League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 497 After the Gold Medal

After the awards ceremony, the Chinese team members left the venue with their gold medals hanging in their hands, under the watchful eyes of the entire audience.

What should you do after winning a gold medal?

eat.

With no worries about urine tests, the Chinese team finally had the opportunity to leave the Asian Games Village. They should have enjoyed some local Indonesian cuisine and had a celebratory feast.

But this time they didn't do that.

Unfortunately, Chen Dongqing's Asian Games journey is not over yet.

This is a victory celebration banquet, but the biggest contributor isn't here, so who dares to touch their chopsticks?!

Mr. Huo has already made it all arranged. After Chen Dongqing finishes his two days of competition, he will go to Shanghai with everyone and treat them to a lavish meal!

There was nothing else they could do but wait for Chen Dongqing for two more days and then eat the Asian Games Village food for the next two days.

"Chen Dongqing, you absolutely have to win in the next two days! Don't let us wait in vain!" Xiangguo, with a gold medal around his neck, grinned as he left the competition venue with the rest of the group. "So, are you confident?"

Chen Dongqing showed no sign of pressure. He was about to speak when, in the next second, countless reporters swarmed around him outside the stadium. Different reporters approached different athletes, and even coaches and substitutes were among them.

They were interviewed after the competition, which was a first for everyone, and it was obviously because of the gold medal.

"First of all, congratulations to Ilex on winning the gold medal! How do you feel after winning this medal?"

The first question asked by the CCTV reporter after finding Chen Dongqing was quite routine. Chen Dongqing thought for two seconds and then said to the camera: "Of course, I feel good. I am very excited and very happy because this gold medal has special significance for all of us."

The CCTV reporter smiled and continued, "What's the special significance?"

"In 2003, China listed esports as its 99th competitive sport, and now it has been fifteen years," Chen Dongqing said with a smile. "This gold medal is the best reward for those who have dedicated their efforts to this industry."

The CCTV reporter grew to like Chen Dongqing more and more as he looked at her, and couldn't help but smile and praise her answer.

The reporter was quite satisfied with Chen Dongqing, both the "5%" before the competition and the "reward" after the competition were very satisfactory responses.

Listening to Chen Dongqing's reply, the reporter could even conjure up a story about the history of Chinese esports in his mind, and then, combined with the current performance of the Chinese team, the quality of the story would be absolutely top-notch.

Finally, the reporter asked, "But we all know that the League of Legends event is only your first goal at this Asian Games! Are you confident about the other events in the next two days?"

This question was no different from the one Xiangguo had just asked, so Chen Dongqing could finally say what he had just thought of: "I can only say that my confidence in the other two projects far exceeds my confidence in the League of Legends project! I believe that winning three gold medals is not an unrealistic dream."

These words shocked the reporters nearby, who were momentarily speechless.

Is it really getting easier every day?

The DOTA2 project is doing alright, after all, China's DOTA really doesn't have many rivals in Asia, plus Chen Dongqing just returned from TI, so he does have the confidence to speak.

But where do you get your confidence for the interplanetary project?

Even if you're really good at it, if you haven't played for a few months, you'll still feel a bit nervous, right?

Clearly, the reporter hadn't had enough contact with Chen Dongqing.

StarCraft, where there are no teammates and only skill-based competition and solo battles, is precisely the project that Chen Dongqing is most confident and has the most strength in!

"Then I wish Chen Dongqing the best of luck!" the reporter concluded with a smile. "I hope we can still be here laughing and interviewing each other tomorrow!"

"Definitely." Chen Dongqing shook hands with the other party, and the interview session ended there.

After returning to the athletes' dormitory, the Chinese team did not hold any celebrations. They each ate a team meal and then went back to their rooms to chat with their families on the phone.

For the players' family and friends, this Asian Games gold medal is more prestigious than any S-series championship!

Even if someone is a champion in the World Championship, in the eyes of their parents, they are just a "kid who is good at playing games".

But things are different now. Now they are "national heroes who win glory for the country"!

The most excited person was Xiangguo. His parents in his hometown in Hunan had even communicated with the neighborhood committee to hang a banner at the entrance of the community, with something like "Celebrating Liu Shiyu's Asian Games gold medal," which Xiangguo repeatedly waved his hand in denial.

If this banner is hung up, won't the community be doomed?

While listening to the discussion in the hot pot next to him, Chen Dongqing also chatted with his parents on WeChat.

"Hey, don't you guys know me? Don't worry!" Chen Dongqing said helplessly as his parents started worrying about the matches in the next two days.

Why is everyone more anxious than him?

Of course, Chen Dongqing knew that explaining this was useless. Apart from him, perhaps no one else in the world would be completely at ease about the matches in the next two days.

It's not a big problem; facts will prove it.

After finishing his conversation with his parents, Chen Dongqing hung up the phone and lay on his bed, browsing domestic forums.

After the match, he was busy with interviews, meals, and phone calls, so he didn't have much time to browse Tieba (a Chinese online forum), which he had been holding back for a long time.

If we delay any longer, the entertainment value on the forum will be lost, and then who will make up for it?

Sure enough, as soon as I entered the anti-racism forum, I saw a dazzling array of celebratory messages and the discussions were in full swing!

Wuhu! Gold Medal!

[Can Brother Shu's Grand Slam be officially upgraded to a Golden Slam?]

[Asian Games champion, that's incredibly prestigious!]

[If this were a main event, it would have been a decisive blow, but unfortunately it wasn't.]

It's okay, the main competition should be in four years, just let Tree Brother win one more.

Will Brother Tree still be any good four years from now?

Whether others can do it or not, I'm sure Brother Tree can!

In addition, many users with strong hands-on skills have turned some of the highlights of the finals into GIFs.

In the post, Chen Dongqing's 1v2 with Irelia in the first game, his fierce team fight initiation with Kled in the second game, and his top-notch assassin performance with Akali in the third game were all recorded, which made countless netizens exclaim "six" in response.

With a smile, Chen Dongqing quickly browsed the posts, searching for what he wanted as he went.

Soon, the good stuff arrived.

[China 3-0 South Korea in the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games Final (Other scoring posts deleted)]

This is an indispensable feast!

Chen Dongqing clicked on the post, scrolled down, and saw his own photo directly.

The performing arts troupe put a lot of thought into this. Instead of choosing the official photos of Chen Dongqing taken in LPL, they specifically chose a photo of Chen Dongqing wearing an award ceremony outfit and a gold medal, looking quite energetic!

[Perfect score! Honorary FMVP!]

[Amazing! Akali in the third game made me burst into tears!]

[Akali with Mercury's Treads instantly countered Lissandra's ultimate, then flashed in to slaughter both carries; it's truly outrageous]

[This is exactly what an advantageous Akali looks like; it's completely unreasonable.]

[Waiting for Brother Tree to win three gold medals in the next two days and be crowned the God of Esports!]

I don't know if it will work. DoT2 is fine, but StarCraft is really a bit unstable.

All I can say is, I believe.

Chen Dongqing grinned and continued scrolling down, where he saw Smeb's rating.

[5 points, but it's only out of 100]

[5 points? Zero points!]

[Retire! You got crushed by Brother Tree three times, you're the biggest war criminal!]

Smeb is really not good anymore; he's almost lost his way in the LCK. It would be better to let Wither or Khan play.

The ones you mentioned won't work either; they're all notorious for being overly devoted to their children.

Smeb and Peanut are a perfect match; their synergy is even better. He dominates other teams, mainly because Tree is too strong. You really can't blame Smeb.

Smeb's performance today, which was so bad it was like a war criminal, really delighted Chinese viewers.

What are they doing?

Giving up first blood in just two minutes, you really can't blame anyone else, right?

Even if I were alive, I wouldn't die that quickly!

Good, good, it has to be you, Smeb. Come more often in the future. China's championship won't be possible without your contribution!

Besides Smeb being criticized, Ruler also received a lot of criticism. After all, although his act of quietly supporting his father was not as dazzling as Smeb's, it was definitely an important part of his life.

The only one who isn't being singled out and heavily criticized is probably Faker.

Of course, even Faker is not immune to arguments.

[We tried our best; all three games were even or even slightly advantageous in the mid lane, but unfortunately, the top and bottom lanes were just not up to par.]

He really tried his best; he was the only one who didn't collapse in lane out of the three games.

[Is this what you call trying your best? Does staying invisible mean you're trying your best? We help Xiao Hua every day, giving him all the resources, and he went invisible three times. Can that be considered trying his best?]

[Being invisible is better than feeding, right? His teammates are all feeding, and the enemy carries are all fed. What can Faker do?]

Strangely enough, an argument started happening right below Faker's post.

The question of who is more cowardly or who should be given the gift has been a long-standing topic on the Anti-Japanese Forum.

Chen Dongqing was too lazy to discuss this topic any further; it was a pointless debate anyway, with neither side truly having a clear answer.

Chen Dongqing exited the post and continued browsing, and soon saw another large shipment.

[Reposted from a Korean online forum!]

Chen Dongqing's eyes widened, and he immediately became interested!

He really wanted to see how the Korean online community viewed this final.

[Smeb, are you really a mole for the Chinese team?]

[Is there even a question? Absolutely! That third Aatrox must have made a deal with Ilex, right?]

[This is outrageous! This was the first Asian Games gold medal! Smeb, you're utterly hopeless!]

[Can we rematch with someone else? This top laner is really terrible!]

[A combined score of 1-16 across three matches? That's impressive!]

As soon as I clicked in, I saw a huge number of posts cursing Smeb, including classic posts about sending him razor blades and rats.

But that's all.

This surprised Chen Dongqing quite a bit.

What happened to the promised Samsung vs. SKT battle?

What happened to the three-way blame game between the fans?

Why is everyone focusing their attacks on Smeb?

Smeb may give a lot, but it's probably not just that, is it?

But upon closer examination, it makes sense.

After all, this competition features members from the three LCK powerhouses: KT, SKT, and SSG. This makes it difficult for fans of all three teams to criticize each other.

After all, none of the five of them played very well. They haven't even cleaned up their own mess, so how can they blame others?

However, they couldn't really criticize the Chinese team. After all, it would be embarrassing to blame the opponent for being too strong after losing, and they couldn't bring themselves to say it.

All I can do is curse Smeb to vent my anger.

But just criticizing Smeb doesn't feel quite enough.

There was nothing they could do but blame the designer.

[West Eighth Route Army style, what on earth is this designer doing? Could a human even design Akali?]

[And it's not just Akali! There's also Aatrox at the Intercontinental Cup, Irelia at MSI. The designers rework a champion for Irex every major tournament—isn't this blatant favoritism towards QG?]

[Now that you mention it, it actually makes sense! What were the designers thinking? Are they going to rework a top lane champion for Worlds?]

[Ilex doesn't play League of Legends every day, so reworking the champions should be a bad thing for him, right?]

[Hey, what are you guys talking about? Are you saying Koreans aren't allowed to play these reworked heroes? Why don't you Koreans use them to carry? Don't you want to?]

Chen Dongqing couldn't help but chuckle as he looked at the comments.

Although there wasn't a massive fan war, it still had its own unique charm!

"What are you looking at?" Xiangguo finally managed to persuade his family to stop. He hung up the phone and went to Chen Dongqing's side.

"I'm looking at something interesting." Chen Dongqing smiled and turned his phone screen to the side, sharing a classic quote he had just seen with Xiangguo.

[Could you acquire Ilex and mlxg together? If this top and jungle duo were on SKT, they could win any championship!]

"Are they talking about Jβ?" Xiangguo laughed immediately upon seeing this. "They want to buy me and send me to Korea? How much money do they have?"

"really."

The two of them laughed for a moment and then drifted off to sleep in their joy.

The night passed quickly, and it was August 30th.

Today is the fourth day of the competitive events at the Jakarta Asian Games, and also the final day of the DOTA2 competition.

At eight o'clock in the morning, Chen Dongqing glanced at Xiangguo, who was sleeping in late next to him, and after thinking about it, he decided not to wake him up.

He tiptoed out of bed, washed up, packed his things, and then went downstairs to the dormitory area for the DOTA2 project.

As you can see, the DOTA2 players are ready.

"How so? Are you nervous?" Chen Dongqing greeted him with a smile.

"I was actually a little nervous," Maybe said with a grin, "but seeing Brother Shu here made me not nervous anymore."

Chen Dongqing raised an eyebrow, inwardly praising him as someone who knew how to flatter, as expected of a mid-laner.

"Let's go to the venue!" Chen Dongqing didn't waste any time and led his teammates straight to the e-sports venue.

Halfway through the journey, Chen Dongqing also took the opportunity to learn about his opponent in the semi-finals.

吉尔吉斯斯坦

"Never heard of this team," Chen Dongqing said, raising an eyebrow. "Are there any skilled players on this team?"

"Absolutely not." Xiao Ba shook his head with a smile. "They don't even have a single player with 9,000 points in the Southeast Asian server."

Chen Dongqing was now puzzled: "Then how did they advance to the knockout stage?"

"There's nothing we can do about it, it's a lottery system," Xiao Ba explained to Chen Dongqing in detail.

The reason is actually quite simple: in the DOTA2 project, there are only five countries in Asia that can be considered strong.

China, Mongolia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand.

As a result, Mr. Huo drew a lucky number, placing all four teams in Group B.

This is the group of death!

In Group B, the Chinese team firmly holds the top spot, while the remaining three teams are fiercely competing for the second place!

In the end, Malaysia prevailed, narrowly securing second place in Group B in the tiebreaker.

In contrast, Group A was much more comfortable. Thailand, having come to Group A, undoubtedly qualified with ease, while Kyrgyzstan, a weak team, managed to secure second place in Group B amidst a battle of underdogs, successfully advancing to the next round.

"That's great," Chen Dongqing laughed. "No pressure, just have fun!"

It really is just for fun.

After entering the venue, Chen Dongqing did not wait long before joining his team on stage for the semi-final match.

The time difference between Indonesia and China is only one kilometer; at the same time as the morning match, it was just the start of the workday in China.

The first day of work is also the busiest time. Countless DOTA2 players don't have time to follow the matches. They can only finish their work first and then sneak a peek at the live stream by using the excuse of needing to go to the toilet.

But what no one expected was that when countless people finally had free time to go to the toilet and use their "poop escape" technique, the live stream they opened was filled with the second half of the knockout stage, a match between Thailand and Malaysia.

what?

Countless players were stunned.

What's going on? I didn't misremember the schedule! China was supposed to play first!

They went back to the game record and took a look, and the result shocked them all.

The Chinese team has advanced with a 2-0 victory.

Neither match lasted more than 25 minutes.

Including the draft phase and the halftime break, this best-of-three series didn't even last an hour in total!

That's incredibly fast!

This chapter was originally intended to end with the Asian Games, but it's the end of the year, and I have to go out with friends for a gathering this afternoon.

I only had enough time this morning to write 8 words, so unfortunately, I'll have to leave the rest of the plot for tomorrow. Sorry.

or2

On New Year's Eve, guys, forget about reading novels, let's go out and have some fun!

(End of this chapter)