League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 401 Olaf!

After a long and arduous journey, the group finally landed at Los Angeles International Airport.

This was Chen Dongqing's third time landing at this airport. He looked around at the scenery and found it all had a familiar feel to it.

Each team can only send a maximum of two players. The player who came with Chen Dongqing in the QG team is Uzi, who is also far ahead in popularity in the same position.

As for the remaining three positions—mid, jungle, and support—Doinb, Clearlove, and Liu Qingsong will fill them respectively.

FPX made it to the semifinals this year, but lost to QG, which can be considered a runner-up in terms of strength. This has gained them a lot of fans, and they are now the number two team in the LPL.

With this boost, Liu Qingsong narrowly defeated Meiko in the popularity vote, and together with Doinb, secured a spot in this year's All-Star game.

Of course, Liu Shao, like Chen Dongqing, was extremely unwilling to go abroad, and he had an SM-like face from the moment he boarded the plane until he disembarked.

But Chen Dongqing's mindset is better now. There's nothing else to it; it's just like the saying goes—since we're already here.

The LPL's all-star lineup has sparked considerable discussion both domestically and internationally.

Because this lineup is truly outrageous.

If we temporarily disregard the jungler, isn't that just the 16 champion QG?

If this lineup comes out to play in the All-Star Game, it's purely to bully others!

There are many humorous people abroad who have even used their Photoshop skills to directly award the LPL the All-Star championship trophy.

After the plane landed, Chen Dongqing took out his phone, toggled airplane mode on and off, and reconnected to the network.

He opened WeChat to see if there was any new transfer information recently.

With only one week left in the transfer window, most teams have already officially announced their rosters, but due to league requirements, they are still keeping them under wraps.

However, this relevant information is certainly available in the LPL's internal groups, so Chen Dongqing can find out about it in advance.

The teams for Season 8 have now been determined, with the number of teams officially increasing from 12 to 14.

The two new teams added this year are VG, which was promoted directly from the LSPL championship and retained last year's roster.

One team, Rogue Warriors (RW), sponsored by ROG, used their financial power to forcibly buy a spot.

In addition, due to the extremely high seat fees this year, some large capital firms have replaced small capital firms and entered the market.

Topsports, backed by Belle International, acquired the DAN esports team and officially renamed it TOP. This team features 369, the LPL's domestic champion top laner.

JD.com acquired GT and renamed the team JDG. They also used their financial power to make a big purchase. This time, they acquired Zoom, the top laner for FPX this year.

As for GT's former top laner GimGoon, he chose to join EDG.

RNG's former top laner, Letme, joined FPX.

It's quite obvious that this transfer window was primarily dominated by SL (Shanghai) trades.

After Marin won the FMVP, another super top laner like Chen Dongqing emerged out of nowhere.

If we count them together, the top laner has won the FMVP three times in a row.

There's a consensus among professional esports teams worldwide that a top laner is essential for winning a championship.

In response to this situation, top laners in the LPL are in high demand and highly sought after by various teams, leading to a surge in their salaries.

It's very realistic.

Chen Dongqing scrolled down the chat history and saw that the FPX team manager had sent another transfer message: Karsa has officially signed a contract with FPX.

In this timeline, Karsa obviously couldn't join RNG, so after looking around the transfer market, he finally chose FPX, the semi-finalist team from last year.

Following this transfer announcement, FPX released their roster for the new season:

Top laner Letme, jungler Karsa, mid laner Doinb, bot lane duo Lin Weixiang and Liu Qingsong.

Chen Dongqing took a look at the lineup and nodded to himself.

To be fair, this lineup is not weak, but as for its potential ceiling, that's hard to say; we'll have to wait and see.

Chen Dongqing scrolled down again and saw EDG's roster for this year.

Top laner GimGoon, jungler Haro, mid laner Scout, ADiboy, support Meiko.

At first glance, this list does seem a bit like a collection of applications. But that's not the point, since sending applications through Early Decision (ED) isn't a new thing.

The key point is that Clearlove is not on the list.

Upon seeing the list, Chen Dongqing couldn't help but turn to ask, "Wait, Mingkai, are you retiring right now?"

"I'm definitely retiring," Mingkai laughed. "I'm getting old, I can't keep up with the younger junglers, and if I stay on the field I just get criticized. It's better to retire and give the younger players a chance."

"How could that be?" Uzi joked with a grin, "It seems like you were just playing casually, except for Peanut and Xiangguo."

"That's useless," the factory manager said without changing his expression. "I always aim for the championship when I play professionally. If there are two people I can't even beat, it means I can't win the championship. I might as well retire and live a more comfortable life."

"Indeed," Chen Dongqing said cheerfully. "Old Deng should retire too. I'll lead you to another victory against the Korean team in this All-Star game, and then you can retire and enjoy life. I'll help you fulfill your championship wish!"

The factory manager glanced at Chen Dongqing, his dead fish eyes seemingly etched with the words "little brat".

Without wasting any time, everyone quickly arrived at the hotel and checked in.

Most of the players and coaches attending the All-Star event are from QG. As is QG's usual practice, they will hold a version meeting after landing to discuss the game version.

Although the factory manager isn't from QG, he still has to adapt to local customs.

All-Star coach Banbazi looked at the players in front of him, then glanced at the Los Angeles seascape outside the window, and a strange sense of nostalgia was inexplicably stirred within him.

A year ago, these same people won the Summoner's Cup at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

It's a pity that Xiangguo didn't come.

"Actually, the S8 preseason has been running for a while now, but it's currently the off-season. I looked through your ranked games, and apart from Doinb, the rest of you don't seem to have the habit of playing games during the off-season. So I'll start with the preseason."

Banbazi didn't waste any time and quickly opened the prepared PPT, which contained an integration of two versions updated in the last month.

The biggest version change in Season 8 was, of course, the revamp of the rune and talent system.

This time, the rune system has been completely removed and integrated into the talent system. Now you will gain different additional attributes when you choose different talent sets in your primary talent tree.

As for talent attributes, the changes are also quite significant.

Currently, talent is divided into five major systems:

The Resolve tree [Unbreakable Grip, Aftershock, Guardian] (If Resolve is the primary tree, you will gain an additional 130 health).

Domination rune [Electrocute, Predator, Dark Harvest] (provides an adaptive +11 attack damage or 18 ability power based on the champion's attributes)

Precision tree [Press the Attack, Lethal Tempo, Fleet Footwork] (18% Attack Speed)

Sorcery tree [Aery, Arcane Comet, Phase Rush] (Provides an adaptive +15 attack damage or 25 ability power based on the hero's attributes)

Enlightenment Tree [Unsealed Secrets, Glacial Amplification, Stealing Omen] (The Enlightenment tree is slightly special; the main attribute increases potion duration by 20%, while the secondary attribute provides additional stats based on the chosen sub-attribute).

It's worth noting that Conqueror isn't available in this version yet. If Chen Dongqing remembers correctly, this crucial talent won't be added until version 8.6.

In other words, in this version, many warrior heroes are still in a state of neglect and unloved isolation.

Behind this talent, there are actually many issues that need to be considered.

First, in terms of damage output, this version of the talent system is definitely far superior to the old version.

Secondly, while the current talents provide attributes, they do not actually increase dual resistances.

If you choose Sorcery, Domination, or Precision as your primary rune path, you'll have absolutely no defensive attributes!

Now that the runes are gone, where do I make up for the missing dual resistances?

The designers' solution was to increase the armor of all heroes by 6-20 points, while also increasing the health of some heroes.

But that's clearly not enough.

Tanks are still relatively easy to deal with these days, since they can make up for their tankiness with the Resolve tree talent, but DPS characters obviously don't have that option anymore.

Overall hero damage has increased, but carry heroes have become more fragile. Hero roles have become more specialized.

It's not hard to imagine that an era of overflowing damage and one-shot kills between carry characters is about to arrive.

"Besides that, there are some key changes to the version's mechanics," Banbazi continued. "The Incense Burner's attributes have been halved, with the value changed from 20-35% to 5-20%, and the experience catch-up mechanism has also been completely nerfed."

The current experience catch-up mechanism has been changed so that only large jungle monsters provide 50 catch-up experience points. In other words, a single jungle camp will only provide a maximum of 50 extra experience points. The old strategy of using F6 and Krugs to instantly gain 480 experience points is no longer viable.

QG is actually a victim, having nerfed both the incense burner and the experience catch-up mechanism.

But this wave is still acceptable. These two items were simply too over-the-top and should definitely be cut. It would be crazy of the designers not to cut them.

"Aside from that, there's not much else to talk about. Today we'll just discuss the general direction."

Bnabazi continued, "There's too much content in the version update to be discussed in a single meeting. Anyway, the game will still be played the same way, and your hero pool isn't a problem. We'll just pick heroes according to the version."

"Okay." Banbazi closed the PowerPoint presentation, then said, "Now, let's talk about the participants in the solo tournament."

This year's All-Star event didn't have any fancy mini-games; it only featured 5v5 main matches and solo matches from the eight major regions.

Leaving aside the main tournament, the group stage consists of eight quarterfinals, then the semifinals are best-of-three (BO3) to determine the final two, and the finals are best-of-five (BO5) to determine the champion.

The Solo competition will have two players from each region: one chosen by fans and the other appointed by the coach. Chen Dongqing is undoubtedly the one chosen by fans. Now we're discussing who should be the second player.

Everyone turned their attention to Uzbekistan.

AD carry players are always in a strong position for solo play, and Uzi's solo skills have always been top-notch, so putting Uzi in the starting lineup is the most logical choice.

But Uzi waved his hand and said, "Whoever wants to go can go, I'm not going."

He had already understood this ever since Uzi was happily carried away by Chen Dongqing in the SOLO finals last year.

No one in this world can beat Chen Dongqing in a one-on-one match.

Has he never been slashed by Fiora, or never been kicked by Camille?

What would you do if he pulled out a skateboard shoe?

Even dogs wouldn't participate in a SOLO tournament!

Everyone looked at each other.

That's what they actually thought too.

"I'll go then!" In the end, Doinb decided to participate and give it a try.

Banbazi nodded: "Okay, then it's you."

The brief meeting concluded, and now all that's left is to wait for the competition to begin.

During this time, the other four people, under the pretext of getting a feel for the game, dragged Chen Dongqing into playing five-player ranked matches on the American server.

Chen Dongqing didn't refuse, of course; he did need to familiarize himself with this S8 version.

Although I haven't played for a long time, my choice of top lane champions is actually not much different from that of the S7 World Championship. Anyway, Jayce, Kennen, and Gnar are definitely not bad. The new champion Ornn has not had any impact on the meta.

The new hero Ornn is a disappointing underdog. The designers have buffed him four times, making his stats overpowered, but because he's a tank hero, he hasn't garnered much attention.

I need to handle pressure, but I don't know how to play the Stone Golem?

Of course, as a reborn individual, Chen Dongqing knew how powerful this version of Ornn was, but it still needed to be explored.

Time flies, and soon it was May 8th.

Day 1 of the All-Star Game.

When Chen Dongqing got up in the morning and came to the training room, he saw a figure already playing hard in front of the computer.

You don't even need to look to know that this person is definitely Doinb.

Chen Dongqing glanced over and saw Doinb playing Zoe.

This is a new hero released along with the S8 preseason. Unlike Ornn, this hero's super strong poke ability perfectly fits this version where carries can kill each other instantly, making him a true star from the start.

Doinb is always diligent, and he's been practicing a lot lately.

Unfortunately, this champion doesn't seem to suit Doinb's playstyle, and he hasn't been able to achieve any significant results; instead, his score has been steadily declining.

But Doinb wasn't in a hurry. He believed that hard work pays off and he would master the hero sooner or later.

Chen Dongqing watched Doinb's back as he diligently practiced Zoe, and felt a slight pang of sadness.

At that moment, Doinb clearly couldn't have imagined that he would dedicate his entire life to the champion Zoe.

As the afternoon approached, All-Star players from eight regions gathered at the North American LCS studio for a four-day All-Star tournament.

The All-Star schedule is quite simple.

In the main competition, the first two days are the group stage, where the eight regions will be divided into two groups, A and B, to play a round-robin tournament. The top two teams will advance to the semi-finals on the third day and the finals on the fourth day.

LPL has been placed in Group A, along with North America, Southeast Asia, and Brazil. The group isn't very competitive; as long as you don't feed, you can win easily.

The SOLO competition consists of sixteen participants, advancing one round each day, with the finals taking place on the fourth day.

LPL has two group stage matches today, and then Chen Dongqing has to play a solo match. He's a real workaholic.

Fortunately, the opponents weren't very strong, so the pressure wasn't too great.

In the first match against North America, Chen Dongqing gave the North American audience some face by picking Nasus and diligently stacking Q in the top lane.

However, Uzi lacked emotional intelligence and directly picked the most shameless champion, Tristana, paired with the super-protective mid-jungle duo of Clearlove and Doinb, and managed to break through Doublelift's bot lane in just ten minutes.

In the second game against Brazil, Chen Dongqing, who had been quiet for a game, made a comeback and directly picked Olaf for top lane. He completely decimated Brazil's top laner Cho'Gath, cutting him down from the first tower to the high ground. He chased and killed the Brazilian player who was like a gourd brother saving his grandfather, without even blinking!

2-0, LPL firmly holds first place in the group!

After the match, none of the LPL players left the venue; they still wanted to see the result of Chen Dongqing and Doinb's solo match.

Chen Dongqing's solo match was the highlight of the All-Star game, and he was the first to go on stage, facing off against the Brazilian top laner, VVvet.

Poor Brazilian, he was just slashed by Chen Dongqing and Olaf, and now he's going to get slashed again.

Chen Dongqing, feeling playful, once again chose Olaf to counter VVvet's Varus.

In the early game, Chen Dongqing endured hardship and relied on his Q skill to last-hit minions and push the lane until he returned to base to buy Ninja Tabi and Warden's Armor. Then, he used his ultimate to charge into the tower and, relying on numerical superiority, managed to kill the enemy AD Varus under the tower!

VVvet was utterly stunned to see Olaf attack him again, but when he saw Ilex walking over with a grin to shake his hand, he obediently stood up and extended both hands to shake hands.

At this point, the comments section was filled with laughter, with many saying that Chen Dongqing was playing mind games.

After Chen Dongqing, Doinb also took to the stage after a few matches. He chose his champion Syndra to face Ruler's Zoe. The two sides engaged in a passionate auto-attack from the start, but Doinb ultimately prevailed. He flashed to dodge Zoe's Q and secured the victory with his shorter Q skill.

On the first day, LPL won all four matches!

Alright, alright, I've utterly crushed Ruler! Four wins in four matches!

In reality, we got crushed by the South Korean team, right?

Although I felt a bit uneasy when I saw our Asian Games lineup, I didn't expect to be completely crushed in two games.

This is really not as good as Uzbekistan.

Sorry, I posted the wrong book title yesterday. I'll post another one today, please bear with me.

(End of this chapter)