Chapter 452

(Because of the chain reaction caused by the protagonist, the timeline has been fluctuated a bit to avoid the time being too close to reality and causing distortion...)

July 2, 2023, Sunday.

Suitable for: Marriage, haircut, bathing, live streaming...

In a small apartment in Chengdu, the COL group is killing time in a temporary training room.

The open qualifiers for IEM Chengdu Station are about to start. Originally, according to the rules, they could participate online.

However, considering that the online latency is a bit high, and they all feel that there is no pressure for this open qualifier, they came to Chengdu offline in advance to conduct the open qualifier in a low-latency environment.

The first match of the COL open qualifier is this afternoon. Now they have all completed their preparations and are chatting casually in the room.

Returning to their home field, it is quite comfortable for Xu Beifang and Danking.

Chengdu is also quite interesting, with all kinds of delicacies available, making them eat quite comfortably.

His wife wanted to come over to accompany Xu Beifang, but Xu Beifang refused, only letting her call Dage's family to come over and play together after the IEM Chengdu Station match truly started.

COL is currently in a state of intensive training, and he is a Commander with a relatively heavy right to speak in the team. If he runs outside to play, the team atmosphere will go astray.

But I have to say that his wife's idea still made Xu Beifang very happy. The feeling of someone caring about you is always reassuring.

This small episode has kept Xu Beifang in a very good mood recently.

This has driven the mood of everyone else in the team to be very good as well.

Danking was even so idle that he opened the live broadcast, planning to catch up with the friends.

【Holy crap, the Val streamer finally started broadcasting】

【Is your live broadcast duration enough this month?】

【What's the situation with this hairstyle?】

【Danking really thinks he can handle pink...】

【Don't say it, now Col is a hairstyle group】

【Beizige's black medium-long hair, JKS's side-part, NIKO's three-seven part, Elige's bald head, and this most abstract pink hair of Danking】

【Can't hold it, so is the coach the director?】

"What do you mean I can't handle pink hair? Buddy is still very handsome, okay," Danking argued, "It's just that the ultraviolet rays in North America are relatively strong, and I've been tanned these days!"

【Danking, why haven't you broadcast these days? Do you need to train? You just need to cheer for Beifang on the side!】

Danking shook his head: "No way, if I don't train, Beifang will sanction me with his iron fist of justice."

"And, you don't know the tiredness of circling rice if you don't circle rice, please understand the streamer, okay."

Speaking of this, Danking suddenly smiled evilly: "You always said I was bragging before, this time I can really play the Shanghai Major, just ask you what you say?"

The corners of his mouth were almost reaching his ears, and his face was full of complacency at this moment.

However, the fans in Danking's live broadcast room didn't buy this.

【I'm convinced, purely relying on human relationships】

【No way, this live broadcast room is like this, there are smart, handsome, considerate, rich friends, and a most useless streamer】

【Danking, can you roll something and roll your position in COL? When the time comes, I add NIKO, Nice, Elige, JKS, four people, invincible in the world!】

【So can the room manager do something? Can you let Beifang start broadcasting?】

Looking at the barrage constantly floating by in front of him, Danking directly focused his attention on the last one, then tilted his head and shouted: "Beifang, the friends are calling you to start broadcasting."

Hearing Danking's voice, Xu Beifang, who was complaining about the TV series with his wife, also came back to his senses.

He thought about it, it had indeed been more than half a year since he interacted with the friends, so he simply opened the live broadcast room.

Just as his live broadcast room opened, he heard Danking yelling over there: "Sigh!! Why did everyone in my live broadcast room run away!"

He marveled at Xu Beifang's exaggerated charm.

Xu Beifang was surprised by the number of people pouring into the live broadcast room, but it wasn't the first time he encountered this situation, and he quickly grasped the rhythm.

"Good morning, brothers."

Danking also directly ignored his live broadcast room and came into Xu Beifang's camera with pink hair.

He noticed that the barrage scrolling speed in the live broadcast room on the right was a bit exaggerated.

He marveled at Xu Beifang's influence again. You know, Xu Beifang hadn't broadcast for a long time, but just after starting, there was such popularity, which was quite exaggerated.

【Beifang, stick to me】

【I made a wish on the Bilibili dynamic for a long time, Beifang finally came out of the mountain】

【This is the power of persistence!】

【I also participated in this open qualifier, hope to have a chance to snipe the streamer】

【The possibility is very small, Beizige's charm is too great, damn, thousands of teams participated in the open qualifier】

"Thousands of teams participated in the open qualifier?" Xu Beifang was puzzled, "What's the situation?"

But it's troublesome to get the answer from the barrage, because there are too many friends scrolling the screen, and Danking, this room manager, is not useful.

So Xu Beifang simply checked on the forum.

Checking it wasn't complicated, mainly because a live broadcast clip of CSBOY became popular.

At that time, Ma Xixi was eating and chatting with the audience in the live broadcast room, and then suddenly knew that they were coming to the Asian region to play the open qualifier, and was stunned instantly.

Subsequent audience in the live broadcast room even played memes to ask Ma Xixi 'Will you win?'

Ma Xixi answered blankly: "Will die."

Ma Xixi's vivid expression and contrast directly made this clip popular in the CS: GO section.

Ma Xixi understood that there must be a big gap between them and the current COL lineup strength, so he made that kind of wail.

But COL preparing to come to the Asian region to participate in the open qualifier made many passersby players and friends excited.

Even if they team up to play COL, theoretically they definitely can't beat them.

But if they can collide with COL in the open qualifier, then it will be interesting.

Directly colliding with the idol, able to feel the level of top professional players head-on.

Furthermore, what if they win?

CS: GO is an FPS competitive game, and in the hearts of all players, there is that fluke. If they really beat them, they can definitely brag for a year!

Even if they can't beat them, if they can kill NIKO or Nice once or twice, it's also a huge profit!

This IEM Chengdu Station open qualifier was originally to encourage passerby teams to participate, so there were not many restrictions on qualifications during the open qualifier stage.

This led to more than 7,000 teams signing up for this open qualifier when it closed.

"More than 7,000 teams? Doesn't that mean more than 30,000 people participated in this IEM Chengdu open qualifier?" Listening to Xu Beifang's description, NIKO was stunned.

What is the concept of more than 30,000 people participating in an open qualifier for a match?

Three ten-thousand-level stadiums are full, and this group of people will compete for 2 qualifying spots.

Although many people are just here to join the fun, the difficulty of this open qualifier can be called one in ten thousand.

"Very interesting!" NIKO didn't feel troubled by the increased difficulty, but instead was eager to try.

Xu Beifang and Danking continued to chat with the audience about some things.

It wasn't until noon that he turned off the live broadcast room.

He was quite satisfied with this long-lost broadcast.

However, before eating, he also opened the long-sealed system and checked the system panel.

【Host: Xu Beifang】

【Age: 25】

【Team: COL】

【Role: Commander/Entry Fragger】

【Status: Hot】

【Mindset: 97】

【Gunplay: 99】

【Consciousness: 97】

【Reaction: 97】

【Weapon Proficiency...】

【Listen-to-Advice Value...】

【Overall Evaluation: Returning after precipitation, your game philosophy has been impacted, but as a player, you have reached the peak of your body. PS: Data is just a manifestation of your state, confidence is always the best weapon.】

Looking at this data, Xu Beifang nodded with satisfaction.

The system's evaluation is actually not much different from his own feelings.

His overall data actually hasn't changed much.

Although he has entered a state of rest for the past two years, the habits during his professional period have been maintained. Unless it is during travel, he always plays CS: GO when at home. Even if he doesn't play the ladder, he will play BOT to find the feeling.

So the gun feeling is actually maintained quite well.

Coupled with the fact that his body has indeed reached its peak moment, at the age of 25, it is the time when a person's physical function is at its best, and it will slowly start to decline later.

So his various data have become more outstanding because his upper limit is higher.

But CS2 still has some impact on him.

Before, he just played the ladder, and he could crush his opponents by relying on positioning and aiming, but in professional-level confrontation, he is slowly adapting to the changes in movement, spray gun feeling, and peek methods.

However, Xu Beifang thinks it's a good thing.

His current physical state upper limit is higher. Although he hasn't fully adapted to the game content of this version, after the arrival of CS2, because of the influence of the economic mechanism, the sniper has been further weakened. In other words, the rifleman actually has more room to play.

So if he can adapt to the game content of CS2, he will be more powerful than in the CS: GO era.

He also plans to take advantage of the last two years of his peak to achieve some results on the field.

However, if you want to adapt to the game content of CS2, there are actually not many shortcuts to take; play more and think more.

Use experience to feel in the game and get feedback.

"What are you thinking about? So engrossed?" Danking's voice disrupted Xu Beifang's thoughts.

"Thinking about whether to add training later."

"Not buddy!" Danking laughed, "You train for more than 11 hours every day, and you still add training!"

Xu Beifang "tsk"ed, "Mainly because I feel I play the ladder too little, and adapting to the version rhythm is a bit slow."

Danking stopped talking. Although he knew his brother was a training maniac before, it was only when he truly reached a team that he, this lazy dog, knew what pain was.

Too damn grinding!

Usually, he would fish for three days and dry the net for two days when broadcasting, but now he has been stimulated to train for more than 10 hours every day.

But in this situation, Xu Beifang still thought about adding training.

Danking gave Xu Beifang a thumbs up.

"?" Xu Beifang gave a puzzled look.

Danking said: "It's no wonder that a pervert like you can't get results."

"Just take it as you praising me," Xu Beifang smiled.

After speaking, his attention returned to the system.

Because of the previous live broadcast, it reminded him that he might have several suggestion tasks to claim.

【Drop!】

【Suggestion Task: Return to the professional stage, difficulty 4 stars...】

【Task completed, C-grade treasure chest is being issued.】

【...】

【Drop!】

【Suggestion Task: Team up with NIKO, difficulty 6 stars...】

【Task completed, A-grade treasure chest is being issued...】

【...】

Haven't paid attention to the system for a long time, and quite a few tasks were completed this time.

He directly opened them all at once.

【C-grade treasure chest is opening...】

【B-grade treasure chest is opening...】

【A-grade treasure chest is opening...】

【Congratulations to the host for obtaining...】

There are quite a lot of rewards obtained from the suggestion tasks, but this system has a kind of beauty that doesn't care about people dying. It has already entered the CS2 version, and it doesn't keep pace with the times, still giving a lot of things from the CS: GO era.

Those techniques and tactics are either what Xu Beifang knows, or they have become tears of the era.

But there are still quite a few useful things, for example.

【Intermediate Commander Technique: nafany's friend economics, ropz's intermediate insight into the town side path, Beginner Commander Technique: chopper's amusement park attack ideas】

Now he has also become a Commander, and he values some insights on commanding relatively highly.

These three are also things that can be used in CS2 today, so he used them one by one.

After using them, Xu Beifang seemed to enter a sage moment.

Understood!

nafany's friend economics is quite interesting.

nafany is one of the strongest Commanders in the online era of CS: GO, and he still has some brushes as a Commander.

The CS: GO to CS2 version has changed a lot, but the changes actually don't include the economy.

However, the number of rounds has changed from 15 to 12, forcing the game economy to become tight.

At this time, as a Commander, how to spend every dollar well is a very important science.

nafany's understanding of the economy, the first concept is very interesting.

When on the offensive side, the pistol round starts with 800 dollars.

If no one buys a gun at the start, try to find a way to put down the bomb.

Although the price is losing the pistol round, in the second round, the bandits can have 800 deposits + 1900 defeat compensation + 800 bomb planting economy = 3500.

Entering the second round, the bandits can directly buy full armor plus Galil 1000+1800, and there is 700 dollars of economy to equip them with props.

This means that in the case of losing the pistol round, the bandits can perform full armor long gun + about three props in the second round.

And in this round, the CT only has half armor long gun or full armor MP9 to play.

In terms of firearms and configuration, the bandits are directly crushing the CT.

"Hiss~" Xu Beifang took a breath. Although this is an idealized state, I have to admit that nafany's economic understanding has something.

And even if the bomb wasn't planted in the first round.

In the second round, they can also piece together three Galils.

Combined with the hero AK playstyle Xu Beifang performed before, this tactic has completely become feasible.

If they can turn the tide in the second round, the CT's economy will explode directly, and the offensive side can take a big rhythm.

Xu Beifang felt that he learned a lot from nafany's understanding of the current economic mechanism.

Next is ropz's insight into the town side path.

Xu Beifang actually often watches ropz's pov. This guy's playstyle is relatively rigorous, and every once in a while, there will always be something that makes you shine.

So this insight is just understanding from a different angle for him.

Having benefited a lot from nafany, Xu Beifang also looked forward to chopper's amusement park attack ideas.

But after truly understanding it, the smile on his face disappeared.

He really didn't expect that this kind of single-celled organism could still be a Commander?

Whose Commander can play B area 12 times in a row on the offensive side!

Pure gambling!

Xu Beifang could guess what the voice of the Green Dragon was at that time.

"Brothers, let's go to B directly in the pistol round."

"Won the pistol round, they have no money in the second round, we use the hair dryer to go to B directly."

"The opposite side forced up, this round is no armor usp, don't be afraid, continue to play B."

"We played B 3 times in a row, they definitely won't expect us to play B again."

"They definitely think we are going to turn this time, let's continue!"

"They held it last time, thinking we wouldn't dare to play."

Is your tactical library only capable of speeding up B!

Xu Beifang originally thought that Dou Dou liking to fly to the second floor in the town was already the limit of the Commander, didn't expect there were masters!

Well, this insight is also considered to give Xu Beifang confidence.

After all, if this kind of Commander can do it, why can't he?

With this mood, the IEM Chengdu Station open qualifier finally started in the afternoon.

In the Douyu 6657 live broadcast room.

Wanjiqi, who has evolved into pig head meat, also started today's live broadcast on time.

"Okay brothers, we have arrived at our niche treasure match session again." Wanjiqi said with a full face of happiness.

He is still quite passionate about commenting on matches, but Douyu has too few CS: GO match copyrights, and he often only finds matches in those corners to comment on.

Although today is a niche treasure match session, COL is in it, and there are his old acquaintances in it.

For example, Xijiang's strongest male student Beifang, for example, the Val streamer from the opposite station, for example, brothers, do you know? Tell you an interesting story about NIKO...

Thinking about the content that might be commented on next, the smile at the corner of Wanjiqi's mouth was a bit hard to hold.

Just as he was chuckling, he saw the barrage reminding that the match had already started, so he quickly put away his smile and then switched to the match screen.

"The score has reached 1:0."

【Tastes right, it's the familiar 6657 without a pistol round again】

【How can he always miss the pistol round in strange ways】

【6657 is like this, the streamer just needs to comment on the match, the friends consider more】

【Hahaha】

Wanjiqi is no longer that young man, facing the ridicule of the barrage, he won't say anything like "I'm wronged".

He changed the subject without changing his face or heartbeat: "It's okay, if there is a pistol, it's a pistol round, okay."

"Okay, welcome to watch the IEM Chengdu Station Asian region open qualifier, COL vs 'Brother Xiangcao Ni' team."

Halfway through the opening remarks, Wanjiqi frowned: "Wait, what is this, there is a hard copper in the team!"

This strange team name made Wanjiqi understand instantly that this opposite side of COL is a group of college students!

Otherwise, they couldn't make this kind of human work.

He specifically checked the record, these five brothers of the 'Brother Xiangcao Ni' team, the brother with the highest rank is Perfect B, and the others are C+.

Wanjiqi thought about it and directly changed the title of the live broadcast room to "Perfect C+ vs TOP1".

This kind of game can't see any content at all, and his commentary is relatively biased towards entertainment, but COL's first appearance still has quite a few people paying attention.

The members of COL are quite relaxed. Although it is the first confrontation with the outside world in the true sense, after a few rounds of contact, they have already understood what level the opponent is.

Then, Xu Beifang didn't even need to command, just let his teammates perform basic defaults, and kill information kept floating in the upper right corner.

By the time they played to the end, Danking couldn't sit still, directly topped forward, proactively went out to find, otherwise there would be no soup to drink.

And the voice of the 'Brother Xiangcao Ni' team, the wind direction changed very quickly.

After they knew they were facing COL in the first round, they even spent time doing a few days of map running training.

As a result, after a few rounds, they were all a bit red-warmed.

After all, many times they didn't even have a chance to shoot, which is really a blow to young people.

Their mindset also changed from "What if we win" to "Get a few more points" to "How can we get at least one point".

Finally, the pistol round in the second half ended in a 2V4 clutch by Xu Beifang and JKS.

COL's first battle in the off-season directly played a 13:0, which can be considered a good start!

After the match, the 'Brother Xiangcao Ni' team released the recording of the match. From the main perspective, passerby players felt the gap between ordinary players and professional players even more.

This made them look forward to COL's subsequent performance even more.

However, what made them regret was that in the first few rounds of the open qualifier, passerby players didn't give COL any substantial pressure.

Even if they encountered a team composed of Perfect top-scoring passersby, in the end, they only got 3 rounds, and this was still in the case that COL played very casually.

Now the audience is looking forward to what COL can play when facing a team with real level.

For Xu Beifang, the only teams in the entire qualifier that have a certain level in the true sense, at least teams that can serve as training for them, are the two Australian teams and Steel Helmet.

Although Steel Helmet is now composed of a group of streamers.

captainMO, DD, AE, Xiaosa Ge, 18ym.

Although these five people are streamers now, they were all members of professional teams before.

Captain MO, DD, AE, these are all former members of Tyloo.

This guy Xiaosa Ge, stayed in a team called 5Power, Xu Beifang's first stop of debut was playing against this team.

As for 18ym, this guy also stayed in several domestic teams.

So the current Steel Helmet is actually a semi-professional team, and the experience is relatively rich, which can give them some pressure.

However, after the match truly started, the facts proved that he still overestimated Steel Helmet.

In the case that they got serious, although Steel Helmet played some effective tactics, this group of people had too much experience.

Even if several players of Steel Helmet played with passion and played with real fire in the match.

But COL's current front-line gunplay is too hard. Playing this level of tournament, NIKO has no psychological pressure at all and completely played his level.

When he first joined COL, NIKO actually had quite a lot of psychological pressure, and had been adjusting the crosshair and personal settings, but under Xu Beifang's psychological counseling, he slowly played with confidence, and now he has determined his own and doesn't plan to change it.

In this situation, NIKO is completely a bulldozer released by Xu Beifang. Facing a semi-professional team like Steel Helmet, his winning rate in front-line duels is extremely high.

And even if he was killed, there were still Elige and Xu Beifang to cover the bottom.

But it often didn't reach Xu Beifang, because Ji Ge came to trade, and an area had already been killed.

In the end, Steel Helmet only got 3 points, and the game ended easily.

After the match, Xu Beifang was also full of emotional intelligence. Facing Ma Xixi's connection, he directly stated that being able to get so many points was mainly because he studied Steel Helmet's recording until late at night and made a wave of program effects with President Ma.

However, for the current Xu Beifang, this is ultimately a small episode.

After defeating Steel Helmet, the most important thing is to obtain the main tournament spot for IEM Chengdu Station.

The subsequent main tournament is their goal.

Because it is a new lineup in the off-season, they still need time and integration to deal with problems, so whether it is Xu Beifang or Coach Xiaoxiao, the attitude expressed is that the achievement requirements for this tournament are not high.

Mainly using the match as practice.

However, NIKO and the others still have pursuits. They think that this lineup, now that the integration is considered harmonious, must at least reach the offline playoff stage to enjoy it.

After the Asian region qualification was finished, a few days later, the qualifiers for other regions also ended one after another.

With 16 teams already determined, the COL group also started a discussion about the subsequent IEM Chengdu Station main tournament.

"The grouping situation for the first round of IEM Chengdu Station should be out, right," NIKO asked.

He is the kind of person who likes to make a lot of preparations in advance. Although the current Commander is Xu Beifang, he always follows on the side to offer advice.

If you encounter a familiar team in this round, you have to make some targeting on positioning a few days in advance.

"As for Group A, G2, 9Z, Liquid, Heroic, FURIA, LVG, Tyloo, and Mouz," Coach Xiaoxiao looked down again, "We are in Group B, the situation in Group B is a bit worse."

"Except for us, Faze, Monte, Astralis, C9, VP are all in Group B, the difficulty will be relatively high."

Xu Beifang raised an eyebrow: "Green Dragon didn't come?"

Coach Xiaoxiao shook his head: "Green Dragon didn't participate in the open qualifier, they seem to have run to the Villa Cup."

"That's a pity." He still really wanted to compete with Green Dragon's donk, but CS tournaments are relatively dense, and there are still quite a few opportunities later.

But even if Group B is not there, the difficulty for them to kill inside is also very high.

Faze doesn't have any particularly large roster changes here, so they can be said to be the team with the best state maintained after the off-season, and also one of the teams with the strongest combat power.

VP is always one of the most difficult teams in the world, and Jame's system playstyle is something all Commanders don't want to encounter.

C9 here is even the foundation of the old NAVI, and it is also a quite outstanding team.

Others, although there are a few second-tier teams like Monte, the gap between second-tier and first-tier in the CS2 era is actually not that big.

So no matter which team they encounter, the pressure is quite high.

Astralis here is more interesting. After all, the two Danish teams had such a big melon in the off-season. Now the snake and rat brothers are both in Astralis, and device has also transitioned to become a Commander. Whether he can save Astralis is a problem.

However, thinking of this, he couldn't help but turn to ask JKS: "Is that Bro in Astralis really not your brother?"

JKS looked at Xu Beifang's serious look, thinking he was going to say something important.

Hearing this, he was instantly speechless: "I've said it several times, I'm not familiar with this Bro at all."

There is a new player in Astralis whose ID is Bro. His appearance is very similar to JKS, and the two look exactly like brothers.

Every time Xu Beifang sees BRO's appearance, he can't help but ask JKS once, making JKS annoyed.

Elige added: "Don't say you call people Bro?"

Others in the room chuckled instantly. Teasing JKS, who usually has a straight face, had almost become their source of happiness.

Xu Beifang didn't dwell on this either.

The overall level of this tournament actually wasn't strong to an exaggerated degree.

Today, there are four strong teams in the true sense of CS2, namely Faze, Green Dragon, NAVI, and Vitality.

But Green Dragon missed it because of tournament conflicts, NAVI rested for a major tournament after the Major, and Vitality rested normally, so only Faze came out to fight the world.

However, for them, if it's just these teams, there is really a chance to fight into the playoffs.

Because these are all teams with level, but the level is not high to an exaggerated degree.

The only one that can truly put them under full pressure on paper is Faze.

He asked: "Then who is our opponent in the first stop?"

Coach Xiaoxiao had no smile on his face at this moment, he shrugged helplessly: "Unfortunately, in the first round of the group stage, our opponent is Faze."

Xu Beifang stretched: "Then let me see, what level Faze has today!"

PS: Transition chapter, originally planned to write about the confrontation with Steel Helmet, but thought about it carefully, it's not necessary, so I simplified it directly, and the next chapter will officially enter the match.