Chapter 200: 204. Chapter 200: AVANGAR is about to be flipped over!

204. Chapter 200: AVANGAR is about to be flipped over!

It is already past midnight in China, and the night outside the window is pitch black.

Wanjiqi frowns as he watches the stream; the score at the top has reached 4:7 without him even noticing.

On the secondary screen to the right, the viewers are taking advantage of the tactical timeout to have a quick discussion.

【The frontal defense against Team Astralis's one-wave flow can't withstand the pressure.】

【Feels like their style is being countered; Nice hasn't dared to push forward in these last few rounds.】

【Indeed, Team Astralis has such good discipline, how could he push forward? He'd probably be held and killed the moment he stepped out.】

【This Team Astralis is also ridiculous; Jame always has a sniper rifle available, their economy just won't break.】

Watching the viewers' discussion on the right, Wanjiqi also knows that Vitality's situation isn't great right now.

Since the first full-buy round, AVANGAR has gradually begun their own map control rhythm, controlling the map in an orderly fashion.

Moreover, their style is very unique; they play very, very slowly, and Vitality can't get much information on them at all from the surface.

Wanjiqi has chatted with Xu Beifang and knows that many of Xu Beifang's forward pressures are handled based on information. The opponent's playstyle, which releases so little information, might be making Nice feel somewhat constrained.

"Vitality's situation isn't optimistic, but Vitality called this timeout very timely. I hope they can make some adjustments after the timeout."

As a fan of Nice, while Wanjiqi remains neutral, he still very much hopes that his good friend can achieve results.

At the Vitality player bench.

Apex frowns and tentatively says: "Should we try a heavy defense gamble strategy? They play very slowly; if we can manage to rotate back early, there should still be a chance to win."

As one of the dark horse teams of this Major, AVANGAR's playstyle is truly uncomfortable. Apex doesn't even feel much of the opponent's presence before they are directly pushed into a bomb site by a one-wave flow.

Both sides don't even have basic mind games; there is simply too little information.

The bald coach ponders for a moment and shakes his head: "That shouldn't work. The opponent's defaults are very meticulous; it's not that constipated offense like NaVi's, they just like to compress the offensive time."

"But we have to come up with a way now," NBK shouts in the voice chat. "Although we can trade effective kills on the A-site front, it's just too painful to play retakes every single round."

Although the number of trades on the A-site has been decent, once they enter a clutch situation, even an even-numbered clutch, they are the passive side, and the pressure is quite high.

"How about we look to fight them early on? Directly counter-control Mid," RPK says somewhat gloomily.

These few rounds have been quite suffocating. The opponent sends wave after wave of utility, slowly eating away at Mid control, splitting them on both sides, and then choosing one side to launch an explosive bomb attack.

After the trades, it's just a clutch game between the retaking players of both sides.

But the opponent often manages to leave a Jame behind. The suppression power of that sniper rifle isn't strong, not like the omnipresent feeling of S1mple.

But as long as Jame's sniper rifle holds your position on the front, he basically won't miss a shot; it's an stability that exceeds the norm.

Xu Beifang raises an eyebrow. In the current rigid situation, a special method is needed to break it.

"How about... let me look for an opportunity?"

"Nice!" Following the moment of the round victory, Qikert shouts excitedly in the voice chat.

Others in the team also respond, only Jame, as the team's big brother, remains in a calm state.

Seeing this scene, Qikert still can't help but sigh.

Jame is always like this; whether facing victory or defeat, he can maintain this state of neither joy nor sorrow.

It's different for them; even if the team requires not having too much psychological fluctuation due to wins or losses, their hearts will still instinctively be affected by the desire to win.

Jame, however, is like an AI robot, possessing the most terrifying mentality in the world.

As the IGL, Jame only uses a few words to finish explaining the tactics to be played next.

There is still plenty of time in the tactical timeout. Qikert glances at the scoreboard and chats with his teammates: "This Vitality is worthy of being the number one in Europe; the A-site is really tough."

BUSTER adds: "It's that Nice and Zywoo on the A-site are playing fiercely; RPK's performance can only be said to be average, didn't see anything great. That Nice is really hard to deal with; his positioning is too flexible."

They didn't choose to avoid the fight because the opponent's A-site combat power was sufficient; it was more about planning specific offensive routes according to Jame's ideas.

Jame glances at the scoreboard, nods, and adds: "The gunplay is indeed strong, but it won't affect our tactics."

Their tactical structure is self-contained on the offensive end and is rarely affected by the opponent's individual performance, unless they are screen-cleared by a player's individual performance during the explosive bomb wave.

But the opponent's A-site has become too passive as the economy keeps having problems, failing to produce any eye-catching performance.

The tactical timeout ends, and Jame finally adds:

"Although the opponent is Top 9, don't have too much pressure. You saw it in the previous rounds; as long as our defaults are done well, the opponent doesn't dare to push forward."

"Our goal for the first half is to take two more rounds, maintain the current rhythm, and stabilize our mentality."

After finishing his words, feeling his teammates enter the state again, Jame nods with satisfaction.

But as the warm air from the air conditioner next to him blows, he doesn't know why he feels a chill down his back.

The twelfth round begins.

Apex chooses to trust Xu Beifang's idea, letting him start to play freely and completely liberating him.

The coach's reminder before the match made Xu Beifang relatively restrained on the defensive end.

They also saw AVANGAR's footage; the defaults were indeed done well, having the style of Team Astralis, so Xu Beifang didn't have the idea of using himself as a fulcrum in the first few rounds.

But as the score kept slipping and the team felt like it was heading toward a collapse, he still chose to actively make some dangerous plays.

The dry-peek of Nya-pasu surfaces in his mind, and the ideas in Xu Beifang's mind gradually take shape.

For this round, Xu Beifang buys a half-armor AUG plus a full set of utility.

At the start, he throws an anti-rush fire toward A1, and Xu Beifang quietly sticks near A1.

The flames burn quietly, and AVANGAR begins another map control in Mid.

The crossing smoke and VIP smoke were given at the start, and they are advancing in an orderly manner, slowly using utility to nibble away at Vitality's Mid control.

Apex glances at Xu Beifang at A1 and signals: "Give some pressure in Mid, burn the sewer fire, or supplement the Archway smoke, anything works."

After saying that, he throws a flashbang toward Mid himself.

After playing together for so long, Apex has become increasingly familiar with Nice's playstyle.

He also begins to consider helping him reduce the burden in other areas of the map. If enough pressure is given in Mid, the opponent's eyes will look toward this side, and Nice's solo-peek will be a bit easier.

Vitality begins to give pressure to Mid, and the Terrorists also begin to counter-utility to take gun positions.

Their vision of the sewer is cut off, and they worry that someone in the Archway will counter-flash and push out.

Waiting for the sewer fire to gradually extinguish, they begin to coordinate and come out together to get information, confirming that there is no one in Mid.

When both sides are playing mind games in Mid, Xu Beifang has already reached his familiar A1 vase position. After holding for a long time without seeing anyone come to probe, he begins to probe forward.

Carefully pushing forward, without making a sound, he uses a half-body peek to confirm that there is no one directly holding the anti-push gun positions.

Only then does Xu Beifang hold down the walk key and slowly push forward.

"No one seen at A1, someone check A2, I won't clear that position."

Pushing forward from A1 to catch A2 without exposing sound takes too long.

Messy footsteps sound at the sandbags. Xu Beifang reports this information and continues to push forward with a nervous heart.

He is not nervous because he is about to find an opportunity, but because he is worried that someone will come out of A2.

Now that he is pushing forward, the opponent's defaults are done very well. A1 didn't place anyone, so the probability of leaving someone at A2 is very high.

He worries that the opponent will start a full-scale attack and the person at A2 will walk back.

So now he is in a state of looking back every three steps to prevent his back from being stolen.

JKS's clutch clearing mode still gives Xu Beifang a lot of help.

He quietly sneaks all the way to the Terrorist spawn point. At this time, he also sees a C4 flashing with light on the road from the Terrorist spawn to Mid!

"The bomb is still at the Terrorist entrance!"

Hearing Nice's voice, the other members of Vitality glance at the mini-map.

Whoa!

You really caught the opportunity!

They are a bit incredulous. Although they know Nice is very sharp about the timing of forward pressure and can often see him find a world of his own in the match.

But to be able to seize the opportunity against a team whose defaults are done so well, this is just too terrifying!

Wanjiqi watches the stream, trembling with excitement, "Old Eight is doing a default on the periphery of the A-site alone. This time he chooses to hold A2 directly to prevent forward pressure; he doesn't dare to give the A2 information to the opponent."

"But Nice just quietly snuck all the way from A1 to the Terrorist spawn, directly sneaking through AVANGAR! Holy crap, this Nice!"

"Can he be even bolder?"

Xu Beifang quietly pushes forward and arrives at the Terrorist entrance. In his vision, Jame is holding B-Small at the L-position, and there is a Terrorist in VIP directly holding VIP, wanting to find trouble for Zywoo.

He carefully searches, confirms there is no second person in Mid, pulls the crosshair to Jame's head, and pulls the trigger.

"Bang! Bang!"

【Nice used AUG to headshot kill Jame】

"Da-da-da..."

【Nice used AUG to kill Fitch】

"Nice is completely in the opponent's psychological blind spot. Two big backs became bots for his aim training. 5v5 instantly became 5v3! The situation is clearing up, brothers!" 【Nice is awesome! Even dry-peeking like this】

【This round's luck is too good, A1 just happened to have no one directly holding】

【You think World's Number One Pressure is just talk?】

【Originally wanted to play well and be steady, but the timeout showed that not pushing isn't working】

【Being aggressive is good! Nice just needs this aggressive style!】

The sudden sound of gunfire and the death screen make Jame's calm face finally show fluctuations.

He shouts urgently in the voice chat: "Terrorist entrance pushed!! Come back first and deal with the Terrorist entrance!"

He still hasn't figured out the situation. He was holding the sniper rifle safely, waiting for Apex to come out and make a mistake.

If the opponent doesn't make a mistake, he is prepared to give another round of pressure in Mid and organize a B-Small pinch to start a full-scale attack.

But this gun was held well, and suddenly he was flipped; who can take this?

The AVANGAR voice chat is not calm. Two people suddenly died in Mid, and Nice's position proves that he definitely pushed forward from the A-site, which means the bomb was discovered.

Spent a lot of effort, but the control of Mid was taken by the opponent; this round has already somewhat collapsed.

BUSTER feels somewhat annoyed in his heart. After all, he is responsible for the default on the periphery of the A-site, but because Nice didn't push forward in the previous rounds, he was negligent.

He is annoyed that his mistake put the team in danger, but there is also a trace of doubt in his heart.

At the start, he heard A1 throw a fire. He pushed forward immediately after holding on A2, and then retreated to the back point to watch A1 for a while, confirming that the opponent didn't walk into A2 again.

As a result, he doesn't know what timing was missed, but the opponent still snuck to the Terrorist entrance.

He didn't hear footsteps the whole time; is the opponent that brave?

There are only 40 seconds left, a 5v3 clutch.

Xu Beifang got two kills in Mid in a row, didn't retreat, but fought even harder.

He didn't see the opponent in Mid at first, but he knows the location of the bomb; the opponent will always come to pick it up.

He turns and walks toward the Terrorist spawn, holding the crosshair on the TV room, waiting for the opponent to appear.

And Apex, seeing Xu Beifang's battle situation, immediately shouts excitedly in the voice chat: "RPK and I push down to Mid together, take the control of Mid!!"

As the team's big brother, Xu Beifang gained an advantage by trying boldly, and Apex cannot fail his expectations.

At his command, RPK and Apex push out directly from the Archway and B-Small.

"RPK actively looks for trouble in the sewer. Qikert in the sewer didn't beat RPK; this position is indeed hard for Old Seven to guard against enemies peeking from Mid. At the same time, Zywoo's big sniper held dead the Old Eight inside A2, and Nice himself also killed Krizzen who rushed out from the TV room."

Wanjiqi shouts excitedly: "Battles broke out at three angles simultaneously, but Vitality had zero casualties. Relying on Nice's top-tier dry-peek, they played an ACE!"

Vitality harvests, and all weapons are updated.

Wanjiqi summarizes in the stream: "This is Nice. This dry-peek is too top-tier. His solo-peek timing, which is as steady as a wallhack, is an operation that others in the professional scene cannot replicate."

"He contributes too much to this Vitality team. Perhaps in the whole team, his aiming ability is not the strongest, but he is definitely the rhythm engine!"

"Once you can't find an opportunity on the defensive end, it's relying on Little Xu's solo-peek to create miracles."

"However, AVANGAR should make an adjustment next. Vitality's decision-making next will be the top priority of the first half, because the outcome of this match will determine the direction of the score in the next few rounds."

The ghost-like wailing of Apex comes from next door, and Jame's expression sinks.

But perhaps because his face is usually serious, there is still no big change in his expression.

"My bad!" BUSTER says, "I should have reminded you that A1 has timing."

"It's okay," Jame's expression remains unchanged, "It's just a slight accident; he can't push forward like this every round."

Pacifying his teammates' emotions, he continues: "Let's follow our rhythm. This time you do the default at A1, just hold him dead, our final direction is still the B-site."

Jame is not a person who likes to constantly play mind games with the opponent's IGL. In his view, those tasks should be done before the match, and after the match, just follow the general ideas and instructions to execute them constantly.

The opponent's sudden forward push disrupted his plan, but spending 4750 to buy the big sniper again, the sense of security returned to his heart.

Only with a sniper in hand can everything be played.

The countdown ends, and Xu Beifang continues to come to the A-site.

An A1 fire at the start, and then he strides directly toward the A1 near point.

Same operation, same boldness.

1 minute 42 seconds, the flames gradually extinguish, and Xu Beifang pushes toward A1.

Originally intended to sit at the vase position for a while, but he saw a Terrorist pull out from the left side.

Xu Beifang immediately stops, pulling the crosshair to the opponent's head.

【Nice used AK47 to headshot kill BUSTER】

Calm handling allows Xu Beifang to get the first kill again.

"Nice, he's here again!!" Wanjiqi is crying and laughing, "Can only say that this first kill data is Nice finding the opponent to fight round by round; it's really not that the opponent is willing to come over and duel with him!"

"Pushed A1 last round, continuing to push this round, Team Astralis hasn't seen anyone play like this either."

"However, BUSTER's reaction is also fast, a wave of spraying also left Nice crippled. Although Old Eight was killed, it curbed the opponent's forward push, this might not be a..." Wanjiqi hasn't finished speaking when another change occurs on the field.

Seeing Nice throw a smoke grenade at his feet, RPK supplements an incendiary grenade toward A1, and then the crippled Nice continues to push forward.

"It appeared again, Nice's top-tier understanding of forward pressure, using utility to deceive you that he has retreated to the bomb site!"

"You think he's crippled and wants to retreat to the bomb site, but this monster still comes to find you when he's crippled!"

Xu Beifang is very confident; he didn't expect to exchange fire with the opponent at this timing.

But the subsequent lack of backup at A1 proves that the opponent's default formation is not biased toward A1.

At this time, you have to plot bigger things.

Plus, his health is not high, so even if he is killed by forward pressure, he has no psychological burden.

If the timing created happens to seize the opportunity, it will directly subvert the battle situation.

So he threw a smoke grenade himself and let RPK cooperate with him to give an incendiary, laying the groundwork, and then began to push forward.

Listening to the two pieces of utility exploding at A1, Jame behind the sandbags frowns.

"Shot three times and didn't die, got headshot by one shot." BUSTER purses his lips and says somewhat helplessly.

Fitch was originally holding utility at B2, and hearing this, he immediately walks back, "I'll go hold the back road."

Jame in Mid refutes this idea, "Don't go, I'll give some pressure in Mid, you guys just play an explosive bomb attack at B2."

Jame understands very well in his heart that going back to clear A1 now takes too much time, which is exactly what the opponent wants to see.

Since the A1 information has been fully obtained, they must take advantage of the opponent's failure to rearrange their positions to launch a quick attack on the B-site.

And from the existing information, Nice has already been beaten to a crippled state and has retreated.

That crippled state, staying on the A-site might not have strong combat power, so Vitality might still have a 3A position.

As long as they can win in the explosive bomb attack on the B-site, he can try to take over the clutch.

Of course... it depends on the difficulty of the clutch. If it's impossible, he will save the sniper rifle for the next round.

Xu Beifang has already snuck to the Terrorist entrance. Originally intended to walk toward Mid, hearing the B-site start to explode, he immediately turns and walks toward the TV room to B2.

Peeking out with half a body while holding the gun, confirming no one is watching the back road, only then does he switch to the knife and push forward quickly.

The front is already in full swing, and there is not much time left for him.

"B-site starts to explode, Apex and NBK only completed a 2-for-1 on the front, the number exchange is not very ideal, but Nice has already snuck into B2 without anyone noticing. This position is very mysterious; how many kills he can get will be the key to this round!"

The bomb has been planted. After Qikert plants the bomb, he begins to move to the white car to watch B2.

But as soon as he finds an angle, he sees someone already holding the white car on B2.

"Bang!"

【Nice used AK47 to headshot kill Qikert】

"Someone came to B2! Nice pushed again!!"

Looking at the kill information on the right, Qikert shouts in the voice chat.

But before the second Terrorist on the B-site could react, bullets hit the Terrorist in the bottom right corner of the supermarket entrance from the B2 window.

【Nice used AK47 to kill Fitch】

The two kill messages in the top right corner appear, and the B-site is instantly cleared.

Jame is still on the B-Small passage, seeing this situation, he runs away to the Terrorist entrance without looking back.

The AVANGAR voice chat is stunned! How did this Nice sneak behind them again? You know Jame was watching the sewer the whole time! Okay, even if he snuck from the Terrorist spawn, the speed shouldn't be that fast, right?

And according to what BUSTER said, the opponent only has one shot of health left, does he dare to push forward?

The opponent's guts are too big!

As the bomb is defused, looking at the ID on the round MVP, AVANGAR's eyes have changed.

... ===== CHAPTER 201 =====