League of Legends: Reborn in Season 3, Tuning the Entire League

Chapter 278 The Changes NXG Brought to the LPL!
Meanwhile, EDG, which had just completed its roster formation, was holding its first meeting.

After witnessing the success of NXG, Edward Zhu devised a simple and direct strategy for the development of EDG—learning from NXG's experience.

New season plan: Recruit five random players? No! Edward Zhu will directly sign established professional players, starting from a higher point than NXG, in order to have any chance of surpassing them.

Jungler Mingkai, AD Nami, mid laner Van, and support Curly have all joined the team, with only one newcomer being used in the top lane position.

Execution capability?
Athlete's training volume?
The solution is simple: just implement military-style management!
The quantity doesn't need to be too exaggerated; just refer to NXG's schedule.

The athletes' accommodation, food, and other support are all fully in line with NXG standards.

Well, we also need to take the athletes' health into account. Imitating is fine, but it should also have its own unique characteristics.

Inside the meeting room, Mingkai and Juanmao focused their attention on the live broadcast of the NEST finals, lost in thought.

"Factory, NXG's playing style seems quite suitable for us," Curly spoke first.

"Yeah, that's promising." Mingkai nodded in agreement. "Rio is going to nerf Ignite damage in the new season, so top laners can completely stop taking Ignite. A top-jungle gank with four players ganking bot lane will definitely have a much higher success rate than a jungler going solo."

"But the jungler on the Black team is really fast," Nami, who was sitting next to the two, suddenly exclaimed. "The moment the Prince and Renekton made their move, the Lee Sin managed to ward up and escape!"

Upon hearing this, Mingkai, who was just planning to book the entire place a second ago, suddenly narrowed his eyes—this little brat is implying something about me, isn't he?
Mingkai's mind raced:

"Hmm, Jm is right. You can't win a game by just ganking the bot lane; you also need to 'take care' of the top laner."

"Let the bot lane farm on their own. We'll consider taking over the bottom half of the map after the dragon spawns."

……

Jiang Ming was unaware that the brief partnership during the All-Star Game and NXG's tactical shift in the new season had led to a significant change in the personal style of Clearlove, who "prefers to gank bot lane".

Of course, Jiang Ming's original intention in having the two NXG teams showcase their research on the new season's gameplay in the finals was to promote the further evolution of the region; change is a good thing.

What will the future look like? Will EDG gank top at level 2?

Heh. It's quite interesting to think about.

At the NEST venue, by the time Jiang Ming woke up from his nap, the first match was already halfway through.

After the blue team destroyed the bottom lane tower, they quickly moved to the river. The top and support duo took the lead in attacking the dragon. At the same time, the prince seized the opportunity when Lee Sin had to tank Caitlyn's damage to clear the wave, and sneaked into the enemy jungle to steal the newly spawned Elder Golem.

"Retreat quickly after taking down the dragon! Lao Xu, come help me defend the mid lane!" the blue team shouted regretfully in the team voice chat.

Unfortunately, the Black team reacted quickly, and their top laner, Corki and Zyra, traded kills for the enemy's turret.

Xiao Duan left the plane to catch the line alone, while he himself disappeared into the shadows.

Unfortunately, the mid-lane fox seized this opportunity, activated her ultimate [Spirit Strike], and unleashed a powerful combo, seemingly intending to go all in.

With all his teammates in the bottom lane, his Vladimir was in a difficult situation.

With limited vision in the upper half of the court, Annie's position could not be confirmed, so they dared not counterattack and could only retreat.

Choosing to avoid combat was a pity, but for Ahri, who has three dashes, it was an excellent opportunity to whittle down the vampire's health. She calmly executed a beautiful RAQA combo, weaving in basic attacks, slowly whittling down the vampire's health.

Although their lives were not in danger, the mid laner's condition was severely damaged, and the consequences were immediately apparent: Caitlyn and Renekton, who should have gone back to base to upgrade their equipment, had to rush to the mid lane to take over the Vladimir's minion wave.

Unfortunately, with low health, he had no choice but to return home first, and then he had to rush to the top lane to deal with the minion wave pushed by the plane.

The blue team's previously smooth line switching operation was thus torn open.

After a brief silence, the two commentators began to look for topics in the details or gossip from both inside and outside the venue:
"I have to say, the fundamentals of both teams are truly outrageous. Despite such frequent skirmishes in the top, mid, and bottom lanes, the players from both NXG teams still managed to maintain extremely high CS (creep score) levels!"

"That's right. You can see that the CS difference between the two AD carries has been stuck in single digits, and even the CS of the two top laners is stable above the passing grade for withstanding pressure."

[That's true! It feels like the LPL has only been around for a year, but the players' skill level has already collectively evolved!]

If I remember correctly, back in Season 2, WeiXiao's perfect timing and last-hitting with Vayne went viral on the forums.

[Now? Any professional player who's bad at last-hitting might not even make the roster for official matches.]

Hey, you know what? I just glanced at the recruitment requirements for professional clubs, and basic skills are a major hurdle!

[How could they not improve? With NXG, that big demon king, any professional player with even a weak foundation can be completely crushed without even getting a single kill.]

During the interruption of the match, Miller and Bella started a discussion about the changes NXG had brought to the LPL region. The live stream chat and some players on the forums instantly became lively.

Forget about pros, even among us guys playing ranked, every single one of us treats minions like our lives. Brothers are brothers, kills are fair game, but dare touch my siege minion? We'll turn on you on the spot!

[(Facepalm) I really have to give JM and NXG a shout-out! Before, when everyone was just messing around with LOL, all we thought about was fighting, nobody cared about the minions' gold. After watching JM's video, it all clicked—wow, 20 minions ≈ one kill!]

Before, if someone said, "Laying minions slows me down in fights," I'd just think they were bad. But now I understand, being good at last-hitting minions makes fighting much more enjoyable! So I won't hold back (hehehe)!

[Last hit! I must last hit! Last hitting is my life's work! The enemy dares to out-farm me? Then I'll treat them like a cannon minion and last hit them! In the LPL, only the survivor has the right to land the final blow!]

Speaking of the impact of NXG, I've noticed that LPL esports players have all learned to get haircuts and wash their hair before matches! (doge)

[Pfft...it's true. Before, everyone had greasy, messy hair, and in front of the camera, they looked exactly like me after two or three all-nighters.]

I never dared to tell my colleagues before that I enjoyed watching esports livestreams; I always felt a little... well, I was letting the viewers down.

[No need for that now. NXG is just doing it like traditional competitive sports, that's what you call professional (with picture JPG)]

[More than that! The professionalism of the coaching staff is also key. Teams used to pay little attention to this; at most, the team leader would just fill in to make up the numbers. Then IG poached a top-tier player from NXG, Xiao Wu, and the result? Those who know, know!]

No, no, no, what's truly amazing about JM is that she elevated the status of support players!

[It used to be 'the fifth floor doesn't support,' but now? Goodness, everyone's calling themselves 'e-sports strategists' and 'commanding masters,' scrambling to get support! (Facepalm)]

[Fine, they might as well grab it, but the problem is their idiotic brains and their tendency to boss people around! Who gave them the audacity? Do they wholesale Fish Leong?]

[I can't take it anymore. In the lower ranks of the Chinese server, just focus on having fun in the matches. Trying to learn strategy from professional teams? Do you even understand it?]

[That's normal. People used to think supports were poorly paid, had little chance of carrying, and were barely noticeable. NXG showed everyone what the art of leadership as a top-tier support looks like!]

[Hehehe, playing support is so much fun! All four teammates are your henchmen. The feeling of leading your well-fed, fattened dogs around, biting the entire enemy team to death, is absolutely heavenly!]

[Holy crap! Any team that signs Pang Pang this year will be set for life!]

Actually, JM's greatest achievement is probably his role in driving the commercialization of esports teams.

Suddenly, a comment like this appeared on the screen.

Many players who were sitting in front of their computers, preparing to follow the trend and repeat the exam, paused involuntarily, their eyes showing a thoughtful expression.

Upon closer examination, this is indeed the case.

When it comes to JM and his NXG, is their biggest contribution to the LPL really the S3 championship?
Undeniably, both the S3 championship and the victory at the Shanghai All-Star Game brought phenomenal viewership to the LPL, which is beyond question.

However, what truly revitalized other clubs and propelled the entire league onto the fast track of professionalization was NXG's mature commercialization exploration and traffic monetization model.

Before entering the professional esports scene, JM was already a top streamer in the League of Legends field.

With his influence and background as a top student from Jinling University, he could have easily made a fortune by capitalizing on the livestreaming boom, or embarked on a smooth path in any industry based on his academic qualifications—either path would have been enough to propel him to the "pinnacle of life" as defined by the world.

But it was precisely this kind of person who resolutely plunged into the professional e-sports circle, which was then shrouded in prejudice and regarded by the mainstream as a "sanctuary for internet-addicted teenagers."

What did esports look like back then?
Dark and damp basements, smoke-filled internet cafe training environments, teenagers with messy hair eating instant noodles, a group of people barely making ends meet with tournament prize money, "powering the fire for love"... the teams even travel all over the country on old green trains, with the biggest sponsorship being only a few thousand yuan from an internet cafe owner.

The emergence of NXG completely shattered this picture.

JM accurately grasped the consumption needs of young e-sports enthusiasts and deeply integrated e-commerce with e-sports genes: from pork floss cakes to team merchandise, from traffic monetization to commercial sponsorships—in the spring of 2013, when NXG won its first "million-level sponsorship" which shocked the entire e-sports industry, who could have imagined it?

now?

A mere million?

Ha, the transfer fee for just one player from NXG is probably more than that!
I used to think it was amazing that NXG could find so many sponsors, but now I'm amazed at how powerful this sponsor is. I wonder how much they had to spend to snag an ad sponsorship spot on NXG.

2013 marked the inaugural year of the LPL league, a milestone in the professionalization of esports in China. However, the industry was still in its infancy, with many structural problems that urgently needed to be addressed.

The biggest problem is that esports clubs have weak financial foundations and lack sustainable profit models.

Of course, some professional esports teams do have sponsors, but most of them rely on a single source of sponsors.

(End of this chapter)