League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 278 A Historic Step!

Soon, the two returned to the base.

As soon as Chen Dongqing returned to the lounge, he saw Xiangguo already sitting there, his eyes fixed on the computer screen, seemingly studying something.

When Chen Dongqing saw Xiangguo, he suddenly remembered that the Summer Split was approaching and the next few days were the agreed-upon days for the team to wrap up.

The thought that his vacation had been swallowed up by the interstellar tour made Chen Dongqing feel regretful.

I need to find a way to take a break during the summer tournament and slack off.

But Xiangguo didn't seem to notice anyone coming in and kept his eyes glued to the screen.

"What are you looking at? You're so focused." Chen Dongqing leaned over and glanced at Xiangguo's screen, then his eyes widened in surprise. "Holy crap, stock trading?"

Xiangguo turned his head and grinned, "What's wrong with stock trading? Why are you so surprised?"

"." Chen Dongqing didn't know what to say for a moment.

The value of investing in stocks with a spicy pot is extremely high.

Before his rebirth, Xiangguo even borrowed money from him.

Xiangguo then added enthusiastically, "You have no idea how much money I've been making playing this lately. At its peak, I could earn a month's salary in a single day! Oh well, you wouldn't understand anyway. Just wait and see how much I make, and then I'll treat you to a meal, okay?"

Chen Dongqing leaned over and asked, "So, which stock are you rooting for lately?"

"This one!" Xiangguo clicked the mouse, and a candlestick chart appeared on the screen. You could see that the line was plummeting downwards, a veritable bloodbath.

Chen Dongqing glanced at the name.

LeTV.com

Chen Dongqing fell silent.

This is the true value of Warren Buffett's reputation.

"Brother, trust me," Chen Dongqing said earnestly, "Don't buy this one, you'll definitely lose money."

"Huh? How did you know?" Xiangguo scratched his head, his tone full of distrust.

Chen Dongqing didn't know how to explain, so he just said, "Just trust me and that's it. When you invest in stocks, you have to consider the actual situation. LeEco has already collapsed, how can the stock price rise?"

"Which one should I buy?"

"Whatever, just don't buy this, it'll crash if you do."

"Let's go ahead and try," Xiangguo reluctantly agreed.

Seeing that he had finally persuaded Murphy to come back, Chen Dongqing felt relieved and began sparring with Park Yunlong beside him.

During the practice session, Xiangguo turned his head and asked, "Did you go to play in a StarCraft match today? How did it go?"

"Not bad, I made it to the next round." Chen Dongqing said calmly, "The finals are tomorrow."

Xiangguo was speechless for a long time, then finally said, "Awesome, keep it up!"

Chen Dongqing didn't reply this time, focusing on the game at hand.

His reason for sparring with Park Unyong this time wasn't to improve himself, but mainly to practice a tactic.

He had seen this tactic countless times, but he had never actually used it before.

This tactic tormented Park Un-yong to the point of near death last week.

That's right, it's urbanization.

Chen Dongqing recently did some research and felt that when fighting against the Zerg, simply relying on micro-management to brute force the enemy is not enough. There are always experts in the world who have ways to deal with their Marines.

Therefore, it is necessary to study a set of alternative tactics.

Urbanization is a good strategy.

This defensive, tactical approach, which relies on bladder control and endurance, is well-suited to his consistently high level of performance.

So what if we just have to endure it? I'll fight you for an hour and see who gives up first.

Park Un-yong was the first victim.

Although it was Chen Dongqing's first time using this tactic, he had already practiced it countless times in his mind. With the added bonus of maxed-out proficiency, he was at a top level on his first try.

Park Yun-ryong started the game by massing troops as usual, but when his scouts arrived at Chen Dong-qing's base, he saw that Chen Dong-qing did not launch two ships of troops as usual. Instead, he built spearmen and mechanical units and lined them up in his base, choosing to focus on defense.

This scene has a very vivid and descriptive name: "setting up a bus".

This term comes from football and describes protecting a base with a dense defensive line, much like a bus parked at the goal.

Park Unryong immediately realized something was wrong.

No way!

Park Unryong's expression changed, and he immediately chose to attack.

But the result was tragic.

His first wave of attacks was swiftly wiped out by Chen Dongqing's spearmen.

Chen Dongqing's spearmanship is absolutely effective, even when used for defense.

Immediately afterwards, Chen Dongqing's fortress began to expand outwards, and its territory gradually increased.

Park Unryong's torment begins.

He was already at a significant disadvantage against the 4,000-point urbanization level, let alone against a top-level player like Chen Dongqing.

Park Yun-ryong's wave after wave of attacks were easily repelled by Chen Dongqing.

The match lasted for twenty minutes, and finally, Coach Park couldn't take it anymore and typed "GG".

Chen Dongqing then smiled and said, "Coach Park, how's my urban look? Is it presentable?"

"It's hard to say yet," Park Unyong said stubbornly. "Beating me isn't a big deal; I need to watch the video and analyze it."

Urbanization is essentially a self-contained game; whether you win or lose depends entirely on how well you play, and has little to do with the opponent.

Theoretically, you can win against any opponent if you can execute your tactics perfectly.

Therefore, Park Unryong chose to open Chen Dongqing's first-person perspective video and analyze the flaws frame by frame.

But the result was quite frightening.

Although Park Unryong is not good at fighting, his eye for talent is absolutely shrewd.

But after watching the whole thing, he couldn't find any flaws.

Whether it's building placement, unit composition, or micro-management in head-on battles, it's almost flawless.

The urbanization tactic perfectly showcased Chen Dongqing's almost abnormal operational stability.

Skyscrapers stand one after another, just like the orderly urban planning of Manhattan, New York.

Seeing this, even Coach Park couldn't deny it anymore. He could only give a thumbs up and nod in approval, saying, "No problem."

Chen Dongqing was about to laugh when Coach Park said, "But one game doesn't prove anything. Let's try another one."

Chen Dongqing nodded in agreement.

Half an hour later.

Park Unyong typed GG again.

After typing "GG" this time, he almost ran to the bathroom, urinating and sighing, wondering why he had to humiliate himself like this.

June 7th, afternoon.

The final day of the Shanghai Tour.

Compared to previous matches, today's final received significantly more attention.

The reason is simple: today's winner will advance directly to the year-end finals.

It's only been halfway through 2017, and so far, only one WCS ticket has been issued—to Stats, the champion of the first stage of GSL this year.

The second one will be released today.

This can be considered a crucial moment.

Many international StarCraft fans also tuned in to the Mt.Twitch broadcast of the tournament and started discussing it in the chat.

Who are the two players in today's final? Did Serral make it to the final?

Dude, Serral is definitely going to make it to the finals!

Oh. Why is there an ilex here?

[Ilex? Which ilex?]

I don't know, it shouldn't be just one person, right? But this guy is definitely a Chinese player!

Oh my god, all the Chinese players made it to the finals? Looks like they got lucky this time.

Amidst the discussions in the live chat, time slowly ticked to 3 PM.

The female host strode onto the stage and shouted, "Alright, let's welcome both contestants to the stage!"

At the host's call, Chen Dongqing and Serral quickly stepped onto the stage.

At that moment, cheers erupted from the audience!

Chen Dongqing squinted at the audience and saw the QG team members.

All of QG's players have returned to the team today, and their first priority upon returning was to watch Chen Dongqing's match live.

In addition, a series of StarCraft players, including Li Peinan, iA, and Macsed, were also watching from the audience.

When they saw Chen Dongqing's gaze sweep over them, they all gave him a thumbs up and cheered him on.

Meanwhile, in the live stream room of the foreign RatTV, the moment Chen Dongqing appeared, the barrage of comments exploded.

Upon seeing this handsome Asian man come on stage, everyone immediately recognized him as Ilex, the FMVP top laner that Riot Games has been heavily promoting recently.

【? ? ? 】

Is this really the Ilex?

[Can anyone tell me what happened? Why is this League of Legends player appearing on the StarCraft stage?]

[Didn't you all know? Ilex was already playing StarCraft competitions at the beginning of this year, and he won the Chinese regional championship right from his debut.]

WTF? Is this person's talent really that terrifying?

This guy is a natural talent. He didn't play much League of Legends last year, but he still won the world championship. I wouldn't be surprised what he's doing now.

[Isn't he afraid of losing both games while playing two simultaneously?]

But what you should know is that he hasn't lost yet.

It has to be said that Chen Dongqing's face is definitely a hot topic.

The moment he stepped onto the stage, the suspense of the match was raised to an extremely high level.

If a League of Legends player were to qualify for the year-end finals, that would be a huge problem.

Driven by this anticipation, countless people began to invite their friends, including those who play League of Legends, to watch the final showdown in the live stream.

The popularity of the live stream also soared in an instant.

The StarCraft Old Boys livestream also saw a surge in popularity.

The two brothers were already seated in the live broadcast room, waiting for the final to begin.

Unlike Sun Yifeng's expectations and support, Huang Xudong felt a mix of emotions.

He certainly hoped that Chen Dongqing could win the championship and take that unprecedented step for Chinese star games.

But the thought of what he would do after Ilex won filled him with bitterness.

It's so painful!

Chen Dongqing, who was already sitting in front of the computer, was of course unaware of this situation.

He had already joined the game room and, under the referee's instructions, clicked "Start Game".

In StarCraft, there is no ban/pick process; both sides simply ban maps, so the matches are very fast, sometimes a best-of-five series can be completed in an hour.

After the draft phase, Chen Dongqing saw the map for the first game – 16th position.

This is a retro-style digital map featuring red and blue opponents. The unique feature of this map is that you only need to defend one pass to easily hold three mining areas.

Chen Dongqing didn't have much to say, so he decided to use his two invincible ships of soldiers to think of a solution.

His strategy against Zerg is now simple and straightforward: just drop an airdrop and wipe them out first.

However, it was clear that the opposing Finnish Zerg King had also done a lot of research on him. This time, the opponent chose to speed up and directly attack Chen Dongqing's second base with speed-up Zerglings, trying to disrupt Chen Dongqing's two-ship army rhythm.

It must be said that this attack was quite effective.

Chen Dongqing was disrupted, and not only were the troops in the second mine forced to retreat, but two of his riflemen were also wiped out, which greatly reduced the effectiveness of his naval forces!

Serral then played a solid defense, with creep spreading rapidly on the front line (simply put, it's like Troll Warlord's W, lasting indefinitely and can be manually expanded continuously), generating countless Hydralisks and Zerglings—Serral still didn't choose to build Banelings, clearly having done considerable research on Chen Dongqing.

This scene surprised Chen Dongqing quite a bit.

After all, he only played two BO3 Zerg matches in the group stage. He didn't expect the opposing team to value him so much and study his technical characteristics based on these few match recordings.

However, Chen Dongqing remained calm and the transport ship still forced its way into takeoff!

Chen Dongqing's hand speed began to skyrocket, the screen was frantically switching, two transport ships, along with the reconnaissance soldier Reaper, and three units were running around the entire map.

The Grim Reaper sent a message: transport ships carrying soldiers were roaming around, continuously clearing out the Zerg forces!

Since he has a disadvantage at the start and has already spread out the creep, it will be difficult for him to launch an attack with his ships and soldiers. There will inevitably be huge resistance.

Therefore, he chose to focus on guerrilla warfare, with his two ships appearing and disappearing unpredictably, dropping troops like crazy, and relying on mobility and the healing capacity of his medic ships to continuously steal Zerg forces for free!

All the viewers saw that, through wave after wave of small skirmishes, the human race slowly turned the tide and turned the tide!

In the mid-game, the Zerg chose to take the initiative, but Chen Dongqing anticipated this and deployed his forces to wipe them out in one fell swoop, completely turning the tide of the game!

Immediately afterwards, the Terran army of four ships pressed in, leaving Serral with no choice but to gamble with Banelings!

But the scattered spearmen, as beautiful as flowers, reappeared, and the Zerg launched a desperate counterattack, only to be wiped out in an instant.

"Holy crap, it's happening again!" Sun Yifeng yelled in the live stream, "These scattered gunners! This is insane!"

Serral was also internally screaming "WTF!" a million times.

Although he had indeed seen it countless times in videos, when he actually faced such a scattered gunner, he still suspected that the other side was using a script.

With no other option, he could only type GG in frustration.

In the final, we won the first game!

The audience erupted in applause, and Chen Dongqing breathed a sigh of relief.

It has to be said that the future world champion on the other side is really tough. This is the most stressful game he has ever played against Zerg.

But thankfully, they gradually turned things around.

With each win, we get one step closer to the finals!

Chen Dongqing returned backstage to rest for a while, and Park Yunlong immediately came over to talk to Chen Dongqing about the game.

"We need to be careful with the opponent's fast-paced opening," Park Yun-yong said. "They're just playing defensively this time. If they continue to pressure us, it'll actually be really difficult for us to win."

Chen Dongqing nodded, but if you're asking about solutions? Well, that's actually not a very good solution.

The two-ship troop tactic is relatively self-contained at the start; any unnecessary actions will slow down the takeoff time.

Unless the tactics are completely changed and the two ships of soldiers are no longer engaged, the only solution is to avoid fighting.

Chen Dongqing thought for a moment and said, "Let's keep playing. I feel like I can handle their early game offense. As long as we can win, I don't need to change tactics. If there are problems, I'll change my strategy."

Park Unryong nodded: "No problem."

A best-of-seven (BO7) match is characterized by a high margin for error and numerous opportunities for adjustment.

Soon, the second game began.

Chen Dongqing started the game the same way again, but this time he chose to slow down and was more cautious about the second mine.

This time, the opposing team also changed their strategy, choosing to accumulate troops before launching a final attack on their second base.

Unfortunately, the attack came a little too late. Chen Dongqing easily defended against an attack at the start, then launched his ship pawns and won the game again, just like the previous one!

Leading 2-0!

They lost the second game even faster.

But Serral, the Finnish worm king, was not discouraged. Instead, he looked thoughtful and quickly walked backstage.

Having watched so many of Ilex's matches, he knew that this guy seemed to only start with two ships of infantry against Zerg.

He was confident he could win the game if he could break through this opening!

After the start of the third game, Serral changed his lineup again.

This time, he chose to push forward with the cockroaches at the start, focusing on an extremely fast attack, and successfully bypassed Chen Dongqing's scouting!

This time, Chen Dongqing didn't even have time to set up defenses before the troops rushed in and wiped out the entire Second Mine unit.

Immediately afterwards, Serral went all in, completely abandoning defense, and the entire Zerg force pressed forward, making it a do-or-die situation!

In addition, the map in this game is the decisive battleground, a typical map that is easy to attack but difficult to defend. Faced with such a costly attack, Chen Dongqing was really at a loss for a while, and the disadvantage was getting bigger and bigger!

With no other option, he ultimately opted for a complete tactical switch and a desperate gamble. However, Serral's vision control was excellent, detecting Chen Dongqing's movements early on and successfully defending against the base swap. In the final all-out attack, they won the game!

The moment he won the match, Serral let out a long breath, clenching his right fist to release his excitement.

If we can win one game, our chances will be much better!

At this moment, Huang Xudong shouted in the live stream, "We're doomed! Our tactics have been broken! Ilex only knows how to use two ships of soldiers!"

The two of them had watched Chen Dongqing fight his way up, and they understood his style all too well.

This guy always uses the same opening strategy against Zerg, making him a master of predictable patterns.

If the process manager's process is broken, then all that's left is to send it away.

"Don't rush, don't rush!" Sun Yifeng shouted from the side, "There's still a chance. The other side has only broken one game. They can't break every game."

"Keep it up, Ilex!" Huang Xudong's words were filled with sincerity.

He doesn't want to think about D.va anymore; all he wants to see is Chen Dongqing holding the trophy.

Meanwhile, backstage, Chen Dongqing was also feeling a bit regretful, "Damn it, our 100% win rate has been broken."

Chen Dongqing had originally planned to maintain a 100% win rate against bugs, but unexpectedly, he didn't even encounter any Korean players before his win rate was broken.

Of course, this was clearly wishful thinking on Chen Dongqing's part.

Maintaining a 100% win rate in international competitions is absolutely impossible, even with a real script.

After hearing Chen Dongqing's words, Park Yunlong laughed and scolded, "Dream on! Instead of thinking about that, you should think about what to do in the next game."

Chen Dongqing said nonchalantly, "What else can we do? We'll just use the tactics we practiced yesterday, won't we?"

Soon, amidst the discussions of countless viewers around the world, both players returned to the stage, and the fourth game began!

Chen Dongqing knew the map selected for this game right at the start of the match – Dreamland.

The moment Chen Dongqing saw the map, he couldn't help but smile.

The map "Dreamland" isn't very large overall, and the two bases are very close in a straight line. However, the center of the map has a lot of rocks, grass, and walls, and the winding terrain makes this map easy to defend but difficult to attack.

In other words, defense is more advantageous on this map!

The last game was easy to attack but difficult to defend, while this game is easy to defend but difficult to attack. It can only be said that the wheel of fortune turns.

Serral, this time I'll show you what I'm made of.

The match began, and both players' APM skyrocketed.

Serral, just like in the previous game, started by massing Roach and then launched a fast attack.

But when his cockroach army arrived at Chen Dongqing's No. 2 Mine, he found a bunch of tanks and gunners already stationed at the mine, and farmers had begun to build defensive structures.

No way?

A sense of foreboding flashed through Serral's mind.

The human race's opening was incredibly solid. They completely abandoned the early offensive strategy and focused entirely on defense, a typical urban opening.

But when did .ilex learn this playing style?

His strategy of sacrificing economy in the early game to force a quick attack, when faced with a top-tier defensive strategy like urbanization, was like walking right into the enemy's line of fire!

But can he back out?

With this retreat, the urbanization process of the human race will only grow wildly without any hindrance, and he will no longer have any chance of winning.

He had no choice but to bite the bullet and go for it, but of course he couldn't just give up the tower directly, so he chose to switch points and attack.

But as soon as he turned his head, he saw a grim reaper walk past him.

As the Zerg army pressed in, Reaper "der" escaped by using his ability to cross the terrain.

The Grim Reaper is a reconnaissance unit and doesn't have much combat power.

But being able to detect the Zerg's turning point is already incredibly valuable.

Having anticipated this, Chen Dongqing immediately set up a defense, making it watertight!

At this point, the Zerg's roach rush plan has essentially failed.

Serral can only turn back and develop again.

But once he withdrew, the game was over.

In a match between top-level players like this, even a small setback at the start can be enough to determine the outcome of the entire game.

When the Serral Zerg forces pressed into Terran territory again, they saw that the Terran side was already filled with tall buildings, fortresses, defensive towers, marines, and tanks, with everything in place and no defenses left undefended!

As a top Zerg player, Serral actually has extensive experience in countering urbanization.

But even from his perspective, the urbanization across the street was still done flawlessly!

Seeing this, countless viewers abroad already understood that the outcome of this round was already decided.

They didn't understand Chen Dongqing, nor did they understand what urbanization represented.

Domestically, countless viewers who knew Chen Dongqing were collectively shocked.

"Wow, he doesn't just know how to operate two ships!" Huang Xudong almost stood up and shouted, "He also knows urbanization! Really?!"

"The key is that their urbanization is quite successful!" Sun Yifeng exclaimed, widening his eyes. "There's not a single loophole in their system!"

Amidst the shock of countless people, the match gradually progressed into its later stages.

Chen Dongqing wasn't in a hurry to end the match; he preferred to play it safe.

Moreover, his steadiness is truly unwavering. It's like the steadiness of a machine, with nothing about him slipping up.

It's like Royal Club in Season 4 facing SSW's high ground towers - with no angle to attack, they could only watch the gap between the two sides widen!

Chen Dongqing waited until the economic gap was large enough, which in League of Legends would be more than 10,000 gold difference between the two sides, before he used his massive forces to crush the enemy in one fell swoop!

Of course, he didn't forget to guard against moving to another place.

Faced with a huge disparity in troop strength, Serral was completely unable to resist and ultimately chose to concede defeat.

Three to one!

Victory is within reach!

Chen Dongqing didn't let his guard down, holding his breath and starting the fourth round!

Just like in the Slam Dunk High School National Tournament, after Sawakita Eiji discovered that Rukawa Kaede could pass the ball, he could no longer defend against Rukawa.

When Serral discovered that Chen Dongqing knew more than one tactic, he also became confused.

The key point is that two-ship troop formations and urbanization are two completely different tactics, and the defensive measures you need to take are also completely different. There is no way to have the best of both worlds!

After much deliberation, Serral ultimately decided to adopt a defensive approach from the start, focusing on tackling the situation and observing the developments.

But the next second, two ships carrying 14 50-gold buddies flew to his third base location, and 14 machine guns sprayed and blasted, taking down his third base in one fell swoop.

Taking advantage of Serral's defensive playstyle, Chen Dongqing's two ships of soldiers reappeared, delivering a fatal blow to the opponent!

Serral could no longer distinguish between truth and falsehood; he only knew that he was at a disadvantage, a significant one.

Up to this point, the Finnish Insect King's thinking finally became disordered, and he lost the ability to think calmly.

Without the support of three mineral reserves, any subsequent Zerg counterattacks will lack strength.

Ten minutes later, the score was 4-1, and the game was won!

At this moment, the entire live stream room was completely overwhelmed, with comments flying across the screen!

The entire scene was in an uproar!

"Alright, let's congratulate Ilex!" The host's voice echoed throughout the venue, "He defeated Serral 4-1 to win the 2017 WCS Tour Shanghai Championship!"

Seeing Chen Dongqing's spirited appearance on stage, countless viewers in China felt that CN StarCraft really had a chance this time.

This isn't just a niche interest; they're really aiming for the championship!

At this moment, in the StarCraft Old Boys live stream, countless viewers were typing "6" while marveling at Xu Dong Lao Xian's reputation.

All six promising young men from Shanghai failed, except for Chen Dongqing, who was not favored and made it to the end.

Sun Yifeng was also shouting in the live broadcast room, marveling at Chen Dongqing's heroic talent.

Xu Dong Lao Xian, on the other hand, was crying on one side and laughing on the other, which was quite contradictory.

If Ilex wins the championship, does that mean he's really going to cosplay as D.Va?

Today's chapter is still a long one, the StarCraft section is temporarily over. Next, I'll write about the new version update and my daily live stream to transition things over, and then the Summer Split will start soon.

See you tomorrow, brothers.

P.S.: If there are any bugs today, please forgive me, I'll fix them later.

(End of this chapter)