Chapter 502: 56 Bitter Encounter with Yellow Hair

Waking up, Xu Beifang saw Danking in the next bed yawn.

"This EPL tournament is too rushed, there's no rest time at all."

They finished all kinds of training reviews until the early morning yesterday, but today they have to get up at 10 am to start warm-up training, and they have to go to the venue to prepare for the match at 3 or 4 pm.

Danking felt he was almost dizzy; he felt okay before at IEM Chengdu, but this time it was too tight.

Xu Beifang added: "This EPL compressed the match time, so the time is very tight."

The EPL league has always been a bit stinky and long.

A total of 32 teams participate in the competition, and from the group stage, they are all BO3 formats. If they play in the cup format, it might take more than a month to finish one competition.

But the EPL tournament official has more arrangements this year, so the overall schedule pressure is relatively tight.

He got up and put on his clothes, comforting while saying: "Overcome it, we are actually still okay, 3-0 directly took it, like NAVI's 2-1, they had to go to the loser's bracket to play BO3 yesterday."

Playing one more BO3 is a huge consumption of energy.

The two climbed out of bed and washed up, preparing to start the day.

Xu Beifang was a bit bored while washing up, took out his phone and swiped the forum to kill time.

He looked over and found that the discussion posts in the forum were obviously more than in the group stage.

Xu Beifang thought about it and quickly understood.

The overly complicated matches in the EPL group stage actually didn't have a very good viewing experience for the audience.

Because the number of matches held in one day was too many, even tournament enthusiasts couldn't follow them all at the same time, so they tended to choose the matches of their favorite teams to support.

The feeling of victory or defeat of the team wasn't that strong either.

But now entering the playoffs, as long as BO3 is lost, they are directly out.

And what teams are watching the playoffs?

Youth Storm Mouz, Galaxy Battleship Faze, Wanjiqi's favorite Astralis, G2 of the joker holy land, Liquid still in the grinding period, Vitality with Zywoo, and Old Kayak COL.

At least players who pay a little attention to the match will light up when they look at it.

Ho, they are all old acquaintances!

They also have their own evaluations of the strength of this group of people, and they won't encounter some niche teams, looking at them, they don't even know a few names, and they are in the dark about their strength and playstyle.

There were even many discussions in the forum about the follow-up of the playoffs.

A netizen posted the playoff bracket.

Mouz vs G2, COL vs VP, Astralis vs Liquid, Vitality vs Faze

In just half a day, the number of comment replies below exceeded five hundred.

【Seeing this grouping, I laughed directly, it belongs to having revenge for revenge and grievances for grievances, EPL you know how to group】

【A bit uncomfortable, although COL played very smoothly at IEM Chengdu last time, the only thing was losing to VP, this time they met again, feels like COL is going to pull the gate】

【Feels like God is going to dominate Danking and NIKO again】

【Don't be so pessimistic. Last time at IEM Chengdu when they played G2, COL also played quite well on Vertigo.】

【It's simple, why not just ban Vertigo?】

【Actually, if you ask me, the most interesting one is Astralis vs. Liquid. In Ma Xixi's words, it's like a father beating his son—top-tier bloodline suppression, haha.】

【You really shouldn't say that. Today's match is full of grudges. The historical conflict between Astralis and Liquid, and the conflict between device and the Astralis system—it's actually quite interesting.】

【On the contrary, the matchup between Vitality and FURIA at the bottom looks like it's full of combat power, but it doesn't have as many gimmicks.】

Danking wiped his face delicately with a face towel, stood on tiptoe, and glanced at Xu Beifang's phone screen. "Browsing the forums again? What are the netizens chatting about?"

Xu Beifang watched him finish washing up and walked out with his things. As he walked, he shared like a goblin: "The netizens are truly a group of talents. If they hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't have noticed—we have Liquid vs. Astralis coming up."

"Liquid has device leading the team, the gimmick is maxed out." Xu Beifang analyzed for him one by one, "In terms of teams, Liquid and Astralis are like enemies meeting, their eyes burning with hatred. In terms of individuals, device was poached by Astralis three times when he was at X Team..."

"Good heavens, this is the victim meeting the homewrecker in the ring." However, Danking noticed the details in Xu Beifang's words. "There were actually three times?"

Xu Beifang nodded: "The first time seems to have been in 2019. At that time, FPX had just won the League of Legends World Championship and intended to enter CSGO, so they wanted to acquire the main Heroic roster."

"That FPX from the League? The FPX with the top laner GimGoon?" Danking was a bit surprised.

He didn't pay much attention to industry news; even when surfing the internet, he only looked at netizens' antics and had limited focus on information within the circle.

Speaking of this, Xu Beifang mentioned a small episode: "At that time, FPX even reached out to communicate, wanting to buy me to be their star player."

"Then why didn't you go?"

Xu Beifang shrugged: "Why would I go? I was playing just fine at Vitality at the time, and although FPX intended to enter, it was a new team."

At that time, he was still playing at Vitality; he wasn't bored enough to go play for a new team.

Besides, Heroic wasn't strong back then either.

"Heroic was very eager to be acquired. After all, once the whole team was acquired, their income would be stable. This was simply too good for a second-tier team at the time. Then, just as they were about to be acquired, Astralis bought away es3tag, who was a member of Heroic at the time."

"FPX was originally acquiring Heroic's full roster. With one person missing, they certainly wouldn't acquire them, which led to the failure of this acquisition."

Xu Beifang also felt a bit of a sigh; this failed acquisition actually had a huge impact on CNCS.

Because if FPX had succeeded in the acquisition, such a European team entering Asia could have brought quite a few changes to Asia through this kind of systematization.

At the very least, those talented youths would have had a new choice.

"Then the second time was a bit special. It was the coach of Heroic at the time. This guy was really a bit disgusting. During the online era, he directly packaged Heroic's complete system and tactical library and sent them to Astralis, wanting to use this as his resume."

"Ah!!" Danking was stunned. "Isn't this a proper spy?"

As a professional CSGO player, he understood the impact of those things all too well.

In the professional player circle, there has always been a saying—"CS has no secrets."

Because whether it's tactics or playstyles, as long as you are willing to put in the effort, they can all be researched from match recordings.

But researching these things requires time and energy, and you don't know if a certain move by a player is a tactical action or a flash of inspiration at the time, which also increases the difficulty of tactical research quite a bit.

Previously, Blast officials leaked the in-game communication audio of teams, which drew resistance from all tier-one teams.

Because this communication audio is too important; other teams can use these audios to accelerate the reverse-engineering of other teams' tactical content.

And at that time, Heroic's tactical content was all released by this coach, which basically amounted to showing Heroic's underwear to Astralis.

Although Astralis did not open the email sent by this coach later, the grudge between the two teams was completely established.

"As for the third time, you already understand—it's the matter regarding the snake-and-rat brothers."

Hearing Xu Beifang's explanation, Danking also looked sighful: "I didn't expect device's experience to be so turbulent. Then today's Liquid vs. Astralis match will be worth watching."

They had already walked into the training room. Hearing the content of their conversation, NIKO smiled and said: "I actually think Liquid will still lose. Judging from their form, Liquid plays too chaotically."

"Alright, guys." Coach Xiaoxiao clapped his hands, pulling them away from the gossip mood. "Compared to focusing on device's story, it won't be easy for us to face VP next!"

"Previously at IEM Chengdu, we lost quite miserably to VP. Today we must work hard to get our revenge."

Danking and NIKO both shut up instantly upon hearing this. They definitely had to take the blame for that previous loss to VP.

So at this moment, they also quickly adjusted their emotions and cast aside those distracting thoughts.

Coach Xiaoxiao saw their expressions and didn't say anything special, but led them to quickly scan through VP's recent recordings.

Even if there wasn't much time left before the match, the necessary preparations still had to be done.

"Alright brothers, the match is already on screen!"

In the 6657 live stream room, Wanjiqi opened the match broadcast very happily.

As a Douyu streamer, he never had the rights to these major tournaments before, so he often could only stream some niche treasure matches.

Niche treasure matches are certainly good, but being able to commentate on the matches of these old acquaintances is the most joyful thing.

Especially thinking that there would be an Astralis match in a few hours, Wanjiqi was already getting a bit excited.

"Alright, without further ado, we see the match's BP has already started. Today VP got the right to ban first, and they went straight to remove Nuke. VP doesn't play this map."

"Then COL chose to remove Overpass and still left Anubis out. It seems they are fixed on leaving Anubis from now on. Clearly, winning against NAVI yesterday gave them confidence."

Coming to VP's first pick, VP didn't consider too much and directly locked in Ancient.

If VP locks in Ancient, COL actually doesn't care much. After all, they have been playing Ancient quite well recently, and it can now be considered one of their stronger maps.

And after some consideration, COL directly locked in Vertigo.

"They didn't pick Inferno?" Wanjiqi was a bit surprised. "This COL still wants to practice things. Their courage is truly a bit big."

"And many people should remember that when COL played VP before, that time they lost because of Vertigo."

"It's just a pity that this EPL did not adopt the new version mode, and Vertigo has not been completely updated."

"Both sides banned one more map each, and finally left Mirage as Map 3."

After seeing the BP of the two teams, Wanjiqi couldn't help but tease: "So after making it to the top eight, it's still like this, huh? It's just formulaic CS—either Ancient or Vertigo. Everyone is ordering these niche maps."

While he was teasing, he heard the ESL background music, and immediately knew the match was about to start.

COL vs. VP

Map: Ancient

T: Jame, Fame, electronic, F1LT, n0rb3r7

CT: Nice, NIKO, Elige, Danking, JKS

The match officially begins.

Xu Beifang briefly repeated the tactics they had discussed earlier: "Danking, give two dual berettas, and later I'll take Elige and push out from the Black Room. You coordinate with NIKO and go to B Slope."

"Remember to throw the flashbangs. When you throw the first flash, we'll both pull out simultaneously and anti-rush this B Small area."

Similar to the match against NAVI, this time it was still a heavy-defense gamble lineup.

However, the structure was different. When they played NAVI, they gambled on A Site, mainly waiting for the opponent to make a move.

Today against VP, they were gambling on B and taking the initiative to anti-rush.

Only JKS was left hanging at A Site.

After the countdown ended, Xu Beifang took his teammates and set off for B Site.

He carried his USP and rushed straight into the Black Room, then used his positioning advantage to push forward.

The dual berettas were in Ji Ge's hands, so Ji Ge could help him trade kills at any time.

Danking threw the flashbang. With a "bang," Xu Beifang jumped straight out of the Black Room.

But the moment he jumped out, he and NIKO shouted in unison: "No one outside B!"

"JKS, find a way to stall! The opponents are going to hit A this round!"

They gambled on the wrong area, and the pressure instantly shifted to JKS, who was alone at A.

"VP started with a VIP smoke, and then intended to do a quick A-split. Originally, the CT setup was 4B1A, so JKS is very passive now."

"This formation requires JKS to try his best to stall for time. The more time he stalls, the faster his teammates will rotate back, and the more likely he is to survive."

"Footsteps heard at Donut, JKS chose to actively break out from one side. His positioning is a bit dangerous, but he actively pushed out from A Long!"

"Fame, who had no armor, was directly gunned down by him! And he also heard n0rb3r7's footsteps. He is circling the cover inside A Long like King Qin!! JKS is still stalling this wave!!"

JKS's ingenious playstyle bought quite a bit of time for the rest of COL.

Knowing that VP was going to hit A, Xu Beifang directly took Elige and started rotating back from Mid.

They were numerous, so they weren't worried about the opponents leaving someone to watch their backs.

Because that would at most be a 1-for-1 trade.

However, all the way to the Jump Platform, they didn't see any Terrorists from VP watching their backs.

Instead, Xu Beifang and Elige caught two Terrorists at the Donut entrance. Both of them immediately opened fire and instantly secured two kills.

"VP's offensive rhythm is too slow. A Long was stalled, and A Small is still steady, which gave COL the opportunity to rotate back."

"The reinforcement from the rear has arrived. Now it's VP that's stuck inside Donut, and JKS also solo-killed n0rb3r7 at A Long. Only Jame is left, and he's powerless!"

"Jame tried but failed, and was killed by NIKO who rotated over. COL successfully secured an ACE!"

The score reached 1:0.

Xu Beifang directly praised in the voice chat: "JKS played this so well! Holding A Long was crucial!"

Gambling on a site gives the team stronger local firepower, but if the opponents don't run into their main force, then their firepower becomes quite awkward.

JKS, alone at A, didn't have utility this round and couldn't stall by himself, but JKS fought his way out of a bloody path.

JKS smiled: "You guys rotated back quickly, otherwise if the opponents had killed their way out of Donut and caught me in a pincer, I wouldn't have been able to do anything."

Only with outstanding individual performance combined with timely assistance from teammates can one achieve an effect of 1+1 > 2.

Otherwise, even if he handled A Long well, it would only have stalled for a few more seconds.

After winning the pistol round, they proceeded to buy equipment.

Knowing that the opponents were likely on an ECO, they specifically bought two submachine guns.

Then in this round, Ji Ge used the Forklift King to secure a four-kill, and the economic reward was maxed out.

Although Ji Ge was eventually traded, it didn't matter much for the situation.

COL successfully secured the second point, and the match would soon enter the first full-buy round.

(End of chapter)