tryhard, but I did put some decent effort into my memes.]
That was the haven Luke created for himself. It was supposed to be his personal resort, where he'll heal all the wounds from all that tryharding he did in the soccer club.
But then, Yuel busted into this comfy space and set it on fire. It was real hard for Luke to acclimate to that sudden change.
For a while, Luke insisted on cutting club practice short so he could continue living his daily routine as before. In response, Yuel and Kai called him all sorts of names and subjected him to a lot of criticism. It was such a pain in the ass.
[Heh, little did these fuckos know that I actually continued practicing at home on my own! Haha, goteem!]
Luke was merely trying to maintain the routine that he started the year before. After club time, he was studying and practicing spicy memes. Step by step, he was getting closer to becoming the Meme God!
[Well, I admit there were some days on which I skipped practice and then just slacced.] Luke only admitted that to himself. [Heck, at first, I was so spent every day that I didn't have the energy to do anything else at home. Yuel's training regime be brutal.]
It was real hard to suddenly adjust to that extreme menu Yuel whipped out. Dude was treating the club like they were on par with the Leopards or something. It was hella rough.
[I remember I didn't have any motivation to practice anything extra at home during the first few months. That menu was killing me.]
Even after Luke somewhat acclimated to that intense regime, his meme practice at home became a secondary priority. He did that whenever he felt like it, but he didn't maintain a regular schedule.
[Well, that one was on me, TBH.] Luke admitted. [I should've forced myself to do it regularly, then it would've been easier to stick with it. But, I didn't.]
As a result, Luke reached the first scrimmage of the year in a half-cooked state. He didn't train as hard as his peers at the club, and neither did he really practice his memes much at home.
[I'm not a clown, I'm the entire circus.] Luke shook his head. [I was making excuses upon excuses.]
He left club practice early because he was gonna "practice memes at home", but then he often lazed around at home because he was "too tired from club practice". Ironic.
[Yep, I totally became a lazy ass. My body wasn't ready for any of this.]
That's why, during the Taurus scrimmage, Luke's contribution was on the meh side.
[I mean, personally, I felt like I was doing a great job. But, Yuel chewed me out to no end and the others seemed to agree with his hot takes. Honestly, I still think he exaggerated, but I did understand some of his points better after watching the replays.]
On paper, Luke did totally fine. In fact, he and the team did way better than expected, and that brought a smile to his face.
[Finally, Stratus weren't the biggest losers of the region! We actually put on a fight, and we even mopped these Taurus bois!]
This was a huge step up compared to the previous year. But, Yuel being Yuel, of course that dude wasn't satisfied with the team's performance. That tryhard nerd was aiming all the way to the nationals.
Honestly, Luke thought the guy was mad at first. There was no way in hell that a team like Stratus could possibly ever get that far. And yet, Yuel and Lars definitely brought in the results. They were clearly cut above the rest of the competition. Even a team like Taurus was no match to their skill level.
[Seriously, these guys should be playing on the Leopards or StormBlitz. Like, I still don't understand why they ditched Storm for a sorry-ass team like ours, but whatever.]
The bottom line was that Stratus did hella fine in that scrum. And, Luke also did hella fine, at least in his head. But then BOOM, that long-ass match review sermon happened.
[My guy destroyed everybody with FACTS and LOGIC.] It was hard to forget that one, especially for Luke. After all, Yuel pretty much accused Luke's memeing of dragging the entire team down. The nerve of some people smh.
[But, as much as I always defend my memes, I had to admit dude had a point.] There was no denying that Luke's class picks made the team's lineup a little sus. [I've never really thought that much about team compositions, to be honest. I was always like "Well, I'mma pick a janky class for the lulz and it gonna work out as long as I know how to play it."]
But, that was such a naive way of thinking. The team's lineup was like a monolith. If there was a gaping hole anywhere on it, then the rest of the lineup had to compensate for it in order to keep the monolith glued together.
[Yuel lectured about that stuff every now and then, but we usually had no problem in Ranked on that front so I kinda waved him off.] Luke shrugged. [But, the last scrim made me realize that my picks actually caused more problems than I expected.]
And so, once again, Luke found himself in an awkward spot as a dedicated memer. He brought his memes all the way to the competitive stage and even performed adequately, but none of that mattered because his class picks were disastrous for his teammates on a fundamental level.