Chapter 276: Tested, not a single drop of urine in the stimulants

Inside the Baoshan Gymnasium, the dome lights shone down on Xu Beifang, and the gazes of the seven thousand people in the venue were fixed firmly upon him.

Everyone pulled out their phones and opened their cameras to record this moment.

As that sturdy arm exerted force, the trophy that countless people had dreamed of was hoisted into the air by him.

Like a volcanic eruption, or waves crashing against the shore, a roar erupted within the venue.

The members of NaVi, who had already walked into the player tunnel, couldn't help but look back at the stage.

With streamers raining down from the sky and pyrotechnics erupting from the fog machines, Vitality, holding the trophy, had truly become the center of the world!

The lights in the venue were dazzling, and starlight flickered everywhere; just one glance was enough to leave them stunned.

No matter how many emotions they had held in their hearts before, at this moment, only regret remained.

If only they could have performed better in the finals earlier...

If only they hadn't made those mistakes...

If only they could have taken one more round...

Could it have been them standing in the center of the stage?

But the things of this world are just that cruel.

Stories have "ifs," but reality only has the "now."

"Nice!! Nice!!"

"Nice!! Nice!!"

After the cheers, the crowd in the venue shouted in unison. Everyone in the audience pressed their shutters, shouting the IDs of the players on stage with voices that had already grown hoarse.

【Nice!!!】

【Cyber Northern Expedition! Success!!】

【The most exciting episode!】

【It's raining gold.】

【One year, from 1200 hours at C+ to a top-tier player at 5600 hours, little Xu has had it so tough.】

【Talcum powder sends its congratulations.】

【The Oulu brothers send their congratulations.】

With those burning gazes from the audience fixed on him, Xu Beifang couldn't help but feel a tingle. Weren't the efforts of countless days and nights all for this very moment?

There were many times when he couldn't help but doubt himself.

Was all this effort worth it, just for these ten-plus minutes of glory?

And now, he finally had his own answer to that question.

He handed the trophy to Zywoo behind him with one hand.

Seeing Xu Beifang lift the trophy with one hand, Zywoo subconsciously assumed it wasn't very heavy and wanted to replicate Xu Beifang's move—how cool it would be!

But when he took it with one hand, he felt the weight of the trophy and nearly dropped it on the floor.

"Why is it so heavy!" Zywoo looked at Xu Beifang in disbelief.

The audience below also noticed this comical scene and burst into good-natured laughter.

However, when Zywoo held the trophy with both hands and lifted it up, the audience below still cooperated with cheers.

Next, the trophy began to be passed to every member of Vitality.

Each of them felt this heart-stirring moment, feeling their own perfect moment!

It wasn't until all six members on stage had lifted the trophy that the final Head Coach, XTQZZZ, placed it back on the trophy stand, and everyone began to calm their inner emotions.

As the trophy was temporarily set down, the music at the venue softened.

Everyone's emotions slowly calmed down along with the fading music. After lifting the trophy, their emotions had been released; they were still filled with joy, but no longer so agitated.

After the music disappeared, the host had also unknowingly walked near the trophy stand.

"apEX!" The host stood beside apEX, and the clamor in the venue began to quiet down.

"This isn't your first time winning a T1-tier major tournament, but it is your first time winning a T1-tier offline tournament with Vitality. What does this mean to you?"

The translator beside him translated it into English.

apEX was lost in thought for a moment. He had prepared many things to say before the match—

He wanted to talk about those late-night self-doubts...

He wanted to talk about the difficulty of letting go after being blamed...

He wanted to talk about the confusion of having no results for half a year...

But when the words reached his lips, he just smiled: "It means I've become a fairly qualified commander. At the very least, in this tournament, we were the ones who finally won the championship."

"Yes, you are a very qualified commander. At the very least, you led your team to lift the trophy!" The host's words were heartwarming. "You are already a part of the championship."

Sensing that apEX's mood wasn't great, he steered the topic to the next stage.

The host paced beside the trophy stand, speaking to build the atmosphere:

"The four maps of the finals have concluded. Everyone is still deeply impressed by the confrontation between Vitality and NaVi, and as for the MVP of this final, I believe everyone has their own candidate in mind." The host, in a crisp suit, drew the audience into contemplation.

In the world of CSGO, the StarSeries is also a relatively frequently held tournament.

The MVP of the S6 finals was sergej, a member of ENCE who had just taken second place in the Katowice Major last month.

Going further back, the MVP of the S5 season was S1mple, a member of NaVi who had just regretfully left the stage.

Hearing this, the audience in the live stream began to discuss it.

Most people believed that there was no suspense regarding the MVP of this final.

The most outstanding performers for Vitality in this final were definitely the twin stars.

Xu Beifang and Zywoo had turned the tide multiple times during the match, saving Vitality from the brink of disaster.

And in the comparison of data between Xu Beifang and Zywoo, Xu Beifang's was indeed significantly higher than Zywoo's.

Throughout the entire StarSeries tournament, Zywoo's performance hadn't been overly outstanding.

Of course, a small portion of fans believed that it was possible for the finals to have an FMVP, and that the medal would eventually be given to S1mple.

After all, everyone had seen S1mple's outstanding performance in this final very clearly.

Four maps, a total of 101 kills—it could be described as terrifying.

Looking back, S1mple had also won the FMVP honor twice before.

Seeing that the atmosphere was sufficiently built up, the host shouted loudly: "Let us congratulate Nice! With his absolute performance, he has become the MVP of this StarSeries S7 season!"

The next moment, Xu Beifang's stern headshot photo appeared on the four giant LED screens in the venue, with his specific data from the finals on the right.

Kills/Assists/Deaths: 121/18/80

Average Damage per Round: 93.6

Non-Trade Rate: 82.2%

Rating 2.0: 1.42

Every single data point was simply outrageous.

From the moment the data appeared, the audience's gasps never stopped.

Even NaVi fans were completely convinced after seeing this exaggerated data.

They finally understood why S1mple couldn't win the match even after getting 101 kills.

Because there was a monster like Nice on the other side; he had killed a total of 121, 20 more kills than S1mple across the four maps!

Moreover, Nice existed as a rifleman, and his data was naturally supposed to be half a grade lower than a sniper's.

【Holy crap, a cheat!!】

【How many kills?】

【What kind of epic performance is this??】

【The intensity of four maps was maxed out and he averaged 1.42, who can understand this, family!】

【The BO5 kill record was SK vs VP in '17, when Coldzera got 130 kills over five maps; if this had gone the distance, he would have broken the record directly.】

【Beizige truly deserves the win!】

【Today, Nice inherited the will of the God of War!】

【Nice: I said I would win the championship, and I definitely did it!】

"Going to have a urine test later," shox joked on the side.

"Tested, not a single drop of urine in the stimulants," JackZ laughed.

This was his heartfelt admiration for Xu Beifang.

Throughout his entire professional career, kennyS was the player with the most talent he had ever encountered, but looking back at his career, kennyS had never been as exaggerated as Xu Beifang.

Zywoo swayed his body along with the applause from the audience, then gave Xu Beifang a thumbs up.

Xu Beifang took the StarSeries MVP medal from the staff member beside him.

Holding this medal in his hand, he also felt a bit emotional.

Last year, when he was just starting out at the ZOTAC Cup, he and his VP teammates worked hard to win that tournament.

In an interview with that scantily clad female host, he had said with a flat face: "First time winning a championship, no experience."

Back then, he never could have imagined that the road ahead would be so difficult.

Watching Xu Beifang take the MVP medal, the host leaned in: "Let's interview our MVP. You put up an extremely exaggerated performance in this final. What are your thoughts now that you've won?"

Xu Beifang looked down and admired the MVP medal, then said: "Thoughts? Well, today went quite smoothly. According to our pre-match discussion, it was highly likely that we would have to drag it out to the fifth map to wear them down."

NaVi's strength was not weak. Although they had done research and targeting before the match, time was tight. Comparing the strength of both sides, they had prepared to enter the final map and defeat NaVi by relying on stamina and resilience.

But in the middle of the finals, Xu Beifang was in excellent form, and everyone on NaVi except S1mple was a bit lackluster, so it went quite smoothly.

【I thought it would go to the last map, but it turns out NaVi is no good either.】

【Damn, this Vitality really planned to use the 'wear them down' tactic to exhaust NaVi to death.】

【Can only say little Xu is really fierce tonight (puts on pants).】

【Outrageous.】

The host continued to ask: "Nice, in the confrontation on Inferno, you pulled off an amazing 1v5. What were you thinking at that time?"

"Thoughts at the time?" Xu Beifang recalled, "Mainly just thinking about finding the other side to fight, trying to take out as many long guns as possible. Then after taking out Zeus, I just thought about trying my best. You saw the final result; it was very lucky."

"The strong always attribute their strength to luck, but we all know that it's not just luck that can explain it." The host had a faint smile on his face.

"Last question, why did you post that update before the match today?" The host asked with some curiosity.

This topic also aroused the anticipation of the audience in the venue.

Xu Beifang's declaration before the match could be described as spectacular.

Setting a flag before the finals directly maxed out the conflict.

Xu Beifang smiled and finally chose to answer truthfully: "Mainly because I didn't intend to leave myself a way out."

"I wanted to defeat NaVi, I wanted to win this championship, so I said it boldly... Since the words were already out there, if I didn't play well, I could imagine the voices on the internet, so I was forcing myself to work harder to take every point."

In reality, there was also a part of him that wanted to convince himself and increase his own confidence.

"Thanks to Nice for the post-match interview. Please, all of Vitality, stand together, and we will take a group photo after the championship."

The photographer found an angle in front, and the members of Vitality put their arms around each other's shoulders, their faces beaming with brilliant smiles.

"Finally, let us once again use your most enthusiastic cheers to tell us who the champion of the StarSeries S7 season is—"

"Vitality!!!"

After the post-match interview, the members of Vitality, except for Xu Beifang, were waiting in the lounge.

"Everyone played so well today, especially Nice. Tonight was truly a cheat-level performance." apEX's expression was very strange.

He was very happy in his heart, but his throat was completely hoarse. This intertwining of psychological joy and physical pain made his expression look peculiar.

Before Xu Beifang had even arrived, his voice came from the player tunnel: "Then you had a boss-level performance."

"Screw you." But after the retort, apEX and the others in the room all laughed.

In fact, it wasn't that this statement was particularly funny; it was just that they had just lifted the championship, and their hearts were filled with joy, so they just wanted to laugh.

It was just that shox's words brought them back to reality:

"So, is there any boss treating us? I'm already starving. Let's find a place to eat; these bananas are just not enough!"

As soon as he said this, the others reacted as well.

Four consecutive matches, plus the breaks in between, the post-match interview, and so on.

The entire final took nearly 5 hours to complete. Before, their adrenaline was up, and they didn't feel any other thoughts.

Although they had eaten some bananas during the process to restore physical strength, now that shox mentioned it, they all felt hungry enough to eat a horse.

"What boss do we need? Let's go, let's go. Neo just sent me a message. All our expenses for playing here for the next few days are fully covered by the club!!" The bald coach announced the good news loudly.

The others in the room started howling directly. Getting that stingy guy Neo to treat them once was truly not easy.

But they had achieved results, so Neo had to show some gesture.

It wasn't just the treat today; the players' salaries later would also fluctuate.

They might all go up a bit, but not by much.

However, they didn't care. This time at the StarSeries S7 season, they successfully won the championship, and the final prize money was 250,000 USD.

Before taxes, each player was estimated to get 40,000 USD. They had made a killing in one go, so they didn't care about this little bit of money for a meal.

Zywoo: "I want to eat hot pot!!"

He belonged to the type who was bad at it but loved to play. Every time he ate spicy food, he would be covered in sweat, but every time he was brave enough to challenge it.

Xu Beifang noticed that apEX's throat was about to collapse and said with a smile: "Let's find a porridge shop and drink some porridge to fill our stomachs."

"Let's go, let's go eat a late-night snack together!!"

Everyone grabbed their peripherals and started boarding the bus rented by the club.

As they drove away, led by JackZ, everyone sang Queen's "We Are the Champions."

They didn't sing it very well, but the atmosphere was already there.

The bus drove on the streets of Shanghai. The Baoshan Gymnasium behind them had already turned off its lights, quiet as if it had always been that way.

But Xu Beifang knew.

Not long ago, they had created a miracle.

With the breeze blowing on his face, Xu Beifang looked at his rowdy teammates and joined in the revelry.

The bus belonging to Vitality continued to drive steadily forward.

(End of this volume) ===== CHAPTER 277 =====