Chapter 414: 259

The car drove through the streets toward the Beijing University Gymnasium. Even in the daytime, the streets of Beijing were bustling with activity. apEX leaned back in the corner of the car, looking at his phone, while the others chatted idly. The atmosphere inside the vehicle was quite relaxed and comfortable. After a long while, apEX couldn't help but look up and grumble:

"It's still such a pity. I feel like we shouldn't have lost that match against EG. That play flying into the second floor was just too costly."

Because the Tyloo members were also in the car, Dou Dou subconsciously spoke in English.

danking heard this and, feeling a bit schadenfreude, replied in his broken English: "Who told you to fly to the second floor three times on the offensive side? The opponents were already on high alert. Besides, the whole world knew you were going to fly to the second floor; how could they not be prepared?"

Thinking back to the match between Vitality and EG yesterday, he couldn't help but laugh.

apEX, this guy, really loved flying to the second floor. Yesterday, while playing against EG, he had hammered that A2 position three times in total. The first time was successful, but the second time he couldn't win the clutch, and the third time he was directly countered.

Xiaogui and apEX were on good terms, so he added, "Actually, you can't blame Dou Dou. The second-floor tactic itself wasn't a problem..."

Listening to Xiaogui's comfort, apEX felt a hint of relief, sighing at the "deep bond between father and son."

Immediately after, he heard Xiaogui continue: "The tactic wasn't the problem; the problem was the person!"

He felt that losing to EG this time was actually quite normal, and for them, it was even a good thing.

On these two maps, their proficiency was significantly lower than EG's.

Xu Beifang also leaned over, grabbing Dou Dou's shoulders and shaking him repeatedly: "No matter which Silver-rank player you are, get out of Dou Dou's body right now."

He walked up silently and gave NIKO's big butt a solid slap!

Xu Beifang smiled: "It shouldn't be too late, right? Aren't you guys still filming?"

However, Xu Beifang thought it was nothing; such a crazy winning streak was bound to be broken eventually.

apEX was a bit confused: "So early? Are we, the European brothers, the only lazy dogs?"

In esports competition, having wins and losses is a very normal thing.

Continuing inside, Xu Beifang saw NIKO sticking out his big, perky butt, posing under the fill light.

Coldzera walked over, greeted them, and replied: "That's not it. It's mainly because everyone wanted to walk around nearby, so we got up early."

apEX felt he was a total jinx; yesterday's match had him almost breaking down.

Rain turned around and gave Xu Beifang a light punch to the chest, smiling as he said: "You're here quite late. I thought you guys were planning to forfeit too."

This was also a mistake by the event organizers; they had misjudged the enthusiasm of the domestic CS: GO market.

In the confrontation on Inferno, they had taken it down smoothly in one go.

Yesterday's confrontation between EPL and EG ended on the maps Train, Inferno, and Overpass.

"Smack!"

Xu Beifang hid directly behind Rain.

The only good news was that the ticket prices for this IEM Beijing station weren't expensive; even a college student could afford them.

In the distance, NIKO, who was filming, rolled his eyes: "We thought we were the latest ones, but I didn't expect you big experts to be here too."

The group chatted all the way and soon arrived inside the venue.

They thought the 8,000 seats in this venue would be enough, but in reality, the tickets for IEM Beijing sold out in just 4 hours.

It is precisely because victory is so precious that every subsequent match must be played well.

The photographer in charge of filming looked at the two people acting like children and was speechless: "How about we wait until we finish filming this set before continuing to fight?"

"Hiss~~~" NIKO gasped in pain, and seeing it was Xu Beifang, he immediately chased after him to fight back.

Rain echoed: "Before us, the other teams had almost finished filming."

The car was filled with laughter; whether it was the Tyloo group or Xu Beifang, everyone was speaking in a teasing tone.

Just as they walked toward the studio, they saw the EG members who had defeated them yesterday walking out of the player tunnel.

Even a team as strong as the early NiP would face defeat after such an exaggerated winning streak.

"Beifang got 99 kills across three maps yesterday, Shushu even got 101 kills, and only my brother apEX got 44 kills. I really suspect a big Silver-rank player snuck into a professional match."

Xu Beifang saw the old powder keg in front of him about to explode and hurriedly comforted him: "It's okay, it's okay. We were just using that match for training anyway. Let's just focus on handling IEM Beijing well."

It was meant to be training through competition, so winning or losing was normal.

Their EPL journey had officially ended, and the group stage rankings were decided; now they just had to wait for the playoffs to begin.

apEX was teased until he got a bit anxious: "I can't help it either. Yesterday I was truly just unlucky. I held an angle for a long time, turned my head, and got one-tapped. The opponent was running and gunning and hit me in the head twice. I was completely numb."

A few people greeted each other, but even a famous "succubus" in the circle like Xu Beifang didn't have much interaction with EG, so they just nodded and greeted each other.

This time, there were unexpected incidents with the participating teams for IEM Beijing, and the spots weren't confirmed until just before the main event started, which was quite noteworthy.

Because the feeling of failure is truly damn unpleasant.

It was just a pity that their record of not losing a single match since the Major was broken by EG.

This gymnasium for IEM Beijing wasn't actually as large as the venues they had been to in the past.

Now, the group was heading to the Beijing University Gymnasium to rehearse, familiarize themselves with the competition environment, and take promotional photos.

They mainly lost on Train and Overpass.

NIKO glared at Xu Beifang and soon returned to the filming studio.

Not far away, a cute-looking young player came over to add: "I just saw on social media that Astralis went to climb the Great Wall."

Coldzera went silent instantly.

Xu Beifang also looked at Broky speechlessly; he really didn't know if this guy was being careless or intentionally stirring the pot.

Everyone knew about the conflict between Coldzera and Astralis; why mention Astralis in front of Coldzera when there's nothing better to do?

NIKO's filming finally ended, and he walked over to ask: "What do you say? If you treat me to a drink and bribe me, I'll go easy on you if I run into you later."

Xu Beifang thought NIKO was going to say something else, but hearing this, he was instantly speechless: "That's what I should be saying, right?"

The photographer was still finishing up the previous set, so the group sat nearby and chatted.

Besides asking Xu Beifang to share tourist attractions in the city, the rest of the conversation naturally couldn't escape the matches of the IEM Beijing station.

Starting tomorrow, the group stage of IEM Beijing will officially begin.

The entire group stage is mainly a BO3 double-elimination format; lose two matches and you're eliminated, win two matches and you advance to the playoffs.

As for the playoff stage, it's a BO3 single-elimination, one match decides the outcome.

"Our pressure isn't particularly high," Xu Beifang said with a smile. "After all, in the first match of the group stage, we're playing VG."

Hearing this, NIKO smiled: "That's good. We're playing Tyloo, so the pressure isn't particularly high."

He knew that Vitality's first round was actually quite easy; after all, VG wasn't EG, and this team's strength wasn't that exaggerated.

They weren't looking down on VG, but the gap in paper strength between the two sides was indeed too large. Unless the VG players could perform with explosive potential, they wouldn't have a chance to win.

Following Astralis's use of explosive grenade tactics, disciplined play, and utility templates to train first-tier teams in 2018.

In 2019, Vitality opened people's eyes with a system that created tactics around players, as well as the role individual ability could play in matches.

Nowadays, the gap between first-tier and second-tier teams is becoming larger and larger.

VG belongs to the orthodox second-tier teams, and the gap compared to first-tier teams like them is still quite large.

If it were a BO1, NIKO felt VG might have a sliver of a chance.

But in a BO3 confrontation, for VG to pull off an upset and defeat Vitality, one could only say it was as difficult as ascending to heaven.

Xu Beifang didn't have much pressure either. For the first match of the group stage, he mainly wanted to see the level that domestic teams could display in formal matches and help them experience the level of top-tier teams.

Vitality's real stumbling blocks in this IEM Beijing station would still be EG, FaZe Clan, and Astralis.

Domestic audiences didn't have high expectations for Tyloo and VG either; after all, the group stage draw was too top-heavy.

"Talking about VG being so miserable, as if we're any better," Danking couldn't help but grumble while listening to their discussion. "Starting off against FaZe, who can handle that!"

Xu Beifang ruffled the red-haired goblin's hair and smiled: "You have to believe in yourself. Besides, you Tyloo have beaten Astralis before; how come you can't handle FaZe?"

Danking rolled his eyes: "Can that be the same?"

He knew the match Xu Beifang was talking about; it was a match at DreamHack Masters last year where Tyloo defeated the peak Astralis on the map Mirage with a score of 16:13.

At that time, Mirage was Astralis's weakest map.

But back then, Tyloo was also ranked 10th in the world, so it still had some gold content.

But now their world ranking is 21st, completely not in the same league.

And what Xu Beifang said was gradually being proven: the level of Asian CS is gradually decoupling from the international scene, and the gap in their levels seems to be getting larger and larger.

For tomorrow's match, Danking felt his heart was completely cold.

"We're playing Vitality??"

Inside the VG training room, 259 let out a surprised question.

"Is there something wrong with the tournament organizers' group draw? Is this a match a human can play?"

Their ranking is 40th in the world, and Vitality's current world ranking is 2nd; there are 37 teams in between.

If this were a fantasy novel, you would fight your way up one rank at a time; even if you were fighting above your level, you'd only be fighting someone around rank 30.

This just brings the final boss of the dungeon right in front of them; what's the point of playing!

A-Zhong, the veteran driver on the side, was silent for a long while before speaking: "Actually, I feel there's still a certain chance."

259 turned to look at A-Zhong, his face full of the question "Where is the chance?"

A-Zhong added: "Although we don't play much against Vitality in practice matches, Tyloo has a good relationship with them, and Danking has told me several times that they actually often beat Vitality in practice matches."

"Really?"

A-Zhong remained silent: "You actually believed that? And that's a practice match, sigh."

259 was silent for a long time, but soon perked up: "We should have some chances, right? Vitality's form hasn't been particularly good lately; they even lost to EG yesterday."

"Is EG a weak team?"

"I saw they made quite a few mistakes."

"So you didn't notice Vitality's record from the past two days? They even broke historical records," A-Zhong continued to answer.

Hearing this, 259 was speechless: "Can't you let me find some confidence?"

"Let me find some reason to win, okay?"

A-Zhong expressed: "It's better for us to play this match with the goal of learning; the difficulty of wanting to win is just too, too high."

259 sighed. Although he knew the difficulty of this IEM Beijing station would be high, running into the final boss right at the start was too much to handle.

They would have been happy playing against Renegades or ENCE too.

Now that they're facing a heavyweight opponent right away, 259 can only give it his all and try to bite off some points from Vitality in tomorrow's match.

Xu Beifang's promotional photo shoot had ended, and the FaZe Clan members had all left, saying they were going to walk around the Forbidden City, but the other members of Vitality were still in the middle of filming.

It was mainly because apEX and Zywoo weren't very comfortable with the filming.

apEX liked to act cool, and Zywoo was too gentle; every shoot required a period of adjustment.

While waiting on the side, Xu Beifang also scrolled through his phone to pass the time.

As the main event of the IEM Beijing station approached, netizens also began to discuss who had the strongest paper strength in this tournament.

【Vitality is definitely one of the favorites to win, Beizige, just take it for me!】

【Vitality goes without saying, they just won the Major championship, their combat power is explosive right now】

【Don't keep hyping them up, okay? Their explosive combat power lost to EG yesterday?】

【Astralis fans are already waiting for the Danish legion to take revenge】

【VG replaced their lurker with a newcomer, Jamyoung. Can anyone evaluate him?】

【This young player is quite talented. I've watched the recordings from Leon Kai, and he plays quite well overall. 259's eye for talent is quite accurate】

【Hope he becomes the next little Xu!】

【Regardless of whether he can become the next little Xu, they'll be in pain in the first round. Beifang is going to teach them a lesson right away】

【It's a pity Liquid didn't come, otherwise there would be a lot to watch this time】

【Am I the only one looking forward to FaZe Clan roaring?】

FaZe Clan was also seriously underestimated. There wasn't much discussion after this transfer, but in reality, they could win a championship during their honeymoon period after a transfer, so their strength was still very strong.

The chemistry of the new lineup was quite good, and their overall combat power was very strong. Xu Beifang felt they might be a formidable opponent this time.

However, he still felt that unless their form was explosive, it would be difficult for FaZe to be the team that laughed last once the intensity of the competition was raised.

Because he learned in the chat just now that FaZe's in-game leader had once again become NIKO.

Xu Beifang didn't look down on NIKO's leading, but his leading level really wasn't very high.

NIKO's leading was a bit too wishful; compared to him, apEX's leading could be considered very stable.

So once they encountered high-level competition, FaZe could easily become like a headless fly.

As long as the honeymoon period passed, FaZe's subsequent problems would slowly appear.

But this had nothing to do with Xu Beifang right now. After the team finished filming, they had to rush back to train.

Although on paper they didn't think VG could stir up any trouble, the necessary preparations still had to be made.

They didn't want to wait until a reversal occurred and then regretfully say, "If only we had..."

... ===== CHAPTER 415 =====