Chapter 101: Worst career record!

"The score has reached 16:12, VP has secured victory on this map!" The passionate voice of the on-site commentator echoed throughout the entire venue, driving the audience to cheer and shout in unison.

"After VP's victory on Dust II, they have taken two maps in this BO5, securing match point for the BO3. As long as they win one of the next three maps, they can win this BO5, lift the ZOTAC Cup trophy, and take home the $200,000 prize money!!"

"And for Team Kinguin, every one of the next three maps is a life-or-death game; they can no longer afford to lose!!"

The older commentator on the side smoothed things over:

"But it's not to say Team Kinguin has no chance at all. Although they lost the first two maps, their performance on Dust II was still commendable. If they can maintain this level of play, they are still qualified to fight VP."

"Coming back from 0-2 to win 3-2 is difficult, but there is still a glimmer of hope."

In the Haixian Live streaming room 6657.

Wanjiqi was also summarizing the performance of both sides on Dust II, but compared to the two commentators at the venue, he focused more on the players.

"The little penguins ultimately couldn't hold on to the final breath."

"Actually, their tactics in the mid-to-late game were all very good. Just in the last round, after killing Neo, they knew there was only one left at B Site, but they didn't rush, instead reorganizing in the second wave. This playstyle is very steady, and VP really had no good way to deal with it."

"But they couldn't restrict nice!"

"The little penguins knew he would push up and had been guarding against him, even holding him dead a few times in previous rounds. But because nice is so practiced in this forward-push operation, and with VP having reached match point first, they could afford to let him make many, many mistakes. But as long as he succeeded once, he could end the game."

"With top-tier timing, he gathered all the information! A flank, a simple double-kill, easily ending the game."

"On this map, nice delivered a 25-18 performance for the team. Compared to before, this data isn't too exaggerated, but combined with his extreme forward-push attempts in the second half, although his death count was the highest on the team, no one would blame him."

"Now let's look forward to whether VP can take the little penguins away in one wave with a 3-0 score in this BO5?"

"..."

On the VP player bench, everyone's tense emotions were relieved as Xu Beifang took out the two Terrorists, but they still hurriedly moved toward B Site, preparing to welcome this 4-vs-2 retake clutch.

Then michu got two consecutive kills at B Site, making them take off their headsets and shout!

"Niiiiice!! Great job, guys!!!" pasha's emotions were the most outward, shouting in the training room immediately.

Although they reached match point early, not being able to get the final point and kill the game made them incredibly nervous.

Neo and pasha, these old veterans, have fought in CSGO for so many years, earned so much money, met so many people, and seen too many dramatic scenes.

They knew that once they were reverse-swept, the team's morale might deflate instantly like a balloon!

Fortunately, trusting the teammate's playstyle—although they were held dead a few times, they ultimately didn't disappoint their expectations, successfully seizing one opportunity—a fatal opportunity!

"No one going to praise me?" michu said with a smile. "My 1-vs-2 at B Site was also very critical."

byali touched his chin and fell into deep thought: "Mainly, I feel B Site was because my flash was effective; otherwise, you wouldn't have gotten the double-kill."

"Your flash was effective? If I hadn't reacted quickly and lowered my head, I would have been fully flashed!" Hearing this, michu immediately got excited.

The two argued happily. Boys are just like that; they can argue endlessly over such small things.

However, these arguments had no heat; everyone was in a very good mood after winning Map 2 directly.

Neo took off his headset and walked slowly in the training room. For these older players, there were too many injuries. Even though they had only played two matches, the recent tight schedule had already made his waist and back feel uncomfortable.

As he walked, he said in a relaxed tone:

"Now everyone can treat the next match as a brand-new BO3, but in this BO3, we only need to win one map."

"In every aspect, the pressure is on the opponent. We just need to follow the steps, win one map, and we can lift that trophy."

When saying this, Neo had some longing and nostalgia in his eyes.

Since snax left, VP hadn't won a single offline tournament championship; they hadn't felt that feeling for a long time.

"The next map is Overpass. Although our performance on this map recently hasn't been good, everyone can clearly feel that the opponent isn't as strong as NRG, so we must maintain confidence."

"The opponent's playstyle is mostly tactical face-rushing, but they find it very hard to deal with nice. Even when they are targeting nice, they can't gain much advantage over him."

"If possible, let's try to end the game 3-0," Neo smiled. "Even if the opponent keeps scoring, don't rush. I believe our team's strength is higher than theirs."

"Regardless, I'll treat everyone to dinner tonight."

Hearing this, pasha immediately shouted: "Let's go VP!!"

The group laughed uncontrollably, and Xu Beifang also shouted a few cheers.

The third map of the BO5 was Overpass, chosen by Team Kinguin.

VP started as the defensive side on the opponent's map pick.

"Let's do a regular 1-4 opening. byali, you play alone at A Site; nice, follow us to gamble on a heavy B Site defense."

Overpass's structure is quite different from other maps. The defensive pressure at B Site on this map is much greater than in other areas. The regular defensive positioning is 3-B-2-A, which says a lot.

Xu Beifang bought half-armor and followed the team to B Site.

But not long after, they heard byali's shout: "They're hitting A!! There are tons of people in the sewer!!"

At this moment, they noticed that byali had sneaked to the sewer entrance to gather information at some point.

After the two sides collided, byali wanted to escape, but was chased down and rushed by the opponent, failing to trade even one.

Xu Beifang's retake speed was the fastest; he went directly to the front of the car to intercept the Terrorists coming up.

But continuous flashes arrived, and by the time he regained his vision, he had already been killed.

The opponent's offensive was too fierce; VP couldn't hold it at all.

They lost the pistol round without much struggle.

Neo touched his chin and said suspiciously: "Astralis's offensive strategy??"

They hadn't played against Astralis for a long time, but this kind of utility coverage was clearly well-prepared.

After all, he saw from the corner of his eye that Xu Beifang's screen was never normal; it was all white light!

This speculation made his heart sink. He didn't believe the opponent had only learned one Astralis pistol round tactic for their own map pick.

They force-bought in the second round but only traded one kill in the end.

The little penguins began to evolve back into emperor penguins, taking all the early-game tempo into their hands.

The score reached 0:3, and the fourth round of the match began.

"nice, you come to B Site this round. We'll take the initiative to counter-clear the Construction Site and see if we can take control of it directly."

In fact, VP's proficiency on this map wasn't high. The original VP was a team that relied on gunplay; their tactics were far less complex than the Danes'.

On a tactical map like Overpass, their adjustments relied more on individual performance.

Xu Beifang, holding his M4, went straight to the Construction Site at the start according to Neo's instructions.

Stepping over the opponent's sandbag fire and strafing out, Neo's flash was very effective, leaving him with two fully flashed Terrorists.

A burst of spray successfully secured a double-kill and took control of the Construction Site.

Immediately after, pasha at A Site also seized the opportunity, sneaking out from the Balloon and picking off the Terrorist at A Long.

michu, at the Long Pipe, also had a duel with the Terrorist outside the pipe after the smoke dissipated and successfully won the duel.

Only minise remained alive, forced to save his beloved AWP to prepare for the next round.

Everyone on VP thought that round would be the beginning of the team's turnaround, but they didn't expect the situation to take a sharp turn for the worse.

According to Neo's idea, Xu Beifang began to push forward in various areas of the map, but the opponent seemed to continue the state of frantic scoring from the end of Map 2.

Except for a few times when they forcibly killed the opponent, the rest were giving away first kills, making the situation even more difficult.

In the end, the first-half score was fixed at 4:11.

Anyone with eyes could see how terrible VP's performance was in the first half.

During the halftime break, taz also seized this opportunity to try hard to encourage his teammates in the training room:

"Don't worry, that newcomer of theirs does like to push forward, but now we've figured out his habits. As long as we hold the angles more, he won't get many kills, and he won't be able to lead the tempo!"

"The playstyles of the others on VP are all standard; they can't affect the big picture!"

"In a BO5 match, the one who reaches match point first isn't necessarily the strongest; the one who wins three maps in the end is the true champion!"

These words weren't very inspiring, but the Team Kinguin group was still infected, because they also wanted to win!

Coming back from 0-2 to win 3-2 is very difficult, but they had finally reached the finals; who would want to become the opponent's background board?

In esports, no one remembers the runner-up!

The opponent's pure default playstyle in the back really annoyed Xu Beifang.

But there was no way around it; if he didn't push forward, he would likely have to face retakes, and the team had to rely on him to break the deadlock.

But in the pistol round, even after he killed two first, they were still beaten back by the opponent in the clutch.

VP's proficiency on this map was really too low. Now that he thought about it, they should have kept Cache.

But because the overall details of Cache hadn't been good enough in recent matches, pasha and the others felt they could try Overpass.

In the end, it resulted in this outcome; there were some problems with the BP.

After losing the pistol round, VP had no influence on the subsequent match.

In the long-gun round, relying on michu's breakthrough at B Site, they forcibly extended their lives, but were beaten back by the little penguins in the next round.

In the end, on Map 3 Overpass, the score was fixed at 5:16.

VP lost this map by a large margin, and their performance was even worse than in the match against NRG.

On the VP player bench.

Although they were mentally prepared when Map 3 started.

It still didn't feel good to actually lose the game.

Fortunately, most of them only had expectations in their hearts for Neo's previous talk about shaving the opponent 3-0, not that they had to win 3-0.

"Relax a bit." pasha noticed the team's emotions and took the initiative to speak: "Isn't it just losing one map? We are still at match point, and the next map, Train, is our own pick, so don't have psychological pressure."

"We are the Train Kings!"

Actually, the VP group didn't have too much psychological pressure.

After all, in a BO5 match, they hadn't expected not to lose a single game before the start.

Now it was just the normal feeling of loss after losing a game.

Xu Beifang fell into deep thought looking at the stats of Map 3. This Overpass was the worst data he had produced since his debut.

9/2/13, average damage 59.

His aggressive playstyle was greatly restricted on this map, which made Xu Beifang consider making some changes to his playstyle.

Of course, he kept in mind the reminders pasha and the others gave him—to maintain his own style.

The reason he could frequently gain advantages in professional matches now was precisely because of this aggressive, fearless playstyle.

He couldn't change his characteristics and become a standard player defending inside the bomb site.

He was thinking that after this tournament, he would watch more teams like Astralis that do defaults well, to analyze their default covering situations.

Then, based on these teams' defaults, adjust his pre-aiming and timing for forward pushes.

Finding his own shortcomings and constantly correcting them—this was the path to his constant strengthening.

This was just like the suggestions he received; initially, they were always a bit mischievous, but slowly they would become more professional. Xu Beifang would also adjust according to his own needs, rather than rigidly following the crowd.

He wasn't trying to write a CSGO textbook and learn the most reasonable playstyle.

He was learning and summarizing based on his own strengths and weaknesses, modifying based on where he didn't play well, getting feedback from matches, then summarizing, cycling back and forth, putting himself on a stronger path.

So, CSGO professional play is really very much like traditional sports.

During the halftime break, the VP group was adjusting themselves as quickly as possible.

One loss didn't crush them; they were still waiting to eat Neo's big meal.

And they were only one step away from lifting the trophy; the little penguins couldn't crush them with just one game!

After organizing their emotions, both sides entered the match again.

This time it was VP's own chosen map—Train!

There is another chapter tonight.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 102 =====