Chapter 235: 239. Chapter 235 Machine

239. Chapter 235 Machine: "Nice is truly the world's number one, right!"

"Two-nil!" Wanjiqi shouted excitedly in the live stream room, "Vitality has achieved victory in the overtime battle and advanced to the semi-final stage!"

"Every step they take next is challenging their own limits!"

Inside the Spodek Arena, the peacock-blue lights flickered, finally reflecting onto the massive LED screen in the center of the venue.

The team logos of the two competing teams appeared on the big screen, followed by the FaZe logo fading away, while the Vitality logo gradually occupied the entire screen. The result of this match was already clear!

The English-language broadcast commentators on-site were also very excited: "Although the final result was 2:0, the brilliance of this match is still vivid in our minds; Vitality put on an extremely eye-catching performance!"

The passionate voices of the English commentators stirred the emotions of the audience on-site, and at this moment, applause and cheers resounded throughout the Spodek Arena!

As the match ended, the camera cut to the player booths, and Xu Beifang's face appeared on the big screen.

After the match, he had a joyful smile on his face, took off his headset directly, and then looked toward his teammates beside him.

All the members in the room turned their gazes toward him.

Zywoo even stumbled as he lunged toward him.

"That last round at Outside was too awesome!" Zywoo was still a bit shorter than Xu Beifang, and at this moment, he hung onto him like a kangaroo.

"Shushu, get down, I can't take it!" Xu Beifang patted Zywoo's back frantically; this guy always forgot that he was a heavyweight figure.

Zywoo's weight was over two hundred pounds, and the pressure he exerted was still immense.

Zywoo's face flushed, and he scratched his head embarrassedly: "I'll definitely lose weight when I get back!"

apEX reached out a palm from the side, and seeing this, Xu Beifang also reached out to high-five him.

"That last round was indeed the key; brother, your breakthrough at Outside was too crucial!!" apEX looked at the cheering audience in the arena with a smile on his face, "I f***ing love overtime!! Haha, today's match was just too satisfying!"

RpK stood up, twisted his waist, and complained: "I actually quite hate overtime; my butt is sore from sitting, and my brain is a total mush. The latter part was purely played on instinct."

For older players like them, it was becoming increasingly difficult to fully immerse themselves in the match.

When they were full of energy, they could still play with full concentration.

But when the match time dragged on, they had little time to buffer, and their front-line gunplay, awareness, information processing, and other abilities would plummet.

xtqzzz came over and hugged everyone warmly.

He wasn't too satisfied with the confrontation in today's match; as the winners, they had lost many rounds they shouldn't have. But at least winning was the biggest merit.

After briefly sharing his thoughts with his teammates, Xu Beifang turned his head to look below the stage, where the audience was cheering for them, constantly waving their cheering sticks and making noise.

Xu Beifang had a confident smile on his face, then raised his right fist high and waved it continuously.

The audience below the stage was also very cooperative; this match allowed them to see the powerful ability of this Huaxia genius entry fragger.

Whether it was his individual ability in the match or his charm as a star player, he had conquered them!

The scene was filled with jeers and cheers.

"Nice!!"

At first, a somewhat abrupt shout rang out from a corner, and then it spread rapidly, the sound changing from scattered to uniform, and subsequently, the entire venue fell into a rhythm.

"Nice!! Nice!!"

"Nice!! Nice!!"

What is the experience of ten thousand people cheering?

Xu Beifang had once imagined that scene in his dreams: everyone below the stage shouting his name, and he just standing on the stage with a quiet smile; that would make him appear very calm and very stylish.

As for what it specifically felt like, having not experienced it, he couldn't imagine it either.

But at this moment, the audience on-site gave him a tangible feeling for such a scene, because at this moment, it was happening inside the Spodek Arena.

In that instant, goosebumps instantly rose on Xu Beifang's forearms.

The exaggerated shouting made the ground vibrate, and Xu Beifang felt an invisible force spreading from the soles of his feet, rapidly traveling through his entire body, straight to his crown!

His heart was beating faster, and his tooth roots were also itching at this moment.

The peacock-blue lights shone on Xu Beifang; at this moment, he seemed to be the protagonist of the entire world!

Watching Nice, who was receiving the cheers of the audience across the stage, NiKo leaned back in his gaming chair, his mood incomparably complex.

After entering the Legends Stage, the tournament officially entered the LAN phase, and next, upsets could occur in any matchup.

Because once truly entering the LAN environment, he felt the gap was no longer that large. Otherwise, back in Boston, how could the unfavored C9 have ultimately lifted the championship trophy?

In last year's Boston Major, they achieved the best result in team history, reaching the Major final, only one step away from the Major championship, but ultimately lost to C9.

In the second half of the year's London Major, they were full of ambition, wanting to redeem themselves, but ultimately fell in the quarter-finals.

This London Major actually gave them reasons to find excuses; after all, after entering the Legends Stage, the first match they encountered was Astralis from Denmark; speaking of which, losing to the champion wasn't shameful.

But after the match ended, they believed that Karrigan had dragged the team down, making the front line less combat-effective.

After a series of adjustments, Karrigan was voted out by the team, and he became the team's in-game leader.

He believed he could definitely lead FaZe to the peak and make FaZe the first international squad to lift the Major trophy.

But what was the result?

Kicked Karrigan out, became the leader himself, and in the first Major of 2019, they still fell in the quarter-finals.

16:14!

25:22!

He still had reasons he could find.

For example, both maps lacked a bit of luck; if one of those rounds had been played well, then the one receiving the cheers today might have been himself.

But he couldn't convince himself.

"This Nice is truly a freak." Not far away, Da Jin Ya grabbed his hair messily, venting the depressed mood in his heart, "When the Top rankings came out at the beginning of the year, didn't they say this ranking was fake?"

Olofmeister refuted from the side: "Where was it fake? Nice has had this strength since he debuted; don't take things for granted."

"This guy has also had a hard journey; he's not the kind of player who only treats CS: GO as a job. For his dreams, he came to a foreign land and constantly worked hard to learn. This guy is indeed very powerful."

NiKo fiddled with his mouse, looking at the somewhat messy peripheral cables under the monitor, and after a moment, said: "If I said he is just a hardworking first-tier rifleman, what would you think?"

"Ah?" Da Jin Ya was stunned for a moment, recalling Nice from last year, and found that he was indeed just an ordinary first-tier rifleman; apart from his aggressive playstyle, there was nothing extraordinary.

"But why can he play so fiercely now? What kind of player is Nice, really?"

NiKo looked at the Vitality members walking toward them in the distance, his gaze lingering on that oriental face.

Yeah, what kind of player is Nice, really?

How did he manage to play with such dominance?

Thinking carefully, he didn't seem to have a very precise judgment. The first time he saw the ID "Nice" was on HLTV news, when he suddenly discovered a player who had popped up and actually joined VP. For a pure Polish team, this still caused them to gossip, and they all thought it was a wrong move made by VP in a panic.

But along the way, he slowly got to know and interact with Nice, and they also became good friends.

"Hello, NiKo!"

"Nice, you are too much like me; I like your style."

"Do you want to come to FaZe? But it seems we really can't afford you."

"..."

"Why did you run off to France?"

"NiKo, can I ask about your one-tap technique?"

Memories began to flash back; those exchanges he once had with Xu Beifang appeared in his mind like movie scenes.

This was the first time NiKo had faced Nice head-on in a match, but their daily interactions were not few. He greatly appreciated Nice's fearless and brave playstyle, but like the public, he initially believed that Nice's ability to enter the London Major Legends Stage was due to this novel aggressive playstyle combined with VP's willingness to play a 4-protect-1 tactic.

As for the Top 9 ranking, he also thought it was a bit inflated at the time; after all, he could see clearly back then that Nice's technical, tactical, and awareness skills were not top-tier, and calling him a first-tier rifleman was already a bit of a compliment.

After Nice joined Vitality, he slowly disappeared from everyone's view, and they could only bump into each other in FPL on weekdays.

But in FPL, he also discovered that Nice's technical and tactical skills were improving at a terrifying rate, which was astonishing.

He could probably analyze the reason now: this guy across from him could objectively understand his own strength outside of matches and was willing to lower his pride to ask for advice from experts in various fields like them.

For example, EliGE's spray, or his one-tap...

Absorbing their experience and constantly striving to grow, Nice had now truly entered the ranks of the world's number one riflemen. The little brother he once only slightly appreciated had now defeated him.

NiKo was a bit unconvinced, but the match was already a settled matter.

rain stood at his position, simply packing up his peripherals. As an amateur fitness enthusiast, his build was huge, but at this moment, this big guy felt incomparably lost.

As a representative of talented players, rain believed his performance in this match wasn't bad; whether it was Map 1 Inferno or Map 2 Nuke, he had put on very good performances.

But even so, they lost this BO3 matchup by a very small margin.

How could he be reconciled with this?

Although they hadn't won any major tournament championships in the last half-year and their results were just so-so, after entering the Major schedule, everyone's state was quite good, which gave rain some expectations for the results.

But he didn't expect that what awaited him in the end was disappointment.

Seeing the hand Xu Beifang extended, although rain was somewhat unconvinced about the win or loss in his heart, he was quite convinced by the performance of the guy in front of him: "Played well, much stronger than at the London Major; this Top 9 is well-deserved."

On the two maps, there were two IDs on Vitality they had always respected.

One was Zywoo, and the other was Nice.

Compared to the stable but somewhat invisible Zywoo, Nice, who was constantly looking for trouble for them, left a deeper impression.

Over the two maps, rain had faced this 'temporary teammate' several times, and he was quite convinced by his front-line performance.

The praise from his opponent made a smile hang on Xu Beifang's face.

"rain, your performance today was actually very good too; it's just that we had a bit of luck," he said modestly.

"Alright, next time I have a chance, I'll get my revenge."

rain wasn't as overly depressed as his teammates.

Although he didn't play at his peak state in this matchup, he believed his performance was acceptable; he had played out everything he should have, and in such times, one couldn't ask for too much.

As the most famous talented player among CS: GO professional players, rain had encountered countless monsters.

A single match's defeat wasn't enough to make him overly painful.

Furthermore, he had recently believed that FaZe's decision to kick Karrigan was wrong; the current lineup wasn't reasonable, and without reaching peak state, how could they win the championship?

So, rain was mentally prepared for the defeat; he just didn't expect to be out in the first LAN match.

"We'll talk about next time when it comes," Xu Beifang said with a smile.

On the contrary, NiKo, perhaps because his current state of mind was painful, just shook hands with Xu Beifang simply and didn't say much more.

In the 6657 live stream room, after watching the post-match handshake, Wanjiqi already wanted to comment on the data of both sides.

"Alright, guys, let's look at the data for this BO3; HLTV should have refreshed by now."

He entered the official HLTV website in his incognito browser and quickly found the post-match data for this match.

"Nice played really well today, various triple kills and quad kills. Except for a few rounds at Outside on Nuke where he was sanctioned by NiKo and rain together, the rest of the time he was killing frantically." As Wanjiqi was speaking, the post-match data also refreshed, and the first thing he saw was the total data for the two maps.

Nice:

Kills/Assists/Deaths (KAD): 78/9/38

KAST%: 88.9%

ADR: 122.4

Rating: 1.86

"How much???" Wanjiqi was stunned.

【???】

【Is this data definitely not photoshopped by Machine?】

【Holy crap, I just saw Nice killing constantly, didn't pay attention to his specific kill count; is it this terrifying?】

Xu Beifang's KD ratio in this match was more than double; even if you let many people go smurfing, they wouldn't be able to play this data.

Wanjiqi was also very surprised, and then he looked at the data carefully.

"Map 1 was actually okay; Nice had 26 kills, 2 assists, and 16 deaths; this data is relatively normal,"

"But Map 2, what is the situation with this Nice!!

52 kills, 7 assists, 22 deaths; isn't this a bit too outrageous??"

Wanjiqi clearly saw that Xu Beifang's rating on Map 2 was a terrifying 2.32!!

"This should be the highest rating on Nuke in the first tier, right."

Except for smurfing, he really hadn't seen such fierce data.

Zywoo also had a strong presence in this match, but on Map 2, he only got 37/10/23 data.

This data was also very good, getting the same number of kills as NiKo, who was first on the opposing side.

But this made Nice's data even more exaggerated.

47 rounds, getting 52 kills; this was truly a bit dreamlike.

Wanjiqi sighed with emotion: "Nice's level in this tournament can truly be called the world's number one!"

After the handshake session ended, Vitality returned to the player booth to pack up their peripherals, and Xu Beifang, who had performed relatively well in this match, was invited to the stage for an interview.

Banks held the microphone and asked: "Hello, Nice! If I remember correctly, this should be your second time participating in a Major, yet you've reached the quarter-finals in both Majors, and today you've taken another step forward. With so many people cheering for you on-site just now, did you imagine this scene?"

"This is quite unexpected, but I'm still very grateful to everyone."

"In the first map, Inferno, there was a key turning point: your team successfully planted the bomb on B site in one wave of attack, but you and Zywoo were both blocked outside B Pass. You relied on mixing in the smoke to kill the opponents. What were you thinking at that time? NiKo was killed by you while moving."

Xu Beifang pondered for two seconds, then recalled his actions at the time: "I had already aimed at the spot in advance. I let Zywoo double-peek to get information at the first moment, originally wanting to disrupt the opponent's rhythm. I didn't expect NiKo to be so fierce, turning around and instantly killing Zywoo, so I had to operate on my own."

"Afterward, it was just listening to them defusing and their footsteps, just listening and positioning; nothing strange about it."

【Listen, is this human talk?】

【Alright, I've already learned it; this is how to rank up in official matchmaking by mixing in smoke】

【Don't go! They will look down!】

【Nice: Teammates were all killed, so I had to turn up the parameters】

【No way, if I didn't turn up the clutch, Map 1 would have been gone】

【Nice: NiKo is indeed fierce, but I'm even fiercer, haha!】

"Your answer makes me feel like I could do it too," Banks teased, and continued to ask: "Your next opponent will be either NaVi or ENCE. Which team do you hope to encounter?"

Xu Beifang thought for a moment: "NaVi, I think NaVi's team structure is quite similar to ours, and we still have a chance to win if we play them."

The audience in the live stream room was emotionally charged, and seeing this answer, they started making memes:

【Of course it's NaVi; already blasted NaVi twice in a row, simple as that, alright】

【I've already written the script for tomorrow's match against NaVi: Electronic starts being infinitely unlucky, the Lucky Trio doesn't look like humans, s1mple gets killed several times in a row and starts overheating...】

【To be fair, this script isn't ideal; Mirage Master's state has warmed up this year, still very strong】

【Indeed, it's just that Edward is always at the bottom; don't know why NaVi just won't replace him】

As one of the favorites to win the championship, NaVi's strength had always been there.

Just as many people were looking forward to the Zywoo and Nice combination, many fans were also looking forward to the S1mple and Electronic combination.

However, some rational fans also understood that if NaVi continued to maintain this lineup, winning the championship was basically impossible.

After all, in the 2018 London Major final, the trio of s1mple, Electronic, and flamie all played at a very high level, yet they still couldn't withstand the five Astralis players exerting their strength.

In this game of CS: GO, to lift the Major championship, you must have five players in form!

Inside the NaVi lounge.

Hearing Xu Beifang's statement in the live stream, s1mple smiled very satisfactorily:

"I said it, this Nice still has an eye for talent, thinking we are relatively strong."

"But want to win? Hmph hmph..." ===== CHAPTER 236 =====