Chapter 237: 242. Chapter 237 The luck gauge was empty after all

242. Chapter 237 The luck gauge was empty after all

The day of the Legends Stage semi-finals.

Inside the backstage lounge of the Spodek Arena.

The match was starting in half an hour; xtqzzz had finished all preparations and was currently looking at CS: GO news pushes on his phone to kill time.

"... Vitality has recently become a fierce dark horse at Katowice. Nice, just like when he led the VP members last year, has started to break into the public's view with the French gang.

As the number one seed in France, Vitality's overall strength is quite good. With Nice, an extreme attacking player, and Zywoo, a top-tier rookie king, they are very powerful in front-line firepower, and the team's strength ceiling is extremely high!"

Seeing this, the big bald man smiled and changed his posture on the sofa, making his movement more comfortable.

Glancing at his team members, Vitality's members were all resting with their eyes closed, making better preparations for the upcoming match.

He continued to read down:

"... There are two top-tier players in the team, which makes Vitality's ceiling extremely high. I believe friends who have been following Vitality's matches can also see that in this Major, the two IDs 'Nice' and 'Zywoo' have created too many miracles.

However, while Vitality's ceiling is high, their floor is also equally low.

In this Katowice Major, Vitality has only lost less than 3 maps in total, yet the former Weapon Master NBK only got 1.01 data, and the French heavy artillery RpK's data is better, playing a 1.07 rating, but their data is not even as good as apEX, who is the leader. In terms of lineup, they have serious deficiencies..."

The big bald man's heart sank. CS: GO's rating is comprehensively evaluated based on various performances.

It has a certain gap with the player's true performance, just like Jame of AVANGAR today; his data is obviously relatively inflated.

But to say his own players' data was wrong, he couldn't even convince himself.

Looking at the data, NBK and RpK's performances were relatively normal, and could even be counted as a link of relatively outstanding players.

But the premise was that Vitality won more and lost less in this Major, so the data should have gone up.

So being able to walk all the way here from the Major Challengers Stage, he was already very surprised.

It could only be said that Nice and Zywoo's performances were somewhat superhuman.

However, Vitality's boss Neo also talked to him a few days ago, preparing to strengthen the team's lineup after this Major, replacing the two old men and getting two players with sufficient combat power.

Neo, that layman, believed that France was still full of talent, and a casual selection got a player like Zywoo.

But xtqzzz had a headache. As a practitioner of French CS: GO, he knew very well the weakness of French CS today.

Being able to pick out Zywoo from the second tier for the first time, their entire club hit the jackpot.

Wanting to find a player of Zywoo's level next was simply dreaming.

He thought about it; it seemed that the only good choice afterward was to go to G2 to poach people.

But that was a matter after the Major ended, and it was just a hypothesis; now the match hadn't even officially ended.

"... Although Vitality's individual player ability is strong, they can't get around their map pool and tactical depth. Among the seven active maps, Vitality has 3 maps they don't know how to play. Although in the match against FaZe, they showed their good combat power on Nuke, but one must know that FaZe isn't proficient on Nuke either; being able to fight them to a standstill, Vitality's level on this map is just so-so.

In previous matchups, Vitality's luck was quite good, encountering opponents that didn't let them be targeted by the map pool, but in the semi-final match against ENCE, the map pool will be a hurdle they can't get past..."

xtqzzz was silent.

He wasn't silent because this analyst's statement had any errors, but because it was analyzed too correctly, making him unable to say any words of refutation.

In several key matches of this Major, such as the third round of the Legends Stage against Liquid, or the quarter-final against FaZe the day before yesterday.

FaZe and Liquid didn't play Train, and the map pool overlapped somewhat with Vitality's; the luck all the way was quite good.

But after reaching the top four, their luck gauge seemed to be empty.

Because the ENCE they were facing next was different; this Finnish team banned Overpass first.

This meant that ENCE definitely had the opportunity to target their maps.

He turned his head again to look at Nice and Zywoo who were resting; now he could only hope that they would create miracles again in the upcoming match.

"ez4enceenceence

densputtedupperbelt put upper belt on the upper lip

puttedupperbelt put on the upper lip

minoristmajorii from minor to major

haastaalegendaarisii challenge those experienced legends..."

Standing on the stage, listening to this rhythmic beat, the Finnish group draped in the national flag slowly walked out from behind the stage.

This cheering song exclusive to ENCE drew the entire audience to interact.

Xu Beifang was still listening carefully to the content of the lyrics; the lyrics of "EZ4ENCE" turned all ENCE members into elements in the form of memes.

This song, produced by 'The Verkkars', was just released in mid-February, but it had already become popular in the CS: GO circle.

If Xu Beifang remembered correctly, this song would become a classic CS: GO music kit later, and 'The Verkkars' would also collaborate with n0thing later to produce a music kit called 'Flash Dance'.

As the host brought up the topic for both sides to release their harsh words, drawing a round of jeers from the audience, this match that determined the qualification for the final officially kicked off.

After the BP session ended, both sides officially started entering the match.

Map 1 was Dust II, which ENCE actively chose.

Although they lost to Vitality once on Dust II a month ago, time had passed, and their state was no longer what it used to be.

In the first half, ENCE played as the attacking side first. In the pistol round, they chose a wave of explosive bomb attacks on B, and the attacking phase went very smoothly.

The good news was that the number of people had reached 3v1, but the bad news was that the one left was Zywoo.

In the clutch, Zywoo, who was walking through B Doors, relied on swaying peeks for precise positioning, splitting the 1v3 into three 1v1s, directly reversing the situation, and the audience on-site directly expressed that they were fired up.

After planting the bomb, Karrigan directed the team to directly pure eco to give up points and adjust the economy.

In the third round, the long-gun round arrived early. From the match UI, it was actually ENCE's weaponry that was more advanced.

Xu Beifang chose to compete for control of A Long, but was directly mixed to death by Karrigan from inside the smoke grenade, and A Long was subsequently pushed flat in one wave. The weapon disadvantage was too great, and they had no room to fight back at all.

Coming to the ninth round.

Vitality, whose economy was blown up again, chose to eco to save money; everyone only had armorless Desert Eagles to play with.

ENCE chose a wave of A Long advancement, while Vitality's main force was defending at the bomb site and A Short.

Then Xu Beifang, holding an armorless Desert Eagle, relied on apEX's boost at A Short, and three bullets popped three heads.

ENCE instantly panicked. sergej chased out of the bomb site, wanting to rely on gunplay to solve the A Short problem first, but was also headshot by Xu Beifang, who had an excellent feel.

Finally, cooperating with the teammates who rotated back, they completed this top-tier armorless Desert Eagle comeback.

Xu Beifang's state was very hot; even on this AWP map, his control of A Long in the first half was done very well.

It's just that, although Xu Beifang performed brilliantly, Vitality only had him performing brilliantly in this first half.

ENCE noticed that A Long was hard to top, and directly turned around to find trouble at B site.

Karrigan found a familiar playstyle, plus Zywoo's feel in the first half was truly a bit cold; except for a triple kill in the pistol round, he only got one kill in the other 14 rounds. This led to the final end of the first half, with the score fixed at 6:9.

Fortunately, after coming to the attacking side in the second half, Zywoo's feel started to warm up, killing all the way from 4 people, continuously getting several multi-kills, making the situation better.

But the Finnish god-level sniper also woke up after a timeout; godallu reappeared in the world.

In the subsequent matchups, the audience could see the twin stars starting various 2vN clutches.

The scores of both sides were constantly pulling, and the score reached 13:14.

In this critical round, NBK missed a timing, allowing all the information on B2 to be read through in the middle of the round, and Karrigan decisively chose a 5A heavy defense.

The bold decision led to Vitality not even being able to enter the bomb site before all dying on the way to attack.

The score of Map 1 was finally fixed at 13:16, and Vitality still lost this map.

After a simple adjustment during the halftime break, Vitality started entering Map 2.

Map 2 was Inferno, which they chose themselves.

Xu Beifang came up, controlled Banana alone, and facing the ENCE members who came out to counter-clear him, he directly taught them a lesson with a triple kill.

In the next few rounds, Xu Beifang also played very brilliantly on Banana, making ENCE have a headache.

The score went all the way to 5:0.

But in the next few rounds, they faced ENCE's heavy defense and gambling on sites; several times B site utility items just dragged them hard, and Xu Beifang couldn't get the advantage of kills in such a situation.

apEX decisively chose to turn around and hit the Second Floor.

But the scene at the Second Floor made fans shout that they couldn't bear to look.

You have an excuse to fly to the Second Floor when ecoing, but flying to the Second Floor when facing ENCE's eco round in a long-gun round.

It could only be said that apEX was worthy of being someone who came out of G2; this abstract effect was from the same school.

Fortunately, Nice's state entering Inferno was always very good, and together with Zywoo, he saved many rounds.

After several rounds of failure on A site, Vitality put the focus back on Banana, and this time Xu Beifang was followed by Zywoo.

With a trade-killer by his side, Xu Beifang's playstyle became even more aggressive, and ENCE shouted that they couldn't take it.

The first half ended, and the score was fixed at 9:6.

Although they couldn't win the pistol round in the second half, Xu Beifang still showed his exaggerated dominance on Banana. ENCE really couldn't handle this point of his and could only perform a fast A site push, but how could a fast push be so easy to score?

In the twenty-eighth round, having already reached match point, relying on Xu Beifang's triple kill from a forward press on Banana, the score was fixed at 16:12.

Both sides were tied 1:1, and the match entered Map 3.

Vitality fans were cheering excitedly below the stage; the third map was Nuke. Although Vitality didn't play it much, the brilliant performance yesterday against FaZe gave them some expectations.

But some rational audience members were still worried.

Although they won against FaZe yesterday, FaZe's strength on Nuke could only be said to be average.

But ENCE was different; they played 28 Nuke matches last year and won 19, with a map win rate of 67.9%.

And Vitality's Nuke match count wasn't even as many as the number of times ENCE lost.

After Vitality officially entered Map 3, everyone also started to discover the problem.

From the perspective of individual ability, Vitality was obviously more powerful; Nice could frequently bring good news at Outside, and Zywoo could also find opportunities in the middle of the round.

However, in terms of overall performance, ENCE was obviously more powerful.

This was a confrontation between individual ability and team level.

Vitality fans watching the match data were even more angry at their lack of success.

Because the twin stars' data was far ahead, the data of Xu Beifang and Zywoo combined was 10 kills more than the three old men combined.

The audience enjoyed a feast of gunplay and shouted that it was exciting!

Vitality was even leading in the second half of the match, but when they got the 14th point, Xu Beifang caught a timing with a forward press at Outside, but boldly let people go wanting to get more, only to be eaten by Karrigan who reacted, and then ENCE performed a wave of Main and A pinch, and sergej got a quad kill to help ENCE withstand the pressure.

Vitality, teased by fans as the "Choke Brothers", welcomed their choke.

The score started to change constantly.

14:12

14:13

14:15

14:16

The Group A match welcomed another long-term pain matchup.

The final score was fixed at 1:2.

This BO3 matchup finally ended after all.

Vitality's dream journey this time stopped at the top four.

The moment the match ended, Xu Beifang took off his headset, turned around to face the wall of the player booth, and couldn't calm his mood for a long time.

In the match, he used all his strength, shouting with all his might, wanting to go one step further.

But the victory of this match, after all, didn't belong to Vitality.

When the director's camera gave this scene, the audience in the live stream room had very complex moods.

【This Major was too painful to watch; NiKo, s1mple, Nice, the three players I like the most all left with regrets】

【In this BO3, Lü Bu and Zywoo combined for 200 kills, but the three teammates really didn't act like humans】

【Success by forward press, failure by forward press, sigh~】

【Vitality, hurry up and replace the three old men; it's clearly a team that can compete for the championship, but it has become like this.】

【Two sky-high substitutes just can't carry】

【Map 3, little Xu's 1.66 rating, but just can't win】

【If only there was a good lurker, they wouldn't be like this; the two brothers' pressure is too great, having to break through, trade kills, and also play clutches...】

【...】

Zywoo walked over and hugged Xu Beifang; his mood was also bad, but looking at the expression of his brother who was always confident on weekdays, he felt very uncomfortable: "Beifang, it's okay, we'll just win it back next time."

"As long as we get familiar with the map pool and get a bit stronger, we will definitely be able to lift that trophy."

They would definitely be able to reach that step, Zywoo was very certain!

It was impossible to win the championship in this Major; I've laid the groundwork for a long time, so everyone must know, but as for the final result being the final or the top four, I pondered for a long time, and finally, for the sake of some subsequent plots, I let the result stop at the top four. After all, if they entered the final and were crushed, they would become the biggest losers.

However, ENCE's strength is not weak either. Two months after the Major timeline, they crushed Astralis with a 2:0 score in a final; they are now a true T1-level team.

After finishing this Major, the next step is to change people, the old men exit, and the road to the mountain will officially begin! ===== CHAPTER 238 =====