CS: Demon King C, you said I was a genius?

When CNCS is mentioned, people generally have negative impressions such as "glory" and "gambling".

Domestic professional players couldn't refute this point at all, because there were simply too many examples of the former and the latter.

The former needs no introduction; its achievements in recent years speak for themselves. Compared to the peak of Tianlu in 18, the achievements of the later ones are simply insignificant.

As for the latter, the number of "betting" incidents is countless. When a domestic team was involved in match-fixing, they stopped pretending altogether and were even included in HLTV, bringing shame to the country.

The former boss even became colleagues with his cousin Wu Erfan because he opened a casino.

These actions led to domestic players completely losing faith in CNCS in recent years.

Even some players who don't play CS:GO know that CNCS is on the same level as the Chinese national football team—equally bad.

The group of proud young people in LVG were naturally indignant at these comments. Why should they have to bear the blame for other people's mistakes?
They all train diligently and genuinely want to achieve good results.

But since words can't refute it, let's prove it with actions.

So at the Copenhagen Major, they made it into the main event with an all-Chinese roster and earned a long-awaited sticker to prove themselves.

But this kind of thing can't be accomplished overnight; the gap between them and the strong teams in Europe and America is just too big.

In addition, the impact of other FPS games has led to a severe shortage of young professional CS:GO players in China.

These constraints mean that CNCS's performance may not truly take off for a long time.

The LVG team members were aware of the situation, but they all chose this game out of passion.

If it weren't for passion, who would put in so much effort to improve their skills in such a hardcore competitive game with such a high learning curve?

Therefore, these young people are eager to break free from the labels that others have attached to them.

A few days ago, although everyone was dissatisfied with the high-intensity overtime work, it was just grumbling; none of the tasks that needed to be completed were missed.

They are genuinely eager to achieve results and are willing to put in the effort, but in most cases, they simply feel powerless to do so.

However, with the addition of Su Zhe, their team's strength has risen to a new level, and they are all hoping to achieve a different result in this competition than before.

On the afternoon of April 23, LVG faced their first challenge in this year's EPL.

……

……

"What a small world! I didn't expect to run into Black Panthers in the first round. I'm determined to take them down this time! A-God, what do you say? Should we just sweep them 2-0?"

On the player's platform, Jee watched the Black Panther player opposite him, rubbing his hands together excitedly.

Back in the IEM Chengdu tournament, LVG's first opponent was Black Panther, and they were sent straight to the loser's bracket.

This encounter with Black Panther again can be considered a revenge battle.

Su Zhe couldn't help but smile when he heard Jee's words. He used to be quite talkative, but now Jee had made him a bit socially awkward.

However, he was not averse to it; a team should have someone like that who can liven up the atmosphere.

If everyone is a silent type, they'll resort to passive-aggressive tactics when they're at a disadvantage in a game.

Moreover, Su Zhe was quite comfortable in LVG during this period. Sometimes he felt that his teammates looked at him with admiration, even though he was the youngest member of the team.

Watermelon glanced at Jee and said, "Focus on warming up. The match is about to start. Don't you know how strong the Black Panther team is?"

As a team from the Americas region, the Black Panther team is a force to be reckoned with, and is considered a top-tier second-tier team internationally.

Among them, Kashin, Godfather, and yuurih are all legendary players in CS:GO, each holding the title of TOP player.

The godfather is a totem figure in Brazilian esports, and he also holds the honor of two Major championships.

As for LVG, they were previously only at the level of a third-tier team.

Jee chuckled upon hearing this: "Guaranteed! Guaranteed! With God A on our team this time, we definitely won't lose, and I feel like I'm on fire!"

Soon, following the referee's instructions, both sides entered the map ban/pick phase.

After some negotiation, the final map for Bo3 was confirmed.

Figure 1: Purgatory Town

Figure 2: Death Amusement Park
Figure 3: Ancient Ruins

After the final three images were selected, the LVG team members were somewhat worried upon seeing the final image choice.

They had nothing to worry about in Purgatory Town (Map 1), but in Death Amusement Park (Map 2), they had only done some basic map running training during this period.

After all, they had too little time to prepare, and they simply couldn't spare the extra energy to practice the other maps.

Moreover, Black Panther's town is not weak either; they even defeated Liquid on this map recently.

In addition, arT (Art Bro), the original commander who had been the starting lineup for the Black Panthers for six years, has been demoted due to a decline in form, and has been replaced by the youth academy player kye.

The Black Panthers are now officially led by the Godfather, and LVG is not familiar with the current tactics and playstyle of the Black Panthers.

After bumping fists with his teammates, Xigua said, "We absolutely must take the town in map one! Otherwise, we'll be in a very passive position in map two!"

It was clear to everyone that winning this best-of-three series would not be easy.

Jee, who had been chatting and laughing, just pursed her lips and then focused her attention on the game.

Figure 1: Purgatory Town

FURIA (Black Panther): KSCERATO (Card God), yuurih, FalleN (Godfather), chelo, kye
LVG: Westmelon, Starry, jee, EmiliaQAQ, Arrow
As LVG's map pick, their opponent, Black Panther, chose to start on the defensive side.

After thinking for a moment during the preparation phase, Xigua gave the order: "Let's control the banana path first this round. Xiaohua, go check the side path at the start and get some information on the second floor. If there are people standing at the front of the second floor on the other side, we'll speed up our B bomb site."

A very simple pistol round tactic, but it's also very suitable for LVG now.

After Xigua finished speaking, he threw a P250 at Su Zhe's feet. Su Zhe picked it up without hesitation and then repaired his armor.

After joining LVG, he regained the senior treatment he had received at NIP.

The countdown ended, and everyone set off to their respective tasks.

Su Zhe, carrying the P250, wasn't the first to engage in the Jiao Dao position, so he followed his teammates and jumped into the sewers to hold off the enemy mid-lane and prevent them from recklessly taking information from the mid-lane.

After Starry took a stand in the tree, he didn't make any further moves, peeking at his position while waiting for information from the little flower on the side.

Just as he was staring at the minimap and saw Xiaohua gradually walk up the spiral staircase, a message immediately appeared in the upper left corner that he had been killed.

At the same time, a shout came through the earpiece: "Two on A2! Both have dual pistols!"

This is crucial information; even a fool would know that Black Panther is setting up a defensive formation to prevent flying enemies from the second floor this round.

Xigua immediately made the decision to speed up and attack B through the banana lane, and Su Zhe also retreated from the middle lane at the first opportunity, following behind his teammates to be ready to provide follow-up shots at any time.

Starry, in the lead, charged forward with long strides while simultaneously observing the surrounding information.

"There was no one standing on Banana Road or the Yellow Wall. They just gave the police cigarettes. I'm going to go into the checkpoint!"

Upon hearing this, Watermelon behind him immediately used his offensive weapon. Starry saw the smoke grenade explode at the police spawn and was about to enter the bomb site when suddenly the screen went black.

FalleN used a USP to headshot and kill Starry.

"Ok?"

Just as he was wondering where the shot came from, Su Zhe, positioned in the second position, had already aimed his crosshair at the sandbag.

"Boom!"

Arrow used a P250 to headshot FalleN.

Su Zhe was practically cursing after getting the kill. How could they not have searched such an important spot as the sandbag?

He assumed that Starry, who was in the first position, had already checked the sandbag, so he didn't pay any more attention. Fortunately, he reacted quickly enough and turned his head to locate the target the moment he heard the gunshot.

Otherwise, I really can't imagine how many of them the Godfather would steal this time.

They were fine during training, so why did their discipline become so poor during crucial matches?
Coach GUM, standing behind him, felt a pang of anxiety upon seeing this, knowing that he would likely have to work overtime again after the match.

Still shaken, Su Zhe didn't say much. These issues needed to be reviewed after the match. He then took the lead again and made a breakthrough.

After observing that no one was at the coffin, Su Zhe was just about to take a big step into the audience and open fire when he saw a small head suddenly pop up from the coffin.

At the same time, a shot rang out from the USP, and Jee, who was behind him, fell to the ground.

When Su Zhe was about to go and finish off the enemy, the CT behind the coffin retreated again. At this point, it was still uncertain whether there was a second CT at the bomb site.

So Su Zhe left the gun wire on the coffin for Xigua behind him to catch, but Xigua failed to catch the spring head of the coffin, resulting in Su Zhe being shot in the head and killed instantly while he was sideways.

Su Zhe glanced at the kill information; it was Card God, currently the strongest individual player on the Black Panther team.

With him falling to the ground, the lone survivor, Watermelon, was also trapped. In addition, the reinforcements for area A were arriving soon. In this 1v4 situation, he couldn't find any opportunities.

The score then came to 0-1.

"My...me."

After losing the pistol round, Starry looked guilty, even though the consequence of not scouting was only a one-for-one trade.

However, if Hou Bai could get the head behind the sandbag, the card god behind the coffin might not have been so reckless in stealing and killing him.

Just as he was about to say something, Su Zhe interrupted him.

"Be disciplined."

"Okay! Sure!"

"It's here! The 'Hidden Gems' competition is here!"

The player made cheerful noises as soon as the game started, but after seeing that the score was 0-1, he thought to himself "Damn it!" and realized he had missed the pistol round.

He then added, "Although we missed the pistol round, we can expect to see a great force buy round next."

"After losing the pistol round, LVG opted for a pure eco round and pushed down the middle, but Black Panthers had a crossfire line of fire from the barn and the connecting area."

"LVG was given absolutely no chance, and the score is now 0-2."

When playing against machines, losing the pistol round isn't a big deal; the most crucial thing is the battle of rifle rounds between the two sides.

However, some viewers in the live stream were not convinced and expressed their opinions.

CNCS is truly awful, and Arrow must be out of his mind to join LVG to play.

[No need to search for specific points; even I, a C+ rank player, know to search for the sandbag's location.]

[Sigh~ I'm outta here, I can't stand it anymore]

[I'm bold enough to predict LVG's next results: they'll lose two games first, then win 0-2 against TyLoo in the group stage, and finally go home with a 1-3 defeat.]

Come on, it's just a pistol round, why make such a big deal out of it? Let's see what the rifle round has to say first.

【.】

After glancing at the chat in the live stream, Wanji roughly understood the situation of the pistol round.

However, as a professional commentator, he didn't pay too much attention to the comments section, but instead focused on commentating on the match:

"It's a rifle round. In this round, Watermelon bought a Tec-9 with utility and gave Arrow an AK. Everyone else used Curry with utility."

"However, overall, LVG still has the advantage in firearms, while Black Panther has not chosen to upgrade its equipment."

Before Mitsuha was around, she was in charge of controlling the banana path in LVG's town.

Now that Su Zhe has taken over San Ye's position, unless there are special offensive tactical arrangements, he will generally be the one to seize control of the banana path.

After Su Zhe finished dealing with the fire that spread from a wooden bucket to the stone slab at the bandit's mouth, he did not find a chance to enter the banana path.

Black Panther applied significant pressure down the banana lane, immediately giving the terrorists a smoke grenade and a smoke grenade afterward. Seeing this, Su Zhe threw a mid-range smoke grenade down the banana lane, followed by a set of smoke grenades afterward.

This set of props can effectively prevent the black panthers from occupying the tree positions and grooves at the first opportunity, so that they can take control of the banana path at the second opportunity.

Su Zhe mentally calculated that the smoke and fire at the bandit's mouth should be dissipating soon, so he shouted, "Watermelon, throw me a banana to dodge the fire."

"Wait a minute. I've given it to you!"

Upon hearing the flashbang, Su Zhe strode past the CT's smoke grenade and took up the spot in the recess.

Starry followed closely behind, securing a spot in the tree.

It's essential to fight for control in the early to mid-game; otherwise, trying to seize control again later would be too time-consuming and laborious.

But then, a burst of silenced bullets suddenly swiped through the smoke in the middle of the room, instantly taking away half of Starry's health from the tree position.

Even the watermelon carrying the bag wasn't spared; it was hit by two bullets and lost more than 30 drops of health.

'They're fighting so aggressively... they're not treating us like human beings at all...'

At this moment, the smoke in the middle section immediately dissipated, and Su Zhe pulled out of the groove with a large body length in time.

However, the opponent's positioning was also very subtle. Just as the smoke grenade was about to dissipate, they retreated back to the stone slab cover and then placed another stone slab to block the smoke. It seemed that they did not want LVG to easily take control of the entire Banana Road.

Controlling the banana path to the stone slab and controlling it to the sandbag are two completely different things.

Once the sandbags are removed, the CTs won't dare stand on the yellow wall, which offers no cover, and will have to retreat to the back to defend.

Conversely, this would give the CTs a buffer, allowing the defenders to quickly rotate back on this small map.

After seeing that the other side had blocked the smoke, Su Zhe began to quietly move closer to the stone slab. Then he saw that there were still people smoking near the wooden barrel.

After feeling disrespected once again, Su Zhe also realized that this was a good opportunity.

He pressed himself against the stone slab, drew his butterfly knife, and shouted, "Throw me a stone slab flash and a barrel fire!"

In response to Su Zhe's request, the bandit leader didn't hesitate, immediately throwing out the watermelon after a quick flash.

Su Zhe also sped up immediately and slipped out of the smoke through the stone partition.

The moment his vision returned, Su Zhe saw CT covering his eyes by the wooden barrel, but he ignored him and went straight to the yellow wall.

Sure enough, after he set up his crosshairs, a CT figure emerged horizontally from behind the yellow wall.

"Da da da~"

Arrow used an AK-47 to headshot and kill KSCERATO.

The moment he received the kill notification, Su Zhe immediately turned to look at the CT who was frantically moving around near the barrel, covering his eyes like a headless fly.

"Da da~"

Arrow killed FalleN with a headshot using an AK-47.

"Keep the pressure on mid! Give B bomb site the utility! I'm going in!"

Speed ​​is of the essence in war, so Su Zhe didn't wait for his teammates to catch up. Instead, he went to the B bomb site alone and quickly searched the area.

Then the cigarette smoke from the police station and the coffin slowly fell and exploded.

"Arrow's smoke-filled breakthrough was incredibly decisive! It caught both Godfather and Card God completely off guard!"

The player who was playing the machine was also surprised when he saw this scene. He thought that LVG was doomed to suffer a loss in this wave of banana passage, but he didn't expect the situation to be reversed in an instant!

"LVG successfully planted the bomb! Xiaohua and Kye traded kills on the side lane."

"In a 2v4 situation, did Black Panthers even want to retake the defense? They simply chose to save their weapons!"

"Nice!! Beautiful!"

The moment they won the long-range rifle round, the LVG players, who were under immense pressure, erupted in cheers!

Jee exclaimed excitedly, "Holy crap! As expected of you, A-God! You wiped out the opponent's double B defense in one fell swoop? That's awesome!"

Su Zhe breathed a sigh of relief after the C4 successfully exploded. His breakthrough through the smoke was risky; if he had given up, he would likely have lost the round with long rifles.

After exchanging fist bumps with his teammates on both sides, he encouraged them, saying, "Keep it up! Try to get six points in the first half, that would be a good result!"

"come on! Come on!"

Although Infernal Town is a relatively balanced map, it also inherits the characteristics of CNCS's veterans for LVG.

That means the defensive team plays well, but the offensive team falls apart; to put it bluntly, they are better at defense.

If they can reach a tie in the first half, they have a high probability of winning the first game.

……

"Is it really necessary to be this excited about winning just one point? I'll make them cry even if they don't!"

After Black Panther lost a point, Chelo was very dissatisfied with the loud cheers from the opposing players' seats, especially the chubby guy, who almost jumped up excitedly.

"Alright, focus. They're not weak, especially that Arrow," the Godfather said, frowning.

He takes the game very seriously. He boldly used smoke just now because he wanted to catch the opponent's habitual movement, but he didn't expect the opponent to seize the opportunity and break through.

This also gave him a plan for the defense that followed.

Chelo scoffed, "Arrow, I know him, but what use is one person? We're familiar with the other LVG members. If Banana puts some pressure on him, he'll be silent."

Kasper, standing to the side, shook his head and said, "I've seen his demo. This guy is very good at seizing opportunities. Be careful. Don't forget that he single-handedly led NIP into the Major main event."

"Uh……"

Chelo was speechless after being retorted. Just as he was about to say something, Yuurih laughed and said, "Chelo, have you forgotten the time you mocked the other side and got whipped for it?"

Chelo was speechless after hearing this, but deep down he was still somewhat unconvinced.

It's not that he's not smart, it's just his personality.

His personality is flamboyant, and he often mocks his opponents during matches. No matter how strong Arrow is, it has nothing to do with him; he'll still mock him if he wants to.

Unless... unless you really beat him into submission.

The score was 1-2
Thanks to Black Panther saving two spears in the previous round, and with the economic accumulation in the first two rounds, they are still able to barely make a full run in this round.

After thinking for a moment, the Godfather gave the order: "Let's gamble on 3B this round. Keep putting pressure on the terrorists' equipment, but don't let the mid-section fire. Leave a little opening for the opponent, and then we'll set up a formation."

After the Godfather finished explaining the tactics, he couldn't help but laugh at himself.

Based on his research and understanding of Arrow's demo, the other side couldn't possibly miss such a great opportunity.

"Black Panther's banana path was breached last round, so this round they opted for a defensive 3B opening, they're planning to fight Arrow to the death!"

"However, it's understandable. If Arrow loses control of the banana lane, it will be very difficult for LVG to launch a subsequent attack."

This time, Su Zhe didn't choose to use the mid-section smoke when he went to the banana path. Instead, he stepped directly into the groove after his teammates used the extinguishing smoke.

The extinguishing smoke exploded slightly to the left of the banana path, giving Su Zhe a perfect opening to observe.

He glanced at the information on the banana path and found that the other side had no intention of pressing out.

'Just trying to put pressure on us and delay our attack?'
After thinking for a moment, Su Zhe said in the voice chat, "Could you give me a wooden bucket for fire?"

The same map control strategy as the last round.

The purpose of the wooden barrel fire is to allow him to concentrate on setting up the CT that the stone slab might pull out when he is placing it on the stone slab, preventing the opponent from suddenly stepping on the wooden plank and pulling him to the side timing.

"The fire is ready!"

Upon hearing Xigua's response, Su Zhe immediately stepped closer to the stone slab, and the journey was smooth and unimpeded.

"Give me the stone slab flash and the yellow wall fire, I'm about to pull it."

At this moment, Starry, who was following behind Su Zhe, felt like he had become a ruthless prop thrower, but he did not neglect Su Zhe's words and threw the prop directly.

Su Zhe aimed directly at the yellow wall and pulled out the instant the flash exploded.

'Nobody here?'
Just as Su Zhe was starting to relax, he suddenly saw a CT wielding a submachine gun rush out from near the stone slab.

Su Zhe was startled, but his hands didn't stop moving. He immediately crouched down to avoid the opponent's headshot line, while using his right hand to control the mouse for positioning.

"Da da da~"

Arrow killed FalleN with a headshot using an AK-47.

"Two shots fired! He's crippled!" the fallen Godfather shouted.

Upon hearing this, Card God, who was behind the sandbag, strode out sideways and opened fire with his pre-emptive gun.

However, instead of spraying bullets at the head, he chose the safest option: spraying bullets at the body. Facing such a line of fire, Kasper was confident that as long as the opponent's positioning was even slightly slower, they would be dead without a doubt.

Immediately afterwards, he saw the figure of the bandit in his line of sight, and he clearly saw the bullet hit the other's body.

But the next instant, he saw the other person suddenly flick the muzzle of their gun.

"Da da~"

Arrow used an AK-47 to headshot and kill KSCERATO.

"Da Crippled! One shot and he's dead!"

He was speaking to chelo behind him. FalleN had arranged for chelo, who was in the link, to come to B and devise this strategy, because they were afraid that multiple opponents would speed up and finish off the enemy.

However, Su Zhe, who was in the first position, was unable to block both of their follow-up shots.

Upon hearing this, Chelo immediately felt a heavy burden on his shoulders, and he was prepared to take down one and then make up for the next.

But upon seeing the bandits, he didn't even press the left mouse button before the agent he was controlling fell heavily backward.

"Da~"

Arrow killed chelo with a headshot using an AK-47.

chelo: ?
opened?
The player who was playing the game almost got excited when he saw this: "Huh? What is that?! First, it took down the Godfather, then it caught the finishing shot from the God of War, but that one-tap at the end was just too over the top!"

"Is this a move that a human could make?"

[Pfft, is Black Panther really that brave? Standing at the very edge of the banana path, he's exchanging gunfire with Xiao Zhe.]

Holy crap! Who said CNCS is no good? A-God alone is enough!

[This really brought tears to my eyes! This is godlike Lu Bu! He beat the game all by himself!]

[Who just said LVG was bound to lose? Keep shouting!]

【…】

After achieving a triple kill to clear the Banana Road, not only was Black Panther stunned, but even the rest of LVG were a bit bewildered.

Is this guy here to suck up to someone's leg? Or is he here to ride on a trailer?!
They were really afraid that the referee behind them would suddenly jump out and stop the game to check the computer.

It was only after Su Zhe's reminder that everyone regained their focus and began to operate again.

As expected, the 5v2 situation unfolded as yuurih and kye at point A had no intention of defending at all.

However, in this round, LVG chose to surrender immediately after gaining an economic advantage.

Ultimately, by trading three for two, they completely destroyed Black Panther's chance to turn the tide in the next round.

The score was now tied at 2-2. (End of Chapter)