Chapter 225: 229. Chapter 225: Director, why are you returning kindness with ingratitude?

229. Chapter 225: Director, why are you returning kindness with ingratitude?

"Congratulations to Vitality for winning this bo3 match with a score of 2-1!"

This bo3 match took nearly 4 hours in total; it was already the early morning hours back home, and outside the window, everything was silent.

Even so, it was hard to suppress everyone's excitement.

【Flight of the Bumblebee!!!】

【Nice went crazy today!】

【Hulao Pass sends its congratulations once again!】

【Already in the Top Eight, the boss was so top-tier today, Liquid couldn't handle him head-on.】

【Is no one paying attention to Zywoo's performance? His kill count wasn't low either.】

【...】

Before this duel between Vitality and Liquid, most people didn't favor Vitality.

Whether looking at their strength on paper or their recent form, Liquid was clearly much fiercer.

This Liquid team, ranked World No. 2, had appeared in everyone's field of vision with an extremely stable posture.

Liquid played fourteen offline tournaments last year and only failed to reach the Top 4 four times; their form over the past year has truly been maxed out.

Liquid's toughness was obvious to all, and although Vitality defeated Liquid, Xiao Bo knew very well in his heart that this didn't mean Vitality was already stronger than Liquid.

But it did mean that this Vitality team had extremely high potential, and they were qualified to become a true championship-contending team!

Vitality's potential was stronger than they had imagined!

You have to know, this is the Major Champion Stage!

The Top Eight of an offline tournament!!

Although he was an old-timer from the CS 1.6 era, he knew just how exaggerated the value of such offline tournaments was.

Being able to see his countrymen shine on such a stage gave him a feeling of pride from the inside out.

Watching the Vitality members shouting loudly on camera, Xiao Bo curled his lips and laughed as he said:

"Brothers are happy today, send the barrage 'Little Xu is awesome', and I'll roll a genuine Butterfly Knife for everyone!!"

【Vitality is awesome】

【Little Xu is awesome!!】

【Little Xu is awesome, rushed into the Top Eight, he really is a Major god-tier carry!】

【...】

The moment the match ended, Xu Beifang excitedly took off his headset, "This reset was so satisfying!! Brothers, we're going to the offline stage!"

rpk immediately high-fived Xu Beifang to celebrate and took the opportunity to give him a hug.

"You are always so unexpected; your performance today left me stunned. I've never seen an Entry Fragger like you, even Dou Dou in 2015 couldn't compare to you. You're too terrifying."

As colleagues and teammates, they had spent several months together, so naturally, he wouldn't look at Xu Beifang with his old perspective, but this bo3 match today still exceeded his expectations; he never imagined his teammate could put on such an astonishing performance.

However, after the victory, rpk's overall demeanor remained quite calm, as if it were just a simple compliment. But his racing heart and the anticipation in his mind for the upcoming offline matches expressed his true inner thoughts.

This is the Major Top Eight!

Even as a legendary French player, he hadn't made it in that many times throughout his entire career.

He looked back on this experience, feeling as if it were a dream.

After his time at Envy ended his career, he had originally chosen to retire and open an auto repair shop.

He had already started to return to normal life, but was called over by his old teammate apex to form a new team.

rpk had originally refused, but Vitality paid too much—at least more than he earned at that auto repair shop.

He was just prepared to help Vitality transition and fill a spot to start the matches.

But as they kept playing, he discovered, how did they seem to have become the world's most formidable team?

He felt this experience was truly absurd.

He also clearly understood that two people played a huge role in this absurd experience.

rpk cast his gaze toward the two figures, one fat and one sturdy.

Xu Beifang was grabbed by Zywoo, and Zywoo hung directly onto him: "Can't hold it! Shushu, get down quickly!"

Young Zywoo didn't yet know the weight he held in Xu Beifang's heart and almost crushed him.

Zywoo grinned, fully displaying his strength as the world's No. 1 user of upper gums.

"We really made it to the Top Eight!"

Before this Major, Vitality hadn't set a specific goal for themselves; everyone just thought they would play as far as they could.

In reality, it was also to avoid disappointment if the results were too poor; he had chatted with Xu Beifang, and the two joked that making it to the Legend Stage would count as a win.

But climbing step by step, they not only achieved their initial goal of entering the Legend Stage and getting their own Stickers, but they even successfully won three matches in a row in the Legend Stage, advancing as the group leader.

Next, they would be competing offline at the Spodek Arena, the holy land of European esports!

Imagine standing on that stage, accompanied by the birth of highlight moments, thousands of hands waving Under Platform, and countless different voices shouting and cheering for you.

How wonderful that moment will be!

The joyful smile on Zywoo's face was as if he had just eaten a baguette.

"Four hours of confrontation, today's match was truly satisfying!" Xu Beifang had a brilliant smile on his face.

For a player like him who craves competitive confrontation, the strength of the opponent combined with the joy of victory made him feel incredibly exhilarated.

He loved this feeling of adrenaline produced during intense head-to-head confrontations.

Being able to have the intense confrontation he imagined in a bo3 match.

And ultimately winning this match.

It was simply a win-win!

I won twice, damn it!

"This Smoke Grenade is still too strong," Apex said, patting Xu Beifang on the back. "Liquid must have been stunned in that last round; they never imagined there were only two people on B Site."

With their final explosive fake-out, top-tier fake-execution utility, and the design within their tactics, Apex had voluntarily exposed himself; Liquid had no information on Mid and couldn't make a calm decision.

After all, they had already entered Overtime, so everyone's focus was high, and they were extremely nervous, terrified of losing even a single point.

As an in-game leader, nitr0's style was also more aggressive, rather than having the nerves of steel like Zeus.

Once they coordinated to take down Twistzz on A Site, Apex already knew the outcome of this match.

Apex looked at Xu Beifang and said, "Nice, you can study these kinds of utility more in the future. Every time one of these appears, we might be able to Reset the opponent in a key round!"

In today's match, if not for this tactical trump card, the subsequent rounds might have depended on the players' performance after probing.

That could have been dangerous; from Apex's perspective, the possibility of entering a second Overtime was extremely high.

But the longer it dragged on, the more powerless he clearly felt; four hours of grueling battle had already exhausted their bodies and minds.

【Beep!】

【Suggestion received: Study more tactical utility. Difficulty: 3-6 stars. Reward depends on completion (Completion: The role the tactical utility played in the match).】

"Sure!" Xu Beifang readily agreed. "But it's a deal—you guys have to learn the utility I research, too."

Hearing this, the members of Vitality looked pained.

Xu Beifang's sensitivity to tactics was terrifying, but the things he researched were also one more abnormal than the last.

Although the previous Quick Vip Smoke was relatively complex, it only took time to memorize.

But that Smoke Grenade thrown from the Terrorist spawn to B2 Floor just now—who could have thought of using that to counter a position?

And even now, the margin for error when they throw this utility is extremely low!

So, many of these utilities could only be handled by Xu Beifang.

"Enough of that." The bald Coach walked over from behind and placed his hands on his teammates' shoulders. "Go shake hands with the other side; don't keep Liquid waiting."

The Vitality members adjusted their emotions and headed toward Liquid's match area.

The director's camera also followed them closely to Liquid's match area...

The moment the match ended, the emotions Twistzz had been bottling up finally erupted.

He took off his noise-canceling headset and threw it onto the desk as if venting.

His knuckles were prominent as he unconsciously messed up his hair; he was in a very bad mood.

The emotions he had bottled up weren't because of his teammates, but more out of dissatisfaction with himself.

In this match, he performed stably on Map 1 and carried with explosive kills on Map 2, but once they entered Map 3, it was as if he had vanished.

As the team's support player, no one would actually blame Twistzz for anything.

But he himself couldn't get past this hurdle.

As fellow best rookies from last year, Nice had already become the team's true backbone, playing without a single lapse throughout this BO3 match and delivering many brilliant performances.

Yet he had become the fuse for the team's collapse on Map 3.

This result made Twistzz very unwilling to accept it, but the BO3 match was already over, and Liquid's defeat was a foregone conclusion.

EliGE stood behind his gaming chair, looking at the post-match summary screen with a calm expression.

But his mood was not as ripple-free as his expression.

Watching the Vitality members walk toward them, he easily locked his gaze on Nice.

During the last London Major, this guy had even asked him for advice on Rifle techniques.

It had only been four months, yet he had defeated him.

This left EliGE feeling very frustrated.

"Nice, you really are a monster!"

When shaking hands with Xu Beifang, EliGE finally spoke his inner thoughts.

"We just got a bit luckier, haha," Xu Beifang said with a light laugh.

EliGE shook his head; if one missed timing could be considered good luck.

But Nice had caught who knows how many timings in this BO3; this was just talent.

EliGE understood that Nice's talent for aggressive pushing and dry peeking was extremely high, just like Zeus's reckless gambling on sites—it was something others simply couldn't learn.

"You're just being modest... but don't get happy too early. Once we enter the Top Eight, we'll come to take our revenge."

Liquid lost the third round of the Legend Stage, but they weren't directly eliminated.

The Swiss-system format gave them room to maneuver; as long as they won one of the next two BO3s, they could still enter the Top Eight.

This was why, although Ji Ge felt somewhat upset, it was still within an acceptable range.

After all, there was still a chance to Reset, and the next map wasn't the Airport.

Xu Beifang came to Twistzz's side and bumped fists and hugged him.

Twistzz had already adjusted his emotions by now and said with a depressed face, "You completely destroyed A Site on Map 3; you really were like an aimbot."

Xu Beifang raised an eyebrow: "Can't help it. When playing against an aimbot team, how else can I win without turning something on?"

Twistzz felt a warmth in his heart; Liquid's recent excellent performance had earned them the reputation of being an aimbot team.

At this moment, Xu Beifang's high-EQ remark made Twistzz feel a bit better inside.

Twistzz punched Xu Beifang on the arm and then laughed: "You've already made it to the Top Eight, so you must keep working hard. Good luck crushing Astralis in your first match."

Xu Beifang: "???"

What was that?

Twistzz, are you returning evil for good?

Playing Astralis in the first match of the Top Eight—is that something a human can do??

But he didn't care much; although he didn't know the specific result, in the PK between Renegades and Astralis, Astralis probably won.

Whether it was Vitality or Liquid, deep down they both felt that Astralis posed no real pressure.

The Danes used their dominant-level strength to make them predict the outcome of the match in advance.

Astralis advancing in this tournament was a foregone conclusion.

Only when truly entering the Playoffs stage would other teams have even a slim possibility of defeating them.

After speaking with the two people, Xu Beifang simply shook hands with the others and left with his team.

Twistzz's gaze followed that tall figure closely, and he pursed his lips.

"Let's go..." nitr0 put his arm around Twistzz's shoulder, "We'll just win it back later; in today's BO3, they indeed played better than us."

"We need to work hard for the next two BO3s!"

Listening to his captain's comfort, Twistzz turned off the monitor, adjusted his hairstyle, and slowly sorted out his mood as well.

CS: GO matches are just like this; victory is often hard-won.

Coupled with the dense schedule of matches, they needed to process their negative emotions in a very short time, otherwise, it would likely affect subsequent matches.

(Attached: A handsome photo of Twistzz)

……

"This FPL has been really boring lately, I'm already on an 11-game winning streak."

Inside the FaZe training room, after winning another FPL match, NiKo joked about the quality of FPL.

"You're just taking advantage of those guys being away to steal some points," GuardiaN laughed, "In the current FPL, where are there any top-tier players?"

Recently, it was the Major schedule, and the world's top Professional Players had all rushed into the Major, focusing their energy on the tournament; how would they have any time to play FPL and grind points?

It was just that FaZe had no match today, so NiKo seized the opportunity to go on a crazy smurfing spree.

"Don't say that... there are still capable people in FPL. I just ran into a guy named broky, and his Sniper Rifle level is on par with yours," NiKo retorted.

"broky?" GuardiaN had a deep impression of this ID, "Isn't it said by many that he's cheating?"

As a top-tier FPL pub star, the ID broky appeared in everyone's field of vision quite frequently.

But what was impressive was his aiming ability, which was completely inconsistent with his utility usage.

Simply put, it was professional-level Gunplay and Silver-level utility usage appearing on the same person.

It was hard not to suspect whether broky was a Silver player using cheats.

NiKo was silent for two seconds, then said: "He's not cheating, his utility usage is genuinely trash."

GuardiaN: "..."

The two of them were silent for a good while.

At this moment, NiKo noticed rain lying to the side and staying quiet, so he turned his head and asked: "Rain, what are you watching?"

Hearing NiKo's voice, rain took off his headset and replied: "Watching the match between Vitality and Liquid..."

NiKo laughed: "There's no need to watch this match at all, okay? Tomorrow you'll be able to see video titles in the community like 'How many kills could ZywOo get to save the team? Liquid takes down Vitality 2-0'."

The great rain turned his head to look at NiKo and said softly: "Why are you so sure that Vitality will lose?"

NiKo said with a smile: "I watched the matches a few days ago too; I'm quite clear on the gap in strength between Liquid and Vitality."

rain didn't answer, sliding the progress bar to the end, where it clearly displayed Vitality 2:1 Liquid.

FaZe members: "Ah!!"

……