"Just lemme pick DK before Memer can take it."
"Excuse me?" Nahum's glasses almost slipped off his nose. "I'm not quite sure I've heard you right."
"Pretty sure you did." Marim smirked. "I said lemme pick Dark Knight for Mid."
Nahum's frown intensified. "I was under the impression you're trying to help us win, not to become the joke of the region."
"Tsk, tsk." Marim shook her head. "Let's be real, it's gonna be tough to win against these guys without some kinda big plan. And, we didn't exactly have time to hatch one, so this is the best I've got from the top of my head. It'll kill two birds with one stone."
Taking DK will keep it out of Memer's hands, as well as give the Tycoons a non-zero chance to snowball to victory from an early lead. They desperately needed that kind of gimmick to win against a much stronger opponent.
However, Nahum couldn't help but frown at everything. "These reasons sound valid on paper, but they aren't mathematically sound."
"Huh? Why's that?"
"Think about it logically. Picking such a non-meta class will exponentially decrease our chances of winning," Nahum argued. "That's just pure math. Meta classes are decided based on statistics, so deviating from them is only going to hurt our odds."
"Nah, that only holds at the highest level of play," Marim countered. "At our level, off-meta picks are totally viable as long as you know what you're doing."
"And, you claim you're proficient with Mid DK?"
"Yeah, I play it every now and then," Marim said. "My win rate is pretty decent in Ranked. And, the KDA t-score is pretty high, too."
"Hm? T-score?" Nahum raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"
"It's a way to measure how statistically significant the results are," Marim explained. "But well, it's something they only teach in uni, so no surprise you haven't heard of it."
"Is that so..." Nahum grumped. "Anyway, I suppose picking DK is fine if you really tested it so thoroughly."
"Yep, sure did." Marim nodded. "I also researched the history of Mid DK, so I know all about it. It used to be a meta pick that slowly fell off the radar because the meta shifted. But other than the fact pros don't play it much today, Mid DK itself didn't even change that much since then. It's still a decent Mid pick."
"Huh. I wasn't aware of that."
"Yeah, most people aren't." Marim nodded. "Everybody thinks DK used to be good in Top and got nerfed for it, but it's actually the other way around. It all started in Mid."
In days long past, Dark Knight was hailed as a strong Mid Laner. Its ability to one-shot minions at the start of the game gave other Mid Laners a run for their money. Even among mages, none boasted such destructive power right off the gate, not even Pyromancer.
Because of that, Dark Knight was arguably the "strongest Mid Laner" in the early-game. That hadn't changed even today. People may have forgotten about Mid DK, but it was a potent pick all the same.
Honestly, what happened to Mid DK was just a case of dying hype. It used to be a popular class on release, but then it received multiple nerfs, and people also realized how tricky the class was, as well as how easy it was to fall behind with it. All these weaknesses discouraged Pros more and more, until we hit the point where nobody even remembers that Mid DK used to be a viable pick.
People also seemed to have developed a skewed perception of Dark Knight's strengths because the class had no competition in Top during the early-game. Meanwhile, in Mid, any half-decent mage could eventually catch up in terms of farming speed.
So, DK didn't come across as an "overwhelming" Mid to most. This made it easy for people to assume that Top was DK's natural habitat.
And, it made some sense. A Dark Knight player had to work that much harder to dominate Mid. They couldn't coast on their early-game power as brainlessly. They actually had to learn matchups and stuff.
And, since meta slaves always looked for shortcuts, playing Mid DK that required actual effort wasn't very appealing for them. There was a big payoff potential, but it was buried underneath lots of hard work.
Admittedly, Marim also didn't invest too heavily in her Mid DK for all these reasons. She understood she'd have to spend an enormous amount of time to bring her DK to the same level as her other Mid options.
Nonetheless, she dabbled in the class as an avid hobbyist. It was always fun to explore picks that other people overlooked or thought weren't viable.
Funnily enough, most opponents in Ranked had never faced a Mid DK before, so they had no idea how to handle the matchup. This helped Marim score some convincing wins.
Largely, Marim agreed with the meta slaves that mastering Mid DK was more trouble than it was worth. But, it was hella addicting to play when it worked. Snowballing out of control always felt awesome!
"Sure, that happens only like one in five games in Ranked," Marim admitted. "But, it's almost like an auto-win when it does. And, considering our chances of winning are questionable at best, 20% doesn't sound so bad, does it?"
"Yes, these are amazing odds compared to what we have right now," Nahum reluctantly agreed. "Truth be told, I don't know enough about Mid DK to tell whether your assessment is on point. But, if you're so sure about it, then I won't stop you."
"Awesome!" Marim grinned. "Then, let's grab ASAP!"
And so, the Tycoons denied the Dark Knight pick. Needless to say, this took the enemy team by surprise, for more than one reason…