Chapter 426: ENCE seems to have caught

Boarding the bus to the venue, the Vitality members were quite relaxed.

Today's opponents were old acquaintances, and their performance in this tournament could only be described as mediocre; they didn't feel much pressure.

"Actually, I wanted to play against Astralis earlier, but it's a pity we ran into ENCE."

shox put his things away and shared his thoughts on tonight's match.

Although Astralis's dynasty had already been replaced by them, there were still many who missed the old Danish dynasty, and Astralis fans always found excuses, saying they weren't in form at the Berlin Major.

Although shox wouldn't get into arguments with netizens like apEX, he wasn't convinced deep down either.

"Doesn't matter." Xu Beifang took a sip of water. "Astralis is in pretty good form this tournament. Even if we don't meet in the group stage, as long as we hold our ground in the playoffs, there will always be a chance to face them."

He actually felt that with Astralis in this state, the probability of them reaching the finals was extremely high.

Of course, once they truly entered the playoffs, with the level of teams like 100T and EG, anything could happen in a BO3 if someone went god-mode.

"Playing ENCE is fine too. It just depends on whether ENCE dares to let Inferno through for us this time; if they do, we'll just smash their heads in," JackZ said with a smile.

Previously at EPL, both teams wanted to practice their map pools, so ENCE voluntarily let Inferno through, only for Xu Beifang to hammer them until they were completely delirious.

"Speaking of which, after we finish this match, we officially advance, and then it's the big offline stage with an audience watching, right?" JackZ added.

He was personally quite looking forward to this IEM Beijing station.

For the current Vitality lineup, their first major tournament championship was won in Huaxia, and since this place was Xu Beifang's hometown, they had always had a very good impression of it.

And thinking of the enthusiasm of the Huaxia offline audience, JackZ felt energized.

XTQZZZ, who was scrolling through his phone in the front row, heard this and turned around, saying: "So you guys better work hard to play this match well today. If you lock in a playoff spot early after this, I'll give you a day off, and let Beifang take you around to play and take some photos."

shox's eyes lit up when he heard this: "Then Beifang, you have to take me to eat that 'Douzhi'!"

Zywoo raised his hand to speak: "I want to go climb the Great Wall."

"+1!"

"Me too!"

The suggestion to climb the Great Wall received approval from many. Mainly because before the group stage started, the Astralis group had gone to climb the Great Wall together, and that novel scenery was quite interesting to them.

"Then we'll all go together when the time comes." Xu Beifang actually wanted to go have some fun too.

He hadn't been to Beijing many times and had never climbed the Great Wall, so naturally, he wanted to go up there and see the scenery.

The thought of going out to play filled the minds of everyone at this moment. apEX shouted at the right time: "If you want to climb the Great Wall, we have to work hard today. Don't lose in the end and end up with no vacation."

Everyone began to adjust their emotions, preparing to enter their match state.

JackZ shared an interesting interview he saw on the forum with Xu Beifang:

"suNny: Our goal is to become World No. 1 next year."

In the interview, the community reporter's questions were actually quite sharp; he directly tore open the wound and put ENCE's recent poor roster changes on the table.

Then, as the core figure of ENCE's roster change this time, suNny opened his mouth to answer: "We are still in a period of roster integration, a period of growing pains. We need time. As for World No. 1, our goal is to become World No. 1 next year."

If you look at this statement alone, there is nothing wrong with it, and it's quite inspirational, after all, the goal is World No. 1.

But if you combine it with ENCE's previous public statements, it's really a bit funny.

allu: "We brought in suNny to become World No. 1!"

suNny: "Our goal is to become World No. 1 next year!"

suNny's statement was just like saying "I will definitely be first in the class for this exam" before the exam, and then before the results were even out, they directly said "I will definitely be first in the class next time."

You have to know that 2019 isn't over yet, and there are still several tournaments coming up.

If ENCE performed better, it was possible to push their points to World No. 1 on HLTV.

But ENCE hadn't even finished their last few matches of the year, and they had already started to admit defeat; this was quite hilarious.

JackZ teased: "Although suNny's interview statement is a bit clownish, the most ridiculous thing is that G2 stood up to troll; they also posted 'Our goal is to become World No. 1 next year'."

Xu Beifang tried hard to hold back his laughter: "That's very G2."

As the most famous troll club in the entire esports scene, G2, you really know how to troll.

Immediately after, Xu Beifang's eyes suddenly lit up: "You really can't say that; G2's lineup has strength, they really aren't just trolling randomly."

The current G2 has the Gambler God, hunter, and kennyS, three players; their paper strength is already quite good.

If they push up a bit, World No. 1 seems to have a glimmer of possibility.

If ENCE's fighting spirit remained strong, he wouldn't feel anything, after all, it would just be a difference in philosophy.

But he already looked down on ENCE's current mindset of considering working hard next year before they had even been eliminated from the tournament schedule.

However, he still respected the match very much, and all the preparations that should have been done before the match were already finished.

It was just that ENCE's current strength simply couldn't put much pressure on him.

When Li Wen was there, ENCE actually played quite well. At the very least, relying on their default playstyle, they could keep their opponents' heartstrings taut; they were a top-tier team with a very distinct character.

But now that allu had completely taken over as the commander, ENCE had completely lost its style and characteristics, playing worse and worse.

Today's confrontation was just about enjoying the match.

The bus soon drove to the front of the University Gymnasium.

With only a few days left until the playoffs started, and the group stage matches these past few days being truly exciting, he had already seen many people gathering at the entrance.

Xu Beifang quite unexpectedly opened the bus window, and loud cheers erupted from the entrance of the gymnasium instantly.

"Beifang, I'm your idol!"

"Beizige, can we see you swimming like a dragon on Banana Road today!"

"Beishen, you must smash ENCE today, otherwise I'm going to go gift in Danking's live stream!"

The fans at the entrance were quite excited, and some even started playing with his idol-fan meme.

However, hearing the last sentence, Xu Beifang indicated that he couldn't tolerate this and immediately responded: "It's a guaranteed win!"

Seeing his brother make money, he couldn't stand it at all.

After Xu Beifang got off the bus, he was pulled by the excited fans to chat for a long while before finally entering the venue with his teammates.

"Sometimes having too many fans isn't a good thing." JackZ complained, but he was clearly enjoying this state, with a smile always on his face.

"Understand it, if Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were standing in front of you right now, you would definitely be like this too." Xu Beifang rolled his eyes at JackZ.

The others heard this, and then putting themselves into that scene, they realized they would indeed be very excited.

They were all football fans, and they were crazy about this world's number one sport.

If they really met stars like Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, they would be no different from those fans earlier.

The first confrontation of the third day of the group stage had already begun. Xu Beifang originally intended to go visit his friends to brag and chat, but thinking of the scene where he accidentally ran into the Tyloo match room, his toes curled so hard it felt like he was digging a three-bedroom apartment, so he finally chose to wait quietly in the lounge.

In the lounge, many teammates were resting with their eyes closed, and the only one with his eyes open, shox, was wearing headphones and watching a football match.

Xu Beifang couldn't find anyone to chat with at this time, so he could only look at the forum to kill time.

He logged into the 5E APP section to check, and for today's match, the netizens' attention was not high.

This was actually normal.

Vitality's first two matches had higher attention, mainly because the first one was a CNCS home team, and everyone wanted to see what level VG could play at in front of Vitality, and the final result was quite tragic.

The 25.9 average damage dealt by the VG commander is still being teased by many netizens to this day.

The second day of the group stage was completely a clash between strong teams.

In front of the netizens, Vitality and Faze's paper strength were both extremely powerful, and both teams were similar in terms of fans and strength, so they could enjoy a hearty feast of gunplay.

The facts were indeed so; the confrontation between the two sides in the BO3 was quite intense, it was just that no one expected a 16:0 shutout result in the end.

As for this match against ENCE.

If it weren't for that previous EPL match, the netizens would still be looking forward to Xu Beifang helping Li Wen smash ENCE.

But they had already smashed them before.

Although ENCE won the first two rounds this time, the strength of their opponents in the first two rounds wasn't very strong, and the state they showed could only be described as barely acceptable.

But it was still not enough when really facing Vitality.

Coupled with that interview, it became even more of a clown show.

So many people didn't pay much attention to this match, and the discussions about Astralis, Tyloo, and Faze were actually more frequent.

However, Xu Beifang also discovered that the netizens in the forum were changing their titles for him without knowing it.

At the beginning, because Danking called him "Xiao Xu" and "Beifang", people who knew him on the internet generally called him Xiao Xu.

At that time, he was also just entering the industry, and many seniors in the circle also called him that.

But now, after he won the Major championship, his honor and strength had reached a very high level.

Everyone found that calling him Xiao Xu was a bit inappropriate, and generally, they called him Beifang, and some even called him Beishen.

Xu Beifang looked at the changes in titles on the forum, feeling a bit uncomfortable, but also felt a faint secret pleasure in his heart.

After all, these were the results achieved through hard work, and the recognition fed back by the netizens.

Xu Beifang was playing with his phone leisurely, while the atmosphere in the ENCE match room was indeed becoming increasingly tense.

This emotion became more and more serious as the match approached.

allu tried hard to appease his teammates, but found it had no effect.

He could only look forward to a "wonderful start" in the match to warm up the teammates' morale.

Then, waiting for the BP session, the ENCE coach told him a piece of bad news:

No words today, the coin toss was lost.

Vitality got the first pick for this match's BP. Although ENCE was smart enough to ban Inferno, Vitality was not polite at all and directly locked in Vertigo.

allu had watched Vitality's BO3 yesterday, and his impression of Vitality's Vertigo was quite deep.

Faze was completely chased and beaten by Vitality from beginning to end, only occasionally returning a blow for two rounds.

He turned his head and glanced at his teammates, finding that they were all silent.

Forget it, the expectations had already been shattered, he could only see how they played in the match.

Coming to Map 2, with Vitality not banning Mirage, they directly locked in Mirage.

On this map, they were still quite confident.

However, he looked up and saw Vitality in a relaxed state, Nice was laughing and chatting with JackZ next to him, not taking this as a matter at all.

However, the BP was not over yet; both sides removed one map each, finally locking in Dust II as Map 3.

Vitality's nonchalant state made allu a bit unconvinced; he felt a trace of disrespect from the other side.

In this match, the teammates were under great pressure, the netizens didn't favor them, and even G2 stood up to mock them.

In his mind, he looked forward to Vitality making crazy mistakes because of carelessness after entering the match, and then they would finally turn the tables and slap everyone in the face.

Just thinking of that scene, allu felt like he was getting goosebumps.

Unfortunately, he was not the male lead of a power fantasy novel.

After entering Map 1 Vertigo, they had only played three rounds, and his pain mask had already started to appear.

Coming up as the defense, their early exchanges were okay, but Vitality's twin stars easily played out a 2V4 clutch.

allu could still comfort his teammates at this time, saying it was just a pistol round.

But after this comfort, the score reached 8:0.

It wasn't that their state was bad, it was really that the opponent's state was too good; Nice and Zywoo were a bit too monstrous.

They had numerical advantages in many rounds, but as long as these two IDs were not dead, they felt incredibly nervous.

It wasn't until the ninth round that they finally got their first point.

This round gave them a breather, and subsequently, relying on the performance of the only Finnish genius sergej, they successfully took back a few points.

Finally, the first half ended, with the score fixed at 10:5.

Although the score gap was large, allu thought there was still room for operation.

But after entering the second half, Vitality directly flattened ENCE in one wave.

Finally, the score of Map 1 was fixed at 16:5, and Vitality took the first map.

Map 2 entered Mirage, and ENCE thought that coming to their strong map, the situation would become clear.

On this map, this guy Nice played even more freely.

He was constantly pressing forward in the middle, and his fast-paced playstyle made ENCE unable to breathe.

But the problem was that they knew Nice was going to press forward, the problem was that they couldn't solve this guy.

The first half barely relied on individual performance to get 6 points, and they thought they could get back in the second half.

But after switching to the offense, apEX's feel came, and he was almost chasing them to kill.

By the end, ENCE's feel was ice cold.

The final score was fixed at 16:9.

On the third day of the IEM Beijing station, Vitality easily defeated ENCE with a score of 2-0 and successfully advanced to the playoff stage! ===== CHAPTER 427 =====