League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 298 On Incense Burners

(Just finished writing, a little late, sorry guys)

"Congratulations QG!" Wawa shouted with all his might, "This match ended so quickly that I wasn't even ready to celebrate the victory!"

"1639! This breaks the record for the fastest race in international competition!"

Miller thought for a moment, then said, "Before this, the fastest match record was the EDG vs. BKT match at the 2015 World Championship, when BKT surrendered at 20 minutes and 21 seconds."

"Now, QG has moved that number forward by almost four minutes! And they weren't facing a wildcard team, but the fourth seed from the LCK! And! Their opponents didn't surrender, they had their base destroyed!"

Although it was only four minutes earlier, the difference in difficulty is obvious once you think about it.

Ten minutes ago, the game seemed to be in a normal situation, with QG only having a slight advantage. But around ten minutes in, LZ's top and bottom towers were destroyed, and the game situation was like boarding an aircraft carrier!

They pushed from the mid-lane tower to the high ground in three minutes, and then destroyed the bottom lane high ground in another three minutes. After that, they won the game in one fell swoop!

It's hard to believe that this was done in just over six minutes.

The turning point here is actually quite obvious: it's the Wind Maiden's incense burner.

The first breach of the high ground and the final breach of the turret were both accomplished by Janna's ultimate ability, which applied Ardent Censer to all enemies.

All five players had red circles around their hands, granting them huge attack speed bonuses and basic attack healing effects, practically providing each player with a major item, making the team's stats completely overwhelming!

Lulu provides individual protection, while the Janna team exerts its strength.

The two LPL teams have come up with completely different ideas for the Ardent Censer item.

The Asian intercontinental competitions are progressing the slowest, while other intercontinental competitions have already been largely completed.

This led to teams from other regions watching this Asian showdown.

When teams around the world saw the first match between WE and the second match between QG, they were all taken aback, as if a new world had been opened up for them.

Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Riot Games headquarters.

Because of this Intercontinental Cup, Riot Games' designers held another internal meeting.

In the past, whenever QG unveiled a new product, Riot's lead designer, Ghostcrawler, would fly into a rage and unleash a torrent of abuse on his colleagues.

For example, the former command flag.

But this time, it's different.

During the meeting, Ghostcrawler looked at the result of the match, nodded in satisfaction, and said, "Enhancing the incense burner was definitely the right thing to do! We can see that Ilex's presence in this match wasn't very strong!"

Upon hearing this, the designers below silently grumbled.

Is this what you call having a low profile?

Without Ilex's solo kill on Taliyah in the mid lane, the game would probably have been more than a minute slower.

Oh, compared to before, its presence is indeed not very strong.

In the past, QG would often send their jungler to the top lane to tower dive within three to five minutes, and then the top laner would start dominating the enemy and killing them.

In this game, because of the incense burner, Xiangguo mainly helped the bottom lane. Since no one helped the top lane to tower dive, the breakthrough was naturally slow.

"No matter what, we're on the right track, aren't we?" Ghostcrawler said with a smile. "Let's continue making changes in this direction. This year at Worlds, I won't allow Ilex to win the FMVP again! Oh no, I won't allow QG to win the championship again!"

At this point, Ghostcrawler turned his head and said, "Of course, this version of the Incense Burner is a bit too powerful. We need to nerf it a little. Give me the proposal tomorrow."

"OK!" The designers below nodded emphatically.

The meeting ended, and Ghost Crab turned and left the meeting room.

The other designers turned their attention back to the screen in the conference room.

The live broadcast of the match is currently playing above.

"QG!"

"QG!"

"QG!"

The LMS audience erupted in wild cheers, with countless people incredibly excited!

So you're the only one from LCK?

Are you the one playing tricks and schemes here?

You blew up Flash Wolves in 25 minutes yesterday and you were still being arrogant on Twitter?

You got pushed back in 16 minutes today, can you still be so arrogant?

As expected of QG! The pride of our LMS!

On stage, Chen Dongqing felt a strange unease as he listened to the Taiwanese audience chanting the team name QG in unison.

He waved to the audience and walked towards LZ with his teammates.

Chen Dongqing wasn't very familiar with any of LZ's five people. Only Pray and GorillA were considered old rivals, but he hadn't spoken to them much.

So this handshake between the two sides didn't involve much communication; it was just a simple handshake.

Instead, Khan took the initiative to talk to Chen Dongqing.

Although Khan is Korean, he played in the LPL a few years ago.

His first appearance on the professional stage was in the 2014 LPL Summer Split.

Khan's travels in China over the past few years have given him a pretty good command of Chinese.

Khan was actually thinking about nothing more than punching Quinn's mother to death during the match.

But when he actually stood in front of Quinn, he couldn't bring himself to say any of the harsh words he had prepared.

Quinn is a target that every top laner in the world needs to chase.

"Awesome, Tree Pot!" Khan gave a thumbs up, somewhat impressed. "You really fooled me at the beginning."

Chen Dongqing chuckled softly, then nodded and said, "Just lucky. Try harder next time."

The two held hands tightly.

Khan felt a pang of sadness as he watched Chen Dongqing walk to the center of the stage and bow in farewell.

He had imagined countless times what it would be like to face off against Ilex, but he never expected that when the two of them actually faced off, he would lose so badly.

I'll definitely do better next time!

Khan clenched his fists.

"."

After bowing, Chen Dongqing turned and walked backstage.

It wasn't until then that the teammates finally let loose and started shouting excitedly!

Even in their QG team, 1639 is an achievement they've never accomplished before!

"Wow, that fake gank top lane early on was absolutely brilliant!" Uzi, the beneficiary, grinned in admiration. "The bot lane counter-gank went straight for the takeoff!"

It has to be said that Xiangguo actually played quite well in this game.

With three moves—a counter-gank on the bottom lane at level three, an invasion of the jungle at level five, and a support for the top lane at level six—Xiangguo already has the right to win without lifting a finger.

Xiangguo fiddled with his overly long, fishbone-like bangs and said cheerfully, "To be honest, these waves don't really concern me."

Actually, Xiangguo's counter-ganking ability has never been top-notch, after all, he has always been known as a carnivorous jungler.

His first move was simply following Chen Dongqing's instructions, and he executed a perfect counter-gank.

As for supporting the top lane, needless to say, he never intended to counter-gank the top lane. It was purely because Chen Dongqing played well and managed to escape from the encirclement of the two opponents that he had the opportunity to provide support.

In other words, anyone can come.

"And the incense burner is awesome too!" Shi Senming said happily, "With this Janna's ultimate skill, she's practically invincible."

"That's how the incense burner is." Chen Dongqing nodded with a smile. "Alright, alright, what's the point of bragging to yourself? Someone else has to do it!"

As they were talking, they strode back to the backstage dressing room.

As soon as they returned, everyone rushed up and surrounded them.

The game lasted for more than ten minutes, and it was so satisfying to win that even the factory manager couldn't hold back and came up to interact with Uzi.

"Holy crap! Tree!" Lin Weixiang grabbed Chen Dongqing's waist. "What were you thinking with that command? You got completely fooled by that top laner from Longzhu!"

"It's normal." Chen Dongqing waved his hand, subtly brushing Lin Weixiang's groping hands away. "As long as you have hands, it's fine. The enemy top laner is afraid of me, so the plan is easy to carry out."

Yes, it's like how Sima Yi was afraid of Zhuge Liang in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Upon hearing this, the other three teams all shook their heads.

I can't learn it.

When they face an LCK team, not only are they not afraid of them, but the opposing team might even turn the tables and dominate them.

If, in the Empty City Stratagem, it had been Jiang Gan instead of Zhuge Liang standing atop the city wall, Sima Yi would most likely have ordered his men to charge in without hesitation.

Seeing Lin Weixiang's groping hands reaching up again, Chen Dongqing reached out and shoved them away, exclaiming helplessly, "What are you doing here? We're about to go on stage, aren't you going to get ready?"

"We're not playing in the third game either," Lin Weixiang said cheerfully. "LCK will definitely be sending KT in the third game, how could we, the fourth seed, possibly get a chance?"

Hearing this, Liu Qingsong, who was standing next to Lin Weixiang, couldn't help but snort coldly.

With a 2-0 start and only needing to win one more game to secure the victory, the LPL naturally had to field its strongest lineup.

If I had to choose between EDG and FPX, I would definitely choose EDG, since they are a veteran powerhouse in the LPL and have a higher ranking in the Spring Split.

Although the FPX players were quite eager to play, there was nothing they could do about the situation.

Who told them to have such a poor performance in the Spring Split?

Chen Dongqing was speechless after hearing this: "You're the first person to describe winning by doing nothing in such a refined and elegant way."

"The fourth seed is definitely going to be outmatched!" Lin Weixiang's mindset changed quickly, and he said confidently, "The less capable you are, the less responsibility you bear. We won't take the blame."

"Awesome!"

Chen Dongqing wanted to say something, but then someone knocked on the door of the lounge, signaling the QG people to get ready to be interviewed.

This interview covers all the competition areas.

Uzi, as the MVP of this match, was invited to the main stage.

Chen Dongqing, on the other hand, was pulled into their own Chinese-language channel.

Following the directions, Chen Dongqing arrived at a small room with a camera and soon saw Lin Yuanhua in a dress. A smile immediately appeared on his face.

My girlfriend is so beautiful.

Lin Yuanhua smiled and gave Chen Dongqing a thumbs up: "You won so fast! I didn't even have time to react before you won!"

Chen Dongqing grinned and said, "So-so."

As the interview was about to begin, Lin Yuanhua quickly walked over, helped Chen Dongqing straighten his team uniform, and then smoothed down a stray hair sticking up on Chen Dongqing's head.

Finally, the photographer couldn't stand it anymore and spoke up to stop the couple's public displays of affection: "Get ready, the interview is about to begin."

Upon hearing this, the two quickly stood in front, and seeing the red light on the camera, they immediately began the interview.

After the routine self-introductions, Lin Yuanhua routinely posed the first question: "Congratulations to QG on winning the second match of the finals! In this match, you created a brand new history, setting a new record for the fastest match in international competition! How do you feel now?"

"Oh, it's alright. Actually, when the draft phase ended, I had a vague feeling this game would end quickly." Chen Dongqing thought for a moment and said, "I think I did some things poorly in this game, otherwise maybe it could have ended even faster."

In the LPL live stream, viewers were immediately filled with question marks upon hearing Chen Dongqing's words.

Can it be even faster? Are you even speaking human language?

"Oh? Is that so?" Lin Yuanhua's eyes widened. "It can be even faster?"

"Actually, it's possible," Chen Dongqing explained. "Because we had a big advantage in the bottom lane at the start of this game, I didn't feel any pressure to attack and played very relaxed, focusing on farming. If I had exerted more pressure, I might have been able to push down the top tower by myself, which would have saved me a minute."

Lin Yuanhua smiled and nodded, "That's a real shame."

"Yes, that's such a shame."

Lin Yuanhua continued, "After this match, Brother Shu can take a short rest and watch the next matches from the lounge. What are your wishes and expectations for the next two teams?"

"Wishing them well? Of course, we hope they can keep up the good work," Chen Dongqing said with a smile. "Ideally, they'd win in three straight sets!"

The interview ended there. When Chen Dongqing returned to the backstage lounge, he saw the EDG team members already preparing to depart.

Chen Dongqing stepped forward to greet them and encourage everyone: "The question is, can we win in three rounds?"

The factory manager, with his lifeless eyes, calmly said, "I'll do my best."

Chen Dongqing nodded, sat down in the last row of the lounge, and started browsing Tieba on his phone.

The performing arts troupe acted quickly this time; as soon as I entered the forum, I saw their rating post.

Chen Dongqing clicked in and saw the evaluation of himself on the first floor.

[Amazing! Amazing!]

[According to Uzi's on-site interview, was the counter-gank by Shu Ge at the start of the game directed by Xiangguo?]

[Holy crap, is this for real? This is a fight in the bot lane, what does it have to do with the top lane?]

That actually makes sense, because when Brother Tree went up there and played the empty city strategy, it was obvious that he had a plan in mind.

[This commander is truly top-notch; I never expected that a well-executed empty city strategy would completely destroy the OP's base.]

Upon seeing this comment, Chen Dongqing couldn't help but turn to Uzi beside her and ask, "Did you really say that?"

Uz squinted at the comments, then nodded and chuckled, "The host specifically asked me who was in charge; I couldn't very well say I was, could I?"

Chen Dongqing patted his teammate on the shoulder: "Good brother!"

It's meaningless for someone to put on this act alone; they need someone else to do it for them.

This time the installation was done quite well.

Chen Dongqing continued browsing Tieba with a cheerful smile.

Soon, he came across an interesting post.

On Incense Burners

As soon as Chen Dongqing clicked in, he saw a long and rambling post. The blogger had obviously written academic papers before, and the paper was quite well-structured. Starting from the two matches between WE and QG, it clearly demonstrated the power of the Incense Burner strategy.

At the end, the poster added: "The Incense Burner item is perfectly capable of supporting a four-protect-one strategy. If it were Uzi from two years ago, this strategy would be incredibly effective, but Uzi hasn't played a four-protect-one strategy in a long time now. I wonder if his skills have declined."

Chen Dongqing was delighted when he saw the post, and then showed it to Uzbekistan next to him.

Uzi scoffed, "Four-protect-one strategy? Need I practice that? It's ingrained in my bones. When we get back to the LPL, you pick Maokai to tank one game, and I'll just slaughter you!"

Chen Dongqing immediately knew what Uzbekistan was planning, and he said with a grin, "But do you think that's possible?"

"If it's not even guaranteed, then forget it."

Chen Dongqing turned off his phone, glanced at the screen, and saw that the third game had already started.

EDG's team voice chat has already started playing in the rest area.

"Yuhao, play it safe this game. I'm not coming to top lane this time."

"it is good."

Chen Dongqing: "."

This exchange is very EDG-esque.

As for this match, it was actually quite interesting.

After all, as everyone knows, KT's two carries are the former EDG carries.

When the chubby general meets the factory manager, and when Meiko meets her ex-husband Deft, what kind of sparks will fly? It's definitely something to look forward to.

Oh, and there's another big showdown: Peanut versus 4396.

Chen Dongqing was terrified that the factory director would be beaten into a pulp by Xiao Huasheng again.

Fortunately, after being humiliated last year, Mingkai had obviously done a lot more research on Peanut. He placed wards in advance on Peanut's usual routes and successfully caught Peanut's movements, helping the top laner escape a disaster.

Immediately afterwards, his Sejuani came to the bottom lane and successfully caught the enemy bottom lane duo's Flash with a Q-Flash combo.

Everyone in the lounge was tempted.

Surprisingly, the factory manager performed quite well against Little Peanut this time!

But before everyone could even rejoice, the situation immediately took a sharp turn for the worse.

Without Flash, Sejuani became KT's target.

Five minutes later, Peanut, along with Mata, decisively raided the jungle and successfully caught Clearlove's Sejuani.

And this was Sejuani who had just used her Q skill while farming jungle camps.

Peanut landed a Q, then charged forward with Mata's Karma shield, using his E to slow her down!

Karma caught up and chained him up, and the two of them took down the factory manager.

Upon seeing this, Chen Dongqing gasped.

That familiar feeling

According to the storyline of the S6 World Championship, once Clearlove dies once, Peanut will endlessly farm the jungle.

Fortunately, this scenario did not occur.

Peanut's playing style has also changed.

The drastic reduction in jungle resources has forced Peanut to shift from his aggressive jungle carry playstyle last year to a more tempo-oriented approach now.

In other words, farming in the jungle is outdated; the right way is to extend the jungle advantage to the lanes.

The factory manager didn't die, but his teammates suffered.

Six minutes later, Peanut placed a ward, and a teleportation beam lit up.

And the most outrageous thing is that the ward wasn't placed by mid laner Pawn, but by top laner Smeb!

This is a classic Smeb playstyle, download the package!

EDG saw that things were not going well, but unfortunately, A-Guang's teleport in the top lane had already been triggered, which meant that Scout in the mid lane could only use teleport to protect him.

But as soon as Scout made the pass, Pawn also made the pass.

The four-package deal with two people has been changed to a five-package deal with three people.

In the end, EDG managed to trade kills with KT's jungler and support thanks to their tower, but they could forget about taking down the three players under their tower and the bottom lane tower.

"Wow, KT's approach is a bit wild!" Uzi, even putting himself in iboy's shoes, felt a chill run down his spine and couldn't help but sigh, "It's a little scary!"

At this point, Uzi went even further, saying, "Look at Mata's equipment!"

Chen Dongqing shifted his gaze over there and was immediately startled.

After recalling, Mata surprisingly didn't build his classic Boots of Speed ​​or Sightstone.

Instead, they chose to create the Etheric Essence.

These are the assembled components of the incense burner.

"Oh no, our strategy has really been copied!" The LPL players were immediately shocked.

They took out the incense burner because they were prepared to be copied, but they didn't expect that the LCK would actually dare to copy it on the spot!

At the eleven-minute mark, when the advantageous Karma acquired Ardent Censer, the situation began to change. Mata stopped roaming and instead followed Deft to secure the Aegis, launching a fierce attack on the mid tower.

Fortunately, LPL teams often hold internal scrimmages, so EDG has some experience with this kind of situation.

They chose to send Meiko to the mid lane to help Scout defend the tower and also to farm some gold.

At the 12-minute mark, after Meiko's Lulu also built Ardent Censer, iboy switched to the mid lane to engage in an Ardent Censer duel.

Both AD carries were followed by Ardent Censer monsters, making it impossible for either side to deal damage, and the situation reached a stalemate at this stage.

Seeing this, Chen Dongqing secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

The current stalemate is a good thing for EDG.

Because they have the Lulu and Kog'Maw bot lane duo, they are stronger in the late game than KT's Ashe and Karma.

Take your time, there will be opportunities.

The match dragged on for thirty minutes.

Chen Dongqing looked up at the economy panel and saw that EDG was already 5,000 gold behind.

Although the bot lane held on, the top lane couldn't hold on.

Without any help from his team, A-Guang was no match for the enemy's top and jungle duo, and the turrets kept giving way.

"But this economic disadvantage isn't unacceptable for EDG!" Guan Daxiao shouted from the commentary booth. "As long as iboy performs well, his champions can create miracles!"

The words may be crude, but the principle is sound. In terms of team composition economics, Lulu and Kog'Maw can completely make up for this 3,000 gold difference.

Of course, it depends on iboy performing well.

This player B just had a brilliant performance in the group stage, can he continue to be brilliant in the knockout stage?

Chen Dongqing wasn't actually very optimistic about it.

as predicted.

Thirty-five minutes in, team fight at the dragon.

iboy, with his Kog'Maw at its peak with four items, played extremely aggressively, chasing KT with Lulu's speed boost and spraying them relentlessly!

But he was clearly too complacent.

Seize the moment when Kog'Maw attacks, and Ashe fires an arrow!

iboy, at 17 years old, reacted with a quick horizontal flash, and Big Mouth was about to unleash an explosive attack!

But just then, a bald monk suddenly darted out from the nearby wilderness!

Done!

Everyone in the LPL spoke in unison.

"Echo!"

Peanut used his ultimate (R-Flash) to kick Kog'Maw back to his own team!

Even if Lulu were to protect Wudi, she absolutely couldn't save the situation.

iboy's health bar disappeared instantly, and then EDG's remaining four players lacked core damage output, so losing the game was only a matter of time.

KT scored a 4-for-1 trade, and then easily pushed down the score to end the game!

This victory seemed to ignite a flame of hope for the LCK, and the commentator known as the "Roaring Emperor" immediately stood up and roared:

"Well done, KT! You truly are the pride of LCK!"

Sorry I'm a little late, guys! See you tomorrow!

(End of this chapter)