Chapter 65: I

Inside the hotel, Freeman, having been kicked out by VG security, watched the entire BO3 match from start to finish.

At first, he was happily watching his former teammates get crushed in Map 1, especially when Advent couldn't even fire a shot and was being roasted by the chat. Freeman couldn't have been more satisfied.

But how could they blow such a massive lead in Map 2? How was this MVP playing? Are they even human?

Map 3 was even worse—they didn't put up any resistance at all! They were steamrolled, with Jiao Yang leading the charge!!

The classic plot of being crushed, mounting a comeback, and then being crushed again sent Freeman's blood pressure through the roof.

Countless times he watched the MVP players fail to trade kills, letting Jiao Yang escape death. At those moments, Freeman wished he were the one on the field; he would have punished such a cowardly, camping sniper with a wide swing.

After using a burner account to leave a few nasty comments on MVP's official Twitter, he logged onto the tournament site to check the info for the next match.

"5Power vs. VG? Doesn't look good!"

As a former VG player, he knew these domestic professional teams all too well. 5Power's current level could only be described as inconsistent; their performance depended largely on the two Mongolian brothers. Rumors of these two transferring had recently surfaced, and he wondered if that would have an impact.

Freeman had now become a loyal 5Power fan, because only if 5Power won their match would VG have a chance of being eliminated. Otherwise, with two major points in hand, VG was basically guaranteed a spot.

5Power absolutely must not let their morale be crushed by losing to Tyloo!

Just as he was about to open his blog to see if there was any news from 5Power, a newly posted blog caught his eye.

【Deeply sorry, due to the schedule conflict between IEM Sydney and the Disney Major, as a coach, I can only give up on going to IEM. I hope my teammate @freeman can play a role similar to mine and lead the team to victory.】

The comments below were a mixed bag:

【Front row for the drama.】

【What's going on? Why aren't you playing? Didn't the tournaments shift by almost a week?】

【That's the start time shifting by a week. What if they advance from the CS group stage? You can't just stop halfway through.】

【True, focusing on the Major is more important.】

【Go for it, Brother Jiao. Train hard in Dota. The requirements aren't high, just carry your teammates.】

【Wait, is Freeman even any good? I feel like if he had played today, VG would have been carried away by the Koreans long ago.】

【Freeman? Just a noob who only knows how to trade kills. Seeing Jiao Yang break through and snipe today, his impact was huge.】

【What a pity, I felt the new lineup had a lot of hope for IEM.】

Looking at the comments, Freeman's fists clenched until they ached.

What does "is Freeman even any good" mean? And what does "play a role similar to mine" mean?

Do they really think he doesn't know how to entry frag?

Freeman didn't care about this crappy trade-kill position at all. Young people have fast reactions and good aim; staying in a trade-kill position is just a waste of talent.

If it weren't for ZhokiNg being older and not wanting to take the blame, so he played entry to pull the crosshair, would he have played trade-kill?

When a tiger doesn't show its teeth, do they think I'm a sick cat? This is truly bullying!

He had already figured out how to single-handedly slaughter the opposition at the IEM Sydney tournament. When the time came, these VG fans watching him join Tyloo would only be able to regret it!

Thinking of this, Freeman couldn't help but hum to himself.

……

"Is this useful?" AumaN leaned over to the phone to look at the content on the screen, voicing his doubt.

Then, Jiao Yang skillfully switched to a burner account and posted a few comments questioning Freeman.

"Damn, you really know how to stir the pot." AumaN gave a thumbs up, praising him directly.

This Jiao Yang really had a knack for being underhanded; he was worth learning from.

"When does your French Major end? If we advance in EPL, it should be May 14th for the second round of the Asian qualifiers." Advent asked about the upcoming schedule.

Although EPL is an online tournament, you can't have Jiao Yang playing across the Eurasian continent, right? Wouldn't the lag be maxed out?

"We finish on the night of the 12th. If we run as soon as we finish, it should be in time."

This was Jiao Yang's calculation based on winning the championship. Overall, it was still a bit tight.

"It's fine. If you win the Major championship, we can even take a forfeit." Advent also felt it was tight, but being able to avoid the conflict was a stroke of luck.

"Why are you guys talking like you've already advanced from the group stage?" AumaN teased.

And naturally, he received a whack from Advent.

……

The next day's match, VG swept 5Power 2:0 without any waves.

Map 1 was Dust II, chosen by 5Power. However, on this aim-heavy map, Jiao Yang relied on a terrifying entry-fragging posture to lead a 13:2 scoreline on the T-side first half. Finally, after losing the pistol round and the economic round on CT, VG ended the battle with a winning streak in the full-gun rounds, with a final score of 16:4.

Map 2, who knows where 5Power got the confidence to let Nuke through, only to be operated to death by Advent and VG's double-sniper setup, managing only 5 points in their death throes.

The total round count was 32 to 9. VG directly secured a major point and 23 net round wins, while 5Power directly received 23 net round losses.

In this way, VG, with a total of two major points and a massive advantage of 27 net round wins, basically locked in their qualification for the next round.

As for 5Power, because they lost to Tyloo on the first day and had too many net losses on the second, they directly lost the possibility of advancing.

Now everyone's attention was on Tyloo and MVP, and the VG members gathered at the canteen were no exception.

At this moment, Tyloo had already lost Map 1, Inferno, to MVP with a score of 8:16.

Map 2, Mirage, was at 11:11, and the match was inseparable and exceptionally intense.

"Is Xccurate having a flashback?" AumaN gnawed on a chicken leg while watching the phone screen.

Xccurate's KD had already reached 21-9, getting a kill in almost every round.

At this moment, he was holding the B-site second floor crossing from outside the B bomb site. MVP's Stax did a wide pre-aim swing, but before he could fire, he was taken out by Xccurate's super-fast reaction.

"He's a sniper god of a generation, after all. A lean camel is bigger than a horse." Advent sighed.

Back then, Tyloo used a sniper in this state to shut down VG!

"But we have Kaze, he's no worse than Xccurate!" Jiao Yang patted Kaze on the shoulder.

Kaze buried his head even lower while eating—there was still a match, he couldn't say anything yet.

He decided to tell Jiao Yang about the transfer after playing Tyloo tomorrow.

"Holy crap, Somebody didn't hold that? Was he spacing out?"

In the blink of an eye, the match had changed drastically. The moment Xccurate pulled the bolt on his sniper rifle, the Terrorists had synchronized their rush onto B-short, killing Somebody who was holding the angle.

"Then Xccurate is in danger."

Just after Somebody died, the Terrorists pounced directly on Xccurate, who was saving his life at the bomb site. In the end, Xccurate fought to the death and traded one with a blind snipe, forcing the situation into a 3v3.

"Tyloo's utility management is not great this round; they were tricked by too many smokes. The retake won't be easy." Advent didn't look favorably on this round's retake.

"11 to 11, Tyloo will save their guns." Jiao Yang took a sip of soup and made his judgment.

The small area is easy to defend and hard to attack. In a 3v3 situation where the opponent has planted the bomb, once the CT retake fails, their economy will be wiped clean.

Even if they win, it's hard to buy full utility, while the Terrorists can still force-buy based on the bomb-plant bounty.

In short, the risk is too high.

Sure enough, after Attacker and Summer waited for the opponent to make a mistake to no avail, they chose to save their guns. ===== CHAPTER 66 =====