League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 478 The Champion is Within Reach

After a long day of training and competition, the hardworking Master Chen was finally able to return to his room to rest.

As expected, the competition is the best motivation. QG's long-standing coordination issues were greatly improved today.

I believe this problem will be resolved soon.

Maybe today.

After taking a shower, Chen Dongqing lay in bed, took out his phone, connected to the hotel's Wi-Fi, and made a WeChat call to his girlfriend.

He waited until he was about to go to bed before calling his girlfriend. It was around noon in China, and his girlfriend had just woken up.

That's the good thing about being an LPL host, since the matches are all in the afternoon and you don't work in the morning.

Sure enough, the video call rang twice before it was answered, and then I saw my girlfriend still lying in bed, obviously having just woken up.

Chen Dongqing laughed and said, "Alright, alright, you were sleeping so soundly, you didn't watch my match, did you?"

"Nonsense!" Lin Yuanhua corrected, "I went to sleep after watching your match against OG."

"Besides," Lin Yuanhua added with a grin, "do we even need to watch QG's matches? They'll just wake up to another victory!"

This is a phrase that LOL fans often say, but I never expected that Lin Yuanhua would steal it this time.

Chen Dongqing was speechless. After thinking for a moment, he finally said, "That makes sense."

Of course, Chen Dongqing didn't really mean to cause trouble.

My girlfriend doesn't play Dota 2, so having her watch Dota 2 matches late at night is somewhat hypnotic.

The two, one at noon and the other in the middle of the night, separated by half the globe, were both lying in bed and chatted for a while.

Lin Yuanhua then asked, "So, do you think you have a good chance of winning this time?"

Chen Dongqing grinned: "There's a minor issue, but it's not a big problem. Once we resolve it, winning the championship shouldn't be too difficult!"

Lin Yuanhua immediately said, "Then you'd better do your best! The TI time is so short, there's not much time to adjust."

Lin Yuanhua was familiar with TI and knew that the competition only lasted eleven days from the group stage to the finals, and even only five days for the knockout stage.

These five days are only enough for the League of Legends team to play one quarterfinal match.

In such a tight competition, the coaching team's research capabilities are actually difficult to utilize, while the players' individual abilities are magnified to an extreme.

The ability to quickly adjust and adapt from back-to-back games has become an essential quality.

"It's alright, no big problem," Chen Dongqing said confidently with a smile. "I have plenty of time."

"That's good." Lin Yuanhua glanced at her boyfriend and said reassuredly, "I trust you too."

That was about enough of the conversation. Lin Yuanhua got up to find something to eat and prepare for work, while Chen Dongqing plugged her phone into the charger, closed her eyes, adjusted her breathing, and quickly fell asleep.

The moment he fell asleep, the screen lit up again, and Chen Dongqing was back on the field.

[Meditation training, let's begin!]

Why did Chen Dongqing confidently say that he had plenty of time?

Nothing else, he has cheat codes.

What is not enough time? What requires adaptability?

Back in 16, Chen Dongqing used this meditation training to perfect his solo coaching skills.

In 17, Chen Dongqing used this function to thoroughly understand SSG's vision tactics. In the subsequent StarCraft finals, Chen Dongqing used this function to thoroughly understand the tactics of the Protoss, Terran, and Zerg races in a short period of time.

Meditation training is the best tool for adaptation!

Today is Chen Dongqing's first time participating in a DOTA2 competition, and now is the time for [Meditation Training] to come out on the scene again!

Chen Dongqing had made preparations early on and chose to play the first match against VGJT.

In the two matches against OG, they played their most familiar style of play, which was rather passive. Chen Dongqing was very familiar with this style of play, so there was no need to practice it.

On the contrary, the last two matches had many twists and turns, so it was necessary to practice them.

In the first game against VGJT, Chen Dongqing picked the combination of Gyrocopter and Io, but the result was terrible, with no offensive capabilities whatsoever. In the end, he pulled out his old strategy, farmed the jungle a few times, and won by overwhelming the enemy with his economy.

This strategy is clearly unhealthy for Pokémon, and if the opposing team is strong, they certainly won't give it that opportunity.

Therefore, targeted training is still necessary.

In addition, there are some points to practice with the Airplane Sprite combination – the support sprite's ultimate move can teleport teammates directly to any location on the map and then return to their original position after twelve seconds.

This skill is also one of the key factors for the strength of the Airplane Sprite. After all, this kind of teleportation to any point on the map, if done well, can create a huge wave of momentum.

It can be used to cut off the enemy's retreat, to roam to other lanes, or even to teleport back home to replenish health when you're low on health, and then return to continue the fight when you're fully healed. It has many uses!

Of course, if this thing is not passed well, it will cause a big problem, so Chen Dongqing doesn't have many chances to make mistakes on the field.

However, it's not covered in the "meditation training" section, so I'll just share it randomly.

Soon, Chen Dongqing entered into repeated intensive training. Through repeated tactical simulations with his teammates, his tactical maturity continued to rise, and he became more and more confident in the timing of releasing the Pokémon's ultimate move.

Time flew by and it was already the morning of the next day.

Chen Dongqing opened her eyes to greet the morning.

Recalling the meditation training he had just undergone, Chen Dongqing sighed inwardly.

VGJT's overall strength is still not strong enough.

Towards the end of today's training, he was able to easily break through the opponent's defense on the weaker lane, which made his practice tonight quite ineffective.

If we can find a team with a strong offlane, then it might be worth practicing against.

Chen Dongqing smiled helplessly, got up and washed up.

But there were still some gains tonight.

After tonight's practice, he has become quite proficient in the Airplane Pokémon system.

That's enough.

Chen Dongqing woke up Ame, who was fast asleep next to him. After waiting for a while, the two went downstairs to the restaurant for breakfast, and then entered another day of preparation.

Today, QG's opponents are Mski and FNC. Coincidentally, both of these teams are from Southeast Asia, so today's match is in the Southeast Asia segment.

Mski is also one of the directly invited teams, and it ranks highly.

The main objective of this match is to gain points, so QG did not hold back and decided to fight using their best methods.

In the match against Mski, Chen Dongqing played Anti-Mage in one game and Terrorblade in the other, both of which involved farming gold and developing his character while waiting for his Furnace to be released.

However, after yesterday's battle, all the teams now understand QG's winning strategy. In today's two games, Mski first targeted the mid lane, and after gaining an advantage in the mid lane, he led his teammates to invade the jungle, not giving QG the opportunity to hoard jungle camps and develop.

It must be said that this approach was indeed effective, hitting QG's Achilles' heel.

The first game was alright with Anti-Mage. After all, this hero is agile and can move around the map quickly. If he can't farm in his own jungle, he can farm in the enemy jungle and cut off the lane. He still maintains good development. After getting the Skull Basher, he can use Blink to get close and use the Skull Basher to stun multiple times and kill people. He gradually accumulates advantages and finally wins the game!

The second game wasn't so smooth. Terrorblade is a hero that becomes very difficult to play if he doesn't farm properly, and the overall rhythm becomes very sluggish.

In this game, QG finally fell into a major disadvantage, having no initiative throughout the entire game and being pushed back into their high ground with no way out!

Backstage, QG coach Xiao Ba watched this scene and couldn't help but frown.

As expected, a team with only one winning strategy cannot go all the way.

Everyone knows that QG relies on their carry to farm money, so why don't I just do everything I can to prevent your carry from farming money?

QG has always understood this logic, which is why they are more eager than anyone else to explore new strategies.

But before they could even develop their new tactics, their weaknesses had already been exposed.

The outcome of this match isn't actually crucial; what's most fatal for QG is the problems that were exposed afterward.

At this moment, the players' voice recordings were playing in the rest room, and Chen Dongqing's voice kept coming through:

"Don't rush, don't rush, this chance is great, let me develop first."

Xiao Ba couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

Is the chance high?

The match is still ongoing in the video.

Although QG was in a very bad situation at this time, their defense was actually quite good.

Chen Dongqing kept creating clones to push lanes, pushing the minion waves forward at zero cost, while his main body grouped up with his teammates to withstand the enemy's firepower head-on.

In DOTA2, without the Aegis, it's actually quite difficult to push high ground, since the creep waves clear very quickly, and the game doesn't have anything like the Baron buff to prevent wave clear.

QG players held their ground with their backs to the high ground for forty minutes straight!

At this moment, Mski finally launched their final all-out attack. They secured the Aegis of Roshan and then charged the high ground with it!

But at this moment, Chen Dongqing stepped forward again!

Chen Dongqing didn't endure the pressure for nothing after all this time.

Although Chen Dongqing's Terrorblade main body was clearing lanes at home, his clones never stopped, almost immediately dropping them as soon as they were available, and then pushing the other lanes' minions outwards, clearing two groups of small jungle camps after pushing them out.

The clone is like a traveling frog, bringing Chen Dongqing several hundred yuan in income every time it goes out.

In addition, Chen Dongqing was constantly clearing lanes at home, which resulted in him consuming almost the entire team's economy by himself!

In such a disadvantageous situation, even Maybe, the second position player, doesn't have the right to farm lanes; all the economy must be given to the carry unconditionally!

Under these circumstances, Terrorblade, facing Mski's shielded charge, directly transformed itself and its clones into [Demonic Transformation], becoming long-range turrets and unleashing a barrage of attacks!

Immediately afterwards, he used his Manta Style to dodge the enemy Monkey King's crucial attack, directly forcing the enemy carry to resurrect. After the enemy resurrected, he immediately activated Black King Bar and stood still to output damage!

TB has now reached level 25, and with the right-side talent selected, his ultimate skill has a cooldown of only six seconds.

As long as Chen Dongqing's health is reduced, he can immediately have a blood transfusion and become a hero again!

(TB's ultimate ability directly exchanges health with the target hero, swapping the health percentages of both sides. After level 25, the cooldown is only six seconds, making him almost impossible to kill.)

Mski had a lead of over 10,000 gold and was pushing high ground with the Aegis in a team fight, but Terrorblade managed to hold it off by himself!

After TB single-handedly wiped out all of Mski's players, he immediately pushed down the mid tower, forcing the enemy carry to buy back.

The purchase price for over forty minutes is expensive, even comparable to the price of a large item. With this back and forth, the economic advantage that Mski had accumulated over forty minutes vanished in an instant!

Then, the situation reversed.

If Mski can't break through the high ground in forty minutes, QG will teach you how!

After his teammates respawned, Chen Dongqing finally completed his full build. He led his teammates to push the minion wave forward, and then directly transformed into a demon and charged onto the high ground, unleashing a barrage of turret attacks!

QG's five players had a very clear team fight strategy; they all knew that if Terrorblade survived, they would win.

So Maybe was responsible for taking down the enemy support, the two supports were responsible for using crowd control to restrict the enemy carry, and Chen Dongqing used Manta Style and Black King Bar to dodge the enemy's key skills one after another.

The five members of QG are like different parts of a huge machine, each performing their own task to make this huge machine run smoothly!

In the end, QG pushed forward and suffered a crushing 4-for-5 exchange. Chen Dongqing survived and, with Maybe buying back and teleporting back to lane, took advantage of the enemy carry's buyback cooldown and pushed down the enemy crystal!

In the stands, countless spectators were overjoyed and cheered loudly!

With a terrifying 6-0 record across three matches, QG's winning streak continues!

These two matches have reinforced the stereotype that "ilex has a strong ability to farm money," but Mski's solution in this game was also impressive, making other teams realize that they should start to study how to disrupt ilex's farming route.

Backstage, Coach Xiao Ba greeted the athletes while still feeling a bit shaken, saying, "That match was a close call."

"It's alright, it's alright," Chen Dongqing said with a smile. "It's under control."

This isn't Chen Dongqing bragging or exaggerating after the match; it's truly under his control.

Although they were at a disadvantage in the early game, Chen Dongqing kept reassuring the team members, saying that they could play easily in the late game.

As it turns out, it really was easy to win in the later stages.

The opposing team's lineup lacked burst damage overall. Terrorblade only needed to level up to 25, reduce the cooldown of his ultimate to six seconds, and then use Manta Style and Black King Bar to survive the opponent's key skills, making him virtually impossible to kill.

Of course, Chen Dongqing's confidence stemmed mainly from the fact that he had never died and his development had not been significantly affected.

If a more aggressive team were to come, it would be hard to say.

Which team has such a strong offensive capability?

Chen Dongqing looked at the schedule.

Perhaps it will be tomorrow.

Time quickly passed to the afternoon, and the afternoon's task was relatively easier: a match against FNC.

Although they are called FNC, they are actually not a European team, but a Southeast Asian team.

This is a team established by FNC in the Southeast Asian region, and its overall strength cannot be described as strong.

QG players took a relaxed approach to this match, continuing to practice and hone their skills.

Chen Dongqing chose a Water Spirit and then a Monkey King.

Because I practiced all night yesterday, my early game rhythm was indeed much better than yesterday, and I played quite well. However, I still can't compare to top teams like OG. There was always a slight "stiffness" in my attacks.

Of course, the ending was still good.

Their offense was sluggish, but that was in comparison to OG.

In FNC's eyes, QG's attack was flawless and unstoppable.

Both matches lasted over 35 minutes, and QG ultimately won with a huge advantage in one fell swoop.

In these two matches, Chen Dongqing once again won the MVP award, demonstrating to DOTA2 viewers around the world what true carry is.

Two days, four best-of-two series, eight wins!

The craziest thing is that Ilex, who was questioned before the tournament because of his status as a League of Legends player, actually picked seven different carry heroes in eight games and carried the team in all of them!

Following yesterday's two traits, "aggressive in lane" and "good at farming," perhaps today we should add another trait: "deep champion pool."

These traits combined make it hard to believe that this is actually a professional League of Legends player.

After tonight's match, Chen Dongqing still started his [meditation training] and practiced the Water Spirit match from the afternoon, still focusing on his early offensive capabilities.

When I woke up, it was already the third day of the group stage.

QG still has tough battles ahead today.

Today's segment is about the Independent States Association.

The Independent States Council (ICC) was a regional organization formed by several former Soviet republics at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Simply put, it's the Russian team.

In the morning, QG faced off against Winstrike, a player who had advanced from the Independent Nations region qualifiers.

In the afternoon, they will face VP, a team directly invited from the Independent Nations region and currently the leader in points.

Although these two teams are from the same region, their strengths are worlds apart.

The former team is currently struggling to secure a single victory, having recorded two draws and two losses in four BO2 matches. They currently have 2 points and are ranked last in Group A.

The latter team has two wins and two draws, ranking second with six points, closely following QG.

There's not much to say about the morning's matches. With Chen Dongqing's ability to farm money and his consistent gameplay, he's absolutely top-notch at stomping noobs.

Two matches, two crushing victories, no suspense whatsoever. QG leads Group A with a record of five wins, zero draws, and zero losses, and 10 points.

Many viewers were surprised and discussed the results.

The group stage is already halfway through, but QG hasn't lost a single game?

Will they finish the group stage with a perfect record? That would be too dramatic.

That's alright, it won't happen.

As the current undefeated team, QG is naturally the target that all teams are studying and targeting.

VP, as the first team to recognize QG's strength, also spent the longest time researching them.

Meanwhile, VP, as the team with the strongest early-game fighting ability among the eighteen teams in this year's TI, also has the best way to deal with QG's playstyle.

You like waiting for the big brother to farm, right? Your early-game combat ability is weak, isn't it?

In this game, VP once again picked their most favored offlane Omniknight composition. This time, they not only targeted Chen Dongqing in lane, but even after the laning phase, they filled QG's jungle with vision and made a lot of ganks!

This time, Chen Dongqing was powerless to deal with the disadvantageous situation.

Unlike yesterday's game, VP's lineup this time was designed for fighting, with ample control, early burst damage, and even healing, making them extremely strong once they snowballed.

Chen Dongqing actually played quite well in the laning phase. Under the siege of the opposing team, he only died once in the laning phase, and he also escaped death in many subsequent chases.

But his financial losses were also very real.

Without their carry player to develop, QG had little chance of a comeback. Realizing there was no hope, they typed GG early to avoid being affected mentally.

Off the field, countless spectators were discussing the result of the match, never expecting that QG, who had been undefeated all the way, would lose so decisively.

Backstage, the OG members watched the result of the match and all showed expressions of "I knew it."

After several days of research, they have already figured out the weaknesses of the QG team.

First, their early game offense is stagnant; they only know how to play in the late game.

Secondly, their eldest brother is very afraid of being targeted.

QG's performance today perfectly confirmed their predictions.

The OG members couldn't help but smile at this thought.

So what if QG went 10-0? So what if your carry ability is strong?

If these two problems aren't resolved, QG will forever remain a pseudo-strong team! They'll never be able to claim a championship!

After watching this match, the OG players had a pretty good idea of ​​how to beat QG.

At this moment, the QG team returned to the backstage area. Having lost their first match, they were feeling a little down, and the game was replaying in their minds.

Because QG had previously played a scrim with VP and achieved an impressive 4-0 victory, the QG players built their confidence during that match.

But after a while, the team that they had crushed four times in a row turned the tables and crushed them, which was hard for them to accept for a while.

Of course, if you think about it carefully, this is actually quite reasonable.

The reason they were able to win 4-0 against VP was mainly because VP didn't know them. VP was in the open while they were in the dark. Chen Dongqing's development ability and carry ability had an unexpected effect, catching VP off guard, which is why they won four games in a row.

But today, the situation has actually reversed.

QG's 10-0 record made them the target of everyone's criticism, while VP secretly developed a tactical system to counter QG.

QG is currently in the open while VP is operating in the shadows, so their loss is understandable.

At this moment, Coach Xiao Ba also stepped forward and reviewed the previous game with the players, pointing out several key points.

After reviewing the game, we started discussing the draft picks and game strategy for the next round.

Watching the QG team members chatting amongst themselves, Chen Dongqing had a few thoughts flashing through his mind, but he didn't say them out loud.

Actually, he wanted to pick the Io-aircraft composition he had practiced for the past two days in the second game and go head-to-head with VP.

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

With a score of 10-1, they've practically secured first place in the group stage, so there's no need to reveal their hand for a few more points.

Besides, even if they don't reveal their hand, they might not necessarily lose.

Soon, the second game began.

This time, QG changed their plans and decided to use a three-man strategy.

"Gang San" refers to a strategy in matches where three players use a lane, with two supports protecting the carry Morphling and relying on sheer numbers to gain an advantage in the lane.

QG's strategy is simple: I'm going to win by relying on my carry, and I'll bring two supports to protect him. Go ahead and try to counter me! Let's go 3v3!

This strategy is simple yet effective. With the two players protecting them, VP's attack couldn't find any angle for a while, and all six players on both sides were stuck in the top lane!

At this point, VP could have easily targeted Chalice in the offlane, but they didn't, because they knew that targeting Chalice would be useless; they had to target Ilex instead.

The direct consequence of VP's offensive constipation was that Chen Dongqing entered the mid-game with a fairly good economy, and then disappeared from the game again.

This made VP feel quite threatened, so they once again used Smoke of Deceit to group up and go into the jungle to look for people, but their intentions were too obvious, and they fell into QG's trap.

Charles' Axe had been waiting in the jungle for a long time. The moment VP broke through the fog of war, Axe jumped and roared to taunt three people, and with the help of his teammates, they directly achieved a great victory!

Chen Dongqing just entered the fray and casually slashed twice, yet he already secured two kills, putting his economy on a fast track to growth!

In fact, the game was already over once this wave started.

If Chen Dongqing's development is not affected, he can guarantee to lead his teammates to victory.

The VP members didn't believe this, so they continued to initiate battles.

The final result was that Chen Dongqing's Morphling achieved a godlike streak and led his team to victory in just 31 minutes!

The third day of the group stage has ended, and QG's record is 5 wins and 1 draw, with a total of 11 points!

That evening, after the training match ended, Chen Dongqing continued his meditation training, focusing on the match he had lost that day.

It must be said that VP's help today was truly a timely and much-needed boost.

In fact, Chen Dongqing himself knew that if the whole world knew that he could make money by cheating, then the whole world would not let him cheat money peacefully.

How to generate a high amount of economy even while being harassed by the enemy is something Chen Dongqing needs to improve.

Today, VP provided Chen Dongqing with a perfect harassment template, allowing him to conduct specialized training in [Meditation Training].

This kind of specialized training is always the most effective.

During their contact tonight, Chen Dongqing repeatedly spent money and then started over again.

Sometimes, he chooses to call on his teammates to counter-camp, focusing on defense.

Sometimes, he chooses to abandon farming jungle camps to gank, while other times, he avoids direct confrontation and chooses to sneak into the enemy jungle to farm jungle camps when the enemy invades, mainly to exchange resources.

He applied every possibility to every choice.

While considering this strategy, Chen Dongqing inexplicably thought of a familiar team.

This isn't a Dota 2 team, it's a League of Legends team.

In 2016, there was a team that relied on this defensive counter-attack and resource-trading strategy to become a formidable rival to QG.

It was SKT led by Faker at his peak.

Thinking about this, Chen Dongqing's thoughts suddenly became clear.

After Chen Dongqing had a thorough understanding of every offensive strategy of VP, he switched the game back to the beginning and adopted a different strategy.

VP's aggressive play in this game is the perfect template for practicing early-game aggression!

Anyway, Chen Dongqing also picked Morphling this game. It's a hero that can be used for both farming and fighting. Although it's a bit strange to play it aggressively in the early game, it's not impossible.

It's already difficult to maintain development under the opponent's attack, but to maintain an offensive rhythm under such circumstances is obviously an even more difficult task.

Throughout this entire process, no decision-making or operation is allowed to be flawed.

If the previous game strategy was SKT's defensive counter-attacking style, then the current game strategy is like a pure QG style.

There's nothing else to it but to destroy all enemies with extreme offense!

Under such extremely difficult circumstances, Chen Dongqing didn't know how many times he had to start over.

But each time he tried again, he got closer and closer to victory.

In the end, Chen Dongqing, playing Morphling, destroyed VP's base with a single auto-attack at the 28-minute mark, finally securing the victory in this game!

Chen Dongqing opened his eyes; it was already another day.

He rubbed his temples and got up again.

I have to say, playing DOTA2 these past few days has been quite mentally taxing.

He's been training and meditating during the night after playing during the day, and he's been playing non-stop for three days and three nights.

Although meditation training, like sleeping, can help restore physical and mental fatigue, playing too much DOTA2 can still be tiring.

Fortunately, Chen Dongqing is an iron man. With the support of the system, he is always in top form whenever he is on the field.

Every bit of hard work he puts in offstage brings him closer to the championship shield.

After tonight's all-night intensive training, Chen Dongqing directly solved the two major problems currently troubling the team.

Chen Dongqing is now thoroughly familiar with both the defensive counter-attacking style of the "brush core" and the extreme offensive style of the "fighting core."

He now feels that he is very close to winning the championship!

Chen Dongqing woke Ame up, and after they washed up, they went downstairs for breakfast before starting the final day of the group stage matches.

(End of this chapter)