League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 511 Train to Busan

Chapter 508 Train to Busan

When the theme song ended, Chen Dongqing specifically reached out and clicked on the bullet comments.

Countless comments flooded in immediately!

Holy crap! This is the Demon King?!

[So that's why the champion QG members didn't show their faces, they were waiting at the very back!]

[The final boss, huh? That's got the guts to be awesome!]

[Fist: Tree Daddy, are you satisfied with this music video?]

[Master An went through countless hardships to reach the summit, only to be sent flying in three blows, right? Chen Dongqing, you've done all sorts of evil deeds!]

[Haha, that makes perfect sense, the final was a complete 3-0 thrashing.]

Chen Dongqing's screen time in the music video is actually not long, at most a quarter of the time.

But the final spear throw, the flying kick, and the final towering sword aura left the deepest impression on all the viewers.

As the final boss, he doesn't waste time or show any mercy, sweeping away opponents right away to defend his title.

The punch really gave Chen Dongqing a lot of flair.

Chen Dongqing nodded in satisfaction. He shared the video with Lin Yuanhua and then asked, "How would you rate it?"

This message was destined to go unanswered in the short term, because Chen Dongqing knew that Lin Yuanhua was also on a plane bound for South Korea and had already taken off ahead of schedule.

Chen Dongqing didn't expect to wait for a reply. He turned off his phone screen, took out his tablet from his backpack, and started playing Deadpool 2, which he had just downloaded the night before.

The trip to South Korea wasn't too far, just the length of a movie.

In the movie's post-credits scene, Deadpool travels to the real world and shoots Ryan Reynolds, who originally took on the script for "Green Lantern," making a reference to the Green Lantern franchise.

At that moment, the plane slowly slowed down and came to a stop on the runway at Incheon International Airport.

Instead of going directly to Busan, the venue for the group stage, the group first arrived in Seoul and checked into their hotel.

They need to train in Seoul first, and wait for the qualifying rounds to end before heading to Busan with the teams that have advanced.

As for why the airport is called Incheon International Airport, it can only be said that South Korea is such a small place, and Incheon and Seoul are very close to each other, so it is normal for them to share an airport.

Sitting on the bus to the hotel, Chen Dongqing took out his phone again.

Lin Yuanhua had checked into the hotel with the rest of the group an hour earlier and had sent the message back to Chen Dongqing.

"[It's really cool!]" Lin Yuanhua commented on the music video with a smile, then added, "[Fist has really been sucking up to you lately.]"

Chen Dongqing grinned as he typed: "They really should fawn over me. Without me, League of Legends' popularity would probably be far worse than it is now."

[Okay, okay] Lin Yuanhua immediately expressed disbelief, but he still replied perfunctorily, [You're the most important one.]

Chen Dongqing knew his girlfriend didn't believe him, but he didn't offer any further explanation.

Chen Dongqing has certainly seen what League of Legends would be like without him.

In my previous life, LOL was far less popular than it is now.

That's the case, at least in China.

With a gold medal at the Bird's Nest and three gold medals at the Asian Games, Chen Dongqing single-handedly brought the game League of Legends to the attention of CCTV, truly introducing the concept of "e-sports" to millions of households!

His girlfriend then sent him a long image, laughing, "Look, my fist is licking you again."

Chen Dongqing clicked on the picture and saw the title in the picture content.

Top 20 of the 2018 Global Finals.

"Hey guys," Chen Dongqing called out, turning his head, "the TOP 20 are out!"

The TOP20 ranking is a segment that appears every year at the World Championships. Simply ranking and evaluating the top 20 players can generate a lot of discussion and further boost the popularity of the World Championships.

This used to be called the "Poisonous Milk Ranking," but Chen Dongqing has gotten rid of that nickname.

"What? What?" Little Tiger immediately came over. "Let's see what number I am!"

The other four members of QG have all experienced the S7 World Championship and have all been in the TOP20, so this is nothing new to them. Only Xiaohu is really looking forward to it.

With QG as his main team, he can't possibly fail to make the top 20, right?

"Here, number 20." Chen Dongqing clicked on the picture posted by the poster and saw Xiao Hu's figure at the beginning of the first long picture.

TOP20: QG.Xiaohu.

From being relegated last year to joining QG today, Xiaohu has undergone a complete transformation. Many might say that Xiaohu's skill still needs to be proven, but I would say that the honors he has achieved this year are the best proof.

"Not bad, Li Yuanhao," Chen Dongqing said with a smile. "You've made the list."

Xiao Hu carefully read the evaluation of himself, his face expressionless: "Only 20th? That's too low."

Chen Dongqing patted Xiaohu on the shoulder: "It's good enough that you got in."

Judging from this ranking and comments, Riot Games probably doesn't want to include Xiaohu.

After all, Xiaohu's individual statistics are not very impressive. In QG, where the win rate is extremely high, his individual statistics are even worse than those of Rookie and Doinb.

However, considering QG's performance this year, Riot Games reluctantly placed him at the bottom of the list.

"What, the TOP 20?" Xiangguo leaned closer. "Look where we are! Li Yuanhao made it, so we're definitely all in!"

Xiao Hu glanced at Xiang Guo but didn't say anything.

Chen Dongqing continued scrolling down the long image and quickly found Shi Senming ranked 14th and Xiangguo ranked 7th.

The TOP20 ranking can be roughly divided into tiers of five.

20-16 is one level, 15-11 is another level.

Xiaohu, Xiaoming, and Xiangguo are basically each in their own tier, which is in line with their status in QG.

In QG, the fifth-ranked player is in the 16-20 tier, and the fourth-ranked player is in the 11-15 tier.

As for those who are the eldest and second eldest brothers in QG.

That's definitely the first tier level!

Chen Dongqing continued to scroll down, all the way to Rookie in the TOP3, but he still didn't see the two QG players.

It's clear that QG's two star players will once again take the top two spots this year, just like last year.

TOP2: QG.Uzi

[Undisputedly the greatest AD carry of all time, after the Ardent Censer meta last year, his skill has improved even further, reaching another peak in his career! It's hard to believe he's a veteran who has been playing for six years.]

"Looks like Chen Dongqing is number one again." Xiangguo couldn't help but cross his arms and say, "Three consecutive years at number one, that's too unbelievable."

Uzbekistan was sullen and didn't want to talk.

He also felt that it was indeed too exaggerated.

"What's so exaggerated about that?" Xiaohu immediately glared at him and said, "It's the top lane meta now. If we don't give the top spot to Tree Bro, are we going to give it to you? What are you calling yourself, you old seventh brother?"

Xiangguo's eyes widened immediately upon hearing this.

Little Tiger felt instantly happy.

Cool!

You just made a sarcastic remark at me!

Chen Dongqing ignored Hu Guo's usual banter and scrolled to the end of the long image.

TOP1: QG.ilex

It's difficult to describe Ilex's greatness in words. His versatility extends beyond the top lane, and even beyond League of Legends. Without a doubt, he is the best esports player on the planet!

Like his bot lane teammates, Ilex's skill has evolved once again after his back-to-back championships, reaching a new peak – believe me, this is a height that no one in history has ever reached, just like his achievements.

"Awesome! Awesome!" Xiangguo was practically clapping as he read the comments. "This company has really gone crazy lately. Such a big company, have they lost all shame?"

Linko chimed in with a chuckle, "What does face matter as long as we can make more money? Besides, sucking up to Chen Dongqing isn't shameful."

Chen Dongqing was amused by this comment and sent Lin Yuanhua a Tom Cat laughing heartily emoji.

The bus slowly came to a stop in front of the hotel, and as soon as everyone got off the bus, they saw their old friend Vincent.

Linko and Vincent checked in at the hotel reception. When they returned, they handed out room keys to the team members and said, "After you've put your luggage away at the hotel, meet in conference room 707. We'll have a meeting to discuss the new version first, and then we'll go eat."

Before every major competition, they hold a meeting as soon as they land; this is a tradition of QG.

The group moved quickly, and after checking into their rooms on the seventh floor, they hurried to the training room, which had been converted from a conference room.

Banbazi didn't rush to her room; instead, she came here first, connected her phone to the computer, and uploaded the PPT file from her phone.

"The version for this World Championship has been set at 8.19," Banbazi said. "It's been three versions since our playoffs, and there have been quite a few changes. Please take note."

"First and foremost, the most crucial changes are to the top lane. Akali, Irelia, and Aatrox, three champions who shone brightly in the Summer Split, have all been nerfed to varying degrees."

As Banbazi spoke, he commented on the changes: "These changes are crucial, and also fatal."

Chen Dongqing had already seen the version changes a few days ago, and upon hearing banbazi's words, he couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

The changes to these three heroes are indeed fatal.

Irelia's ultimate ability can no longer apply a disarm effect, but its slow effect has been increased.

This nerf is a bit painful, but it mainly affects team fights. It doesn't have much impact on laning or late-game split pushing. For Irelia, who rarely participates in team fights, it does have an impact, but it's acceptable.

Akali's Q skill no longer restores health when at high energy, and her W skill no longer grants invisibility to turrets, with its cooldown increased by 2 seconds at max level.

As compensation, Akali's health regeneration per five seconds has been increased from 3.5 to 8.

That cut hurt a bit.

The Q skill's cooldown and W skill's invisibility against turrets were basically Akali's core laning mechanics in this version, but they were all nerfed!

The Q's response is acceptable, as it's compensated for with the health regeneration, but the designers not only failed to compensate for W's tower invisibility, but instead increased its cooldown by two seconds.

This change doesn't really make any sense.

Chen Dongqing clearly remembers that Akali's W was nerfed in Season 9.

As a result of his appearance, the change was brought forward by six months.

It's a bit abstract.

Since Akali's rework, Chen Dongqing has only played Akali twice: once in the Asian Games finals and once in the playoffs' semifinals.

But crucially, in the Asian Games final, Chen Dongqing incorporated the basic attack technique of using turrets into Akali's W, achieving the effect of toying with turrets and completing a blood exchange under the turret without taking damage.

This move completely transformed Akali's W mechanics!

Perhaps it was this move that made the designers realize their foolishness, so they quickly removed the mechanism.

Chen Dongqing expressed deep remorse for this.

Next, Aatrox received the lightest nerfs, with only a slight reduction in his ultimate's cooldown and a minor decrease in his E's lifesteal against minions.

"Of these three changes, the changes to Irelia and Akali are a bit too drastic, so it's difficult for us to assess whether these changes will affect their appearance at Worlds."

Banbazi thought for a moment and then asked, "Chen Dongqing, what do you think?"

Chen Dongqing said, "It won't have a big impact; we can still play."

These three heroes remained regular picks in matches all the way up to Season 12.

We're only at this stage.

"That's fine then." Banbazi nodded. "Anyway, let's keep practicing first. As for the specific situation, we'll observe it slowly during the qualifying rounds and training matches."

Continue flipping through the slides.

Kai'Sa has been nerfed. Her passive execute damage has been changed from 15%-20% of missing health (which increases with level) to a fixed 15%, reducing Kai'Sa's late-game damage output.

Varus, Braum, and Tahm Kench all had their health and health growth nerfed.

These heroes can be said to belong to the same system, and the designer's nerf has hit the overlords of AD heroes who rely on special effects.

In addition, the price of Infinity Edge has been reduced by 200, the true damage conversion attribute has been reduced to 10%, and the prices of a series of equipment such as Cannon, Electric Blade, Hurricane, and Green Crossbow have all been reduced by 100.

With these changes, the designer's intention is quite clear: to get countless players away from the special effects-based playstyle and back to the traditional critical strike playstyle.

Compared to the fast-paced special effects build, the critical strike build, which requires three pieces of equipment to be effective, is definitely slower.

With this change, the bottom lane will have a smaller impact on the game's tempo.

This has nothing to do with Chen Dongqing; it's something that Uzi and Shi Senming need to worry about.

But the problem is obviously not big. The two have come all the way from S7, from soft support to hard support, from critical strike to special effects, and now to critical strike in the current version. They can adapt to it all.

The PPT had been turned to the last page, and Banbazi took the opportunity to summarize: "Regarding this World Championship version, we can be certain that the top, mid, and jungle will still be the core of the game. Our overall playstyle and focus do not need to change. We will play the same way as before. The only change is the priority of hero selection."

With the World Championship approaching, the designers obviously dared not make major changes to the version, lest a tragedy like that of S5 and S7 occur again.

Since the top, mid, and jungle players are still the core, QG remains the strongest team.

After the brief version meeting ended, Banbazi clapped his hands and said with a smile, "It's almost time. Let's go grab a bite to eat, then come back and practice! The play-in stage is starting soon, and we don't have many days left to prepare!"

Before we knew it, it was December 1th.

Because of the Asian Games, this year's World Championships are starting later than usual. In previous years, the group stage would have already started by this time, but this year the qualifying stage has only just begun.

While China celebrates its National Day, the S8 World Championship has finally begun in Seoul, South Korea.

The first thing to do, of course, is to compete in the qualifying rounds.

The bottom seeds from the major regions and wildcard regions engaged in a fierce battle for group stage spots.

After a seven-day battle, the four spots for advancement were finally decided.

As expected, teams from all four major regions advanced.

After Master An's brilliant draw, the four teams were assigned to four groups.

The group stage matchups are finally set!

Group A: FNC, IG, MAD (West 2), C9 (US 3)

Group B: QG SKT VIT (Euro 2) GRX (Corner 3)

Group C: KT PVB 100T (USA 2) G2 (Europe 3)

Group D: FW FPX TL SSG

The main force of the World Championship also quickly changed locations, moving from Seoul to Busan.