You promised a top lane tutorial, but you're just using Worlds as material for your videos?

Chapter 519 Zhou Dian renews his contract, but the new season has a bad start!

Besides canceling promotion and relegation, the LPL has changed from having a fixed twelve teams in the past few years to having fourteen teams now.

The changes at the team level don't stop there.

Compared to the S7 season, the new LPL season S8 has more new faces than just VG and RW, who were promoted through promotion and relegation for the last time.

Two other teams have completed changes in ownership and team name.

As mentioned earlier, LGD's victory at the Bird's Nest greatly boosted the domestic League of Legends esports market.

As a result, LPL received a significant influx of new funds.

Large companies have even directly entered the fray, acquiring LPL slots and becoming directly involved in the league.

The original IM team was acquired by Bilibili and renamed [Bilibili gaming], or BLG team for short.

However, it seems that BLG's management just wants a naming rights sponsorship for now, to get involved first.

After changing its name, BLG did not make any major changes.

The team has basically retained its original roster and has not made any major signings.

It seems they want to observe the game first and then gradually make adjustments and signings later.

Anyway, the LPL no longer has a relegation system, so there will be plenty of time to adjust in the future.

Another team that changed its name, formerly known as DAN, was renamed TOP Esports after being acquired by Top Esports, taking the name of its parent company.

The team is abbreviated as TES.

With the injection of funds, TES manager Guo Hao immediately made a big move, upgrading the weakest link in the previous season's predecessor, DAN team – the top laner.

TES acquired Marin, the former world champion and the first-ever S-series FMVP top laner, from the LCK's AFS team!

Actually, the first LPL team to bring in Marin was LGD.

In Season 6, LGD acquired Marin, who had just won the S5 FMVP, at a very high price.

However, LGD faced various problems that season, coupled with the incompatibility between Marin and imp's playing styles.

Marin's year with LGD ultimately ended in disappointment, with both the Spring and Summer Splits ending in the first round of playoffs.

After the Summer Split ended, Marin left the LPL in disappointment and returned to the LCK.

In fact, during Marin's year with LGD, his competitive performance clearly declined as the game progressed.

I don't know if it's the team dragging me down, or if I've really just gotten worse.

After all, Marin was born in 91, making him a truly older player in the esports industry.

However, Marin performed very well during his year back in the LCK, and his competitive form was clearly still good.

This is what made TES manager Guo Hao willing to take a small gamble on Marin.

It can hardly be considered a real high-stakes gamble.

Now that Marin is back in the LPL, his salary will definitely not be as high as it was when he won the FMVP at the World Championship and was signed by LGD.

Of course, it's definitely not low.

After all, he holds the title of the first-ever S-series FMVP top laner, and his actual performance on the field last season was also very good.

Speaking of which, LGD has had a top laner who won the World Championship FMVP for two consecutive seasons.

Marin in Season 6, Zhou Dian in Season 7.

As another active S-series FMVP top laner, Guo Hao did consider bringing Zhou Dian in and did indeed offer him a price.

Unable to bring in Zhou Dian, a fresh S-series FMVP top laner, Guo Hao settled for second best and brought in Marin, a former S-series FMVP top laner, for TES.

The reason why Guo Hao failed to bring in Zhou Dian was not because the salary offered to Zhou Dian was not high enough, but because Zhou Dian had already renewed his contract with LGD.

Shortly after the winter transfer window opened, Zhou Dian reached a two-year contract extension with LGD, with an annual salary of over ten million yuan, which is currently the highest level in the LPL.

Of course, before reaching a contract extension agreement with LGD, many teams had approached Zhou Dian.

TES is not the only company that offered Zhou Dian a contract worth more than LGD.

However, TES had the highest bid.

However, considering that LGD had given Zhou Dian a chance to succeed, and Zhou Dian also had feelings for the LGD team that helped him achieve success.

If LGD offers a top salary, Zhou Dian will definitely prioritize renewing his contract with LGD.

The higher salaries offered by other teams were not enough to make him leave LGD voluntarily.

After winning the championship, Eimy, Wei Shen, and PYL will all receive appropriate salary increases, in addition to imp's consistently high salary.

LGD faces significant salary pressure.

Zhou Dian would never do something like taking another team's offer and forcing LGD to match with him.

He's not that kind of person.

So when Guo Hao confidently presented what he considered a very high offer, only to be rejected by Zhou Dian without hesitation, he couldn't help but wonder how much salary LGD had offered Zhou Dian for his contract renewal.
Zhou Dian didn't hide anything from him, stating frankly that after renewing his contract with LGD, his salary wouldn't match TES's offer.

Upon hearing this, Guo Hao gave Zhou Dian a thumbs up and said, "You are a truly ambitious person. No wonder you have achieved so much!"

Guo Hao's words naturally implied that Zhou Dian was willing to stay with LGD for less money in order to pursue more achievements.

Compared to TES, who was at the bottom of the LPL last season, staying with LGD and continuing to fight alongside the original roster that won the Grand Slam seems like the obvious choice for achieving even greater success.

But in reality, for many contestants, when faced with a lot more money, it's really hard to say which one to choose!

After all, esports is a profession where young people have the shortest lifespan.

For many athletes, the period when they can make money is only about two years.

Finally, Guo Hao sighed, "It seems we're not meant to be!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Dian smiled slightly and said, "Who can predict the future? Maybe we'll work together someday!"

Time flies. More than two months after the end of the S7 World Championship, the new S8 season of LPL has begun.

The S8 LPL Spring Split started on January 15, 2018.

In the S8 season of the LPL, the competition format remains unchanged compared to last year.

The regular season will still consist of dividing all teams into two groups, playing a double round-robin within each group and a single round-robin outside each group in best-of-three (BO3) matches.

This year, the LPL has added two more teams, increasing the number of teams in each group from six to seven.

Of course, this year they're not called Group A and Group B like before.

Instead, they adopted the American NBA model, dividing the country into the Eastern and Western Conferences.

There are seven teams in the East and seven teams in the West. It's just a change in name; there's no real change.

Therefore, the number of BO3 matches that each team will have to play in the regular season this year has changed from sixteen to nineteen.

With more regular season matches, the LPL management is naturally more pleased to see this.

After all, more matches mean more revenue.

In this era where broadcasting fees for competitive sports events are soaring, various sports leagues are showing a trend of increasing the number of matches.

As an emerging competitive sport, esports is consistent with traditional competitive sports in this respect.

However, unlike traditional physical contact sports like football, increasing the number of matches significantly increases the physical burden on players and the risk of injury, naturally leading to resistance from the players.

There are no concerns about increasing the number of esports matches.

After all, the chronic injuries such as lumbar spine, cervical spine, and wrists suffered by esports players are mostly caused by years of daily training, rather than by playing in competitions.

Back to the topic.

The opening match of the S8 LPL Spring Split naturally featured Zhou Dian's team, the newly crowned S-series champions and Grand Slam team LGD.

LGD's opponent in the opening match is JDG.

After Doinb left JDG, the team did not make any significant signings, but instead promoted Zoom, the top laner, and Yagao, the mid laner, from their second team to the first team to compete in the LPL.

Most people believe that JDG will definitely not make it to the playoffs in the new season.

There is even a high probability that they will be the team with the worst record in the Spring Split regular season.

But the result of this opening match of the new LPL Spring Split was a huge upset!

JDG won their opening BO3 match against LGD with a clean 2-0 score.

This result was beyond everyone's expectation.

Of course, while praising JDG for their good performance, most viewers and fans were also looking for reasons for LGD's loss today.

For example, the major overhaul of the rune and talent system is something LGD's players haven't adapted to yet.

For example, during the off-season, due to the S7 championship win, LGD players participated in too many commercial activities, and various celebratory live streams took up a lot of their time.

As a result, before the start of the Spring Split, LGD players did not have enough time to practice together and did not have enough understanding and coordination with the new version.

Insufficient training time can also lead to athletes not being in good physical condition.

The reasons given by the audience and fans are, of course, objectively true.

Within the LGD team, everyone attributed the loss in the opening match to these reasons.

Only Zhou Dian, during the post-match review, vaguely sensed that something was amiss.

Of course, this vague feeling came suddenly and went quickly, and he couldn't quite grasp it.

Zhou Dian could only increase his personal training time in order to adapt to the new game version more quickly and effectively.

However, Zhou Dian could only take care of himself.

He himself adapted to the new season and new version very quickly, but his teammates seemed to be slow to adapt.

In the following period, LGD experienced both wins and losses, exhibiting a highly unpredictable trend.

Before the Spring Festival holiday, LGD played a total of seven regular season BO3 matches, with a record of 3 wins and 4 losses.

This is truly quite surprising.

In these seven matches, it was obvious to anyone with a discerning eye that LGD was not in good form and lost when they faced strong teams.

The three games they won were against teams that weren't very strong, and they couldn't even achieve a complete domination.

It was always Zhou Dian or Imp who took turns carrying the game, and sometimes the wins were very hard-fought.

Within the LGD team, Zhou Dian and imp are indeed stronger than the others in terms of raw skill.

Even so, most viewers and fans believe that LGD's slump is only temporary.

After all, only a third of the S8 Spring Split regular season has passed.

LGD will make a comeback after the Spring Festival holiday!
After the Spring Festival holiday in 18, the LPL Spring Split regular season continued.

As many LGD fans predicted, LGD did indeed show signs of making a comeback after the Spring Festival holiday.

LGD, returning from their holiday, immediately secured a three-game winning streak.

They also defeated EDG, who are currently ranked first in the East.

However, LGD fans are more worried about LGD in the new season.

Because of LGD's three consecutive BO3 matches, several players on the LGD team who were in poor form and performed poorly before the Spring Festival holiday continued to perform the same way in these three matches.

Even imp, who was in pretty good form before the break, has seen his form decline in recent matches.

Zhou Dian, whose form was clearly improving before the Spring Festival holiday, performed even better after the holiday.

After returning from the holiday, LGD achieved a three-game winning streak right away, entirely thanks to Zhou Dian's dominant performance, which crushed all of the opponent's top laners.

However, any knowledgeable viewer or fan understands that this way of winning is not sustainable.

The statement "League of Legends is a team game" is not just a saying.

The higher the level and the greater the intensity of the competition, the less likely a team can win the game by relying on one person.

Some might counter this with the "four-protect-one" tactic.

However, to win the game with the "four-protect-one" strategy, in addition to the main DPS character, the other four characters also need to contribute.

"Four protect one" only looks like a game won by one person from the battle output panel.

However, in terms of actual contribution to the game, that's not the case.

Moreover, even if we take a step back and assume that "four protect one" is going to win games, the "one" that is being protected can only be the marksman or ADC. How can a top laner play "four protect one"?
So if the other LGD members are consistently out of form, and only Zhou Dian is capable of playing, then...

No matter how well Zhou Dian performs, it's highly unlikely that LGD will go far this year.

Sure enough, after three consecutive wins, LGD suffered one win and three losses in the next four games.

At this point, all the teams already know how to deal with LGD.

When playing against LGD, just keep a close eye on Zhou Shen in the top lane. The jungler, mid laner, and support should also try to harass Zhou Shen in the top lane whenever possible. You'll have a high chance of winning the game.

This point has become a consensus among all other teams.

The current LGD team is vastly different from the LGD team that achieved a single-year grand slam and the Road to Gold six months ago. Although the team still has the same five players, their actual competitive level is completely different.

(End of this chapter)