League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 225 Let's give it a try!

Over the next few days, Chen Dongqing's journey to the top was exceptionally smooth. He relied on the gun-tank fast attack combo taught to him by Park Yunlong and skillfully played his way up to Diamond rank.

However, this approach still has some limitations. Significant resistance emerged after reaching the Diamond level, but fortunately, this resistance is now the driving force for Chen Dongqing's growth.

Time quickly came to February 3rd, Lunar New Year's Eve.

After losing one or two more games in the Diamond rank, the system message finally arrived.

[Consciousness Attribute Improvement: From Novice to Beginner!]

To Chen Dongqing, this news was wonderful; the toughest thing had finally been overcome!

With an excited heart and trembling hands, he instantly invested 3500 points, instantly boosting his attributes to Master level!

Another wave of information flooded his mind. This time, he gained even more knowledge than when he maxed out two skills last time. Chen Dongqing even felt slightly dizzy.

It took him a long time to come to his senses.

Feeling the countless pieces of information etched into his mind, Chen Dongqing grinned. He immediately recalled the game he had lost in the previous round and realized where he had gone wrong.

He had never understood a game so clearly before.

Even in League of Legends, his game sense is only 93, and his understanding of the current version is only 95.

The master-level awareness in StarCraft clearly surpasses these two numbers.

Upon seeing this, Chen Dongqing rubbed his hands together and couldn't wait to start a ranked match.

This time, the opponent was still a Diamond player, playing Protoss. Chen Dongqing was eager to fight and used the same old strategy: a fast attack with gunners and tanks.

Although Chen Dongqing's attributes are currently at their maximum, he still only has this one set of tactics in his mind, and he still needs to learn more.

Of course, with his current abilities, he can easily master any tactic; he'll understand it after just a couple of games.

The game started normally, and then scouts were sent out to investigate, only to find that the opponent was also starting normally.

Chen Dongqing grinned.

From this point on, the other side had already sent it.

With his maxed-out awareness, the moment he detected the opponent's opening situation, countless possibilities instantly appeared in his mind.

He first built several machine gunners to block the enemy's scouting, while keeping a close watch on all sides. Through perfect control of the multiple machine gunners, he sealed off the enemy's reconnaissance, concealing his plan to launch a rapid attack using gunners and tanks. Then he started building tanks and transport planes, and finally, he produced stimulants.

Once the tank transport planes came out, all troops went all in. In less than five minutes, countless troops rushed towards them!

At this point, it can be seen that the opponent's Protoss is developing at a pitifully slow pace, because it is still too early. The Protoss only has four barracks and hasn't even had time to farm units yet.

The transport plane opened up the field of vision, and the marines and tanks followed closely behind, delivering a direct punch!

Marines are the foundation of the human race's survival. They are cost-effective, have long range, can attack air units, upgrade their technology quickly, and produce units rapidly!

In the early, mid, and late game, Marines are a crucial component for the Human race. Other races can win against Humans by effectively dealing with Marines.

The opposing side clearly couldn't handle it.

The opposing Protoss panicked and sent out their only four Stalkers to defend, but how could four Stalkers defend against a large number of Marines? After a glance, the opposing team could only retreat and cut off Chen Dongqing's reinforcements.

But Chen Dongqing remained calm, not even bothering to look at the backup, and charged straight ahead!

With the combined boost of doping and transport ships, the opponent's development-oriented strategy was simply undefendable. Then, a bunker was built head-on, and the opponent's defense crumbled step by step, eventually leading to their surrender.

The game ended in six minutes.

Given the vast disparity in strength, the opposing side was simply unable to mount any meaningful resistance.

Chen Dongqing felt a surge of exhilaration. This game had brought back the feeling he had when he played against bronze and silver players in the placement matches a few days ago.

This is the power of a full-value mindset, which has filled in the last crucial piece of the puzzle!

Looking at the score screen, Chen Dongqing nodded in satisfaction. The Spring Festival holiday had just begun, and reaching Master rank before the GPL registration started on March 1st was no problem at all!

"Chen Dongqing, get ready to eat!" His mother's voice rang out, pulling Chen Dongqing out of his daydream. "Hurry up, don't keep them waiting."

Chen Dongqing glanced at the time, frowned, and said, "Isn't it still early?"

Even so, he continued his work, obediently turning off the monitor and then getting up to change his clothes.

It was no secret that Chen Dongqing and Lin Yuanhua were dating, so both sets of parents were well aware of it and were quite supportive.

This year, the two families agreed to have a New Year's Eve dinner together at a hotel.

This time, the wealthy Chen Dongqing funded the booking of a medium-sized private room in a high-end hotel, with fine wine and food, and a TV playing the Spring Festival Gala as background music.

However, conversations between adults tend to be more realistic. As they ate, the two fathers, after a couple of drinks, started discussing their two children's future, including things like marriage and buying a house.

Upon sensing something was amiss, Mom quickly stopped the conversation, saying, "Chen Dongqing is only 19, what's the rush? He has a long life ahead of him, take it slow!"

"Why aren't you in a rush?" Dad glared at him. "Hollow is only 19, but she'll be 20 tomorrow, and Yuanhua is already 23. Are they still young?"

This year's Spring Festival is quite a coincidence, as February 4th is also Chen Dongqing's birthday.

The two younger people listening nearby felt uncomfortable, but fortunately they were both full. After saying goodbye, they slipped out of the private room.

The two walked down the street just like they had on New Year's Eve last year.

Last year, however, the two of them were still cautiously standing shoulder to shoulder, talking about the future with great anticipation.

But now, Lin Yuanhua has linked arms with Chen Dongqing and is saying some crude things that can't be heard by outsiders.

The two strolled leisurely for a while, when Lin Yuanhua suddenly pointed to a stone bench by the street and laughed, "Look! Didn't we spend the New Year here last year?"

Chen Dongqing laughed and said, "So, do you still want to sit here this year?"

"I don't want to!" Lin Yuanhua shook her head and said with a smile, "People always have to move forward!"

It's only a little past nine o'clock now. Knowing how their parents are, they'll probably eat until at least midnight before coming back. The two of them still have more than two hours to do their own thing.

Therefore, the two of them had a clear goal.

"Is this your house or mine?"

"My place," Chen Dongqing said with a smile, "Let's try it in my room~"

Two young people are always daring and like to try new things in all sorts of novel places.

After everything was finished, the two sat on the sofa watching the Spring Festival Gala and continued to dream about the future.

"I'm planning to buy an apartment," Chen Dongqing said.

Lin Yuanhua turned around, somewhat surprised, "You're that rich now? Wasn't your contract fee only 500,000 last year?"

"Contract fees are secondary," Chen Dongqing smiled and said, "The main sources of income are various bonuses, endorsements, and live streaming revenue."

Last year, Chen Dongqing only earned 52 yuan, which is less than what he earns in a month of live streaming. If you include the prize money from various championships, Chen Dongqing's current cash flow has exceeded 500 million yuan.

Of course, five million is still a limit to buying a house in Shanghai. You can't buy a house within the Inner Ring Road, but if you buy a new house near your own neighborhood, the price is about right.

So Chen Dongqing was still a little conflicted about whether to buy a place closer to their home first.

"Isn't that unnecessary?" Lin Yuanhua said from the side. "You have a long future ahead of you. How can a five-million-dollar house be worthy of you? With that money, you might as well invest in some financial products and buy something even more expensive later!"

Buying a house is linked to marriage, and Lin Yuanhua actually understands this. Chen Dongqing's words are actually an extension of the topic discussed at the dinner party earlier.

Although marriage would definitely benefit the woman given their current status, Lin Yuanhua is not in a hurry because she feels it would affect Chen Dongqing's career.

"What's up?" Chen Dongqing laughed and hugged the person next to him tightly, saying, "You're going to stay at Tomson Riviera?"

"What's wrong? Is it not allowed?"

"Okay!" Chen Dongqing laughed, "In two years, I'll let you live in Tomson Riviera, okay?"

Since this money isn't going to be used to buy a house, Chen Dongqing might as well use it for investment.

As a reborn individual, even though Chen Dongqing doesn't trade stocks, he knows which stocks will surge in the next few years.

Tesla, Moutai, BYD, and so many others—buying just a few can multiply your money several times over, and that's far from the limit.

In that instant, Chen Dongqing thought of many things.

Of course, we should both envision the future and make the most of the present.

Chen Dongqing is just a professional player now, nothing more.

"Oh, right."

"kindness?"

"Happy birthday."

The Spring Festival holiday ended quickly. During the latter half of the holiday, if Chen Dongqing didn't have plans with Lin Yuanhua, he would stay at home and grind for points in StarCraft.

This game is very fast-paced. If you don't use a tedious, drawn-out strategy like urbanization, a game only takes ten to twenty minutes, and some can even be won in five or six minutes.

If you can maintain a high win rate, you'll climb the ranks incredibly fast!

Before the end of the Spring Festival holiday, Chen Dongqing's score soared from 2800 to 5000, making him a member of the Grandmaster group!

The Grandmaster tier is the highest level in StarCraft, limited to 200 players.

Chen Dongqing looked at his score and smiled with satisfaction.

Coach Park must be terrified!

It was time to wrap up the team. Chen Dongqing had one last lunch with his parents before packing his bags and heading to the base.

Chen Dongqing was once again the last contestant to arrive, but Coach Cui was nowhere to be found.

After putting his luggage away in his room, Chen Dongqing stood behind Park Yunlong and watched him play StarCraft.

Coach Park was still playing Zerg, and now that Chen Dongqing had grasped the concept, he could roughly understand what was being played in front of him.

This tactic mainly involves a large number of dogs, banelings, and munchkins. Chen Dongqing has encountered it many times, but he always takes it down easily in just a few moves.

But only this time.

Chen Dongqing squinted at the Terran player's actions. The opposing Marines seemed to lack experience in dealing with this lineup. Their Marines were poorly executed, and after two waves of Banelings rolling over his face, they were wiped out.

As mentioned earlier, marines are the most powerful weapon of the human race, and you can win the game if you can clear out the human marines.

The Zerg have a unit that can efficiently clear out Marines, called the Baneling.

This unit's attack method is self-destruction. They will roll towards the enemy at supersonic speed, and then self-destruct, taking a large number of opponents with them.

Generally, Marines stick together and move in groups. If two Banelings break through the firepower blockade and rush in, the Marines will be wiped out.

Therefore, in order to counter this natural enemy, the human player needs to perform an extreme maneuver called the Spearman.

You need to spread out your marines to avoid taking too much damage from the Banelings' area-of-effect attacks. Then, control these numerous marine squads to spread out, kite, focus fire, and then reposition themselves to share the damage.

Depending on the operator's hand speed, the shotgunner can also vary.

If you can only control two teams at the same time, then divide the sixteen riflemen into two teams, then press the P key to spread them out. At most, eight of them will be killed by the explosion.

If you can control four teams at the same time, you can only lose four at most.

Theoretically, if operated properly, you can divide yourself into sixteen teams, each a separate team, and eliminate the natural enemy, the Baneling Bug, at the cost of losing only one or even zero damage.

Of course, splitting into sixteen teams is something only scripts can do; Chen Dongqing isn't that abnormal. But he can still manage to split into eight teams each time. He even has time to control the marines closest to the Banelings for hit-and-run tactics, and clearing them out without taking damage is a common occurrence.

"Huh?" Chen Dongqing was somewhat confused. "Are the enemy's ranged infantry so weak? What rank are you at?"

"The opposing team is a Master rank, not weak at all." Park Unryong shook his head. "But do you think it's easy to deal with scattered spearmen? The opposing team has actually handled it quite well."

"I didn't see that coming." Chen Dongqing criticized mercilessly: "The enemy's formation was too sloppy, and they didn't even know to pull the target riflemen back, so they just gave them away."

"." Park Yun-ryong glanced at Chen Dong-qing, feeling that this guy was a bit too ambitious.

A perfect shotgunner is something even professional players might not be able to pull off.

Just as Park Unyong was about to start another round, he saw Coach Choi walk in with his notebook.

Park Unryong simply shut down the game and prepared to start the version meeting. This was a routine thing to do every time he came back after a long holiday.

"Due to the Spring Festival holiday, the Chinese server will still merge the two updates, so the update volume will be larger."

As Coach Cui plugged the USB drive into the computer, he said, "However, some of the things in this update were largely as expected."

The Spring Split before the Lunar New Year actually exposed quite a few problems.

Camille in the top lane is ridiculously overpowered, Rengar and Kha'Zix in the jungle are also overpowered, and LeBlanc in the mid lane is a definite ban pick.

Therefore, in both versions, these heroes have been nerfed to varying degrees.

"Camille has been nerfed the most," Banbazi said. "The designers really went all out this time."

「Q技能额外伤害直接砍了20%。W命中小兵不再回血，并且减速从90%削弱成80%，并且现在的减速会快速衰减。E技能法力值增加20点，眩晕时长从1秒砍到0.75秒。大招会在卡蜜尔阵亡后的一秒内直接消散。」

Looking at this series of nerfs, banbazi couldn't help but shake his head: "Except for the passive skill, all four skills have been nerfed, and each one is a major nerf."

Damage, slow, control – every strike hit the mark.

With this change, Camille will find it much harder to one-shot an ADC, and her sustain in lane with W will disappear. Her ER ability to initiate team fights and lock down enemies will also be gone.

But do you think the passive wasn't nerfed? Actually, the duration of the passive was nerfed in version 7.1.

In just two versions, all five skills were nerfed, a first in League of Legends history.

Camille suffered a devastating blow, and her win rate plummeted from its initial dominance to a normal 50%.

This is probably the image the designer wanted to see.

Everyone couldn't help but look at Chen Dongqing.

Feeling the gazes of everyone, Chen Dongqing couldn't help but spread his hands in a small, bear-like gesture: "What does this have to do with me?"

"You were killing like crazy that game!" Uzi couldn't help but grin. "I knew this hero would get nerfed, but I didn't expect it to be this much."

Chen Dongqing's two games with Camille were so outrageous that he single-handedly carried the entire team on the side lane, and in the mid-game team fight, he even kicked the AD carry to death in front of all five enemy players, which angered the designers.

Chen Dongqing also shook his head, agreeing that it was indeed a bit excessive.

In his memory, the healing effect of W was gradually removed in later versions, but he didn't expect it to appear ahead of schedule in this version.

But you can still play!

Chen Dongqing was well aware of how popular this hero was in the competition.

The win rate has dropped so much simply because the nerfs were too drastic all at once, and players are not used to it.

Actually, this version of Camille is slightly overpowered.

At least the level 1 ultimate skill still lasts for four seconds, so there's still room to nerf it, it won't delay anything!

In addition, Jayce's damage was slightly nerfed, Kha'Zix's attack damage bonus was reduced from 1.4 to 1.2, and the cooldown refund of his evolved Q's "Isolation" was reduced from 60% to 40%.

This nerf is a significant reduction for solo queue games where the first priority is to evolve Q at level 6, but for competitive playstyles that rely on evolving R+W for early jungle pressure and mid-game harassment, it's not a major nerf.

Meanwhile, Rengar's Q skill displacement distance has been reduced from 200 to 150, and Brutal W no longer grants 1.5 seconds of crowd control immunity.

"The nerfs to Rengar mainly focus on his utility, with little impact on his combat ability," banbazi analyzed. "Judging from the Korean server data, the impact of the Rengar nerfs is not significant."

Next is a bar chart showing Rengar's win rate changes with each patch. Since the rework, Rengar's win rate has remained consistently high, and this time it only dropped by one point, still maintaining its Tier 1 status.

"Aside from that, there aren't many nerfs that I've noticed," Banbazi said. "But there have been quite a few buffs as well."

banbazi continued flipping through the pages: Graves buffed, Vladimir buffed, Yasuo buffed—all numerical changes.

Immediately following this, a hero change and an item change were announced simultaneously.

Lulu Pix's attack damage has been increased, her Q mana cost has been reduced, and her wave clear ability has been improved. At the same time, Ardent Censer has been buffed, with its attack speed and lifesteal bonus at max level increasing from 20% to 35%.

"This thing could be key," Banbazi said. "The incense burner has been significantly enhanced, and its presence in the game might increase."

"Overall," Banbazi said, "the version changes aren't significant. Heroes that were playable in the previous version are still playable in this version. What we need to pay attention to are the heroes that the designers buffed. Just practice them more recently so you don't fall behind."

"OK." The QG team said in unison and began ranked training.

There are no practice matches today, so it's free time.

Chen Dongqing turned around and found Park Yunlong, grinning as he said, "Coach, quickly teach me a new tactic! I'm almost unable to climb the ranks!"

Having the best coach in StarCraft history right in front of him is certainly an advantage for Chen Dongqing.

"Huh?" Park Unyong frowned. "You've already got a diamond-level socket?"

Chen Dongqing hesitated for a moment: "Uh, yes."

"Not bad!" Park Unryong nodded and gave a thumbs up: "Looks like you do have some talent."

Before the Spring Festival holiday, Park Yun-yong had watched Chen Dongqing play. He was a complete novice, struggling even to reach the Gold rank.

As a result, I had already reached Diamond rank as soon as I returned from the Spring Festival.

It seems that Chen Dongqing is the type of person who has great potential; he may not be very impressive at the beginning, but he grows very quickly!

"Alright then." Park Unryong stood up and said with a smile, "I'll watch you play a round and see how good you are right now."

Park Unryong still felt a little emotional when he talked about this.

A year has passed, and he still has the chance to coach StarCraft.

Chen Dongqing touched his nose, sat back down in his seat, and slowly started StarCraft.

Upon entering ranked mode, a Grandmaster badge gleams brightly, and the 5000 points below it are equally dazzling.

"Wait a minute!"

Park Unyong completely forgot how to speak Chinese for a moment, shouted in Korean, then stammered for two seconds before saying in Chinese, "What kind of joke is this?"

Silly!

Chen Dongqing turned around with a cheerful smile and asked, "Grandmaster, what's up?"

"How did you reach Grandmaster?" Park Unryong was completely dumbfounded. "Didn't you say you reached Diamond?"

"No problem," Chen Dongqing shrugged. "Aren't grandmasters just diamond-level players?"

At this moment, Xiangguo, who was sitting to the side, said, "Coach Park, don't you understand what kind of talent Chen Dongqing has? Isn't it normal for him to reach the Grandmaster level?"

"It's different!" Coach Park was getting a little anxious. "This game is different!"

After seeing Chen Dongqing's Grandmaster rank, he even began to question whether he had wasted all those years playing games.

"That won't do," Park Unyong said. "You have a one-on-one match with me, let me see your skills!"

Chen Dongqing thought for a moment and said, "Alright, come on."

It was the classic Zerg vs. Terran matchup. Park Yun-yong used the same old Zergling-Banner combo: Zerglings protecting Banelings for a mid-game push. This tactic had been invincible against Masters in the previous game, easily securing the win in just two waves.

But this time...

A large wave of Banelings rolled towards the Marines, with a bunch of Zerglings acting as meat shields in front. But this time, the Marines were paired up and spread out in a neat circle. The circle was moving along with the Banelings' charge, so his Banelings couldn't get close at all!

This time, he didn't even manage to destroy a single gunner before being directly overthrown by the Qing. His only casualty was being bitten to death by dogs, but that was unavoidable.

After this wave of attacks, the Zerg suffered a huge shortage of resources and lacked the strength to continue. Chen Dongqing took advantage of this and sent a large wave of Marines in, ending the game.

Park Unryong was completely dumbfounded.

this.

What kind of operation is this?!

After the game ended, he stared blankly at the screen for a long time, then clicked into the match replay and carefully observed it. He didn't say anything until Chen Dongqing came over.

The opening development speed was perfect, with not a single spare gold in hand and not a single second wasted. The mid-game operation was perfect, with the spearmen scattered like a flower!

Everything was so perfect. From Park Unryong's top-notch perspective, this grandmaster was absolutely genuine.

Next, he checked Chen Dongqing's record.

The entire team consisted of human players, and the matches all ended relatively quickly, clearly indicating that only one lineup was used throughout.

Did they rely on a fast-paced offensive strategy to climb all the way to the top of the group?

tortoise

The more Park Unryong looked, the more shocked he became.

"How was it, Coach Park?" Chen Dongqing asked with a smile. "Am I alright?"

"That's amazing!" Park Unryong was visibly excited. He turned around and shouted, "Did you really achieve this in just one vacation?"

Chen Dongqing was a little embarrassed. "Yes, that's right."

"Amazing!" Park Unryong gave a big thumbs up. "You're a true genius. Even though I've coached so many champions, you're definitely the most talented one!"

"Then," Chen Dongqing boldly asked, "can we start implementing the plan we discussed before?"

Park Un-yong raised an eyebrow: "Which plan?"

"GPL, the World Series, WCS," Chen Dongqing said calmly, "Can we begin implementation now?"

Park Unyong was momentarily silent.

When he talked to Chen Dongqing about the StarCraft tournament system before, he did it with a lighthearted attitude because he genuinely felt that Chen Dongqing could never reach that level.

But now, it's all come true.

Now here's the problem.

Is this path really feasible?

After all, Chen Dongqing is a professional League of Legends player, which is his main job, and playing StarCraft is at most a side job.

Finding a balance between two careers is also a problem.

Park Unryong couldn't make up his mind, nor was he in a position to make the decision. The two looked at each other for a while and decided to go talk to Linko first.

"Hmm, you mean Chen Dongqing wants to participate in the StarCraft 2 professional league?" Linko's face was full of doubt. "Is this feasible? Isn't Chen Dongqing's StarCraft skill quite poor?"

"I don't know either," Park Unyong shook his head. "He suddenly figured it out after the New Year."

Chen Dongqing patted his chest, "Don't doubt it, it's all pure talent."

"..." Linko asked again, "Is the time allocation manageable? After all, Chen Dongqing already has an identity."

"Theoretically, it really can be allocated!" Park Yun-yong said. "The GPL Golden League starts in March, and the first half is all online. It starts at 1 p.m., so it doesn't conflict with the LPL matches."

LPL matches are usually played at 3 PM and 5 PM. If there are three matches a day, the first match will start at 1 PM.

Popular teams like QG usually play during the prime time of 5 PM, so it doesn't conflict with the Golden League which starts at 1 PM.

Park Unyong continued, "For the offline tournament, there are only two days, April 15th and April 16th, which happens to be the last two days of the regular season, so we don't have any matches then."

"That's really impressive." Linko was a little numb. "What about the upcoming tournaments and WCS?"

"The tournament will be held after MSI, and WCS will be held after Worlds," Chen Dongqing replied this time. "There's no conflict."

Linko's first reaction was that he felt this move was a bit risky, but then he looked at the two people in front of him.

One is the greatest coach in StarCraft history, having won countless world championships and honors.

One is a recognized talented player, a monster who can win FMVP without even playing the game.

"Then give it a try! The club will support you."

See you tomorrow, brothers!

(End of this chapter)