Chapter 303: Reaching the Peak of World No. 1!

In Sydney in May, the average temperature is around 20 degrees. This is a very comfortable temperature, allowing everyone to bloom like a hundred flowers in early spring, showing off their aesthetics.

Xu Beifang is wearing a denim jacket and black wide-leg pants. After a full meal, he looks very lazy.

The IEM Sydney final officially ended last night. The mood that had been tense since entering the schedule also seemed to relax in this atmosphere.

He is actually still a bit dazed.

After defeating Liquid 3-0 to lift the trophy last night, the Vitality guys were all very happy, so they thought about where to go for a drink to celebrate.

No one understands nightclubs better than NIKO.

Xu Beifang asked NIKO for the address of the nightclub, and 'Rain Brother' (rain) came over and took them to a nice nightclub nearby, followed by an all-night carnival, completely releasing the pressure at this moment.

Although he has the title of 'CSGO Succubus'.

But the nightclub is not Xu Beifang's home field. shox and apEX were dancing wildly in the nightclub, making the atmosphere hot.

However, Xu Beifang, who performed like a freak, was still poured a lot of alcohol by the Faze old men, and he forgot how he returned to the hotel later.

When he woke up, it was already noon, and he was pulled by his teammates to have lunch.

After lunch, they started their vacation. The bald coach and 'Bean' (apEX) said they were going for a walk to digest, and at the same time, take a good look at the scenery of Sydney.

The match is over, and all the teammates' states have relaxed. One by one, they are wearing their casual clothes. Xu Beifang, walking behind, sees shox and apEX walking with their arms around each other's shoulders. Leaves fall in the air from time to time, vehicles drive past them, and the afternoon sun hits them, making people feel a bit sleepy.

Xu Beifang looks at the scenery around him. There is nothing particularly surprising, but the ants on the side of the road, the flashing traffic lights at the intersection, and the height of those trees all make him feel interesting.

The breeze brushes his face, cool and comfortable, and the chirping of unknown birds in the distance.

Perhaps many years later, he will still be able to recall the joy of this afternoon in a trance.

It wasn't until the phone in his pocket vibrated that his thoughts were disrupted.

He didn't know until he looked; he was startled when he looked.

Since the match ended last night, he basically hadn't cared about his phone, just playing crazily in the nightclub.

Now taking out his phone to look, messages on WeChat, Twitter, and Bilibili are all 99+.

Xu Beifang is already very skilled at using the WeChat group-send function, sending a thank-you reply to everyone.

Then he finds some friends he has a good relationship with and replies with different tones.

This still needs some attention, for example, his way of getting along with 'Machine' (Wanjiqi) is definitely not the same as with 'Tie Dan'.

Just scolding Tie Dan a couple of times is enough.

After replying to Tie Dan and the others, Xu Beifang finds his brother Nanfang, preparing to report the good news to his family.

But clicking on the avatar, he finds that Nanfang had already sent him a message last night.

Nanfang: Beifang, you're amazing, the second championship!!

Nanfang: You were indeed very handsome today! Keep working hard!!

Below, he also sent a video. Xu Beifang clicks to view it.

As soon as the video plays, he sees the familiar match area of his own internet cafe.

The layout of some things in that match area was something Xu Beifang helped rearrange after the StarSeries, so he recognized it at a glance.

The screen in the match area showed the players shaking hands after the match, and the sound was very noisy, with people saying "Little Xu is awesome", "Holy shit", and other exclamations from time to time.

It's past 1 PM in Sydney now; in China, it should be close to 11 AM.

Xu Beifang thinks for a while and directly makes a WeChat video call.

He didn't even wait for a minute before Xu Nanfang answered the phone. He could even hear some noisy sounds in the internet cafe.

"You're at work so early today, haven't you gone home to eat yet?" Xu Beifang said with a smile.

Xu Nanfang rubbed his eyes and yawned: "What work so early? I just arrived at the shop after eating breakfast at home."

"You boss are slacking off, be careful your sister-in-law won't give you pocket money."

"I'm the one managing the money, do I need your sister-in-law to give me pocket money?" Xu Nanfang smiled, then explained, "Mainly because I watched your match last night, I was so excited that I sent you a few messages last night and you didn't reply... Then I wanted to go online to see how everyone was praising you, and I saw quite a few of your highlights, you know, it made me feel so hot-blooded that I directly found a computer and prepared to fiercely rank up."

"Then last night, I played that Perfect Platform, played 5 games in total, only won one, and it even gave me a C+." Xu Nanfang got angry when he talked about it. "I was either killing first or second, but I just couldn't win. This bunch of teammates were aiming at the ground while walking, flashing themselves with flashbangs, and there was even a game where I encountered someone who bought a Zeus every round. My blood pressure went up, and I couldn't sleep even more. In the second half of the night, I wanted to go home to sleep, but your sister-in-law's phone was turned off, and no one opened the door for me..."

Xu Beifang couldn't help but laugh out loud when he heard this.

Many players are like this, watching some professional players' highlight reels, instantly feeling hot-blooded, and then rushing to play the ladder, only to find that they can't make a sound once they play.

"Still laughing! If you laugh again, I'll give you a flick on the head!" Listening to his younger brother's laughter, Nanfang was a bit annoyed.

"Not laughing, not laughing." Xu Beifang suppressed the corners of his mouth, but looking at Nanfang's face in the video, he couldn't help but laugh out loud again.

Listening to his brother's laughter, Xu Nanfang didn't get serious either, and soon couldn't help but laugh.

After this topic ended, Xu Nanfang asked about his brother's itinerary: "After this match, Beifang, do you have a vacation?"

Perhaps because they both drifted on the sea before, they cherish the reunion of family members very much.

"Listening to apEX, after finishing Sydney and going back, there will be a period of vacation. Winning two major championships in a row, although everyone is happy, they are also a bit tired. The coach let us relax and adjust a little."

These professional players are sometimes like power banks.

They vent all their energy in the match, and the battery is completely used up. At this time, they have to go home, stay away from the match for a while, let themselves recharge, and restore their energy and desire to win.

"The coach should say it later today. Anyway, if we go back, I'll notify you in advance."

Xu Nanfang nodded: "Okay, then I'll go eat a bucket of instant noodles first. I'll wait for you to take me to rank up when you get home."

"Can't rank up, we have a rank difference, haha."

"You brat, you really want to get beaten, right!"

Although there is a small age gap between the brothers, Xu Beifang followed his brother's butt to play together when he was a child, and now there is no generation gap.

Zywoo was a little tired from walking, so they sat on a stone bench next to the park to rest for a while.

The teammates were all talking about the recent football matches in France, thinking about going to watch one together after returning home.

Xu Beifang is not particularly interested in this. He knows that football is a good sport, but perhaps because of the development of football in China, he can't like it.

He had watched a football match with his teammates in France before, but the problem was that he didn't know any of the players, so he was just watching the fun.

This is the small difference between him and his current teammates. Because the environment in which they grew up is different, there are always some small disputes when facing different things.

The teammates were discussing football, and Xu Beifang didn't want to do a "RNM, refund money", so he simply started surfing the forum.

Half a day had passed since Vitality won the championship, and this was the time when the forum was at its hottest.

Xu Beifang swiped casually. Except for news about the price of skins, the rest were discussions about IEM Sydney.

【Vitality showed everyone what 'Wild Bee Dancing' is with their strength last night!】

【Rational discussion, is BOSS the nemesis of Liquid? It seems he only lost to Liquid once when he debuted】

【The Liquid-killing weapon!】

【Liquid's state in this tournament has not been very good, playing very confusedly. I hope they can adjust back in the future】

【Actually, Liquid is already very strong. This is the first team to force BOSS to start the second phase at the beginning】

【Nice: Because I was too afraid of losing, I directly won 3:0】

【I feel that Vitality has started to gain momentum in these few months. I feel they really have hope of winning the Grand Slam】

【It's not that simple. The fluctuation of CSGO professional level is too large. We have to see if they can continue this state. However, to be honest, Little Xu is still very fierce】

Xu Beifang smiled and continued to flip down.

There is the carnival of Vitality fans in the forum, and naturally there is the discomfort of Liquid fans.

【I specially ordered KFC last night for the final, preparing to enjoy the feast of gunplay, but I did see the feast of gunplay, but I don't want to eat KFC for this month】

【Hello everyone, welcome to watch this match between Vitality and Liquid. I am the commentator for this match, Machine. Okay, we see that Vitality has already won the pistol round】

【Grass! Liquid basically never won a pistol round in this final】

【Aimbot still can't beat violent hard-lock】

【I don't even know what Stewie2K was playing in this final; he basically had no sound the whole time】

【Several matches were also lost because Stewie2K was playing blindly. I don't know why Liquid bought him over】

Even the output of Liquid fans is relatively restrained. The current network environment has not yet entered the degree of 'yin and yang' (sarcastic) of later generations.

The reason why domestic fans are unfriendly to Stewie2K is more because of that airport incident.

As for Stewie2K's performance, he thinks it is relatively mediocre.

Stewie2K's role in Liquid is more as a lubricant for a gunner, and using his playstyle to influence the opponent's mentality.

In a smooth game, Stewie2K's monkey calls, knifing, and corpse-whipping can directly provoke the opponent's emotions.

But in an uphill battle, these things can't be used.

And to be honest, Xu Beifang is not afraid of Stewie2K doing these things.

He doesn't think that the 'Bean' (apEX) beside him is worse than Stewie2K in terms of mocking combat power. Bean is an old mocker; if he doesn't shout for a day, his throat itches.

Stewie2K's performance in this BO5 today is not bad; it can only be considered mediocre.

It's just that some people who don't understand the match always take the guys with bad data to operate on.

For example, the 'Director' (Elige) in the Liquid team, even if his data is not the worst, but Liquid lost the match, in most cases he became one of the people being sprayed.

After surfing the forum for a while, Xu Beifang intends to reply to the messages on Bilibili.

But just after opening Bilibili, he saw quite a few people @ him in the background.

He clicked in and saw the Director appearing in the lens at a glance.

This hairstyle... it should be after the match.

Glancing at the title, it really wrote "Director's post-match interview: We messed up everything today, we will take revenge next time".

Interesting... This title caught Xu Beifang's attention, and he decisively clicked on the video to watch it.

The Director, with a slightly disappointed face, stood in front of an IEM Sydney billboard and accepted the host's interview:

"Director, Liquid's IEM Sydney ends here. I know this match is hard for you to accept, but you know I interviewed you before the match. At that time, everything about you was very good. Why did it become like this?"

The Director pursed his lips. He was actually in a very bad mood, but he really had some things he wanted to confide.

"Actually, we also want to know why the confrontation in the final became like this. We made a lot of preparations for this final. We thought about how to limit Nice, and thought about how we should respond when Vitality calls those tactics..."

"To be honest, I don't know why it became like this. The pressure of our whole match was very high. We operated every round very cautiously, not wanting to give the opponent any chance." The Director showed a helpless expression on his face. "But the final result is what you see."

He took a long breath and then slowly exhaled it, as if this could relieve the frustration in his heart.

"Vitality played very well, especially on Mirage. They have always been the leading side, and the highlights Nice played have also been affecting our layout."

"This is also the first time I have seen someone get three aces in a professional match. After the pistol round in the second half, everyone's feel was gone. We tried hard to adjust, but failed in the end."

"Today's Nice is really too foul." The Director finally complained. Perhaps because he said the thoughts accumulated in his heart, his mood obviously became better.

The audience below the comment area also responded unanimously.

【Indeed, BOSS is too foul】

【Can understand the Director, the final made me confused too, never seen such a fierce person】

【Vitality is also very strong overall, they are already world number one, it's not shameful to lose to them】

World number one?

Xu Beifang raised his eyebrows. He immediately opened the HLTV APP and found the team ranking.

The one ranked first is Vitality!

"Brothers, our HLTV ranking is world number one!" Xu Beifang happily shared this good news with his teammates.

Zywoo poked his head over: "Where, where?"

"World number one!" Xu Beifang said, "The ranking was just updated today. It should be that the points for us defeating Liquid to win the championship have been added."

apEX said: "Then who is the team ranked second in the world now?"

"Astralis, followed by Liquid, and then ENCE."

The bald coach looked at the excited team members and said with a smile: "The small goal we set before has been completed, so can we have some applause now?"

Hearing this, everyone also cooperated very well and applauded.

"No, wasn't the gap between us and Astralis quite large before?" apEX asked.

After the surprise, there was still doubt, because they had roughly estimated before that it would take at least one championship plus the points of a playoff to keep up with Astralis's pace.

Xu Beifang flipped through the HLTV point ranking change list and soon found the answer.

"Astralis has participated in too few matches in the last few months. They finally participated in a Blast Miami before, but they failed to win the championship, so there were no points added. At the beginning of May, the points had actually slipped quite a bit, and the gap with us was not big. Then it was the bonus points for our championship yesterday, which directly surpassed Astralis."

Hearing this, the joy in the hearts of the Vitality crowd dissipated a little.

They understood the strength of Astralis once again in their hearts.

Although they became world number one, in fact, do they really have the strength of world number one? It can only prove that in the last few months, they are the team with the best state in the world.

They became world number one, still because Astralis didn't participate in matches much and was in a semi-rest state.

And, they feel that Astralis not playing matches recently is very likely wanting to be an 'old yin bi' (sneaky player).

Astralis is very likely using this period of time to not expose themselves in top-tier matches, hiding a bunch of tactics behind, and studying all the excellent tactics of the current top tier.

Astralis is hiding in the dark, putting a lot of pressure on them who are in the light. Several people felt a lot of pressure for a while.

shox felt the atmosphere was oppressive and took the initiative to change the topic: "Don't talk about this, I feel this IEM is so fast, we lifted the trophy without any feeling... Sigh, we should have stayed on the stage a little longer last night. We played for more than half a month, and they sent us away in 30 minutes."

Actually, before the final, shox and his teammates had also said this, because compared to the match in Shanghai, this match in Sydney was very easy from the group stage, killing all the way to the final without encountering any particularly difficult matches. He originally thought the final would be more difficult, but the result was a 3-0 end. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but smile again.

"Beifang's two finals are so unexpected, it's too scary."

Having joined Vitality for a long time, shox wouldn't look at Xu Beifang with the same eyes as before, but Xu Beifang's performance in these two finals was ultimately beyond his expectations. When it first happened, it also made him widen his eyes. He couldn't imagine what power the tall man who was still dazed in front of him was hiding.

Last time at the StarSeries, he played a 1V5 annual clutch, and this time he got three aces on one map.

He couldn't imagine where Xu Beifang's ability limit was?

"Just get used to it." apEX was already calm.

When Xu Beifang created highlights, he would also cooperate very well to stand up and shout, becoming the explosion point of the team's atmosphere.

But in fact, in his heart now, there is nothing that the team's twins can't do.

Even in the most difficult clutch, in their watching, their hearts would still feel a glimmer of possibility of turning the tables?

"Coach, this is perhaps the confidence you mentioned." apEX walked to the side of the bald head. "Although it's a bit flashy, I feel that the current Vitality is much stronger than when it was just founded."

XTQZZZ took off the leaf that floated on his head. That's the good thing about being bald; no matter what is on his head, he can react to it in the first time.

"Whether a player has truly experienced a big scene is a very important link." He held the leaf and turned it in his hand. "Actually, it's not just CSGO. Many e-sports industries, as long as you have entered the final... Entering the final is not obvious, as long as you can win the championship, you go to see their playstyle next year, it will be a qualitative change."

"Because they have confidence from the bottom of their hearts, they won't think they are weaker than other players or other teams."

"Astralis is like this. They have won too many championships. In terms of confidence, no one is better than them. They have even started to rest actively. To put it bluntly, they feel that the current professional matches have no challenges, and no team can threaten them."

"You think this is a kind of arrogance, but in fact, this is the huge confidence brought by their 10 championships lifted offline last year. The highest honor of CSGO, the 1 million dollar Grand Slam, and the Major championship they have already won, but do you think anyone can threaten their status now?"

apEX feels it is difficult. Even if Astralis has started to enter a rest state recently, as long as they participate in official matches, Astralis can enter the final. This stable ability makes people feel a strong sense of oppression.

He looked to the front left. Xu Beifang and Zywoo were sitting there, one surfing the internet passionately, and the other brushing small animal videos.

"Nice said in the post-match interview last night that he wants to challenge for the Grand Slam next. That can indeed be our next goal, but wanting to lift this Grand Slam, the difficulty is not small."

JackZ touched his chin and said: "First of all, the opponent in front of us is Astralis."

Although they defeated Liquid and reached the world number one position, Astralis is still a big mountain in front of them.

If they want to become the second Grand Slam team and win the 1 million dollar prize, they must regard Astralis as a future imaginary enemy.

"Compared to Astralis, our map pool is a big problem. Now our Inferno, Vertigo, Mirage, and Dust 2 are no problem to take out. Train will definitely be banned, so don't worry about it for now." The bald head counted. "Nuke and Overpass, the overall level of these two maps is a bit worse. After resting and coming back, we must practice these two maps."

"Astralis's Nuke, Liquid's Overpass, these are the hurdles we need to step over."

"In the next few tournaments, let's choose these maps more actively, and use a large number of matches to pull the map level up directly."

The bald coach looked at the twins who were brushing videos, and patted apEX on the shoulder: "Come on, our future road is still very long."

The Sydney plot ends here. Next, return to the country to develop some daily links, relax, and try to restore 10,000 words tomorrow. ===== CHAPTER 304 =====