League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 396 Bearing Fruit

The moment he won the championship, Chen Dongqing lay back in his gaming chair and let out a long sigh of relief.

StarCraft, while not as popular as League of Legends, has its own unique charm.

With its fair 1v1 competition mechanism, extreme micro-management, and diverse tactical options across three races, this game demands the highest level of individual skill.

Without CJB (Category A League) and without considering teammates, as long as your individual skills are strong enough, you can win the championship!

Chen Dongqing really liked this feeling, and he also enjoyed the game's competition process.

Unfortunately, he's too strong, like someone using an invincible cheat code in a Soulslike game, crushing everything in his path. Now it's starting to feel a bit boring.

He stood up, walked slowly to Lü Bu's side, and extended his right hand.

Lu Bu, who had been undefeated all the way to the finals, was then swept aside in the finals, experiencing a dramatic shift in his mentality from heaven to hell.

He never expected that Ilex would be so strong.

A strength beyond Lu Bu's imagination!

Despite being a random race, he managed to defeat all three races—Insectoid, God, and Human—to become the world's number one and sweep all to win the championship!

In a game like StarCraft where individual skill is paramount, Ilex's appearance seems incredibly unfair to everyone else!

It was only at this point that Lü Bu realized his mistake.

Perhaps their choice to close themselves off from the world and refuse to play training matches with the outside world is itself an extremely foolish and blindly arrogant act.

And this runner-up position is their punishment.

South Korea's two-decade-long dominance of StarCraft has come to a complete end today!

Chen Dongqing did not interact with Lü Bu. After shaking hands, he stood in the center of the stage and waved excitedly to the audience!

The audience was very enthusiastic and responded immediately!

The Chinese audience, in particular, shouted especially loudly!

At this moment in China, although it was the early hours of the morning and dawn was just breaking, every StarCraft-related group in the country was filled with cheers. Countless StarCraft enthusiasts were adding a fiery youthful touch to the long night.

They've been waiting for this championship for just as long as the Koreans have dominated the game.

Twenty years have passed in the blink of an eye.

Countless people have come all the way from StarCraft 1, watching CN StarCraft gradually decline, until even reaching the year-end finals became a distant dream.

But it seems that after something declines to its lowest point, it will turn around and things will turn around. After CN StarCraft declined to its lowest point, heroes naturally appeared.

A professional League of Legends player surprisingly chose to switch to StarCraft and quickly became the strongest StarCraft player in China.

In the year-end finals, he faced seven Koreans all by himself. In the desperate situation where there were no practice matches to play, he successfully fought against seven opponents and reversed the situation to win the championship!

Chen Dongqing walked to the center of the stage with a smile and stood in front of the championship trophy.

This is a standard silver-white trophy design, with two large handles on either side of the cup.

Chen Dongqing grabbed the handles on both sides and raised it high! In that instant, all the dry ice ribbons around the venue burst forth, creating a magnificent spectacle!

Seeing this scene, countless viewers in China felt like they were dreaming.

In various live streaming rooms across the country, especially in the StarCraft Old Boys live streaming room, the two usually cheerful and witty duo had already teared up.

Sun Yifeng remained silent, looking at Chen Dongqing, who was full of vigor under the neon lights, and his eyes were filled with his younger self.

In his youth, he also shouldered the responsibility of the entire CN StarCraft, forging ahead with great difficulty.

Of course, Ilex's appearance is not as good as it was back then.

Huang Xudong sat next to Sun Yifeng, trying his best to report this miraculous victory in a calm tone.

But the barely concealed tremor in his voice betrayed the turmoil in his heart.

He has worked hard for CN StarCraft for a full twenty years, putting in countless efforts and resources to painstakingly build the stage that can barely be called a professional ecosystem.

And now, this stage has blossomed and produced a legendary figure.

Facing the training match blockade by South Korea and the doubts of countless people, he swept all the way to win the championship!

Chen Dongqing put down the trophy, and the North American host strode onto the stage, cheering and screaming!

Following the host onto the stage were Chen Dongqing's coach, Park Yun-ryong, and today's part-time translator, Lin Yuanhua.

Chen Dongqing's interstellar team can be described as a completely makeshift operation.

It was just one athlete, one coach, and two travel companions; it would be more accurate to say they were there for tourism.

Blizzard clearly didn't expect a Chinese player to win, and they hadn't prepared any Chinese translations.

It wasn't until Chen Dongqing made it to the finals yesterday that Blizzard realized they seemed to need a Chinese translator, but that's not something you can find on the spot.

In the end, it was Lin Yuanhua who volunteered to take on the role of translator.

Our Xiaolin had clearly prepared carefully, with makeup on her face. When she walked onto the stage, her eyes were filled with a bright smile as she looked at Chen Dongqing.

Chen Dongqing and his girlfriend exchanged a glance and smiled as they accepted the host's interview.

After listening to the words, Lin Yuanhua translated for Chen Dongqing: "You won this almost impossible championship when no one expected you to succeed. How do you feel right now?"

As Chen Dongqing listened to these words, Li Peinan, who won the championship in Katowice in 2023, inexplicably flashed through his mind.

That Chinese player, who didn't even have a server, was ranked 21st in the world, and had only a 0.37% chance of winning, went against the tide and won the final championship.

Finally, he burst into tears of joy on stage and said, "I did this to prove to everyone that I can win the world championship, and that nothing is impossible in this world."

Chen Dongqing was not so happy as to cry. He thought for a moment and said with a smile, "Actually, nothing is impossible. From the beginning, I knew that I would win this championship."

"As for this championship, it is of great significance to both China and myself. For China, it represents the passion and dreams of many people. For me personally, it is a further recognition of my strength, and I am very happy."

The moment these words were spoken, a small number of domestic audience members cheered.

Lin Yuanhua glanced at her boyfriend, then turned and translated his words verbatim into English, which stirred up an even bigger uproar!

At this moment, the live stream was filled with comments like "tears welling up in my eyes".

Thinking of this, Chen Dongqing glanced at the audience and said with a smile, "I believe this is just the beginning. Chinese StarCraft shouldn't only have this one champion. The dominance of Korean players should also be coming to an end."

Chen Dongqing's words showed absolutely no respect for the Koreans.

He is arrogant and conceited, and he doesn't even play in training matches with outsiders.

Arrogance leads to defeat. The lack of information caused by not playing a training match with Chen Dongqing was the key reason why the Koreans lost the game!

Even without him, there would be Serral, there would be Lee Bae-nam, and the end of Korean dominance is inevitable.

What? You're saying Chen Dongqing skips practice matches and goes straight to Los Angeles to watch basketball games, which is even more arrogant?

What are you talking about! Chen Dongqing has cheat codes, do you Koreans have them?

At this moment, countless people in the South Korean live broadcast room turned pale and furious upon hearing these words!

They couldn't even win a seven-on-one match in the knockout stage; this is one of the biggest disgracees in the history of Korean esports!

Looking back through the entire history of Korean esports, perhaps only the humiliation of having all three Korean teams eliminated by QG in last year's World Championship can compare to this.

Damn it, wasn't Chen Dongqing the one who messed things up at last year's World Championship?!

Koreans always felt that Chen Dongqing's appearance was meant to bring bad luck to them!

South Korea invested heavily in developing its esports industry, including extensive advertising and financial investment, which ultimately led to its dominance in both StarCraft and League of Legends.

But in the end, the dominance of these two games was ended by the same person!

All the endless investment went down the drain.

This was a nightmare experience!

The head of the South Korean esports organization clutched his chest, feeling short of breath and tightness in his chest; he nearly died on the spot.

Back to the scene.

Because there was still the Overwatch finals to come, Chen Dongqing's interview time was not long. After the interview, the host turned his attention to the coach and asked Park Un-ryong a few questions.

Countless viewers of the interstellar show were stunned as they watched Park Un-yong, the familiar and legendary coach.

In 2016, when Park Unyong announced that he was going to join a Chinese League of Legends club, everyone thought he was just going to make easy money and retire.

After all, Park Unyong's coaching qualifications are there, and he could easily become a coach at any StarCraft club, but he didn't do so.

But no one could have imagined that a little over a year later, Park Unyong would lead a League of Legends player back to the StarCraft stage and win the championship again!

Chen Dongqing is not the only one being deified today.

And Park Un-yong.

This coach is absolutely invincible, he can even win a championship with LOL players!

But only Park Unyong himself knew that he hadn't actually done anything at all.

At most, he simply guided Chen Dongqing through the door to interstellar travel and provided some initial guidance.

Later on, Chen Dongqing's achievements were entirely due to his own efforts.

Of course, he wouldn't say that on stage.

With a serious expression, Park Unyong delivered his acceptance speech.

Because the Overwatch finals were coming up, the interview was short. After everything was over, Chen Dongqing picked up the trophy and left the stage with his girlfriend.

This scene disgusted many people in the audience.

He's so good at games, so handsome, and has such a beautiful girlfriend—is there any justice in the world?

Oh, it seems there's a cause-and-effect relationship between these two?

Domestically, in the QG WeChat group voice channel, the crowd once again launched a sharp critique:

"Damn it, Chen Dongqing is showing off again."

"Indeed, it's a bit disgusting."

"Damn it! Time for bed, brothers, bye-bye!"

OK, bye-bye.

The group voice call ended there, and everyone tagged Chen Dongqing in the WeChat group, asking him to send out a red envelope as a token of appreciation for winning the championship, and then they all disappeared.

Chen Dongqing brought the trophy backstage and asked the staff if he could take it with him.

Unfortunately, the answer was negative.

Similar to Riot Games, Blizzard will later create a scaled-down version of the trophy model and send it to Chen Dongqing.

Chen Dongqing smacked his lips helplessly and had his girlfriend take out her point-and-shoot camera to take two photos with the trophy.

Chen Dongqing then took the camera and took two more pictures of his girlfriend.

Before long, staff came over, took away the championship trophy, and reminded him that there would be a group interview with reporters in the next room.

Once the group interview concludes, this interstellar journey will come to an end.

Chen Dongqing seemed to remember something. With a smile, he walked to the next room for group interviews, sat down in his interview position, and scanned the group of reporters.

Sure enough, in the front row of the group of reporters, he found a European or American reporter with long brown hair and a middle parting.

"Hi," Chen Dongqing greeted the other person with a smile, and said in English, "I remember you told me two weeks ago in Shanghai that we would meet again in Anaheim, and now I have kept my promise."

The ESPN reporter was pleasantly surprised and said with a smile, "I didn't expect you to actually remember this promise."

"Of course," Chen Dongqing joked, "I won the championship precisely because of that promise."

Upon hearing this, everyone in the interview room smiled kindly.

They had a very good impression of Chen Dongqing, this handsome e-sports genius.

Immediately afterward, the reporter with the center-parted hair asked his question: "After winning this StarCraft finals championship, will you consider officially becoming a professional StarCraft player?"

Upon hearing the translation, Chen Dongqing immediately shook his head. "No, StarCraft is just a novel experience for me. Unless there are special circumstances, I will never participate in official StarCraft competitions again."

This year he played three StarCraft competitions: one in the GPL during the Spring Regular Season, one in the Shanghai Tournament, and one in the Year-End Finals. Either he was running back and forth between the two places, or it took up his rest time, which really made him a bit tired.

After winning the championship, Chen Dongqing will have to prepare for the awards ceremony and transfer period. The spring season starts in a few days. He's really exhausted.

Chen Dongqing had already made plans; he would need to take a long leave of absence once the Spring Split began.

Hearing this, the reporters in the audience couldn't help but sigh slightly.

Ilex's retirement from StarCraft is a loss for StarCraft 2.

However, it makes sense. After all, if someone debuts at their peak and easily sweeps everything to win the championship, anyone would get bored.

So, Ilex's retirement might be an opportunity for other players.

If Ilex continues playing, other players will be left with no chance at all.

Thinking about this, the reporter asked, "So, would you like to try professional leagues for other games in the future?"

Chen Dongqing thought for a moment and smiled, "There will be, after all, there are many games in this world that can bring me joy."

Upon hearing this, the reporters in the audience immediately lowered their heads and wrote down the information.

This is big news!

They believed that whichever game Ilex went to, he would definitely cause a bloodbath.

The interview did not last long and ended quickly.

Because the competition started early today and ended after only four matches, it's still quite early and not yet lunchtime.

After thinking for a moment, Chen Dongqing decided to take a walk with his girlfriend on the streets of Anaheim.

Perhaps it was because the pressure of the competition was gone, and Chen Dongqing felt a renewed sense of pride in being a champion, that the scenery around him seemed much better than it had been a few days ago.

Unfortunately, he won't be able to stay here for long.

It's time to go back home.

The day after the competition ended, around noon on November 20th, Chen Dongqing boarded a first-class plane back to China, embarking on a 16-hour flight.

Because China's time is 12 hours ahead of the United States, Chen Dongqing landed in Shanghai on the evening of November 21st.

To adjust to the time difference, Chen Dongqing didn't sleep on the plane. After returning home, he forced himself to stay up for another four hours. Finally, at 10 p.m., Chen Dongqing collapsed into bed and fell into a deep sleep.

When he wakes up, it will be November 22nd.

The transfer window has opened.

The Spring Tournament episode won't be released this early, because this Spring Tournament episode won't be very long; I'll just cover a few important matches.

The storylines that emerged during the Spring Split will be incorporated into daily activities such as transfer window events, awards ceremonies, and All-Star games.

(End of this chapter)