League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 255 Easy as Hands

Because he hadn't adjusted to his sleep schedule yet, Chen Dongqing only managed to fall asleep around 3 a.m. Rio time. But in order to make sure he could adjust to the time difference quickly, he woke up at 9 a.m.

As agreed, Chen Dongqing woke up Xiangguo, who shared a room with him. After washing up, the two went downstairs to the restaurant for a quick look.

Coincidentally, I ran into KT's neat five-member group as soon as I got downstairs.

ROX's top laner and jungler, EDG's two carries, and then there's Mata, who never even came to the LPL because of Chen Dongqing's rebirth.

"Hey! Hello!" Deft and Pawn, who both speak Chinese, immediately waved and greeted Chen Dongqing as soon as they saw him.

When Xiao Huasheng saw Chen Dongqing, he smiled and greeted him.

Because of what happened last year, Xiao Huasheng has developed a very good impression of Chen Dongqing.

Chen Dongqing also went up and greeted them with a smile. The two teams went to the restaurant together to get breakfast, and then sat at the same table and ate with relish.

Brazilian breakfasts consist of nothing more than bread and milk, which Chen Dongqing could only barely accept, though it was enough to fill his stomach.

After everyone finished breakfast, Xiao Huasheng came up to Chen Dongqing and winked at him, indicating that he wanted to arrange a training match.

Chen Dongqing readily agreed.

Having KT as a scrim opponent would be the best thing ever.

Instead of playing scrims with other teams, it's better to practice your own strategies in custom games.

To put it bluntly, at this year's MSI, QG and KT will only see each other as competitors.

As for Europe, North America, Taiwan, and Vietnam, I'm really not familiar with them; they're just there to make up the numbers.

This year's MSI introduced a new qualifying stage, instead of the six major regions directly competing in the group stage.

Instead, the three regions with the best combined performance from last year's MSI and World Championship—LPL, LCK, and Europe—will directly enter the group stage, while the remaining three spots will be decided through the play-in stage.

The qualifying rounds consist of ten teams from Taiwan, North America, Vietnam, and seven other wildcard regions.

The day before QG arrived in Brazil, the winners of the qualifying rounds were determined, with North American TSM, Taiwanese FW, and Vietnamese GAM ultimately advancing to the group stage.

It's fair to say that the qualifying rounds were a complete waste of time.

After finishing his meal, Chen Dongqing returned to the training room and sat down to adjust the equipment. Soon after, the other teammates also sat down, and Chen Dongqing explained to Coach Cui about the training match arranged by KT.

Coach Cui readily accepted.

Today, QG entered a busy training session.

It has to be said that as the defending champion team, QG is the brightest star in this MSI.

This led to the other five teams scrambling to play scrims with QG.

Even RED, the Brazilian team that was eliminated in the qualifying rounds, had the idea of ​​playing a scrim with QG.

Coach Cui had never fought such a rich array of battles before. He was very selective, always choosing the strongest team to play against, which was basically either KT or G2. Often, he would play G2 in the afternoon and then KT in the evening. He would only consider playing against teams from Vietnam or Taiwan when he had absolutely nothing else to do.

On the surface, the changes in MSI version 7.8 are not significant. For QG, who won the regional championship in version 7.7, this version doesn't seem to have anything worth studying.

However, the tournament is far more complex than it appears on the surface. As teams conduct their research, various unconventional strategies will emerge, and it is very likely that the drafting and banning (BP) phase will be completely different from the early stages of the tournament.

Take last year's World Championship as an example. During the wildcard play-in stage, Karma support dominated the bot lane, but in the group stage, Zyra emerged and became Karma's equal.

Zyra's dominance was broken by Miss Fortune in the semifinals, a classic case of one team defeating another.

But at the beginning of the World Championship, you would never have imagined such a bizarre matchup as Miss Fortune support versus Zyra support!

Who knows what kind of cutting-edge technology will emerge at this year's MSI?

Therefore, we still need to play more training matches and explore more potential players.

Time flies, and November 13th has arrived in the blink of an eye.

Brazil is actually in a similar time zone to the United States, so this is not very friendly to domestic viewers, as it is the early hours of the morning in China.

The QG team arrived at the Rio Olympic Stadium by bus.

The name itself reveals the extraordinary nature of this venue. As a former Olympic venue, it can accommodate up to 60,000 people!

To be honest, this is the first time QG has competed in such a large venue, even the backstage lounge is much bigger.

Shi Senming sat in the chair, slightly uneasy. "Damn, there are so many people. I'm a little nervous."

"What's there to be nervous about at MSI?" Chen Dongqing laughed. "Based on my experience, the group stage of MSI is not as intense as LPL, so you can play with peace of mind."

Xiangguo then remarked from the side, "There are definitely a lot of audience members today. When I entered, I noticed that all 60,000 seats were almost full!"

"Sixty thousand seats can all be filled?" Shi Senming was quite surprised, and then became even more nervous.

"That's Brazil for you," Linko laughed. "Their passion for the game is beyond your imagination."

As a football powerhouse, Brazilians love watching all kinds of matches. Now that the MSI is being held here, even though their own team didn't even make it to the group stage, it doesn't stop them from coming to watch the game live.

Meanwhile, fans from other regions also came with their home teams, so a stadium with 60,000 people was nothing special.

"This is nothing!" Linko laughed from the side. "When we make it to the World Championship finals at the end of the year, it'll be held at the Bird's Nest! Then you'll see what 100,000 spectators really mean!"

At this moment, a staff member knocked on the door of the lounge, signaling the QG members to prepare to go on stage.

At 2:00 AM local time, the lights in the venue suddenly went out, and a ten-second countdown began to appear on the big screen.

The audience erupted in enthusiastic applause, which reached its peak as the countdown reached 1!

Suddenly, a beam of light shone on the main stage, and a Brazilian woman appeared in the beam.

She had a war drum hanging from her waist, and she was rhythmically striking two drumsticks in time with the background music, drawing applause from the Brazilian audience.

Immediately afterwards, the female drummer stopped waving her arms, the stage lights turned blue, and spun rapidly in the center of the stage. Then, the countless lights that had been combined suddenly dispersed and were distributed around the stage!

Under each light, there stood a Brazilian man with a war drum hanging from his waist.

Immediately afterwards, countless drumbeats rose in an orderly fashion, like a sudden storm, surging and energetic!

"Thump, thump, thump, thump!"

The applause from the Brazilian spectators grew louder and louder, and the atmosphere of the match became incredibly intense!

Admittedly, those who are not Brazilians may not understand this simple drum music, but this part does not need to be understood by outsiders. It is for our own people, and the enthusiasm of the Brazilian audience will help the organizers ignite the venue!

As the drumbeats reached their final stages, the waterdrop screens in the venue suddenly lit up, and the promotional video for this year's MSI began to play!

The first thing that catches the eye is the number "2015".

Then comes a piece of history.

In the 15 Mid-Season Invitational, EDG and SKT met at the pinnacle and engaged in the final battle.

EDG ultimately defeated SKT 3-2, winning their first-ever MSI championship trophy.

The camera then cuts to KT's victory, with Pawn and Deft, the two carries, appearing in the frame, staring directly at the camera as if trying to defend the value of their MSI championship.

Then, the scene shifted again, and the familiar Chinese narration suddenly interrupted.

"Welcome to the 2016 Mid-Season Invitational! This is Shanghai! Congratulations to QG for defeating SKT 3-1 and winning the 2016 Mid-Season Invitational!"

The QG team members raise the trophy in the picture; this is their first championship on the world stage!

The scene abruptly changes to another one: a picture of QG lifting the trophy in Nanjing a few days ago.

This time it was Wawa's voice: "Next, QG will represent our LPL and continue as the defending champions at the MSI in Brazil. We hope they can successfully defend their title!"

Immediately following, we saw footage of the other four teams lifting their trophies.

All those who have come to this stage are champions from various competition regions. They all have their own honors, and they all want to take those honors to the next level!

Before anyone could see them, six flags slowly descended from the top of the venue and appeared in the audience's view.

The host appeared on stage, microphone in hand, and shouted, "First of all, let's welcome the 2016 Mid-Season Invitational Champion, the 2016 World Championship Champion, and the 2017 LPL Spring Split Champion, QiaoGu!"

The sound of cheering sticks clapping was deafening, and tens of thousands of spectators below the field erupted in thunderous shouts at the same time. This was a volume of sound that Chen Dongqing had never experienced before!

For the Brazilian spectators in the stands, all the teams are from outside the region, so who they will support depends entirely on which team has won the most championships.

For the Brazilian audience, besides their own teams, they only recognize two teams from other regions.

One is SKT, and the other is QG.

Since SKT couldn't make it here, QG is definitely the most popular team!

Chen Dongqing, who was holding the trophy, was nudged by Xiangguo behind him. He immediately stepped forward and slowly walked down to the stage from the aisle of the audience seats.

As they left the stage, the host introduced each member of QG.

"First up is QG's top laner! illllllllllllex!"

It's said that Brazilians all know how to trill their tongues, and that's probably not an exaggeration. The host deliberately changed the pronunciation rhythm of Chen Dongqing's ID to add the tongue-twisting technique. The feeling of this tongue-twisting and extended sound is just like Ronaldo kicking a hat-trick on the football field!

The camera also gave Chen Dongqing a close-up shot.

A handsome guy in a white spring team uniform was holding the MSI championship trophy. He walked slowly to the center of the stage and placed the trophy on the pedestal.

QG has nominally owned this trophy for a year, and now that the trophy has returned to the stage, all major regions will once again compete for it!

From that moment on, the cheers from the crowd exploded!

Chen Dongqing enjoyed the feeling and waved happily at the camera.

Then, the host read out the IDs "mlxg", "GodV", "Uzi", and "Ming" in turn.

Immediately afterwards, the host waved his right hand and announced, "Next up is the LCK Spring Split champion, KT Rolster!"

Compared to QG's formidable momentum, KT's support is significantly weaker, with their support even less than that of "TSM".

It's possible that the name TSM is easy to pronounce and sounds impressive when said in unison, or perhaps it's because the North American cult is too powerful.

Anyway, this team can enjoy home advantage everywhere except in Europe.

The two North American powerhouses, Big Brother and Bjergsen, stood in the center of the stage, waving enthusiastically to the audience.

Then came G2, GAM, and FW.

The members of the six teams each occupied a corner of the stage, with the championship trophy at the center.

"Okay, welcome to Brazil!" the host said in Portuguese, which Chen Dongqing couldn't understand. "The 12-day championship battle officially begins now!"

The rules for the MSI group stage remain the same as before, using a double round-robin format within each group.

There are six teams, with six matches per day, meaning each team plays two matches per day for a total of five days.

After the five-day competition, the top four teams advanced to the knockout stage, while the bottom two went home.

Since there was no host country this time, the order of the matches was also randomized.

The first thing to happen was the war between Europe and the United States.

Brazil's time zone is closer to that of Europe and America, so matches from Europe and America are played earlier in the calendar.

The other four teams left the field, while G2 and TSM remained.

The classic G2 vs. TSM matchup—the MSI organizers really served up a feast for the audience right from the start!

For the Brazilian spectators in the stands, TSM was clearly the team they supported more.

After so many years of being a runner-up in the World Championship, this team is quite famous in other regions.

The excitement of this match goes without saying.

When these two teams meet, there are always some entertaining moments.

For the first forty minutes of the match, everything remained uneventful, with TSM firmly controlling the pace of the game with a 16-6 kill score and a 10,000 gold advantage.

But inexplicably, at 43 minutes, the entire TSM team returned to base to replenish supplies, and G2 seized the opportunity to go all in on Baron!

Forty minutes in is already the late game, and Baron Nashor is as fragile as paper, instantly focused down and killed by G2!

TSM jungler Svenkeren tried to flash into the dragon pit to steal the dragon, but ended up losing his life instead!

Then, the game took a bizarre turn.

With the Baron buff, G2 pushed down two outer towers of TSM, narrowing the gold difference to 7K.

OK, you have the Baron buff, I understand.

However, even after the Baron buff disappeared, G2 remained incredibly aggressive, managing to destroy TSM's mid and bottom lane inhibitors one after another.

This is clearly a bit strange.

In terms of lineup, there is clearly no difference between the two sides. TSM was also leading by 7,000, but they still lost two lanes of high ground!

Then, at the 49-minute Elder Dragon fight, G2 had a brilliant idea. They decisively sent their top, jungle, and support to stall for time, while their two carries pushed the super minion wave in the mid lane to backdoor the enemy base!

The TSM players were immediately like ants on a hot plate. Although they had taken down the Elder Dragon, they obviously dared not linger and quickly returned to the city to defend it.

One dental tower, two dental towers.

TSM only had one exposed crystal left, but fortunately, at this moment, TSM's top laner teleported to the top lane inhibitor tower, and this was a Rumble with extremely superior equipment.

He unleashed his ultimate ability, flashed close the distance, and with Rumble's terrifying damage, nearly instantly killed Ap's Syndra.

By this time, the TSM members had already walked home and successfully dealt with Zven's Lucian.

Crystal has only one-third of its health left!

At this moment, G2's top, jungle, and support also rushed up, with only one goal: the crystal with low health!

Just when everyone thought TSM was going to lose the game, a miracle happened.

G2's top, jungle, and support are all incredibly tanky, making it extremely slow to take down towers. Even when the crystal was down to only a third of its health, they struggled to destroy it.

The TSM players' hearts were pounding, but they managed to defend the crystal to the very last second.

The final result showed that the crystal had 404 HP remaining.

After successfully defending the crystal, TSM pushed forward and managed to turn the tide against G2.

This was a game they should have won long ago, but the result was so dramatic and unpredictable that it's hard to say whether TSM was too bad or G2 played too well.

But if the show is entertaining, that's enough.

After the appetizer and a short break, the second match quickly began.

This time it's Vietnamese GAM versus Taiwanese FW.

Neither of these teams is particularly popular, so I thought this would just be a minor side dish.

But something unexpected happened during this match.

GAM's top laner Stark picked Kennen for top lane in this match.

This choice immediately attracted the attention of all the teams.

Because Kennen is actually a very average champion in this version, far from the dominant position he had in the S6 World Championship.

The designers felt it was too uncool because of the terrifying performances of Smeb and Chen Dongqing's Kennen in the World Championship.

Therefore, Kennen underwent a round of nerfs at the beginning of Season 7.

Kennen's ultimate ability now deals very low damage initially, but gradually increases as multiple lightning strikes hit.

Clearly, that was a very heavy blow.

Because Kennen is a champion that everyone knows, the goal is to unleash a burst of damage in that instant with R-Flash-W.

Further on, either you'll be hit with Weakness, or the opponent will have already flashed away. After all, professional players aren't stupid; they can't hit anyone with the high damage hits later on!

This version of Kennen doesn't have a high pick rate; he's a champion that only highly skilled players can actually play.

957 played Kennen in the LPL Spring Finals and was completely overwhelmed by Chen Dongqing's Gragas, let alone the Vietnamese team.

But this time, the Vietnamese team really taught the world a lesson.

Their Kennan never followed the usual path.

Stark uses a build focused on Blade of the Ruined King and Frozen Mallet, aiming for unparalleled split-pushing prowess!

In this match, Wanwan's top laner, Mimi Dan, tried to emulate Chen Dongqing's playstyle in the LPL finals by using an AP Gragas to counter Kennen.

But this time, AP Gragas didn't work.

The core strategy for AP Malphite and AP Gragas against Kennen is to exploit Kennen's lack of sustain by using his passive shield or healing to trade damage for Kennen's health without taking any himself. After a few rounds of this, Kennen will have to go back to base.

But what about this time?

Kennen's recall animation is basically just a Vampiric Scepter, making the cost of Gragas a joke.

Once Kennen built Ruined King's Blade, Gragas became a complete slut, letting Kennen shit on his head!

That's how it is in professional esports. Even in the same version, the dominant heroes can change at any time; the key is to develop new ones.

Gragas and Kennen, these two champions were recently changed in patch 7.3 and 7.1 respectively, but they have become strong top laners in the current 7.8 patch.

Backstage, Chen Dongqing watched as Kennen relentlessly attacked the barrel on the field, and couldn't help but feel a chill of fear.

Fortunately, it wasn't me who played in this match.

If he confidently pulls out a Gragas to fight Kennen, and then gets countered, wouldn't he lose all face as the world's number one player?

Thank you, Mimi Egg.

With an advantage in the top lane, GAM was quite sensible. Levi repeatedly applied pressure in the top half of the map, leaving Karsa's jungle riddled with holes!

Karsa had no choice but to move to the bottom half of the draw to seek an opportunity.

But another arrangement for GAM emerged.

Their AD carry in this game is Ziggs.

This team has so many ingenious ideas.

The Bomber was all about bombs, not the player himself. His unparalleled tower defense made it impossible for Karsa to break through the tower, ultimately leading to a collapse in the top lane and the end of the game.

This system left the QG team in awe!

Banbazi's hands flew across the keyboard, recording the details of the game, before he said to Chen Dongqing, "We need to watch out for this Kennen top laner."

Looking at the screen, Chen Dongqing was reminded of some memories.

Only then did he vaguely recall that there had indeed been a wave of popularity for AD Kennen builds in 17.

This style of Kennen has almost no natural counters in the laning phase, and its split-pushing ability in the late game is quite strong, making it a popular choice in professional leagues for a time.

However, because LPL only reached the semifinals of MSI that year, and Kennen was a frequently banned champion in the later stages of MSI, Chen Dongqing couldn't recall him for a moment.

Immediately after that match ended, it was KT's turn to play, and their opponent was TSM, who were making their first appearance.

In the draft phase, Smeb surprisingly picked Kennen, and he played him as an AD carry!

This is clearly suspicious.

GAM and KT surprisingly both pulled out AD Kennen top lane, a pick never seen before on the field.

But QG seemed to be outsiders, having never heard of this gameplay.

"So, these two teams teamed up to keep things from us, huh?" Linko, seeing this from behind, laughed and cursed, "Trying to trick us?"

Chen Dongqing raised an eyebrow and said, "Is it possible that we rarely play scrims with GAM, so even if they wanted to leak information, they wouldn't have the means?"

GAM was the first team to pick AD Kennen, and according to the rules, they were the first to come up with this playstyle; KT was just a follower.

The tactics used in training matches can be learned by opponents, but they can only use them after the developers have used them in actual matches. This is a rule among professional teams.

Banbazi's expression changed, and after a moment's thought, he realized that it was indeed true.

QG has been incredibly popular lately, and they rarely play against Vietnam.

At this point, the third game in the video has ended.

KT easily won the game thanks to their advantage in all three lanes.

QG is about to take the stage, and their first opponent is GAM, who are playing Kennen for the first time as an AD carry.

QG has a tough schedule today, with one match against Vietnam's GAM and another against KT.

The first day of the group stage must be as exciting as possible, so we need to have matches from Europe and America as well as China and South Korea.

"So what do we do with this Kennen?" Xiangguo said in the voice chat. "This laning phase is too strong; it feels like a regular top laner can't play him!"

Kennen is a counter to Fiora, and if QG plays AD Kennen to further enhance the laning phase, then QG's opponents will have no need to fear Fiora at all, which will have a significant impact on the draft phase.

"It's alright," Chen Dongqing said casually. "AD Kennen, anyone can handle that."

See you tomorrow, brothers!

(End of this chapter)