Chapter 226

230. Chapter 226: FaZe: Destroy it!

Vitality being able to defeat Liquid surprised them quite a bit.

Although they hadn't played against Vitality, they were very clear about Liquid's strength.

Because Vitality was a startup, they were still mixing in various low-level tournaments, while FaZe had long passed this stage and could now cycle through Major qualifiers.

So after the 2018 London Major ended, they also participated in quite a few tournaments.

In the 2018 EPICENTER and 2018 IEM Chicago, they had both encountered Liquid.

In two best-of-threes, FaZe only took one map.

Although both Liquid and FaZe's rosters had some changes—Liquid swapped TACO for Stewie2K, and FaZe kicked Karrigan, let NiKo become the IGL, and called in AdreN.

The name Stewie2K has been a nightmare for the 2018 FaZe until now; they knew the opponent's strength too well.

Today's Liquid, as expected, had reached an even higher level of strength.

On FaZe's side, although they had agreed to kick Karrigan back then, after experiencing NiKo's leadership for these few months, they had helplessly posted small essays on Twitter, indicating they had made a wrong decision.

Their current strength wasn't even as good as it was at the London Major last year.

This current Liquid was clearly more powerful than at the end of '18; even if FaZe went over, they wouldn't have much confidence... or it could be said that besides Astralis having the confidence to beat Liquid, other teams didn't want to encounter this bunch of North American gunners.

Yet Vitality had actually won an upset, which really surprised them somewhat.

"What's going on? Is Liquid's form bad?" NiKo said it, but didn't believe it himself; after all, for the past half year, Liquid's form had been terrifyingly stable, unlike them who were just playing for fun every day.

Hearing his teammate's inquiry, rain's expression was somewhat complex, then he explained: "The form isn't bad, it's just that Vitality was a bit too fierce; Nice used his individual ability to blow Liquid up."

"Ah?"

NiKo was stunned. Using individual ability to blow up Liquid—he couldn't even imagine what that scene looked like. Rain, on the side, began to describe it vividly: "Map 1 was Inferno; Vitality won the pistol round but was turned around by Liquid, then in the third round, Nice got a Hero AK."

"When will I be able to enjoy this kind of treatment..." NiKo complained.

He had always disliked two types of players: one type is people who like to eat resources.

One type is people who don't let him eat resources.

NiKo's dream was destined not to be realized; not every IGL can have four believers like Jame.

"Don't interrupt." Rain rolled his eyes at NiKo and continued: "He picked up a Hero AK, but their offense wasn't ideal. But when entering the clutch, Nice faced a 1v5 clutch and forcibly used his gunplay and reaction to take down 4, scaring Liquid so much they didn't dare to breathe."

"Form maxed out in the third round??" GuardiaN also felt it was somewhat unbelievable.

Rain nodded: "That guy pulled his screen to his face at the start, wanting to take Map 1 to relieve pressure."

"Their offense in the following rounds wasn't ideal, but at this time, Stewie2K couldn't help but whip the corpse." Speaking of this, rain laughed a little, "Then Nice started a wild charge on Banana Road. In the subsequent matches, Liquid completely lost control of Banana Road; they couldn't compete at all."

"They played about 20 rounds on Inferno, and Nice seemed to have gotten 34 kills..."

Olofmeister had long opened the HLTV official website on the side and saw the stats for this match:

"It's 35 kills, 2.07 rating."

Immediately after, he added: "In the three maps of the best-of-three, he got a total of 94 kills, with a rating as high as 1.66. This Nice blew Liquid up!"

94 kills in three maps—to be honest, it was truly terrifying.

elige, who ranked second, only got 78 kills in three maps. A difference of 16 kills across three maps is truly too fierce.

NiKo leaned over to look at the data on Olofmeister's screen, somewhat stunned, memories slowly separating from his mind.

He had known Nice for a long time; they hadn't truly played against each other in a match, but NiKo had always known about Xu Beifang's aggressiveness in matches. They played quite a bit in FPL on weekdays; Xu Beifang's playstyle in the ladder could only be said to be average—although aggressive, it was within an acceptable range.

NiKo was actually very much looking forward to playing against Xu Beifang, it's just that Vitality didn't have many big tournaments, so they couldn't meet.

But the data from this match truly showed him Xu Beifang's performance in a match.

"94 kills, 10 assists, 51 deaths, 94.2 ADR..." Olofmeister was still chanting the absurd stats on the field.

Everyone in FaZe Clan had a new understanding of the ID Nice.

Under rain's guidance, they looked at the highlight scenes in this match, and the bunch of them clicked their tongues in wonder, lamenting the terrifying individual ability of Vitality's twins.

Rain continued: "And in this match, what Vitality exposed wasn't just strong individual ability. Look at the last point."

As he said this, he opened the client and began downloading the demo of the final Mirage match. The extremely fast internet speed allowed him to finish downloading the demo in just 2 minutes.

Rain's skilled movements pulled the demo to the final round.

Immediately after, he switched the perspective to Nice.

"You guys look at this utility item of Nice's..."

After rain finished speaking, he started playing it.

Only to see the character in the scene, after the countdown ended, go directly to a conventional explosive bomb position in T Spawn, pretending to look for a reference point in the sky for a while, then immediately running forward and jumping to throw the utility item.

Rain pressed pause, switched to the god's-eye view, and followed that utility item closely.

Only to see the smoke grenade flying out from T Spawn, flying rapidly in the air, and its final destination actually landed on B2 Floor!!!

"My f—!"

"Holy crab!!"

Everyone in the FaZe training room had astonished looks in their eyes. They originally thought it was just a somewhat special utility item that could have a good effect tactically, which was why rain asked them to take a look.

Now that they had finished watching, they realized, what kind of god-tier utility item is this!

Thrown from T Spawn into B2 Floor—it basically crossed the entire map!

Nice, don't be too absurd!

"This Nice is a bit perverted; I haven't even mastered the fast VIP smoke yet!" Olofmeister laughed bitterly.

For older players like them, memorizing a large number of new utility items requires spending more time.

The fast VIP smoke researched by Nice was only researched and posted by ropz yesterday.

FaZe members were all crazily learning and trying to integrate these utility items into their tactical library.

Yet they didn't expect that while the fast VIP smoke hadn't been learned yet, Nice had already come up with another trump card.

This is truly a bit too perverted.

"Rain, don't switch screens; let's follow the aim-point and learn it. This smoke grenade's role is still very large." As the IGL, NiKo immediately felt the huge role of this smoke grenade.

But 10 minutes later, the FaZe group was all confused.

"Where the hell is this aim-point pointing? Why is the margin for error so low!" Olofmeister was numb.

Rain shook his head: "Forget it, destroy it. I didn't bind jump-throw anyway; let's just throw some ordinary utility items."

After a round of learning, the FaZe group felt the dimensionality reduction strike from the intellectuals.

How can someone research such weird things!

Is this kind of absurd utility item Vitality's trump card?

Or is it just one of the trump cards?

Vitality hadn't played against them yet, but they had invisibly received huge pressure.

(Share a meme photo of NiKo)

While FaZe was crazily imagining things, Xu Beifang had already followed the team to a barbecue restaurant in Katowice.

After playing for a year, Xu Beifang discovered that barbecue restaurants were quite prevalent all over the world.

Mainly because barbecue suits most people's tastes, and anyone on the Vitality team could accept it.

While waiting for the barbecue, Xu Beifang took out his phone, "Brothers, let's take a group photo to celebrate our successful entry into the top eight!"

The teammates also posed one by one toward the phone.

Zywoo held two fists up by his mouth, making people call him cute.

apex stuck out his tongue, looking even more like Mr. Bean.

The others' movements were relatively normal, just looking at the camera with smiles.

Xu Beifang pressed confirm, taking the photo of today's dinner.

After checking it once, he found that he looked quite handsome in the photo, so Xu Beifang decisively uploaded it to several social media accounts.

"After a difficult victory, next is time to eat the club poor!" After editing the text, Xu Beifang sent it out.

Then he discovered the barbecue on the table was almost ready, so Xu Beifang forked a piece of beef cube that was still sizzling with oil.

He blew on it casually twice and stuffed it into his mouth.

The meat cube wasn't big, but with one bite, the juices inside exploded, and the rich aroma spread between his lips and teeth.

Xu Beifang's eyes lit up, and he immediately started devouring it!

After a super-long 4-hour battle, plus not eating before the match to avoid lowering his reaction time, they hadn't eaten for almost 9 hours.

Although they ultimately won, it still left them physically and mentally exhausted.

There was long ago nothing left to consume in their stomachs, and their bellies were wailing.

The barbecue on the table was still hot, but no one was savoring it carefully; they were all crazily stuffing meat into their mouths.

After the first wave of battle ended, they had some things in their stomachs and finally felt like they had come back to life.

"How is our itinerary arranged for the next few days?" NBK took a sip of his drink and asked XTQZZZ.

XTQZZZ was working hard to cut a steak, "We are in a resting state for the next three days. I will pay attention to the tournament format of other teams. You guys follow me to scan through the more important matches every night, then maintain at least one hour of practice to keep your hand-feel."

XTQZZZ was very particular about the balance of tension and relaxation on the field; he believed that only by maintaining a better psychological state outside the match could the teammates have a more outstanding performance in the match.

"Woohoo... vacation again!" Xu Beifang's mouth curled up.

"Isn't your vacation just training every day?" NBK laughed and complained. He highly recognized Xu Beifang's hard work on weekdays.

"Can that be the same?" Xu Beifang shook his head.

It's like many office workers: playing on their phones at home on vacation, and playing on their phones while working at the company—can that feeling be the same?

Staying in the training room to work hard after the vacation starts gives Xu Beifang a sense of pleasure in secretly chasing others!

"But you won't really stay in the training room to train for days, will you?" The bald coach said, "You still have to go out to relax."

Xu Beifang thought for a moment: "It won't be staying in the training room entirely. Tomorrow I plan to go offline to cheer for VP... although I know they can't advance, I still want to go find them and play for a while."

"As for the day after tomorrow, how about we go stroll around Katowice together?"

Since Vitality was founded, they hadn't gone out for a stroll together.

apex covered his head and laughed speechlessly: "What's fun about this Katowice? The biggest tourist attraction in this city is the Spodek Arena... How about this: after we finish this Major, if there's a chance, I'll take you to watch a soccer match and let you feel the power of Messi!"

"Messi? I still like Cristiano Ronaldo." Xu Beifang subconsciously stretched his arms back, "Siu!!"

apex heard this and said angrily: "Once Messi wins the Champions League this year, everyone will shut up, especially you, this Cristiano Ronaldo fan."

Xu Beifang laughed and explained: "No, I don't understand soccer at all, I only know Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi, but I'm quite interested in watching a soccer match."

CS: GO matches are the closest to traditional competitive sports among all esports projects.

The version changes are few, and it pursues professional players moving toward a more accurate, faster, and more stable direction.

This is similar to traditional competitive sports.

There is another point, perhaps because many CS: GO professional players' predecessors liked to play soccer, and there are even quite a few CS: GO players who turned into CS: GO professional players because of injuries in soccer.

This makes the offline atmosphere of CS: GO like traditional sports.

Everyone will shout the players' IDs when watching the match, and there are even some special teams that will sing their team songs.

Fans will gather together to create some extremely interesting scenes and interact with the on-site director.

This similar atmosphere would definitely make Xu Beifang feel interested.

It's just that soccer development in Huaxia is somewhat lagging, and the popularity of soccer isn't high; Xu Beifang is completely an outsider.

"It's okay, wait until I take you to watch the match, and you'll know why Messi is the true god!" apex was full of confidence in the charm of his idol.

Xu Beifang smiled and didn't continue on this topic.

He opened the mobile forum, intending to see how everyone evaluated the match that had just ended.

Having won a difficult best-of-three, he was quite interested in seeing everyone's thoughts.

【How to evaluate Nice's performance against Liquid?】

【World's number one entry fragger! Liquid has been blown up!!】

【Playing to the final time of the best-of-three, relying on his performance to forcibly chase into overtime and overtake—can only say he's truly ruthless!】

【Blowing him up so awesomely, is Nice your dad?!】

【What virtue does my dad have to be mentioned in the same breath as Nice?】

【It's a hall of filial piety, family members!】

【I thought Vitality might enter the top eight, but I didn't expect them to step on the world's number two to advance.】

Xu Beifang saw these words of praise, and a honeyed smile also appeared on his face.

Zywoo was devouring another steak when he discovered his team's entry fragger smiling very strangely, with a feeling of wanting to laugh but feeling it wasn't good to laugh out loud.

He knew his entry fragger liked to read those posts praising him, so whenever he had highlight moments in matches, Zywoo had never been stingy with his praise.

However, he himself was indifferent to this; as long as they could win the match, it was better than anything.

Xu Beifang continued to scroll down and soon discovered the scolding from Liquid fans and some trolls.

【Don't even know what Liquid is doing, they can lose to Vitality】

【The Director played really trash today, Map 3 almost became Little Xu's thermal weapon, completely unable to defend】

【Skin-flayer!】

【And these fans are still blowing him as the world's number one entry fragger? It still has to be Little Xu】

【Little Xu isn't qualified either, he just had better form in the last half year】

【...】

The netizens in the comment section held their own opinions and argued endlessly.

Regarding the title of number one, there will always be endless controversy.

Who exactly is the world's number one entry fragger—different players' fans have different answers in their hearts.

In this current version, the relatively powerful entry fraggers are Xu Beifang, NiKo, elige, Magisk, Boombl4, and Electronic.

The Director's fans are very interesting; they always like to crown the Director with the title of world's number one entry fragger.

Although the Director's performance is indeed bright, fundamentally, he plays a support role.

The Director's strength lies in the fact that as a support-type rifler, he can still put on a very outstanding performance.

If it were the world's number one, he could still compare in it.

However, perhaps because of personality issues, when the Director is confident, he can put on an aim-bot-like performance, saving the team from fire and water.

But once his form isn't good, you will find that he has no presence in the match.

Unstable form, leading to a large gap between his upper and lower limits, has always been a shortcoming of the Director.

This is also why there will always be arguments regarding the evaluation of the Director.

In recent posts, the information Xu Beifang received was mostly praise for himself.

But he also understood very well that esports fans are realistic.

If his subsequent performance isn't good, then those guys who scolded the Director as Skin-flayer will turn their guns and output negative emotions toward himself.

He had always treated those guys on the internet who spray people as fun.

But if he could, he still wanted to receive more flowers and applause.

He also deeply understood that for this, he needed to put in huge effort!

They had just entered the Major top eight, and the road ahead was still long.