League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 473 Let the Bullets Fly for a While

The two-week break and adjustment period seemed to fly by in the blink of an eye.

During this period, Chen Dongqing played training matches in DOTA2 to improve his synergy with his temporary teammates.

Ironically, during this period, QG never encountered OG in a scrim.

Every time we practiced, the other side refused, citing excessive latency, even when we played on the European server.

This left Chen Dongqing slightly disappointed, as he was quite curious to know just how good the team that had defeated QG twice really was.

July 25th has arrived, marking one week until TI8.

The members of the QGDOTA2 team flew to Vancouver, Canada.

It was already evening in Vancouver when we landed.

Despite feeling sleepy, Chen Dongqing stepped off the plane and took in the local Vancouver climate.

I heard that Canada was affected by a global warm high-pressure belt at the end of June, with temperatures reaching over 40 degrees Celsius.

However, Chen Dongqing did not encounter this on his trip. Now that it is July, the temperature has actually dropped, and the current temperature is between 15 and 25 degrees Celsius, which is the most comfortable range.

It's hard to believe this is at the end of July.

Compared to Shanghai, which was sweltering at the same time, Vancouver, being at a higher latitude, was indeed more comfortable.

Chen Dongqing was experienced in traveling abroad. He looked around at the scenery, then quickly walked out of the airport and boarded the bus that had come to pick him up.

Sitting in the car, Chen Dongqing took out his phone and texted his girlfriend "1".

It's 9 PM Vancouver time, which is 5 AM Shanghai time according to the time difference.

Lin Yuanhua was probably asleep, so Chen Dongqing just sent a message to say he was safe and sound, and whether he could see it or not was up to fate.

But to everyone's surprise, the moment that number was deducted, his girlfriend immediately called him on WeChat.

Cross-border roaming data is quite expensive, but for Chen Dongqing now, it's nothing, and he doesn't care.

"Have you landed?" Lin Yuanhua's voice came through the earpiece.

Looking at his girlfriend's fair face illuminated by the screen's backlight in the darkness, Chen Dongqing smiled and asked, "Why aren't you asleep yet?"

"I'll be waiting for you~"

"Really? I don't believe it." Chen Dongqing wasn't fooled. "He's definitely watching a TV drama!"

Chen Dongqing knew that Lin Yuanhua was currently watching the final season of "The Big Bang Theory," and even watching it raw, so she wouldn't give Chen Dongqing a chance to watch it together. Anyway, there was a sadly thick barrier between the two of them.

Lin Yuanhua blinked on the other end of the screen and said, "But why do I feel like you're even sleepier than me? Your eyes are almost closed."

"Of course, I haven't slept yet either," Chen Dongqing said helplessly. "The plane was too uncomfortable, I couldn't sleep. I'll sleep when I get back to the hotel."

"Okay then," Lin Yuanhua said with a smile, "Our schedules will still be the same."

"A consistent schedule is acceptable."

Dozing off, Chen Dongqing and his girlfriend chatted for about ten minutes before the bus stopped in front of the hotel.

The members of the QGDOTA2 team checked in and quickly settled into their respective hotel rooms.

Just like in League of Legends, the hotel's conference rooms will be converted into training rooms, and all the necessary equipment will be provided.

However, according to AME next to him, this is a configuration only available for TI. For tournaments like Major, they even have to find their own internet cafes to train. Chen Dongqing felt a little sentimental and thought back to the 2016 Summer Split.

Back then, thanks to the magical arrangement of Banana Culture, QG went to Guangzhou to play in the finals, but there was no training room available, so they had to find the nearest Wangyu Internet Cafe to book a private room.

Two years have passed in the blink of an eye.

With this in mind, Chen Dongqing hung up the phone with his girlfriend, and then he and AME checked into their hotel room. After a quick wash, they lay down on the bed and fell asleep instantly.

Beside her, AME watched Chen Dongqing fall asleep in an instant and felt a pang of envy.

Wow, as expected of Tree Brother, even his sleeping is amazing.

AME, who had managed to take a nap on the plane, couldn't fall back asleep and decided to go to the training room to play for a while before going to the North American server to try his luck.

After a night's sleep, when I woke up again, there were only five days left until TI.

Chen Dongqing looked at AME, who was fast asleep next to him, thought for a moment, got up alone, went downstairs to the restaurant and ate two chicken wraps, and then slowly went back upstairs to take his peripherals to the lounge.

He was actually the first one to get up; the lounge was empty at the moment.

Chen Dongqing thought to himself that the people in the DOTA2 division were really lazy dogs. He sat down in front of his computer and casually browsed some domestic websites, mainly the DOTA2 forum.

With The International (TI) approaching, the DOTA2 forum is filled with discussions about this year's TI, and among these discussions, the focus is on Chen Dongqing, a key figure in the discussion.

I've been watching Chen Dongqing's posts on forums both in China and abroad recently. Unlike the overwhelming negativity and criticism on foreign forums, the majority of domestic viewers are supportive, with only a minority expressing doubt.

[TI is about to start! Go QG! Go VG! Go VGJT! Go IG! Go TS! Go Newbee!]

[If you don't understand, can we replicate last year's success with three Chinese teams reaching the semi-finals?]

[Then you got swept in a 3-man spree, right?]

[Mom, stop barking! This time it's definitely not going to be worn! It's an even year!]

Let's forget about even-numbered years and see how the group stage results turn out. Whether it's a takeoff or a crash, we'll know after the group stage is over.

Indeed, but when will the group stage draw be released? The competition is only a few days away!

It should leave tomorrow morning, I checked the time.

Okay, okay.

Valve officially announced that the group stage draw will take place in the afternoon Vancouver time. If you convert the time, by this afternoon it will be around the early morning of the next day in China. This guy wasn't wrong.

As for the group draw, Chen Dongqing didn't care too much, mainly because it was too simple.

The group stage rules for TI are that the eighteen teams will be divided into two groups and play a single round-robin BO2 format.

That's right, it's BO2. You only play two games against your opponent each time, and then the ranking is based on the points.

In other words, each team needs to play eight BO2 matches, or sixteen matches, over four days in the group stage, which is actually quite easy.

After four days of group stage matches, the top four teams in each group advanced to the winners' bracket, while teams ranked 5th to 8th fell into the losers' bracket.

As for the ninth-place team in the group, they were eliminated.

That's right. Only two teams were eliminated in the group stage. QG obviously won't be the ninth team; the other teams don't have that kind of strength.

For QG, their only question is whether they can secure a top-four finish and enter the upper bracket to obtain the Aegis of Roshan.

Of course, it's not very difficult.

Chen Dongqing continued scrolling through the webpage, reading the forum posts.

Before long, the DOTA2 teammates also got up, and the training room was gradually filled.

Time flew by, and soon it was afternoon.

At 5 p.m. sharp, Chen Dongqing opened the official live stream of The International (TI) to watch the draw ceremony.

At the top of the screen, the host first displayed the eighteen teams that qualified for TI.

First, there are the directly invited teams with enough points: VP, TL, Secret, MsKi, VG, Newbee, VGJ.T, and finally QG.

QG has had an outstanding year, accumulating 4,000 points through their performance in the first half of the year, which put them in fourth place on the team standings.

However, due to the substitution, QG lost 20% of their points, leaving them with only 3200 points, which caused their ranking to drop a few places.

Fortunately, they have a strong financial foundation, and with 3200 points, they are still ranked sixth and still have a direct invitation quota.

Next up are the teams that advanced from the preliminary rounds in each major competition region.

TS and IG in China; FNC and TNC in Southeast Asia, a dazzling array.

As teams were drawn one by one and placed into groups A and B respectively, the group stage team lineup was finally determined.

Chen Dongqing squinted at his group assignment, then his eyes narrowed further.

Group A: QG (Chinese), OG, TNC, VGJ.T (Chinese), VP, FNC, Mine, IG (Chinese), Winstrike.

Group B: EG, Newbee (Chinese), Secret, VG (Chinese), VGJ.S, OpTic, NG, TL, TS (Chinese).

The six Chinese teams were evenly divided into two groups, each relying on their own abilities.

In the DOTA2 world, the Chinese region was once the strongest, holding a position somewhat similar to that of the LCK in the current League of Legends world.

CN may have a tough time winning the championship, but their overall strength is still in a class of its own. In the first few rounds of each knockout stage, there is always a "CNDOTA vs. the world" drama.

Although CNDOTA did not win the championship in TI7 last year, several teams were incredibly strong before the finals, and ultimately occupied four of the five spots in the finals!

It's a pity we didn't win the championship.

Of course, this is not the key.

The key point is that the OG has arrived!

Coincidentally, OG was drawn right after QG and placed second in Group A!

What's even more coincidental is that OG was QG's first opponent on the first day of the group stage!

After the final selections were determined, the group stage match schedule was quickly released.

On August 1st, the first day of the group stage, they will face two opponents.

One was on the morning of August 16th, against OG.

One was on the afternoon of August 16th, against VGJT.

One is a dark horse team that only resolved its internal turmoil in the middle of this year and then rose to prominence by defeating OG twice. The other is a Chinese team that ranked in the top eight and received a direct invitation to TI.

It's no exaggeration to say that the first day of the group stage will definitely be a tough battle!

The speed of information transmission on the Internet is the speed of light. The moment the draw results and the schedule were released, countless night owls and early risers, as well as office workers and students, in China immediately started discussing them.

Wow, this group assignment is really unlucky!

[This is really unlucky. How did I get OG so quickly? This team is going to be tough.]

[It's really tough; OG just got a double kill against QG.]

【Then let's see how Brother Tree performs】

[It's not a big problem. Even if Tree Bro can't do it, AME can always step in.]

[But it was AME who got double-killed, right? Did you forget the reverse wave?]

Chen Dongqing looked at the match schedule, but he was thinking about something completely different.

If they can achieve a 4-0 record in these two matches, then they should be guaranteed first place in the group no matter what.

Time flies, and August 1st has arrived in the blink of an eye.

Chen Dongqing has now fully adapted to Vancouver, its food and lifestyle. Today, he still got up early as usual, getting himself into top condition.

The rest of QG got up very early today. They didn't eat breakfast, but put on their peripherals and boarded the bus to head to Rogers Arena.

On the bus, Coach Xiao8 sat next to Chen Dongqing and chatted with him, jokingly saying, "To be honest, today should be considered your debut performance in DOTA2, right? Are you a little nervous?"

These words startled Chen Dongqing.

That's right, this was indeed his first DOTA2 match.

It's funny, the first match was at TI, which is probably unique in history.

But to say whether it's tense or not.

"I'm not nervous," Chen Dongqing said calmly. "What's there to be nervous about?"

He's a player who won the championship and lifted the trophy in the Bird's Nest stadium with 80,000 people, and was crowned FMVP amidst the cheers of 80,000.

In comparison, TI is just so-so.

In contrast, it was today's opponent that made Chen Dongqing somewhat serious.

"That's good!" xiao8 said with a smile. "Everyone's eyes are on you today. Play well, and if you perform like you did in practice matches, victory is practically guaranteed!"

"Don't worry," Chen Dongqing said with a smile, "My strength lies in stability."

After giving his instructions, Xiao8 returned to his seat, a smile still lingering on his lips.

I have to say, having such a top-tier talent under my command is truly amazing.

Xiao8 is actually not a nobody.

In 2014, he led the Newbee team as captain to participate in The International 4 (TI4) and won the championship, making him one of the gods of CNDOTA.

Having won the championship before, he understands all too well what kind of atmosphere a champion team should have.

Although Newbee encountered some obstacles in the gauntlet stage of TI4, they dominated the later playoffs, and many viewers jokingly called Newbee's path to victory a "fishing trip".

But now, even with a neutral perspective, xiao8 has to admit that QG, with ilex on the team, is even more dominant than he was back then!

xiao8 is full of confidence for TI8.

Just do it!

After arriving at the stadium, everyone waited a while. After the first game between IG and Mineski was over, the QG players in the rest room quickly received a notification to prepare to go on stage. The pace was incredibly fast!

It's quite remarkable that the 18 teams in TI had to go through a single round-robin group stage followed by a double-elimination tournament with 16 other teams before the final champion was decided. This intensive schedule was completed in just 11 days!

The frequency of this tournament is much better than the World Championship, where you have to rest for a week after each BO5 match!

At this moment, the European host walked onto the stage with a microphone and shouted out the IDs of the two players in the second round.

The Canadian audience was quite enthusiastic, and they gave a very polite and enthusiastic cheer to both the European team OG and the Chinese team QG!

Of course, there is only one exception.

"Let's give a final welcome to QG.ilex!" the host shouted Chen Dongqing's ID, but the audience's opinion took a sharp turn at this moment, switching instantly from applause and cheers to boos that could not be ignored!

After this period of online flame wars, countless die-hard DOTA2 players are filled with disgust for Chen Dongqing. They can't wait for QG to be eliminated so that this LOL player can pack his bags and get out of here!

But in the audience, besides hardcore DOTA2 players, there were also many people who were proficient in both DOTA2 and League of Legends, and they were completely different.

There's a saying that goes, "You can't have both playing LOL and disliking Ilya."

As LOL players, when you see Ilex on the DOTA2 stage, you naturally want to give him your support!

Then, a strange thing happened.

Cheers and boos arose simultaneously from the sidelines, evenly matched.

At this moment, question marks began appearing in live streams around the world, and Chen Dongqing was initially confused about what was going on.

After a few seconds, when he came to his senses, his first reaction was helplessness, so he simply waved to the audience.

This wave was for the audience who supported him.

As for those who do not support him

All I can say is, let the dust settle.

Sorry, guys, I broke my promise. I only wrote 4,000 words today.

But it's not that I'm lazy. In fact, I did write 7,000 words, and even briefly wrote about the first match.

But after I finished writing it, I felt something was off, so I studied the outline again and found that there were still areas for improvement.

My original idea was to hide OG until the finals and play them, avoiding the main team as much as possible, so that the storyline could be followed for the longest time.

But after thinking about it, I felt it wasn't necessary.

With the addition of the main character in DOTA2, the feeling of invincibility is already very obvious, and forcibly hiding it to create suspense would be a bit awkward.

So, screw the hell out of it, let's just go and crush OG first!

As I said before, tomorrow, the king will return!

Thank you for the 500 Qidian coins reward from "A Long and Winding Road".

Thank you to "愿观日月沧海" for the 1384 Qidian coins donation.

Thank you to Mitianlou111 for the 100000 Qidian coins donation.

Thank you, bosses.

(End of this chapter)