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

Chapter 284 The New Season, Little Stone's European Trip!

Just as Jiang Ming was taking a break from his busy schedule to enjoy his Spring Festival holiday, the fist that had been clenched up throughout the transfer period was finally unleashed, along with their big move for the new season.

Riot Games: [League of Legends Season 4 Patch Announcement:]

[Dear Summoners: Season 4 is about to launch, a brand new season full of innovation and changes! We are committed to bringing you a more in-depth, strategic, and fun gaming experience. Here are the main contents of the first version update of this new season:]

【I. Talent System Adjustments:】

1. Summoner Spell talents have been removed. Existing talents are now invisible; these attributes will be automatically granted when a player invests more than 5 points in a particular talent tree. We hope this will provide players with more diverse talent choices, freeing them from the limitations of specific Summoner Spell enhancement talents. 2. The function of the talent tree has been adjusted…

II. Rune System Optimization:

[1. We will enhance the role of runes and change the previously relatively fixed rune combinations. In future version updates, we will gradually add dual-attribute runes, such as runes that provide both magic resistance and armor, runes that increase attack speed and attack power, and runes that allow support characters to gain extra gold and experience, to provide players with more strategic combinations.]

III. Game Mechanics Adjustments:

[1. Adjustments to resurrection time and experience gain...]

[Over the past year's competitions in various regions, we've identified a very serious problem: the lengthy respawn times make it too easy for the winning side to end the game in one fell swoop. League of Legends esports should retain more suspense, so we've appropriately reduced hero respawn times to prevent frequent one-push pushes.]

Meanwhile, while the introduction of Sightstone has improved the gameplay experience for support players, it still falls short. Therefore, we are trying to address the shortcomings in experience and gold acquisition for support players, since carrying the game as a support is a very cool thing.

[2. Summoner Spell Adjustments: Ghost, Ignite, Exhaust, Teleport, Resurrection...]

IV. Changes to the Accessory System:

Last season, to enrich and strategically expand the vision control mechanics, we introduced a brand-new trinket system. However, it's clear that the trinket system isn't perfect yet.

Therefore, in the new season, we will be adding a new accessory – the Divination Orb (which reveals a nearby area for a period of time, similar to the Insight mechanic, helping the team scout bushes or other unknown areas from a safe location). Wow, I wonder if AD players are a little happier when they see this news? Mom won't have to worry about me face-checking bushes anymore!

Additionally, in the new season, players' seventh item slot will upgrade over time. When an accessory reaches level ten, it will gain reduced cooldown and increased power. For example, the Scanning Lens—you can now carry it around with you!

[In addition, the True Sight Ward was too powerful, so we removed its invisibility effect and gave it five health points. Its price will also be reduced accordingly. However, starting today, each player can only place a maximum of three True Sight Wards.]

Starting today, warding will no longer be just the support player's job, haha.

[V. Jungle Updates and Major Equipment Adjustments!]

……

February 1st, the second day of the Lunar New Year, the festive atmosphere of the New Year has not yet dissipated.

Inside the luxury cabin of a flight from Shanghai to Berlin, Germany.

"Riot's move... has completely nerfed NXG's core strengths!"

"I didn't even spare the turrets, I'll smash them!" Shi Jing complained to Shi Zhenyu beside him, staring at the new season update announcement he had downloaded in advance on the computer screen.

"Stone, your Sword Demon has also been affected."

"As expected, Aatrox's stats are indeed a bit too high. A small punch can make a big difference to a hero." Shi Zhenyu said calmly. "Ming Ge reminded us when he was in North America that the game company will not allow any club to dominate the league."

Of course, if you can withstand the designer's targeting, that's a real skill.

Unlike the Chinese New Year holiday, which ends on the eighth or ninth day of the Lunar New Year, the Spring Festival is not a traditional European holiday.

The new season had already begun over there, and they had no choice but to cut their vacation short and head to the club.

This luxury cabin was G2's boss's "apology"—after all, recalling people during the Chinese New Year was somewhat inhumane.

Shi Jing scrolled through the screen: "The jungle has been changed quite a bit. Jungle monsters will grow with the hero's level, and with the adjustment to the experience mechanism, heroes who farm jungle and control the map will have more room to shine. And this Divination Orb will have a huge impact on ganks and counter-ganks."

“True Sight Wards are no longer invisible,” Shi Zhenyu interjected. “The vision control of the winning team will be weakened, and the individual skill of the support will be more crucial in the future.”

"It seems Riot Games wants to elevate the status of supports this year."

"Yes, 'Spellthief's Edge' and 'Heart of the Mountain' are both new items that give supports more gold. When supports get fed, they become a bigger threat to laners when roaming. I just hope G2's future partner will realize this."

"Don't worry, I've got your back!" Shi Jing chuckled.

To be honest, his "promotion and raise" to a European LOL team was largely thanks to his jungler. Even if Shi Jing hadn't already secured a core position for Stone in the new team, his training arrangements would inevitably be biased – after all, they were old buddies from NXG. As long as there wasn't any internal power struggle within G2, he was absolutely confident that he and Stone would lead G2 to promotion to the top league before the EU Spring Split began this year.

However, Shi Jing wasn't too worried about this issue. Before choosing to join G2, the club had already conducted a thorough background check on them.

This generous European esports powerhouse was co-founded by former League of Legends pro player Ocelote and veteran esports entrepreneur and investor Jens Hilgers. This year, it seems to have received further investment from other capital firms, hence this big move.

The club owner, like Ming, was a professional League of Legends player – with such a background, there's no need to worry too much about an outsider directing an expert.

The distance from Shanghai to Germany is roughly the same as that to North America. However, this flight of over ten hours coincides with daytime, requiring almost no time difference adjustment. Shi Zhenyu and Shi Jing used this time to study the game update information recently released by Riot Games.

In professional teams, the jungler position is often one of the roles most vulnerable to version updates.

Therefore, as a jungler, one must have a highly sensitive awareness of version changes and the ability to deeply study the version in addition to being a coach.

Speechless all the way.

The plane landed at Berlin Brandenburg Airport. Shi Zhenyu and Shi Jing stepped out of the plane and went to the exit. On the right side of the airport road, a Mercedes-Benz GL350 was parked. Two burly European men leaned against the car door, holding a sign that clearly read: "Welcome Stone".

"Hello!"

Welcome to Berlin!

One of the burly men opened his arms and warmly greeted them, as if to embrace the two of them.

Shi Jing quickly swiped his phone, opened the contact photo sent by G2 Club, and carefully compared it with the big man in front of him.

Uh, it's Ocelote!

Unfortunately, just as many Westerners have difficulty distinguishing Asians from each other, he often couldn't tell these muscular, deep-set European and American men apart either.

Hello, Ocelote.

Hello, River!

Ocelote was beaming with excitement, showing no sign of disdain for the "buy one get one free" coach; on the contrary, his eyes were filled with anticipation.

It's worth noting that during the Spring Festival holiday, River significantly improved G2's overall strength simply by remotely guiding their training. Ocelote was overjoyed.

“Hello, Ocelote, I’m Stone, the jungler.” He extended his right hand.

Shi Zhenyu took a step forward. He didn't put on airs as a champion jungler in front of Ocelote. No matter how glorious he had been with NXG, G2 was just an unknown team in the secondary league, not even qualified to stand before them. But now that he had joined them, NXG-stone meant it was all in the past.

Shi Jing naturally took on the role of translator. As a core member of the coaching team, his English was already fluent, and he could communicate without any hesitation in daily life.

Ocelote said enthusiastically to Shi Zhenyu:
“Stone, I’ve watched all your game replays in the LPL and the S3 World Championship. Your invasion rhythm and map control are exactly the piece our team needs! Berlin is a great place, and G2 will be a great club. You’ll love it here.”

Welcome to G2! I promise you won't regret your choice.
Shi Jing smoothly conveyed this welcome to Xiao Shitou.

Upon hearing this, Shi Zhenyu smiled slightly and nodded to Ocelote.

"Hehe, get in the car!" Ocelote laughed heartily, opened the car door, and gestured for the two to sit in the spacious back seat of the Mercedes-Benz GL350. "The club has prepared a sumptuous dinner and is waiting for you! We can talk about the rest after we've eaten and drunk our fill!"

The car smoothly drove away from Brandenburg Airport and merged into the evening traffic in Berlin.

On the way, Shi Jing and Ocelote sat in the front row and naturally started chatting.

The conversation quickly turned to the club's current situation.

Ocelote's tone was clearly excited: "River, you don't know, those tactical ideas you gave us remote guidance on before, the guys used them in scrims and the results were amazing, hahaha! They completely stunned those LCS teams that came to scrim with us!"

Shi Zhenyu sat in the back seat, listening quietly to the conversation in the front row, his gaze sweeping over the fleeting Berlin street scenes outside the window.

An unfamiliar city, an unfamiliar team, but Ocelote's enthusiasm and Shi Jing's composure gradually dispelled his slight sense of unfamiliarity.

"I wonder what the situation is like on Lao Song and Qiangzi's side."

(End of this chapter)