Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

South Koreans are a highly competitive race, sometimes to the point of developing a near-distorted competitive mentality. You can watch them compete against a superpower, and they all seem to want their countrymen to win.

In the center of the stadium, even soundproofing equipment could not completely block the players from hearing the cheers.

At this moment, Li Mingzhe felt as if something inside him had been activated.

"The match has officially begun. Our player Li Mingzhe has chosen the Zerg faction, which, according to relevant statistics, is said to have the highest win rate. Our opponent is using the Protoss faction, so we can say that we have a certain advantage from the start."

"That's right. As long as Li Mingzhe plays steadily, continues to produce infantry, and then launches a counterattack like last time, the probability of winning is still very high."

"Hey? Look, it seems like Carl from the US built the population buildings just outside Li Mingzhe's line of sight. Why did he build them so far away? Won't they get destroyed? Isn't that just pointlessly wasting his resources?"

"I don't quite understand. What's the purpose of this? Shouldn't these kinds of population-containment structures be well hidden to prevent them from being destroyed and thus restricting the population?"

On the field, Li Mingzhe chose to rapidly produce infantry, frantically investing all his funds into the most profitable primary unit, the Zergling.

However, Carl from the United States chose a different path, controlling a construction unit to start building population buildings not far from Li Mingzhe's base. Buildings with no defenses so close to the enemy are just a waste of resources, aren't they? The enemy could destroy such buildings at any time, right?

Many people still don't quite understand what this strategy is.

But Zhu Youxing knew all too well.

The people in this world don't yet have a deep understanding of the gameplay, after all, the game has only been released for a few months, and every day a bunch of people are developing brand new gameplay.

However, this kind of surprise attack is usually only effective in the early stages of the game.

The more thoroughly people understand StarCraft, the less room there will be for unconventional gameplay.

Building structures around the enemy is a disgusting tactic, but it's within the rules.

The goal is to build a group of turrets with extremely strong defensive and offensive capabilities outside the enemy's line of sight, and then use these turrets to limit the enemy's survival space.

This is commonly known as Tower Rush, a turret-based offensive tactic.

Basic units like Li Mingzhe's Zerglings have difficulty quickly dismantling turret buildings, making it a clear case of "dimensional reduction" in comparison.

Even if Li Mingzhe discovers it, as long as one turret is built, it can almost successfully replace multiple infantry units and disrupt the enemy's rhythm, which is very efficient tactically.

What Zhu Youxing really didn't expect was that this shameless way of playing, which players in his previous life had spent a long time figuring out, would be discovered by the people of this world so quickly.

Due to special rules, Protoss units must be produced within a certain range of population buildings in order to ensure the stable operation of buildings.

That's why Carl from the United States first built a population building outside of Li Mingzhe's field of vision.

Before people understood Karl's intentions, the population building was already completed.

Karl then quickly built three turret structures in a short period of time.

At this moment, the commentators and the audience seemed to realize something.

"Wait a minute, isn't building turrets right next to the opponent a bit over the top? Is this even possible?"

"Li Mingzhe, hurry up and find out! The enemy has already built artillery emplacements right in front of your house!"

"It's alright, don't panic. Our Li Mingzhe has a large number of soldiers. One charge will destroy these artillery positions!"

"That's right, that's exactly it!"

At this moment, the expressions of the South Korean conglomerate representatives around Zhu Youxing were rather unpleasant.

They couldn't understand the game, but at least they could understand the battlefield situation to some extent.

Video games can never compare to a real battlefield; the rules are completely different.

In a real battlefield, building a bunker right at the enemy's doorstep is suicide, but in the game, you don't need to worry about supplies or population loss.

"Find it quickly! Find it quickly!"

While Karl calmly continued building more turrets and population buildings, Li Mingzhe continued to mass produce troops. Then, at this moment, he finally prepared to launch an attack.

However, in Zhu Youxing's view, he was basically finished.

Chapter 379 Using a strategy of first suppressing then praising

Surrounded by numerous artillery emplacements, Li Mingzhe's small force was no match for them.

He didn't even think to build too many units that could demolish buildings faster, his goal being to quickly mass produce troops and overwhelm the opponent.

The final outcome was obvious; he failed without a doubt under everyone's gaze.

As he watched his base being gradually flattened by advancing turrets, and then the enemy leading his now defenseless army to sweep through his remaining territory, the word "defeat" finally appeared on his screen.

The audience in the stands fell silent for a moment.

Li Mingzhe also felt a moment of mental disorientation.

This feeling of failure is truly unpleasant.

Especially when you're just a little bit away from the final championship.

"Mr. Zhuyou, isn't this kind of gameplay against the rules? It looks so shameless."

A representative of a South Korean conglomerate asked with a grim expression.

He desperately wanted a positive answer from Zhu Youxing, which would make him feel much better.

Zhu Youxing shook his head.

"There are ways to deal with this kind of play, but it's a pity that this player didn't adjust his strategy in time. But this is just the early chaotic era of esports, so there's no need to worry too much. In the future, as tactics become more sophisticated, this kind of sneaky approach will hardly be as effective. At most, it will just annoy the opponent."

Zhu Youxing directly approved of this method of winning.

Even if this method seems unappealing and significantly diminishes the game's overall presentation, it is actually detrimental to the game's promotion.

Zhu Youxing has decided to have the interstellar development team further refine the numerical values ​​when he returns.

There is never a perfect balance in this world, but neither can any one way of playing be absolutely dominant, otherwise it would be too homogenous and boring.

By the way, maybe I could introduce the hero system from Warcraft into StarCraft ahead of time.

The introduction of heroes has significantly reduced the learning curve for Warcraft compared to StarCraft.

Even those with slightly less skill can still have a decent gaming experience.

While Zhu Youxing was deep in thought, Li Mingzhe, looking somewhat lost, walked off the stage.

His rival walked up to Li Mingzhe with great pleasure, wanting to praise Li Mingzhe as an equally excellent opponent.

However, Li Mingzhe walked off the competition stage in a low mood, not giving the player Karl a chance to show off.

In the stands, the audience booed, all mocking Karl's unscrupulous playstyle.

If the soldiers on the main battlefield had suffered a major defeat, their reaction might not have been so intense; at most, they would have been somewhat disappointed.

However, being defeated by this kind of gameplay is somewhat unacceptable no matter what.

But the outcome is already decided, and no one can change it.

Karl, beaming, entered the backstage lounge to await the other semi-final match.

The defeat of a South Korean player made the audience in the stands hold their breath.

It would be quite humiliating if the other South Korean player lost.

In this era when esports was just beginning to take shape, Zhu Youxing actually felt that this kind of thing was perfectly normal.

Even with the well-established League of Legends system from his previous life, there would occasionally be one or two miraculous plays.

Unexpected things always happen in esports, or rather, this happens in all sports; it's unavoidable.

Uncertainty is also part of the charm of competition.

It can make you nervous, disappointed, and excited at the same time.

If winning is too easy, it can actually make the process seem rather dull and boring to the audience.

What he wanted was drama, and that's how he effectively promoted his game.

The twists and turns of the Japanese game racing competition were not something Takeyusei had anticipated, but when he discovered it, he realized it was a good opportunity—a great way to promote his game in another way.

The same applies to StarCraft today.

At this moment, it's not just South Koreans watching the live stream; Japanese and Americans are also among the viewers.

People in the other two countries didn't seem to care much about South Korea's defeat, but Americans felt it was only natural, as they naturally believed they should be stronger.

Japan also understands that they don't seem to be good at StarCraft, so it's quite normal that they were all eliminated in the StarCraft quarterfinals.

They were quite surprised that there was such a way to win. The method seemed very simple to operate, so could they try to imitate it?

I can't participate in such a world-class competition, but it must be pretty satisfying to occasionally win in this way on the game's competitive platform.

The second semi-final has begun.

This time, the two commentators were noticeably more cautious. They had praised Li Mingzhe a lot before, but after Li Mingzhe's defeat, they were genuinely afraid that their bad luck would kill the last remaining hope. So they decided to focus more on explaining the gameplay.

However, this South Korean player was more cautious than Lee Myung-chul.

Perhaps it was because he witnessed Li Mingzhe's match firsthand that he realized some of the enemy's tricks and cunning, so he played more steadily and cautiously in the match.

The American player seemed surprised by how easily Carl had won. He hadn't initially seemed to be using the turret attack tactic, but now he suddenly wanted to try it in this match.

This is practically like walking into the line of fire.

In a mature esports system like this, changing one's initial strategy so casually would be tantamount to suicide, but they clearly haven't realized that yet.

Then, the American player suffered a spectacular defeat.

On the one hand, he had no deep understanding of the tactics of turret attack, he just thought that this move was really powerful. On the other hand, he did not have a thorough understanding of the Protoss race's gameplay, and he was really courting death.

The South Korean player won the second semi-final, which restored their reputation and calmed the disgruntled audience.

At the same time, they also felt a sense of relief, as if they had finally gotten rid of some pent-up anger.

Serves you right for using such despicable adulterous tactics; you deserve to lose!

This sense of exhilaration, ironically, further fueled the interest of many viewers in the game.

It can be said that the effect of this match was entirely built on the tense atmosphere of the first match.

Zhu Youxing pondered for a moment, and thought that this was probably the same as using the technique of first suppressing the opponent's anger to elevate the argument.

Chapter 380 Promotional Effect

The final was scheduled for the evening to give the two finalists some rest time.