Chapter 332: The Fall of a Legend

If a netizen told Xu Beifang at this time: "Beifang, you are the world's number one rifleman; keep this state and you'll easily crush Astralis."

Upon hearing this, Xu Beifang would definitely think the other person was his hater and must be awkwardly hyping him up. Even if it were his die-hard fan, the power of this at this time would be even fiercer than a hater.

Xu Beifang's outstanding performance in the first half of the year basically allowed him to sit firmly in the position of the world's number one rifleman. In the forums, there wasn't much controversy about this point.

Stable, outstanding, crazy.

These are several synonyms for Xu Beifang. As a rifleman in the first half of the year, he obtained terrifying data that surpassed all riflemen when facing TOP 20 teams, so there wasn't much controversy in the forums about this position of World No. 1. After all, Xu Beifang isn't BlameF; there's nothing exaggerated about his data.

Plus, there weren't many outstanding riflemen in the first half of 2019.

Elige from Team Liquid counts as one, Brehze from NRG counts as one, Rain from Faze also counts as one...

The gap between the remaining riflemen and Xu Beifang was a bit too large.

And even for these three players closest to Xu Beifang, they all had their own problems.

But Elige also had a problem, as Xu Beifang's recoil control teacher.

But if you say you will definitely crush Astralis tomorrow, that's just nonsense.

Although he doesn't have the temperament of a star player, his personal ability is quite outstanding.

Xu Beifang's aiming process is positioning-locking head-firing-recoil control.

Astralis is also like this; within their entire team, there isn't a single short board.

Admittedly, a four-kill is much harder than a three-kill, but more importantly, it's a problem with the playstyle, making the ceiling of Brehze not that high.

Xu Beifang could often see in Astralis's matches that their opponents had already thrown all their utility when attacking, while Astralis still had more than half of their utility.

Magisk's recoil control still has those subtle flaws.

And then there's Brehze from NRG; this guy's aiming talent is unique.

"And Astralis's personal ability really isn't weak either." apEX sighed while watching the recording.

His recoil control foundation is very solid; even on a global scale, there aren't many who can surpass his recoil control.

So saying Xu Beifang is the current World No. 1, that really isn't a problem.

Some CSGO players who have already entered the door, looking at the dueling details of players at Xu Beifang's level, will feel it's pleasing to the eye.

But it's just that his recoil control is too proficient, leading Brehze to basically see anyone and just position-fire-recoil control.

And high-end players, going to watch Astralis's match recordings, looking at their synergistic cooperation, looking at their tactical layout, will also feel it's pleasing to the eye.

You have to know that in the 2018 TOP 20, all of Astralis were on the list.

This point can also be easily seen from Brehze's data.

The confrontation between NIP and NRG wasn't exciting. After Xu Beifang returned to the hotel, he watched for a while, then put it aside and shifted all his attention to Astralis's match recordings.

But how could Astralis be a weak team?

Of course, this comparison references players at the level of Xu Beifang and Zywoo.

Finally, Rain, this guy's peak period has passed; usually, he's just a person, but when he gets to a major tournament, he can stand out and carry fiercely for a few matches, making the arena pour with heavy rain.

Brehze's recoil control is completely returning to basics.

But even for these few riflemen, there is still a large gap in data compared to Xu Beifang.

Xu Beifang felt their personal ability wasn't exaggerated, but apEX didn't think so.

The personal ability of other members wasn't particularly, particularly exaggerated.

On the defensive side, their exaggerated information processing ability, utility management ability, and efficiency in executing orders all made them become quite terrifying.

But even if their personal ability isn't exaggerated, the five of them in one team formed a very good chemical reaction. Extreme cooperation and synergy allowed them to always find advantageous gun positions, and attacking with the help of teammates' utility could also be very easy.

He got three kills many times, but the number of four-kills dropped in a straight line.

This kind of terrifying ability in game mechanics is truly astonishing.

As the strongest entry fragger in North America, Elige fully enjoyed the dividends of the SG553 this year and officially ushered in his explosive period. As a rifleman, his state is quite terrifying; he has extraordinary multi-kill ability and is also the pillar that allows Team Liquid to walk onto a T1-level team.

There is something called the barrel effect, also known as the short-board effect, which says how much water a bucket can hold depends on its shortest wooden board.

After Xu Beifang watched, he discovered that there was still a gap between Magisk and Brehze's recoil control.

After Elige released a recoil control tutorial, Magisk followed closely and released a recoil control tutorial.

It's true that Xu Beifang's state is good.

Although he had watched Astralis's recordings many times, every time Xu Beifang saw the recordings, he would still unconsciously invest his heart and mind.

When this guy's state is good, carrying is truly fierce, but when his state is bad, for months in professional matches, it's like this person doesn't exist.

Brehze's playstyle of seeing someone and just recoil controlling allows him to output very high damage, but the price is insufficient explosive power, and the ceiling isn't very high.

This group of players from Astralis, except for device, who is known as the human limit sniper.

Elige succeeds because of recoil control and fails because of recoil control.

But even so, Brehze is still one of the riflemen with the most stable data today.

Think about it, when you are the offensive side, after the utility exchange on both sides of the map ends, during the final total attack, the opponent still has utility to delay your offensive rhythm. Think about how desperate that would be.

TOP 2 device.

TOP 5 Dupreeh.

TOP 7 Magisk.

TOP 8 gla1ve.

Xyp9x, who has the lowest TOP ranking within the team, also ranked in the TOP 14.

The label of a tactical team covered up the powerful firepower of this team.

A good chemical reaction allowed them to fully exert this firepower, which is why they could look so at ease in matches.

"Facing them, we really can't have many mistakes." shox also felt a headache looking at it.

Because of the schedule, this was their first time meeting Astralis in a BO3, so they hadn't prepared much.

They would usually take time to study the Astralis system and study their tactical playstyles on different maps.

But this team also possessed the same powerful tactical innovation ability as Vitality.

They were also always able to come up with some new tricks in matches.

In this situation, once you make any major mistake, Astralis will definitely seize this opportunity and hit you head-on.

Zywoo comforted: "I think it will only be after we face them that we'll know if we can beat them."

He felt that discussing these things before the match was a bit like armchair strategy.

After all, they had already done all the research they could do; now it was a bit like lowering their own morale.

"Forget it, let's not talk about this now." Analyst swani steered the topic in another direction. "Did you notice our playstyle today?"

"Map 2? Mirage?"

"Yeah, mainly on the offensive side."

"I don't feel like there's anything wrong." JackZ's eyes held some confusion.

swani opened his little notebook and responded: "It really wasn't played with any problems today, or rather, we played very well."

"But it's precisely because we played very well that it gave me quite a bit of inspiration."

Xu Beifang turned his chair, pondered for a few seconds, and said: "You want to let me out to play, right."

swani gave Xu Beifang a thumbs up: "Exactly!"

"In today's match, you all saw how much of a role Beifang can play when his state is on. When we are on the offensive side, we can also adopt a 4-1 split playstyle. Sometimes let Beifang out to find trouble for the opponent very aggressively. Even if he doesn't get kills, there's a lot of information."

Hearing this, apEX shook his head: "I disagree. Previously, when Beifang was in VP, this was the playstyle. This playstyle completely squeezes his performance, and Beifang will play very uncomfortably."

"And in the current confrontations, there's absolutely no need to use this high-risk playstyle. Let Beifang play normally; with bodyguards by his side, the chance of him surviving to the clutch is greater, and his clutch ability isn't bad."

swani, as an analyst, provided great help for their training and pre-match preparation.

But some thoughts were relatively whimsical.

Once, when Xu Beifang was in VP, he had shown various inhuman front-peeking playstyles. Even when VP was playing 4-protect-1, the final results weren't particularly ideal.

apEX believed this playstyle was too risky, and there was no need to let the core of a team take this risk.

Xu Beifang tapped the table with his finger: "I actually feel that using it once in a while is no problem. Now everyone knows that I control Vitality's offensive rhythm. The places I appear are basically the main attack areas. What if, when attacking, you let me go over to feint?"

Head coach XTQZZZ's eyes lit up: "If you add a few pieces of utility, the opponent will definitely think this wave is a real attack!"

This is CSGO game theory.

Xu Beifang also remembered the 4-protect-1 and the baiting tactics of RNG next door upon hearing apEX talk about VP.

Since baiting tactics can work, why can't they take him out as bait?

XTQZZZ quickly used his little notebook to record this tactic.

Many of Vitality's tactical playstyles were derived from their chats.

The burst of inspiration is quite precious. If it's not recorded and used in a match, it might be forgotten later.

"How is the battle situation in Group A?" Xu Beifang and the others thought about the application of tactics, while JackZ turned to ask Zywoo about the confrontation situation.

Xu Beifang was also quite curious upon hearing this.

Because there were two legendary players in the team, NIP as an internet-famous team had always had high popularity.

Although NRG's traffic wasn't very high, in Europe, NIP was already a guarantee of viewership.

There were quite a few people in the forums who were optimistic about NIP.

"2-1, Brehze performed well, averaging 1.36 over three maps. On Map 3, NIP couldn't hold on in overtime. REZ drew a god card today, but it didn't have any effect; his average performance was too poor." Zywoo replied to his teammate's question.

Xu Beifang was somewhat surprised.

Get_Right and Forest's state in the group stage had always been quite good, coupled with the sometimes-on-sometimes-off REZ, he had thought the final winner of this match would be NRG, but he didn't expect them to end the confrontation with a small score gap.

"Long-term pain, these fans are too miserable." shox sighed.

He had also been in the circle for many years and knew how great the influence of these two old guys was. Many fans watched the games offline just to see them.

As a result, they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. How could people accept this?

And if it were really due to lack of strength, the fans wouldn't have anything to say.

But they were just a little bit away from entering the semi-finals; the controversy in the forums definitely wouldn't be small.

"This feels like Old F is going to be roasted after the match; today's three-map data is less than 0.9." apEX checked the data and was also ready to watch a good show.

"No."

apEX looked at Zywoo in confusion: "Why?"

Zywoo replied: "Because Get_Right announced his retirement after the match, everyone should have no time to pay attention to Forest."

Upon hearing this, the expressions of everyone in the room were instantly somewhat astonished.

"Ah?"

The Vitality group gathered around for the first time. They couldn't believe this news, but they also knew their teammate, Zywoo, would never lie.

Zywoo also skillfully pulled the progress bar forward.

Xu Beifang quickly saw the post-match handshake segment in the screen, where Get_Right was invited to the center of the stage.

Amidst the cheers of the audience, he waved at the camera and said hello.

The host held the microphone and asked: "Can you talk about that match just now? Did the match develop as you expected?"

Get_Right's emotions in front of the microphone appeared very complicated; he wanted to say something several times but couldn't open his mouth.

The host's emotional intelligence was also very high: "Forget about the match just now. Will this be the last time we meet at the Lanxess Arena?"

"No." The baby-faced Get_Right covered his face, not wanting his emotions to be shown.

"So you won't retire?"

Hearing the host's question again, his voice became a bit smaller: "No."

"Then will we see you at the Berlin Major?"

"Of course."

"Then will you still be active on the field in 2020?"

Hearing this, Get_Right's answer was no longer so straightforward. He took a deep breath, "I'll make a decision after the Major."

But everyone in front of the screen knew that would be Get_Right's last match.

As one of the best players in CS, and even in esports history, Get_Right had been active in this industry for many years.

For CSGO, he was also a Goat-like existence.

At this moment, Get_Right held the microphone, his affectionate gaze looking at that group of audience, tears flickering in his eyes, "I can't describe my feelings in words. I never thought how difficult it would be to stand here."

"But for me, this is already the whole world."

The Lanxess Arena wasn't completely full today, but the occupancy rate was around 80%, and there were nearly 16,000 people in the arena.

At this moment, they were all shouting Get_Right's name, all shouting for this idol of theirs, the enlightenment person of CS.

That eternal genius boy finally announced his retirement, and the youth of countless people ended because of it.

In the Vitality hotel room, everyone watched the video of Get_Right announcing his retirement, and for a time, they were all filled with emotions.

Xu Beifang didn't know what to say for a moment.

His own big brother entered the circle watching Get_Right when he was young. Once, Get_Right was just a figure Xu Beifang saw in the news.

Everyone knew that one day this genius boy would retire, but when this day truly arrived, it still made people tear up.

Even Get_Right, who had always been called a veteran, would finally end his competition because of age problems.

Xu Beifang is now at his peak, but he still hasn't touched that Major trophy.

Their original idea was to slowly become stronger step by step, which was no problem.

But who can guarantee that the state of a person, a team, can always go up?

Xu Beifang felt the urgency of time more and more in his heart.

...... ===== CHAPTER 333 =====