League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 392 Damn it! So infuriating!

Apart from the two players on the field, the other six contestants were in the backstage lobby, watching the large screen in front of them.

Once the knockout stage begins, the competition will switch to a best-of-five (BO5) format, with the final match being a best-of-seven (BO7), which will be a huge test of the players' tactical reserves.

Many people believe that Ilex might be able to win a BO3 match by using unexpected tactics, but he will be exposed for his true colors in a BO5 match.

But whether its true colors will be revealed remains to be seen.

Because Chen Dongqing is in the lower half of the draw, he has to wait until the third game to play.

On the stage right now, the match between Lu Bu and TY is in its third game, and it's incredibly intense!

As players from the same South Korean background, the two did not show a significant difference in skill on the field. Every game was extremely close, and it was impossible to tell who would win until the very end.

But the score wasn't so nice.

Although every match was extremely close, Lu Bu emerged victorious in every single one.

INnoVation has been in excellent form this year. In the crucial late game, he has made some brilliant plays that have ended the tense situation in one fell swoop!

In the end, in the third game, Lu Bu used his signature two-attack, two-defense, full-population punch to easily win the game!

With a score of 3-0, Lü Bu became the first to advance to the semifinals!

Immediately afterwards, the second match began.

This time, the two players are Dark and GuMihi.

These two contestants have absolutely no connection to Chen Dongqing, so he knows nothing about them.

He only vaguely remembered that Dark was also a WCS champion some year.

The match was extremely close, going to five games, but Dark ultimately prevailed and advanced to the semifinals.

Next, the match moves to the bottom half of the bracket!

Chen Dongqing picked up his mouse and keyboard and walked onto the stage at the host's call!

In this North American home arena, as soon as Chen Dongqing stepped onto the stage, he immediately drew cheers from the interstellar audience below!

As the only non-Korean player remaining, the audience really wants him to win the championship!

What's the point of letting a South Korean win? Unexpected surprises and dark horses are what make competitive sports so interesting!

Rogue also went on stage with Chen Dongqing. Feeling the oppressive cheers from the audience, he, who was already a little timid, became even more timid. He sat back in his seat, and after joining the room, he saw Ilex's random race and sighed inwardly.

While the South Koreans' decision not to hold training matches with outsiders may block Chen Dongqing's training opportunities, it's not without its drawbacks, which are quite obvious.

The South Koreans were completely unaware of Chen Dongqing's abilities!

Rogue became the first victim.

How should one deal with random races? Even Rogue, the world's number one insect, has absolutely no idea.

But after battling it out in ranked matches for so long, Chen Dongqing knows Rogue inside and out!

Given this information gap, how can Rogue possibly win?

The first game started quickly.

Rogue's approach was quite correct. As a Zerg player, he prepared for two ships of infantry even without knowing the opponent's race.

Don't ask, the answer is he was terrified of being beaten by two ships of soldiers. That's how he lost his top spot in the Korean server.

Because he knew that Banelings were useless against Ilex, he didn't build any Baneling nests at all and went straight for Zerglings.

Every move they make is targeted.

But coincidentally, as Rogue, controlling the Zerg scout, approached the enemy base, he saw Terran buildings!

Rogue was overjoyed; he had actually guessed right! It was the human race!

With his correct opening strategy, he can be guaranteed not to be wiped out by two ships of soldiers like soO or STATS!

With a joyful heart, Rogue piloted the scout deeper into the enemy territory.

But what he saw next made his expression change.

Countless fortresses and steel-clad troops stood in a vertical line within the base, resembling a sturdy bus parked at the base entrance, leaving him with absolutely no angle to attack!

That's urbanization over there!?

Rogue was immediately shocked.

The enemy has already built tanks and fortresses, so what's the point of his bunch of dogs? Isn't this just like minions rushing the tower, which will just collapse as soon as they get in?

Could it be that the other side predicted my prediction?

This won't do, we can't let this drag on! We have to launch an attack right away!

The camera then shifts to Chen Dongqing's side. Chen Dongqing is playing quite easily this game, humming a little tune as he continues mining, building structures, and deploying troops to expand his territory!

Facing the Zerg forces that were about to charge in, Chen Dongqing was completely unconcerned. He fired a few shots from his tanks and cleared out most of them. Then he sent his workers to repair the damaged buildings and was back to full strength to fight the enemy!

"That's the advantage of random races!" It was late at night in China, but Sun Yifeng, who had stayed up all night watching the match, was wide awake with excitement. "The opposing team has absolutely no information; Ilex can play whatever tactics he wants!"

"Rogue wants to play defensively, but Ilex isn't in a hurry at all. He wants to drag the game out into the late game. Your dogs are completely useless; you're doomed from the start!"

Backstage, the other six South Korean athletes looked at the scene before them and couldn't help but close their eyes and shake their heads slightly.

With their professional perspective, they could tell that Rogue had already lost this round.

But the most painful thing is that even though the outcome was already decided, because Ilex played an urban-style, non-aggressive game, the game might still take at least twenty minutes.

Some people die right at the start of the game and aren't buried until twenty minutes later.

It's pure torture.

Rogue was unwilling to give up and kept pushing the tower wave after wave, but the final outcome was exactly as expected, and he was met with defeat.

The match lasted for more than ten minutes. Rogue eventually pushed himself to the limit and had no choice but to surrender.

"One to zero! Ilex is in the lead!" Huang Xudong shouted loudly, "We have a great chance today!"

When Chen Dongqing returned backstage, he immediately saw that all the South Korean contestants were giving him unfriendly looks.

Chen Dongqing ignored all these gazes and exchanged a smile with Coach Park.

"You played well!" Coach Park didn't hold back his praise. "The tactical choices were spot on!"

"Tactics don't matter." Chen Dongqing waved his hand and said with a grin, "I'm playing Terran against Rogue, so it'll be a breeze. I hope all three games today are Terran, okay?"

After two days of intensive meditation training, Chen Dongqing's skill levels across the three races are now roughly equal, but his human race has extensive experience in fighting Rogue.

But as luck would have it...

After the second game started, Chen Dongqing looked at the SCV (Human Peasant) in front of him and immediately laughed.

Two Humans, this is fate's against you, my Rogue!

The match between the two sides began quickly.

Rogue started by sending a peasant to scout vision and discovered that Chen Dongqing's race was also human.

In this game, Rogue seemed to have learned from the reasons for the previous defeat and chose a normal opening. After accumulating enough troops, he launched a full-scale attack on Chen Dongqing's third base!

Humanity's urbanization efforts had a weak period, which was around the time of opening the three mines!

At this point, the Terran need the economy of three bases, but the construction of fortresses at those bases has not kept up. If the Zerg launch an attack and take down the Terran's three bases, then the Terran's urbanization will automatically collapse due to the economic stagnation.

Meanwhile, the Zerg's strategy of attacking the third base is a normal playstyle that works well against almost any lineup.

It both prevented urbanization and left room for maneuver in dealing with random races, which can be considered a win-win situation.

Of course, that's when another problem arises.

Can you take down three mines?

If the Terran player doesn't urbanize, but instead focuses on building units and engaging in combat while ensuring economic development, and then goes all-in on you when their population is full, what will you do?

When the Zerg forces marched in to the Terran's third base, they found that the Terran had already prepared defensive forces. After a back-and-forth exchange, Rogue couldn't find any angle to attack and had to give up.

But with that retreat, his game was over.

After Chen Dongqing took control of the three mines, the economy developed at an even faster pace. As more and more troops were deployed, riflemen for offense and defense, as well as stimulants, were also put in place one after another.

Chen Dongqing continued to develop at a rapid pace, and boatloads of his good brothers were sent out of the base!

This time, the ships are not used to attack mining sites or bases, but rather to carry out multi-pronged operations, focusing on harassment and clearing creep.

Under Chen Dongqing's perfect four-line operation, the four squads of ship soldiers seemed to have their own thoughts, and simultaneously launched breakthroughs at four points, infinitely compressing the Zerg territory!

Below the stage, Lu Bu watched the match unfold before him and was once again startled.

This tactic

Nine minutes, three mines at full capacity, two offensive and two defensive positions, two hundred population, and a single punch delivered!

This is a move that Lü Bu often uses offstage. In his final match today, he used this punch to defeat his opponent.

Faced with the overwhelming tide of steel, Rogue is on high alert and has prepared a massive force at home!

Come on! Let's see who has the best skills!

The two sides engaged in close combat.

At that very moment, the difference in micro-management skills between the two sides began to emerge.

Both sides had nearly full-strength military forces, but the Zerg side could only barely spare two or three units for coordination.

Meanwhile, the human forces instantly scattered to avoid being hit by area-of-effect attacks, and all their damage was focused on the same target!

Whenever a spearman is low on health, the medical transport ship will immediately fly overhead, load the spearman onto the ship, and then place him in the back row to continue dealing damage.

This action is equivalent to Tahm Kench eating the AD carry and then spitting it out to a safe location.

But this time, Chen Dongqing was controlling four Tahm Kenches at the same time and repeating this operation over and over again!

Besides controlling Tahm Kench, Chen Dongqing also had to control a bunch of AD carries, frantically auto-attacking to deal damage!

This maneuver would make anyone familiar with StarCraft scream in despair and exclaim "Impossible!"

The South Korean athletes in the audience were just like that.

They stared wide-eyed at the almost terrifying micro-management, and then at ilex's APM exceeding 900 on the match panel!

With such a significant difference in micro-management, the Zerg have absolutely no chance of winning the game head-on!

Rogue watched as his forces were slaughtered, while the human race on the other side still had a considerable army left!

There was nothing he could do but type GG.

With a score of 0 to 2, Rogue is already standing on the edge of a cliff!

Chen Dongqing stood up and moved his fingers and wrists to relieve the fatigue in his hands.

The micro-management he just performed was quite strenuous for him, considering he never needs such a high APM in other games.

But thankfully, it's holding up.

Chen Dongqing left the scene again with a smile.

On the other side, Rogue also stood up.

Playing two consecutive games as the Terran player left him quite resentful.

Ilex's Terran is terrifying; his micro-management skills make it almost impossible for him to lose against the Zerg.

If he could play against Ilex's Protoss or Zerg, he might not actually lose!

Soon, the third game began.

In every match featuring Ilex, all viewers will first turn their attention to the bottom left corner to determine what race Ilex is.

But this time, everyone laughed the moment they saw this race.

Chen Dongqing laughed, Huang Xudong and Sun Yifeng laughed, and the barrage of comments erupted in laughter.

The audience below the stage erupted in laughter.

This time, it's still the Human race.

This time, even Rogue couldn't hold back. When he pulled a peasant over at the start of the game and saw that the human player was not doing well, his resolve completely collapsed.

What's the point of choosing a random race? Aren't they all human?

The point of this random race is just to annoy me from the start, right?

God will kill me!

Having already been thrashed twice by the Terran, Rogue was in a daze. After playing StarCraft for so many years, this was the first time he had felt lost and didn't know what to do.

As for the outcome of this match, it was not surprising at all.

Chen Dongqing is still playing the same way this time, using two ships to suppress the enemy and clear the bacterium blanket, waiting for a push at the nine-minute mark!

This time, Rogue's resistance was even weaker than in the previous round. Chen Dongqing didn't need to take it too seriously; he just boosted his APM a little and easily ended the game!

The moment the other person typed "GG," Chen Dongqing stood up and opened his arms to the audience!

The North American home crowd erupted in cheers, everyone was incredibly excited!

Neeb, the only North American player in this competition, was eliminated by Rogue himself.

They feel great seeing Rogue get swept 3-0 by Ilex!

Chen Dongqing's gaze swept across the audience below the stage, and he spotted Neeb in the front row. Neeb was clapping excitedly, and when he felt Chen Dongqing's gaze, he gave him a thumbs up!

Chen Dongqing responded with a thumbs-up, then slowly walked across the stage to Rogue, extending her right hand with a bright smile.

Rogue stood up with a long face and gently shook hands with Chen Dongqing.

Although he was prepared for failure this time, the extent of his defeat was still somewhat unexpected.

The fact that three of these random races are human is simply outrageous.

You managed to catch something with a 1 in 27 chance?

Although Rogue doesn't think he can win today.

However, he still thinks that ILEX is a bit too European today.

He believes he has room to maneuver if he is matched with either the Protoss or the Zerg!

After all, he had watched the Protoss and Zerg matches on Ilex, and their skill level was just so-so.

He was confident he could win those two matches if he had been allowed to compete.

But there was no such possibility; God didn't give him that chance and directly pushed him into the water.

Damn it! I'm so angry!

Writing three scenes in one chapter is a good balance of detail and brevity, isn't it?

The focus of StarCraft competitions is not on in-game operations, but on conflicts and contradictions outside the game, which is actually my weakness.

This gives me a chance to train.

If viewers who haven't played StarCraft can still find enough enjoyment in it and look forward to continuing, then it means the writing is decent.

(End of this chapter)