Chapter 228: 232. Chapter 228: In the Name of the Father

232. Chapter 228: In the Name of the Father

As the Champion Stage matches approached, the state of FPL matches heated up once again. Because most players had already been eliminated, they finally had the time to relax and play in FPL.

But the proximity of the offline grand stage also pushed the atmosphere of the Major to its peak.

As one of the strongest dark horses of this Major, Vitality had fought their way into the Top Eight with a 3-0 record, which was truly somewhat unexpected and led many players to tearfully utter the famous saying, "Gold is a better store of value."

In these past few days, because the stickers were not particularly interesting overall, the real gamers didn't discuss them in depth.

Instead, the Smoke Grenade for throwing to B2 Floor from the Terrorist spawn on Mirage that Xu Beifang had researched—because AYCSGO had made a tactics video about it—meant everyone had seen this somewhat peculiar piece of utility. Regarding Vitality, or Xu Beifang, the consensus affirming his tactical mind became more prevalent; the title of "idiot Gunner" had completely vanished from him. Even if a portion of players didn't like Xu Beifang's style of play, they had to admit that Xu Beifang's understanding of the game was extremely high; this could be seen from both the Quick Vip Smoke on Mirage and these two Smoke Grenades for B2 Floor.

Regarding the extremity of Xu Beifang's playstyle, the criticism from everyone was not as intense anymore. Aggression might bring side effects, but at the current stage, he could resolve these side effects relying on his own form, and that was an effective playstyle.

In this state, Xu Beifang was also working hard to adjust his form for the subsequent matches.

What was quite interesting was that after the Legend Stage matches concluded, Xu Beifang found a rather interesting piece of feedback in the comment section on Bilibili.

"Suggest that Little Xu could interact more with the camera after making a highlight; right now, every time he gets a kill, it's all Apex standing up and shouting, and all the limelight is stolen by him."

At this moment, Xu Beifang also recalled a meme about their team on the internet recently—people really liked players with a personality like Nice, who would stand up and fiercely humiliate their opponents after crushing them, unlike the two guys next to him who were always so indifferent.

Apex would always stand up and interact with the opponents when they made a highlight, which could keep the team atmosphere active so that they wouldn't all get depressed from being beaten.

After coming to Vitality, no matter if the match was won or lost, there was never a time when the atmosphere was terrible; Apex actually didn't have any intention of stealing the limelight.

However, recalling his 'Emotional Contagion' skill, Xu Beifang was also considering that after he made a highlight moment, he could indeed get passionate too; letting Apex shout alone seemed like it was quite hard on the throat.

【Suggestion Mission: You can actively interact with the audience to create content. Difficulty: 3 stars. This mission is a long-term mission; you can obtain a D-rank Treasure Chest after checking in daily.】

Moreover, with such a Suggestion Mission, interaction itself was a very interesting part of the match, and he was quite looking forward to it.

The official matches were starting tomorrow, and Xu Beifang also began to enter the rhythm of training.

At nine o'clock in the morning, all the players had already entered the match room.

"You really are the earliest one again." Zywoo said with a smile while handing Xu Beifang a piece of chocolate.

Xu Beifang looked at the "Big Sweet Potato" who was developing into a cube, and said with a smile: "Shushu, you really need to lose weight, otherwise once your fat memory is maxed out, no one will be able to beat you!"

Zywoo didn't refute this time, but nodded seriously and said: "Once I get back to Paris, I'll have my brother take me swimming; I have indeed been a bit too fat lately."

Ever since joining the team, although Zywoo's salary was low, the daily meals were much better than at home, which made the scale inside the Vitality base bear weight it shouldn't have.

After chatting for a few sentences, the big bald Coach interrupted their slacking off.

The Vitality team officially entered a training state.

The time from nine to ten was the warm-up time reserved for everyone; Apex, NBK, and RpK all opened Deathmatch and began to enter warm-up aim practice.

Zywoo didn't practice aim here, so he directly opened FACEIT and invited Xu Beifang.

He knew that his good partner had already finished practicing.

Xu Beifang didn't refuse either and joined Zywoo's smurfing squad.

Because it wasn't FPL and both of their ratings were extremely high, it took a full 7 minutes to match into a game.

The map was Inferno.

Vitality started as the Terrorist side first.

The attacks in the first few rounds didn't go smoothly; the opponents were a five-stack, and on the map of Inferno, they could also put up a fight relying on skilled utility.

Xu Beifang let Zywoo handle the control of Banana, while he himself ran over to jump into the Sewer to fight for Mid every round, trying different ways to play.

But it had to be said, the utility from this five-stack of opponents made him feel like Electronic had possessed them.

He jumped into the Sewer every round, and the opponents threw two HE Grenades over every round; he would be heavily damaged before he even saw anyone.

Xu Beifang's Reaction was also very fast; he directly threw a Mid Smoke at the start to prevent the opponents from gaining vision of Mid.

Of course, this was just because they were playing casually on the Ladder. Once it was a real match, if he encountered this situation, he would choose to go through the Side Path to the Sewer and come over slowly, and wouldn't spend a Smoke Grenade so extravagantly.

This move indeed affected the opponents; their utility aim points weren't as precise anymore, and one could clearly see two HE Grenades thrown off-target.

At this moment, Xu Beifang had a sudden inspiration: if they were the CT side, how could they operate if they encountered teams that liked to rush the Sewer at the start?

Throwing an Incendiary Grenade was the simplest way, or at worst, throwing a Flashbang to counter-rush, though the risk cost was still very high.

So, could there be a method that could, in turn, put great pressure on players who liked to rush the Sewer, or even force the opponent to enter Mid only at a later timing?

On the map of Inferno, the CT side's struggle for control of Mid was still relatively difficult, and they were always in a passive defensive position; if they could slow down the opponent's attack timing, it could delay quite a bit of pressure for A Site.

"Shushu, stop playing around, let's start putting in effort; I have an inspiration and want to research something." Xu Beifang said over voice chat.

"Alright, I still wanted to play a few more rounds; the way the opponents are playing Banana is quite interesting." Zywoo said.

Xu Beifang didn't know what kind of brain circuit Zywoo had; he especially liked to control the score on the Ladder.

Only when they were about to lose would he start to put in effort to crush the opponents, pulling the score back bit by bit.

Because the score gap was too large, once he got serious, it really wasn't that easy for the opponents to end the match.

Xu Beifang had a goal and no longer had the thought of playing nicely with the opponents; he directly started to increase the intensity on Banana and performed Trade Kills with Zywoo.

They played so well that the opponents directly called a timeout to start talking, but this action didn't have any effect.

The match finally ended with a score of 16:7; Zywoo and Xu Beifang's methods were quite cruel, and the three random teammates enjoyed the pleasure of being carried, winning the match just by planting the bomb.

Xu Beifang also wasted no time in opening an Inferno room and started running the map after some simple operations.

"How is it? Do you have any new ideas?" Apex asked curiously.

Xu Beifang's tactics were very worth talking about; the two new pieces of utility on Mirage were now being passionately discussed on the forums.

So he was still very curious about what new things Xu Beifang could research.

"It's just that in the match just now, I was thinking about how to restrict the Terrorists who rush the Sewer when on the CT side."

NBK answered subconsciously: "Just throw fire directly; lock them in the T Spawn at the start."

To restrict the Terrorists rushing the Sewer, many CTs going through Connector would throw an Incendiary Grenade toward the T Spawn at the first moment to delay the opponent's attack timing by 7 seconds.

"An Incendiary Grenade is indeed the most conventional usage, but I'm thinking, if we encounter people who like to jump into the Sewer, can we directly use an HE Grenade to blast them to death?"

With the aim point aligned, throwing an HE Grenade directly into the Sewer was not a very difficult thing.

Xu Beifang first threw a Mid Smoke, because he at least had to protect his own safety; very quickly, he found two reference points for Sewer grenades using some reference objects above the smoke.

RPK, who was to the side, frowned and said, "It's still not quite right. Although the smoke is thrown, if I were the one contesting Mid and saw this smoke, I would definitely try to pre-fire. This little trick might actually do more harm than good."

They felt Xu Beifang's line of thinking was quite good.

Under specific circumstances, one only needs to use one Smoke Grenade and two HE Grenades to secure a kill.

Because the overall space in A Site is larger, the role an HE Grenade can play is far inferior to that in Banana.

By comparison, there is some accumulation; as defenders of A Site, most of their HE Grenades are used in the early stages to bleed the enemy, creating some damage so that a subsequent Headshot can secure a kill.

The idea of being able to use such a mediocre utility item to create a little trick is still quite good.

It's just that, as it stands, the tactical risk is still too high and requires some adjustments.

Xu Beifang also tried to find reference points nearby to make adjustments bit by bit, and the others didn't crowd around him, starting their own training instead.

Finally, after half an hour, Xu Beifang completed the tactical construction!

"Brothers, I think it's ready!"

Hearing Xu Beifang's voice, the group came over to check the situation.

"Let me take a look!"

"What's the deal?"

In the training room, because Xu Beifang and Zywoo played together often, their positions were next to each other.

"Zywoo, come learn this aiming point. I'm opening a practice map right now, pulling RPK in, and we'll try it together."

Xu Beifang pressed against the wooden fence at A1, then aimed at the far right side of the wall at the A1 Flower Bed double-peek spot, then moved all the way to the right, releasing the left mouse button to throw the HE Grenade when he saw the white pattern in Mid.

Xu Beifang explained the three key points to Zywoo and demonstrated it again.

Zywoo indicated he understood, so Xu Beifang exited the room, recreated a practice server, and invited them over.

He started counting down from the round timer, and the three of them rehearsed the match process.

After Xu Beifang arrived at Mid, he directly aimed and threw a deep Mid smoke.

Then he came to the T-junction, pressed against the wall, and aimed his Crosshair at the pipe on the right side of Mid.

"3, 2, 1, go!" Following Xu Beifang's command, Zywoo started moving at the same time.

The two of them threw their HE Grenades, which crossed paths.

After RPK jumped into the Sewer, he kept pre-firing at the left and right sides of the Mid Smoke Grenade, exerting heavy pressure, attempting to kill whoever was behind the smoke.

But what awaited him was not a kill notification in the top right corner, but two HE Grenades flying out through the smoke.

"Boom! Boom!"

【Zywoo used HE Grenade to kill RPK】

"So flashy??" Apex was a bit surprised.

From their perspective, Xu Beifang and Zywoo held their HE Grenades, moved laterally, and threw an HE Grenade toward Mid, directly killing RPK.

This operation, which was like an acrobatic performance, really made their eyes light up.

Playing games, after all, is about more than just enjoying the joy of victory.

Looking cool is also a very important part!

Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many players chasing various top-tier skins and imitating the high-tension playstyles of s1mple, kennyS, and Xu Beifang.

It's just because it's cool!

The last two years have been device's peak, but there are very few IDs named after device himself, who is on Astralis.

device's Sniper Rifle playstyle is an object of study for high-end players, and even for Xu Beifang now. They watch device's match recordings to verify various ideas, feeling that device's playstyle is very concise and beautiful.

But players who have just started out only think device's playstyle is rigid and doesn't match his handsome face.

(Today is device)

Coach also asked this question: "There should be a simpler way to throw it, right? Just aiming at a spot nearby and throwing the HE Grenade while pulling back."

Xu Beifang stated his understanding: "There is indeed, but it's not suitable for this kind of play."

"Here is what I think: if you pull out to throw utility and then shrink back, if RPK is pre-firing, he could directly kill you if he's lucky... but moving horizontally is much better. Even if you get hit, the opponent can't kill you with pre-fire."

The big bald coach thought about it and agreed; if you stand still in the front, you'll die as soon as you get mixed.

But if you move horizontally, unless you get hit by a random Headshot, it's still very hard to get a kill.

Not everyone is like the Danes, wearing a Smoke Helmet to play in matches.

Xu Beifang laughed: "Besides, this thing is cool! Matches still need a bit of fun."

"Then everyone learn it. If we run into a team that's good at contesting the Sewer later, we'll send them straight to the spectator seats."

Xu Beifang began teaching the aiming points for the utility to his teammates, and the whole team started practicing on the map.

He also ran through the tactical utility for several other maps to avoid the awkward situation of needing a teammate to point at the screen and tell him where to throw during a match. The time reached 11 o'clock, and Vitality began reviewing and researching FaZe's most recent Nuke match.

They had to understand FaZe's tactical habits on this map to make more correct judgments in the match.

However, because they had no experience playing against FaZe, it wasn't particularly easy to study just from match recordings.

FaZe did play Nuke in some small tournaments this year, but most were just stomps, so their specific tactics and system couldn't be seen.

They could only look at match recordings from last year.

Upon looking, they discovered that the upcoming match really had potential.

In the major tournaments recorded by HLTV last year, FaZe played a total of 8 Nuke matches.

Their annual Nuke win rate was 50%, and even though NiKo's average rating on this map was 1.20, their performance on this map was still not outstanding.

Not to mention, NiKo's level has declined somewhat since his transition, so FaZe's level on this map is not high, and they could make something of it.

This point made them attach great importance to it.

So the big bald Coach had Xu Beifang take the initiative to invite Tyloo in the afternoon, and they practiced Nuke for another afternoon.

They played a total of 5 matches in the afternoon, 150 rounds of practice. Perhaps because the opponent was Tie Dan, Xu Beifang's confidence Outside grew more and more.

……

After the training match ended, it was already dark in Katowice, and Xu Beifang stood outside his room door.

While waiting for danking, he was suddenly struck by a flash of inspiration and chose to open a D-rank Treasure Chest to test his luck for the day.

【D-rank Treasure Chest is opening...】

【Congratulations to the host for obtaining Silent Movement Mastery...】

The next second, a massive amount of theoretical knowledge began to flow into his mind.

For example, in Inferno, the techniques for silent drops from VIP, silent drops from B Site One Box and Er Xiang, and even silent jumps from A2...

Or, in Mirage, silent drops from B2 Floor, silent jumps from the Jump Platform to A1...

All this vast amount of theoretical knowledge—techniques Xu Beifang knew and techniques he didn't—all flooded into his brain.

Regarding these silent movement techniques, he had always known the most typical one: the silent jump from One Box to Er Xiang in Inferno.

He also knew from his past life that ropz once seemed to have pulled off a beautiful kill in Mirage using the silent A1 drop technique.

But memory is like that; once there are no specific fragments to trigger it, it is hard for him to recall the fragmented details of his past life.

As the knowledge drifted through his mind, Xu Beifang shouted internally in a chuunibyou fashion: "System, let me see your limit!! Again!"

【D-rank Treasure Chest is opening...】

【Congratulations to the host for obtaining 335 Listen-to-Advice Value...】

【Congratulations to the host for obtaining Wall-Clinging Mastery...】

Wall-Clinging?!

System, isn't this too foul-play of you??

Regardless of how Xu Beifang thought about it, the theoretical knowledge entered his mind once again.

Only then did Xu Beifang understand that this "Wall-Clinging" was not the wall-clinging he had understood.

This Wall-Clinging referred to those techniques of hanging onto walls.

One of them involved using movement techniques to hang oneself on the wall at the Dead Point in Inferno, just like Spider-Man.

The technique was indeed quite good, it just felt like it had turned into CrossFire.

Xu Beifang couldn't help but laugh and cry; this kind of technique was quite interesting for messing around in the Ladder.

It was just impossible to use in matches; such mechanisms that utilized bugs were not allowed.

The most typical example was Olofmeister's Triple Boost, which still sparked controversy to this day because of that technique.

Xu Beifang chose to trust his luck one more time!

"Deep... System, draw!"

【D-rank Treasure Chest is opening...】

【Congratulations to the host for obtaining the consumable aura — 'Liuzhou Shaman's Luck'. Description: After activating the aura, you will be able to feel the joy of the Liuzhou Shaman for 1 hour.】

Xu Beifang: "Emmmmm..."

How should he put it? It was tasteless to eat but a pity to discard, and it had no major effect on the match.

Just as he was getting carried away and preparing to continue pulling miracles from single draws, danking's voice finally woke him from his state of drawing.

"Let's go, let's go downstairs to eat. We've been playing training matches all afternoon, it's quite tiring."

Hearing this, Xu Beifang patted danking on the shoulder and said sincerely: "Tie Dan, thank you all. Helping us train hard every day—without you helping us maintain our competitive form, I reckon it would have been hard to even make it into the Legend Stage this time."

During the 2018 London Major, Xu Beifang had once led his team into the Major Champion Stage with a shocking record of carrying four teammates.

But as the person involved, he could clearly feel it.

With the hammering from Astralis, the overall strength of the tier-one teams had become even stronger.

The intensity of this Major was far higher than last year's.

Although Vitality's roster this year was better than last year's, if it weren't for Tyloo being willing to accompany them in training matches every day to practice tactics and maintain their form, this Legend Stage definitely wouldn't have gone so smoothly.

"Hey!" danking waved his hand, "We're all brothers, these are just small matters."

The two walked into the elevator, and danking continued: "Besides, Tyloo isn't just purely sparring; we're frantically stealing knowledge too."

Helping Vitality train was exhausting, but no one in Tyloo complained.

After this tournament, they had already felt that they were struggling to keep up with the rhythm of the tier-one teams.

If they didn't put in double the effort, it was very likely that they would be beaten very badly in the various major tournaments to come.

If their results were too poor, subsequent roster changes for the team would be inevitable.

No one wanted that to happen, so training with Vitality was, on one hand, to help Vitality improve. On the other hand, they were also working hard to learn experience from Vitality.

"It's just a bit of a pity; my form has been so fierce lately, but I have no chance to stand on the final stage," danking said with a look of emotion, "But I will still go to cheer for you tomorrow."

Tomorrow the Champion Stage officially begins; in terms of ranking, it starts from the Top Eight, but many people use Quarter-finals to refer to it.

Xu Beifang had a flash of inspiration at this moment and suddenly thought of the suggestion for 【Interactive Shenanigans】 proposed by the fans.

He suddenly had an idea.

Ruffling danking's messy hair, Xu Beifang said with a smile: "Don't worry, Daddy promises you, you will definitely appear on the final stage."

danking punched Xu Beifang, but didn't really care much.

The "father-son" talk between guys was usually just a joke; everyone took it seriously, yet no one would actually take it seriously.

He thought Xu Beifang wanted to say something about "the future is promising" again, so he didn't linger on this topic.

He quickly steered the conversation back to the training matches.

"That little fatty Zywoo, he plays really fiercely, right?" At this point, danking also complained, "He doesn't seem to have much presence outside of the match, so why is his Sniper Rifle so fierce?"

As one of Vitality's cores, Zywoo's playstyle was not as flamboyant as Xu Beifang's.

But his Sniper Rifle was efficient and stable; although it lacked aggressive intensity, its suppression power was very sufficient.

And danking was also convinced by this guy Zywoo's clutches.

As long as Zywoo was alive in a clutch, they would always be on pins and needles.

Xu Beifang smiled and said, "He is a top-tier genius born after exhausting all the luck of French CS: GO, what do you think?"

He understood in his heart that if he hadn't become a CS: GO Professional Player, then Zywoo would have grown up in "prison," stepped on s1mple's face, and become the Top 1 player of 2019.

But because of Xu Beifang's joining, Zywoo's playstyle developed toward stability.

Because Xu Beifang was there to hold the front, he didn't need to make any overly dangerous plays; he only needed to be a player who provided a safety net.

Even so, Zywoo's top-tier individual ability still gave him a very exaggerated rating.

This is also why, as a player without a strong presence, Zywoo could still frequently appear in the public eye.

The two finished dinner at the buffet restaurant downstairs, and Xu Beifang didn't return to the training room that night.

He and danking planned to stroll around the hotel entrance for a while before going back to rest.

The two chatted about some interesting anecdotes regarding the players, whiling away the leisurely time.

At this moment, danking noticed a dejected figure standing on the edge of the road not far away.

"Is that A Du? Why does he look so sad?"

This was just an ordinary night; on the foreign streets, they watched A Du squatting on the edge of the road, lighting a cigarette in his hand. Perhaps it was the drifting smoke that choked him, as he coughed violently from time to time.

Under the dim moonlight, the white smoke drifted into threads, and the passing traffic swept these smoke clouds away.

In this moment, the usually joyful A Du gave off an indescribable sense of distress.

Laughter could be heard from the hotel behind them from time to time. Xu Beifang looked far away at A Du's thin figure; through the traffic, he could see the distant Spodek Arena. The lights there were dim, but in the coming days, it would welcome its most dazzling moment, with tens of thousands of people crowding there to cheer for a dream team.

"What's wrong with A Du?" danking also sensed something. "Is he in a bad mood? Should we go talk to him for a while?"

Xu Beifang shook his head; he was quite clear about the situation.

"Before this Katowice Major tournament, dupreeh's father fell seriously ill. A Du wanted to give up the tournament to stay by his father's side, but his father chose to let him return to the arena, and then after they set off, A Du's father passed away."

"Ah... this." danking was silent for a long while. With emotions surging, he blurted out, "How about we go comfort him?"

"Absolutely not." Xu Beifang rejected danking's seemingly friendly suggestion.

"A Du is probably on the verge of an emotional breakdown right now. If he cries in front of us, that would be too embarrassing."

Men are all like this; even when encountering major life events, he won't feel too much on his own, licking his wounds in solitude, and eventually, he just gets through it.

But if someone goes to his side to show concern at this time, even if that concern is insignificant, those emotions will burst like a flood.

"As the defending champion from the previous tournament, this Katowice holds great significance for A Du. He carries his father's expectations, and he has reasons why he must win the championship..."

Speaking of this, Xu Beifang shook his head: "Let's go, let's go back and rest. I have a match tomorrow."

As they returned to the hotel, Xu Beifang looked back at A Du.

A Du had a reason why he must win the championship, and he had the strength to win it.

But what about Vitality now?

They weren't even among the favorites to win.

They could only try their best to move forward; with the current roster, the difficulty of lifting the Major Champion trophy was still too great.

Now they could only rely on their form and some inspired plays, taking it one step at a time, and creating a new record for themselves as much as possible.

Tomorrow, the Champion Stage matches officially begin...