Chapter 236: 240. Chapter 236 Baby Powder: Come back, Karrigan, I'm proud

240. Chapter 236 Baby Powder: Come back, Karrigan, I'm proud

After the passionate match, there would be a night of fatigue.

Xu Beifang woke up from his sleep, feeling his physical state slowly recovering.

Through the hotel curtains, he could see the sunlight filtering in, shining on the carpet in the room.

He leaned against the headboard, picked up his phone, and checked today's schedule.

xtqzzz: Everyone rest tomorrow morning, review and training start at 3 PM, go to the venue to watch the match together at 6 PM...

This was the schedule sent by the big bald coach in the Vitality team group yesterday.

Vitality's quarter-final match had ended, and they had gained a short period of rest to make some adjustments.

He checked the time; it was already 9 AM, but Zywoo on the bed next to him turned over, having no intention of getting up at all.

But this was also normal; having won against FaZe with a 2:0 score, all Vitality members were very happy.

Yesterday in the team group, Vitality's boss Neo was also very happy, directly stating that for every match they won next, he would give the entire team a 10,000 Euro bonus!

He saw it very clearly; although his own club wasn't too wealthy, all the focus had previously been on the LoL division.

But LoL had never made a name for itself, while the CS: GO division, which was planted unintentionally, suddenly made his eyes light up, directly charging into the Major Legends Stage.

Ten thousand Euros was about a month's salary for the players.

But for him, it wasn't too much; whether for a happy mood or for subsequent results, this ten thousand could be spent very worthily.

After winning against FaZe, Vitality had already become a semi-finalist in this Katowice Major, and in the entire CS: GO world, they were already famous; all CS: GO players would definitely remember the name Vitality.

The popularity brought by the results plus subsequent various advertising revenues would definitely be able to make up for these incomes.

And he also stated very clearly yesterday that he would adjust everyone's salary next, and everyone's would be adjusted upward.

Zywoo, who only had 1000 Euros per month, would at the very least have a 0 added to the end.

Vitality had all partied very late last night, and this was the reason.

In esports teams, promotions were relatively rare, but being able to get a raise would also make people incredibly happy.

Plus today was a day off, so everyone was very relaxed, sleeping in their rooms, enjoying the most beautiful moment for freelancers.

Perhaps it wasn't just them; most of the players who came to watch the match today would be quite excited.

Xu Beifang sent messages to several familiar friends, arranging a morning workout.

No one replied to the messages for the time being, so he opened his phone, swiped through the forum casually, waiting for news from his fitness buddies.

After entering the Major tournament, the discussion heat about the matches had remained high.

Not to mention that yesterday was the first long-awaited LAN match of the Legends Stage.

Xu Beifang refreshed it casually and could see discussion threads about the tournament.

【Outside is cloudless, the Galactic Battleship returns without oil】

【As a Baby Powder, last night's match was simply a disaster for me】

【FaZe, you are truly disappointing; both maps were just a little bit off!!! I really want to hammer Da Jin Ya to death; just a dead scrub!】

【Come back, Karrigan! My proud faith! The rotations vivid in my mind! Tears flowing inexplicably! Vaguely remembering the USP! And the effective tactics...】

Xu Beifang almost couldn't hold back his laughter.

He also understood the pain of FaZe fans.

Around the end of 2018, FaZe suddenly kicked Karrigan and let NiKo become the leader, which had already drawn a lot of controversy.

"The leader is the graveyard of the gunner" — this famous saying had been passed down since the CS 1.6 era, and there were too many examples.

However, later NiKo proved with his strength that he was the "gun-blazing leader" with the best data, and combined with the fact that Karrigan's data as a leader was indeed not good, everyone didn't say anything.

But looking at it now, when Karrigan was there before, they could still reach the runner-up position, and even when in poor form, they had quarter-final results.

But this time, although they still had quarter-final results, they couldn't take a single map after entering the LAN phase, which was even worse than G2 being eliminated early.

Plus last night's match, FaZe's overall performance really wasn't brilliant, which led many fans to complain — there wasn't even any fun to be had, which made the resentment toward FaZe in the forum profound.

At the same time, for Vitality, who defeated FaZe, the voices in the forum were all positive.

【Nice broke the highest rating record on Nuke with his own strength】

【Vitality's match yesterday was too brilliant; Nice opened a case and got gold before the match; this luck is outrageous!】

【Reminder: He opened a Case Hardened 661 before the match, starting with a 50,000 dollar lead; what does FaZe have to fight with?】

【Two maps were truly blood-carrying; FaZe probably thought Vitality wouldn't play Nuke, and got tricked, haha】

Xu Beifang continued to scroll down and also saw many CS: GO video creators who had already edited the brilliant kills from the match, letting netizens who missed the match quickly immerse themselves in it.

He was about to continue scrolling down, but found that both danking and NiKo had replied to his messages.

So he decisively got up to wash and brush, changed into a set of sportswear, and started heading to the gym downstairs.

When he saw NiKo, he didn't look as depressed as yesterday; instead, he had a smile on his face.

"I checked the post-match data yesterday; you definitely turned something on."

Xu Beifang and NiKo were waiting for danking at the entrance, answering with a smile: "Turned it on secretly; don't go out and talk nonsense."

"Get lost!" NiKo smiled and punched Xu Beifang.

Cheating in LAN CS: GO matches did indeed exist.

The most famous one was in the grand final of the eXTREMESLAND Shanghai station last year, where the last conscience of Mumbai, forsaken from India, read a Huaxia web novel before the match and understood the principle of "my life is determined by me, not by heaven."

He dodged VAC in the match, dodged the LAN referees, but ultimately couldn't dodge the B5 platform's detection.

The on-site referee checked forsaken's computer after finding problems. At that time, forsaken strongly resisted and deleted a certain file at a lightning speed, but a file named '...' was still found.

But this was a Major-level tournament, and it had already entered the LAN phase. Before going on stage, even their personal belongings needed to be checked. If Xu Beifang had really cheated and hadn't been detected, that would be challenging the rice bowls of hundreds of people in the tournament organizing committee.

The IEM matches afterward wouldn't need to be held either.

"Looking at it this way, our targeting of you on Inferno did have an effect," NiKo said: "It's just that Nuke was too outrageous; you were like an aimbot at Outside."

He was also defending and attacking at Outside yesterday.

Xu Beifang felt immense pressure at Outside because he was in a 1v2 on the front line.

But NiKo just felt that this guy across from him was truly difficult to deal with; his attention had to be focused at all times, and once he relaxed a bit, he might catch the timing and rush out.

Now looking back, NiKo felt a bit unconvinced again.

NiKo's professional career was relatively smooth; his super-high talent had made him a very powerful player in others' eyes since he debuted.

He also made a name for himself in the CS: GO world very early.

After he entered first-tier matches, his name was in the discussion of the world's number one entry fragger every year.

This year, he transitioned to become a leader. In the ranks of leaders, his data was still exaggerated, but NiKo also admitted that as a leader, he had to take care of the team's various movements, leading to an inability to focus all his attention on the crosshair, and his state had declined a lot.

If he were still that gunner from back then, he believed he could definitely blast Nice to pieces at Outside.

But that was already yesterday's matter; NiKo shook his head and didn't let his thoughts sink in. At this moment, danking walked toward them slowly, and the moment Xu Beifang saw him, his expression turned into that of an old man on the subway looking at his phone.

"What the hell is this hair of yours? Could it be that your idol is gla1ve??"

Not seeing him for a day, danking's head was already full of red hair, as if he were wearing a wig on his head.

"How about it, looks good, right!" Tie Dan showed off to Xu Beifang quite proudly.

When leaving the venue after the first match last night, Tie Dan suddenly bumped into gla1ve. Looking at that handsome hairstyle of the Canadian, and recalling that gla1ve's looks were just average before, Tie Dan started dreaming about changing his appearance with a hairstyle.

After dyeing his hair at night, although he was already very sleepy, he was still too excited to fall asleep.

He swiped through videos all night and originally wanted to sleep after eating a meal in the morning.

Hearing Xu Beifang's invitation, he still couldn't help but come over to show off.

"Brother, see reality clearly; although gla1ve isn't tall, he is truly handsome..." Xu Beifang ruthlessly shattered Tie Dan's fantasy.

"Beifang, you truly have no aesthetic sense..." danking pointed his finger at Xu Beifang, saying through gritted teeth.

Xu Beifang smiled and didn't argue with Tie Dan about this matter.

The three of them entered the gym, did a 5km run, and sat on the side to start chatting.

"Speaking of which, Beifang, you didn't see it yesterday; after you and FaZe finished playing, NaVi's match was also super interesting," danking said, using his broken English to take care of NiKo.

"Who won??" NiKo asked curiously.

After losing the match yesterday, he and rain went to a nearby nightclub to get drunk, venting the negative emotions in their hearts.

He really didn't know the outcome of yesterday's second BO3.

danking explained, took out his phone, and opened HLTV to find that BO3 between NaVi and ENCE.

Xu Beifang took a look at the page and understood why danking said it was super interesting.

NaVi vs ENCE, the final score of this BO3 was fixed at 1:2, and ENCE won the match.

In this match, the final map selection was Train, Dust II, and Mirage.

On the two maps NaVi lost, they both lost with a score of 14:16.

"Good guy, NaVi's score is a bit interesting."

Although he was also taken away by a long-term pain score, there was no harm without comparison.

Although they were in long-term pain, they couldn't take a single map in the BO3, and in the match, they believed their hope of winning was still very small.

But NaVi was different.

After NaVi's long-term pain on Map 1, they directly took down ENCE with a large score on Map 2, which definitely gave NaVi hope for a comeback.

But in the end, they lost Map 3 with such a score.

danking gave a wicked smile: "And it's not just that; you guys come look at this round."

He entered the keywords 【s1mple】 【regret】 on Bilibili.

Soon, some videos about CS: GO appeared below; the first video was posted 5 hours ago, and the cover was s1mple painfully covering his face.

Tie Dan clicked on the video, and Xu Beifang and NiKo leaned their heads over.

This was a round on Mirage; NaVi in the video was the attacking side, and ENCE was the defending side.

NaVi on this map was still playing according to their habits — standard Mid control.

Just at the start, Electronic forgot to jump-throw, leading to a failed VIP smoke; from here, they could feel the pressure at that time.

The score was 13:13, and only a few rounds were left before the match ended; NaVi members were all very nervous.

NaVi was conducting Mid control, and ENCE was also conducting small tactical countermeasures in Mid.

After a round of personnel exchanges in Mid, NaVi played another classic Second Floor and Archway pinch on A.

A 3v4 clutch, NaVi didn't have many utility items left, and they hadn't gotten any information on A site. NiKo entered NaVi's perspective, and his brows were already furrowed.

"This ENCE plays so steadily," Xu Beifang said.

He vaguely remembered this classic CS: GO scene, the scene where s1mple was firing on all cylinders but unable to turn the tide.

It was just that when watching this scene in his previous life, he was all looking at s1mple's operation.

Now that his perspective had changed, he was paying attention to ENCE's movements.

The moment the explosive bomb was deployed on A site, ENCE's overall line was pulling back; it could be said they were doing exactly what was ordered.

This ENCE, when they should be aggressive, they weren't afraid at all.

But when they should be steady, ENCE also wouldn't have anyone getting hot-headed.

Next, they saw NaVi's constipated attack appear in the match again.

Although NaVi entered A site, because of ENCE's retreat, it actually made them feel a bit surrounded.

After a round of gunfire after exposing their sounds, only s1mple was left facing the clutch alone.

After his teammates died, he instantly killed two people at CT Spawn, turning the clutch into a 1v1, and successfully planted the bomb.

s1mple at Long Box threw a flashbang, intending to jump toward CT Spawn to change positions.

But the moment he changed positions, he got the opponent's standing information.

At this time, if he just stood at CT Spawn, it would already be an advantageous duel.

But s1mple's personality made him maintain aggressiveness, maintain initiative.

He still actively peeked out for a short spray, then instantly pulled back to switch to the AWP, peeking to the right again, wanting to catch the opponent's timing.

But he didn't expect that ENCE's members were also young and vigorous, and didn't have any burden in the clutch because of the ID "s1mple".

He directly rushed forward to find trouble for s1mple, and in the end, s1mple hadn't even finished pulling the AWP bolt before he was taken away by a shot.

Then they saw that painful action of s1mple on the cover.

Peak s1mple is a bit terrifying... Xu Beifang watched with some worry.

After the Legends Stage grouping ended, although the other three teams in Group A weren't the weakest, Liquid and Astralis weren't in Group A either, so they didn't have that much pressure.

But looking at it now, ENCE had always been ignored by them.

This Finnish team was much more powerful than imagined.

The next match might be much harder than they imagined... ===== CHAPTER 237 =====