League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 137 Malice from the Designer

"Today's meeting mainly focused on discussing the MSI version and then briefly introducing our competitors," banbazi explained. "We have a three-day holiday, so we need to quickly adapt to the new version."

Even the former Samsung Blue coach, with his extensive experience in competitions, was somewhat nervous when facing the MSI tournament.

This is the first time for everyone here to participate in an MSI match.

After all, this competition was only established last year, and only EDG in the entire LPL has experience with it, and EDG also won the MSI championship last year.

This year, QG has replaced them as the team. If they fail to win the championship, they will probably face backlash from EDG fans.

At that point, there will probably be disgusting comments like "If EDG had gone, they would have won."

Ultimately, what audiences like isn't the sports or the competition, but the champion. All popularity rests on the champion; as long as you can keep winning, you deserve to be the center of attention.

But if you lose, the backlash will be even greater.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with that, since it has both advantages and disadvantages.

Ultimately, why don't you just keep winning? The criticism you're getting is simply because you're not good enough.

"The MSI format is very simple. The first round is the group stage, with a total of six teams participating."

It's only 2016 now, and many wildcard regions haven't grown to a significant size yet, so only six teams are participating in MSI.

banbazi flipped through the PPT, and the second page displayed a table showing the six teams participating in the group stage and their respective regions.

North American LCS – CLG.

European LCS – G2.

LPL——QG.

LCK——SKT.

LSM—Flash Wolves (FW).

And finally, the only wildcard region.

IWC (Turkey) – SUP.

Banbazi said, "As for the other five teams, we can disregard the Turkish team. The two European and American teams, the Korean team, and the LMS team are the targets we need to pay attention to."

"Of course, there's no point in talking about this now. We'll definitely have practice matches with them later, and we'll find out the specifics after those matches."

banbazi continued flipping through the PPT and saw the content related to the version update.

"MSI uses version 6.8, which was released on the Chinese server a couple of days ago. Compared to our playoff version 6.6, two versions have passed, and there have been significant changes. So I'll highlight a few key points here."

"First of all, there's one champion we need to pay attention to: Irelia, who received a significant buff in this patch."

Before he finished speaking, Chen Dongqing had already frowned slightly.

He doesn't really have much skill with the champion Irelia.

The main reason is that his Irelia proficiency is basically on the new Irelia after Season 8, but he hasn't played the old Irelia for several years, so how could he possibly be proficient?

The key point is that this hero is quite difficult to master and cannot be learned overnight. Moreover, because this hero is rarely used in competitions, he has never practiced him.

But now...

What kind of enhancements made him stand out to professional esports teams?

Q【Sharp Blade Impact】

Mana cost reduced by 1.0 points, AD ratio increased from 1.0 to 1.2.

"Holy crap." Chen Dongqing frowned slightly. "Isn't this a huge upgrade?"

Irelia's Q skill is her signature skill. This Q skill directly adds 0.2 to the damage, isn't that going to make her fly?

That means you can now kill ranged minions with a single Q attack without needing much attack power, thus gaining flexible movement capabilities.

That makes laning and split pushing much more comfortable.

"I don't need to say much about this," banbazi said. "Chen Dongqing, practice some recently. You like these flashy heroes, so Irelia should be fine too, right?"

Chen Dongqing: "."

"Then, there are nerfs to Poppy and Ekko in the top lane."

Poppy's passive cast range has been reduced by 100, and her E skill cast range has been reduced by 100, both reduced to 425. Her Q skill damage has also been weakened. Overall, she has been nerfed, but it makes sense, since this champion is indeed annoying.

Ekko's W and E base damage has been slightly reduced, but his AP scaling has been increased. Clearly, this is an attempt to nerf tanky Ekko.

"At the same time, we also need to consider the nerfs to talents and items alongside the Ekko nerf, because they usually occur together."

Feast's cooldown has been increased from 25 seconds to 30 seconds, and Grasp of the Undying's life steal has been reduced from 3% of maximum health to 2.5% of maximum health.

(Feast is a talent; its attribute is that it restores 20 health points upon killing a unit.)

The amount of health restored by the Corrupting Potion has been reduced from 150 to 125, and the base damage of Ice Fist's Cursed Blade has been reduced from 125% of its base attack damage to 100%.

These nerfs, while not drastic, have all hit Ekko, the top lane tank, hard.

But it's understandable, after all, Ekko's performance in the playoffs of various regions has been truly outstanding, making him a must-ban or must-pick, so nerfing him is not unreasonable.

Chen Dongqing was quite happy to see these nerfs, since he didn't like playing Poppy and Ekko. It was good that they were nerfed, so that Ekko wouldn't be able to stay in the top lane and annoy people every day.

"Next, the mid-lane changes." Banbazi continued flipping through the slides, "Galio buffed."

The E skill's damage has been slightly increased, its mana cost has been reduced, and its movement speed bonus has been increased.

This wasn't a key point, so the coach just mentioned it briefly.

"Then there's the jungler role; Graves, Nidalee, and Kindred have all received slight nerfs."

These nerfs are only numerical and don't really matter; these junglers will still be playing.

But just then, the coach suddenly mentioned, "There's one thing to note: the War Lord's bloodlust has also been weakened."

The life steal against minions has been changed from a fixed 50% to 50% for melee heroes and 25% for ranged heroes.

In other words, the effect of ranged heroes using Bloodlust in lane has been halved.

That's right, it's targeting the top laner, Bloodthirster Graves!

After Chen Dongqing sparked a craze for this thing, it occasionally appeared in various leagues, and it was extremely shameless.

This latest slash has effectively wiped out the top lane Graves archetype.

Chen Dongqing sighed slightly, but there was nothing he could do. He knew that this was just an inevitable part of history.

"Finally, let's talk about the bottom lane. There's only one key point for the bottom lane: the Virtuoso has been buffed."

Base movement speed increased by 5 points, health regeneration increased, and the passive fourth shot will critically hit the turret.

This enhancement will obviously make the already popular Virtuoso an even more sought-after pick.

"This is a crucial moment," the coach said. "Jian Zihao, pay attention."

It has to be said that this is indeed a noteworthy issue, because Uzi doesn't seem to like heroes with such slow attack speeds, so he has always shown little interest in Jhin.

Uz nodded upon hearing this.

"Then, here's the most important change." Banbazi switched the screen to the last slide of the PowerPoint presentation and said, "The death time has been adjusted!"

The changes are simple: the respawn time has been reduced from 30 to 55 minutes.

The designer also added a helpful note below this change:

"We've also made changes to the death countdown to prevent you from losing the game outright due to an unexpected team fight while you're leading by thousands of gold. This scenario sounds very unusual, but it happens much more often than you think."

The changes are simple and clear: they reduce the possibility of a mid-game miracle comeback as much as possible, and increase the resources available for teams to manage the game in the late game.

Reduce fighting and encourage strategic gameplay.

Previously, the time it took to win a team fight could destroy a turret and a barracks, but now it's only enough to destroy a turret.

Coach Banbazi began his analysis:

"I have detailed data here. Since this change was made, the average game time in ranked matches has increased by 1 minute and 43 seconds."

"Don't underestimate this seemingly small number of statistics. Ranked matches are fast-paced, so this is already quite alarming. In slower-paced professional matches, the impact of this change would be even greater!"

Banbazi's gaze turned serious: "I'm making a bold prediction that late-game mages like Viktor and Azir might see an increase in pick rate at this MSI. Frankly, this is bad news for our team."

QG's most advantageous weapon is their 4-1 split push in the mid-game; their early-game offensive capabilities are second to none.

This ability is directly reflected in game duration. Their average game duration is 26 minutes and 30 seconds, while in the LCK, ROX, the team with the strongest offensive capabilities, has an average game duration of nearly 30 minutes.

This nerf is undoubtedly a boon to macro-management teams, weakening aggressive teams that focus on the early and mid-game.

Of course, the specifics of this change are still unknown and we'll have to wait and see how it develops.

Banbazi then analyzed some minor changes and occasionally asked the players for their opinions.

The meeting lasted for more than an hour before slowly coming to a halt.

"This key point is just my judgment based on my personal understanding." Banbazi concluded, "As for the specific situation, we will only know after the ranked data in 6.8 stabilizes and after playing scrims."

"So let's all get moving and dive into ranked matches to experience the new version. The competition is fast approaching, and we don't have much time left!"

Over the next few days, QG moved into a hotel arranged by Riot Games for training, which had all the necessary rooms and training facilities.

After the competition started, even QG, playing on their own turf, had to stay in the hotel obediently, mainly to ensure fairness on the surface.

(I'm not entirely sure about this, but I did search online and found that when the S10 World Championship was held in Shanghai, LPL teams stayed in hotels, so I'll just follow that rule for MSI.)

By this time, most of the participating teams from other regions had already landed in Shanghai, and QG's number of scrimmages had increased significantly.

During this time, QG also got a good feel for the strength of the other five teams.

First of all, the Turkish team is indeed, as expected, not worth discussing.

Secondly, the three teams—North America's CLG, Europe's G2, and LSM's Flash Wolves—are roughly equal in skill level, so QG will have an advantage against them.

QG is confident of winning against these teams.

Of course, beating these teams is meaningless; if you want to win the championship, you can't get past SKT.

However, their win rate against SKT in scrims is not ideal.

It has to be said that as a two-time champion team, and as a team with Faker, this team's strength is simply too abnormal. Their airtight, disadvantageous strategy...

Even now, QG's win rate against SKT is only 40%, and they can hardly even achieve a 50/50 chance.

The reason for the low win rate is actually very simple. First, QG still can't get past the old man of time.

Doinb's two signature champions, Nautilus and Rumble, don't fare well against Zilean. They're treated like toys, and until a new champion is found, they'll have to consider banning Zilean.

The second reason is the result of the modified respawn time. Sure enough, this change had a negative impact on QG.

SKT is a Korean team that mainly plays a defensive counter-attacking style, so this change that reduces the respawn time is practically tailor-made for them.

Compared to the Spring Split, SKT will likely opt for more late-game powerhouses like Azir, Jhin, Sivir, Kindred, and even Fizz, focusing on a defensive counter-attacking strategy.

(Jhin is very strong in the late game this version)

With their well-established playstyle, SKT can easily drag the game into the 30-minute mark.

At this point in the game, QG's offense suddenly becomes stagnant. Even if they win team fights, it's difficult for them to make any significant impact. Often, they have a four or five thousand gold lead thanks to their early game offense, but they just can't get to SKT's high ground.

Yes, this scene was frequently seen in LPL vs. LCK matches in my previous life.

You're leading by four or five thousand but can't get to the enemy's high ground, while the enemy, with a lead of less than a thousand, can easily break through all three of your lanes.

In terms of operational strategy, the young QG is far inferior to the shrewd and experienced SKT.

Once the game reaches 40 minutes or more and the carry gets their full build, QG's early-game fighting heroes start to lose their effectiveness, and the game falls into SKT's rhythm.

Coach Banbazi frowned at the situation, still searching for a solution.

We couldn't break through in the early stages.

So, does that mean we should pick late-game champions and try to outmaneuver SKT in terms of game management?

That's just asking for death!

For a time, the situation remained somewhat deadlocked.

Time flew by and it was the day before the start of MSI, and the team still hadn't found a good solution.

"It's alright, it's alright, we can find a solution gradually," Linko said, trying to ease the pressure. "The competition starts tomorrow, everyone get some rest. We're the hosts, we're playing in the first match!"

"OK, OK." Chen Dongqing lay back in his gaming chair, his expression calm. He listened to the manager's words, turned around to say goodnight to his teammates, and then returned to his hotel room.

After washing up, Chen Dongqing lay in bed, deep in thought.

His calm demeanor was merely an act in front of the team.

In fact, he is under tremendous pressure right now.

He understood the team's current predicament, which was quite simple: their early offensive was unable to create enough openings, and even if they gained an advantage, they couldn't convert it into a victory.

QG's early game offensive strategy revolved around three key players: mid-jungle synergy, top lane split pushing, and bottom lane tower pushing.

As long as the three carriages can run smoothly, victory will be a piece of cake.

The problem is that SKT is not EDG.

The first duo's mid-jungle synergy was a disaster; they were completely shut down by Faker.

What about the second carriage?

Uzi and Liu Qingsong could still gain an advantage against Deft and Meiko, but now they won't have much of an advantage against SKT's Wolf.

Bang from Season 6 is known as the perfect AD carry template, a versatile player. Wolf from Korea is another story, firmly holding the title of the greatest support player in history. Only Genshin Impact can rival him.

In fact, it's already quite an achievement that QG's bottom lane can maintain an even game.

Two of the three carriages are already ruined, so what about the last one?

It was a difficult run.

Duke is far too cautious.

As the owner of the Ekko championship skin, Chen Dongqing was amazed by the defensive capabilities he possessed after acquiring Ekko.

Even with Ekko being weakened overall, he's still a force that Chen Dongqing finds difficult to overcome.

Therefore, a low win rate is inevitable.

In some ways, SKT's current team style is a counter to QG.

As for Chen Dongqing now, he no longer cares about his teammates' affairs; his primary task is to get his own carriage running.

How to break through Duke's defenses?

As Chen Dongqing pondered, sleepiness gradually crept in.

In his dazed state, he came up with a solution.

But he is not sure yet and still needs to verify.

Let's wait until the group stage is over before we talk about it!

The most important thing right now is to be fully prepared and do well in the group stage!

Chen Dongqing turned over, wrapped the blankets tightly around her, and drifted into a deep sleep.

Hmm. The hotel bed was too soft; I didn't sleep very comfortably.

Here's a two-chapter update of 8,000 words. MSI starts tomorrow, see you guys tomorrow!

PS: Thank you so much for the 10000 Qidian coins reward from "It's Snowing Day"!

Thank you Mengqian for the 100 Qidian Coins reward.

Thank you Siji for the 100 Qidian Coins donation.

Thank you to the bosses or 2

(End of this chapter)