Chapter 59: First Practice and Review
Howard and Raj were stunned for a moment after hearing David's compromise solution, and then burst out laughing.
"Hahaha, perfect, perfect!" Howard slapped his thigh. "Let Sheldon be the 'Team Captain'! But Sheldon, you have to promise to follow David's commands during matches!"
"Right, right!" Raj immediately agreed. "Separate the Titular Captain from the Actual Shot-caller!"
Sheldon stared at David for a long time, his expression gradually shifting from dissatisfaction to contemplation. Finally, he asked, "David, will you lead us to win the Championship? We must avenge last year's humiliation!"
"I don't know, Sheldon," David said honestly. "What I do know is that we need to start training immediately. Even though this is an amateur league with amateur players, we still need to be fully prepared if we want to win."
Sheldon remained silent for a moment, finally compromising: "I accept the position of 'Honorary Captain,' and simultaneously, during actual gameplay, I will temporarily set aside my personal tactical preferences and execute David's strategic directives. However, David, you'd better lead everyone to win a trophy, because I will demand that my name be engraved first on it."
Howard whispered to Raj beside him, "He's just short of demanding we get him an assistant and a coffee mug that says 'Captain'..."
Just then, the apartment door opened. Penny pushed the door open and walked in, followed by Milo.
"I'm heading to work," Penny told David. "Here's Milo back. You can still bring him over anytime—I'll watch him whenever I'm free."
David squatted down and patted Milo's head. "Thanks, Penny."
Before leaving, Penny remembered something and turned back with a warning, "Oh, and don't feed him anything else today. He just ate half a steak—I only meant to give him a taste, but he scarfed it down so fast, practically inhaled it. I didn't realize he'd eaten too much until it was gone. Anyway, no more food today."
After saying that, Penny hurried away.
David picked up Milo and examined him closely. The puppy looked perfectly normal, with bright eyes and plenty of energy.
"Looks like this guy prefers steak over kibble!" Howard teased.
"This is merely the most intuitive manifestation of the canine species' evolutionary instinct toward resource optimization—high-calorie animal protein is clearly more appealing than any processed commercial feed."
"What?" Howard was taken aback by Sheldon's response, clearly not expecting him to argue semantics over that comment.
Sheldon continued his rebuttal, "This preference is universal across species. Would you, Howard Wolowitz, as a Homo sapiens with a more developed prefrontal cortex, exhibit anti-biological behavior and prefer kibble over steak?"
Clearly, he was still bitter about Howard's firm opposition to him becoming captain earlier.
Howard threw up his hands, "Do you have to turn everything into a debate?" It looked like the two were about to launch into a verbal sparring match.
"Enough," David interrupted them. "We need to start training immediately!"
Mystic Warlords of Ka'a is a classic team real-time strategy game. Four players form a team, each controlling a faction with unique unit types and tech trees, engaging in combat on randomly generated maps. The core of the game lies in resource management, base building, unit synergy, and real-time execution.
But even more important than these is teamwork.
The game features complex synergy mechanics: units from different factions can buff each other, specific ability combinations can create devastating chain effects, and strategic decisions like map control, resource allocation, and timing of attacks require seamless communication and high levels of coordination among teammates. An excellent shot-caller must not only master game mechanics but also understand each teammate's strengths and tendencies to make optimal decisions in the rapidly changing battlefield.
This is why the choice of in-game leader is so crucial—in high-level matches, a single wrong call can cause the entire team to collapse.
Training began.
Howard created a custom lobby, setting the same rules as the official tournament: a 30-minute time limit, standard resource distribution, and the victory condition being destruction of all opposing headquarters or forcing the opponent to surrender. Then, they queued for an online match.
Matchmaking completed quickly. Their opponents were a team named "Silicon Valley Coders," with a mid-to-high ranked rating.
"First round," David said, putting on his headset. "Play naturally. Let me see your most comfortable playstyles and peak performance."
The match began.
The first five minutes were relatively normal. Everyone started according to their habits: Howard chose the highly mobile "Protoss" faction and began showily maneuvering his scout units; Raj frantically managed his "Terran" base, occasionally muttering nervously to himself; and Sheldon meticulously executed his pre-calculated optimal opening build for the "Zerg Swarm" faction.
At the seven-minute mark, problems began to surface.
"I'm going to harass their mineral line!" Howard said excitedly, sending a squad of elite units deep behind enemy lines. His micro was indeed flashy—units danced precisely, abilities were released with perfect timing, and he instantly eliminated three enemy workers.
But the cost was that his main army became separated and was three critical seconds late returning to defend.
Those three seconds were all the opponents needed.
"Th-they're pushing!" Raj exclaimed. A medium-sized mixed army was advancing toward his base, and his defensive structures had barely begun construction.
"Hold on, I'm coming," David said calmly, simultaneously redirecting his own "Protoss" units to reinforce.
But it was too late. In his panic, Raj accidentally sent a valuable tech unit into an enemy ambush, where it was instantly destroyed. His defensive line collapsed.
Meanwhile, problems erupted on Sheldon's side too. He was rigidly following his calculated "optimal attack path," but he hadn't anticipated that the opponent had completely predicted his movements. A flanking force bypassed the main battlefield and rushed straight for his weakly defended expansion.
"My base is under attack!" Sheldon's voice carried a rare hint of alarm.
David frowned. On the top left of his screen, data like team resources, unit compositions, and map control were rapidly shifting, and almost all indicators were trending negatively.
He took a deep breath, his fingers flying across the keyboard.
Over the next five minutes, David put on a one-man firefighting performance. His units zipped across the map like phantoms, first cooperating with remaining defenders to repel the enemy attacking Raj's base, then racing back to save half of Sheldon's expansion. Along the way, he also capitalized on an opportunity to ambush an isolated enemy squad, achieving a spectacular "Triple Kill."
But one person's efforts had limits.
At the twenty-first minute of the game, as the explosion effect of their destroyed headquarters filled the screen, the large "DEFEAT" letters slowly appeared.
The living room fell silent.
Howard was the first to break the silence, his tone laced with frustration: "Raj, your follow-up was way too slow! My harassment created an opening, and if you'd capitalized on it in time..."
"I—I was doing my best!" Raj's voice was full of hurt and self-reproach. "My hands were shaking..."
"From the fundamental principles of game theory," Sheldon interjected coldly, "the primary reason for this failure lies in the inefficiency of team coordination, which precisely validates the theorem that 'group execution is often inferior to optimal individual performance.'"
"So what?" Howard said irritably. "Are you saying we shouldn't even have a team?"
"I am merely stating the facts revealed by the data."
The atmosphere dropped to freezing point. It looked like the two were about to engage in their usual post-loss routine: mutual blame and heated arguments.
"Enough," David's voice cut through.
"What we should be doing is an immediate tactical review! I've already identified where the problems are. Now, listen up."
Thank you for reading!
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