Valorant: I Am Still the World's Best

Why did EDG make such a foolish mistake by changing their strategist on the eve of the match?

Who exactly is EDG.Raven, this unknown young player?

"1.4KD, Asia Server No. 1, CN Wa's Prodigy!"

As soon as the announcement was released, major esports media outlets swarmed in like sharks smelling blood, publishing their own eye-catching headlines and digging for juicy details.

This digging actually uncovered a lot of information about Su Ming.

Based on this information, fans on various platforms such as Hupu, Tieba, and Weibo are discussing it, and it has also generated considerable discussion in Taiwan.

[A complete FPS prodigy with zero experience, having only played Valorant for less than two months?]

This is absolutely outrageous! Second place in less than two months? It's definitely cheating!

[Wow, 1.4 KD, that's some serious talent. Now I understand why EDG had to make a last-minute roster change.]

[Why change commanders? Changing leaders mid-battle is a cardinal sin in military strategy. If you really want to optimize, why not get rid of Nobody?]

[To the person upstairs: Apparently, Nobody is now in command.]

That's all.

Amidst much discussion, the Los Angeles Championships arrived as scheduled.

On the first day of the group stage, TL suffered a shocking 0-2 defeat to NAVI, being upset by the fifth seed from the same region.

DRX2:1 defeated last year's champion, LOUD team.

The next day.

To everyone's astonishment, NRG lost 0-2 to BLG in a stunning upset!

Wang Haozhe from the CN region dominated the mid lane of Neon Town in this match with his 1800-gold Judge skin, driving up sales of the "Holographic Pop Judge" skin and becoming famous overnight.

After this major upset, which could be talked about for a lifetime and was comparable to "Vietnamese fermented bean curd," Fnc unremarkably crushed the Japanese national team ZETA in the second match.

ZETA once emerged as a dark horse, reaching the top three in the world championships and thrilling countless Japanese fans. However, their current form seems to be a flash in the pan.

Day three.

The first match is between PRX and KRU.

The fully-equipped PRX put on an ultimate dump truck feast, relentlessly attacking and leaving KRU completely breathless.

Ultimately, PRX lived up to expectations, easily securing a 2-0 victory.

The second game.

EDG vs GIA.

EDG, the team that CN fans have been eagerly anticipating, has officially taken the stage.

"Let's welcome the CN region's number one seed, the dark horse of the Tokyo Masters, EDG..."

Amidst the host's enthusiastic and passionate voice, the EDG players entered the arena in order through the player tunnel.

"Ahhh!! Go EDG!"

"We absolutely have to win!"

"Kangkang! Lets go!!!"

To Su Ming's surprise, there were many cheers in Chinese at the scene.

"So many Chinese people are here?" Su Ming asked.

"Many are international students," Wang Senxu explained, standing next to him. "The international version came out first, so many international students played it first, which is why we have a lot of overseas fans. Especially Japanese fans; Zheng Yongkang has won over a huge number of people in Tokyo!"

"When I played ranked games with Japanese girls, they knew I was with EDG, and all they asked about Zheng Yongkang was about him. They had absolutely no interest in me."

As he spoke, Wang Senxu became depressed.

Soon, amidst applause and cheers from the audience, the group entered and came to the stage.

Zhang Zhao elbowed Su Ming twice and asked with concern, "How are you? Are you nervous?"

"It's alright," Su Ming said with a smile.

In his reminiscence, he experienced the atmosphere of the World Championship in advance.

Although he couldn't see the people in the audience clearly in his memories, the atmosphere was the same, which allowed him to treat the audience as NPCs before the game was over.

Noticing Su Ming's expression, the EDG team members all breathed a sigh of relief.

It's not uncommon for some gifted young players to get so nervous off the court that their hands tremble as soon as they step onto the court.

Seeing that Su Ming was truly not under pressure, they felt half relieved.

After the two coaches bumped fists, the members of both teams put their arms around each other's shoulders, formed a circle, and said encouraging words before the match.

The coach of GIA, showing no pressure whatsoever, said with a smile, "EDG is just a lucky team. Their success at the Tokyo Masters was simply due to the lack of research on their rookie players. As long as we play to our potential, we'll win easily!"

EDG only made it to the top six by luck... He said this to the media in a pre-match interview, and he brought it up again to encourage the team members.

Nukkye, the senior player on the GIA team, laughed and said, "CSGO, PUBG... all the FPS games in the past have proven that our European and American FPS level is stronger than Asia's. There's no need to worry, this match will be an easy win!"

It is no coincidence.

After is also an idea.

"Our individual skills are simply superior to theirs! As long as we execute what we've practiced these past few days, they're no match for us! Stay calm! Charge!"

He stretched out his hand, and everyone placed their hands on top of the tower, counting in unison: three, two, one...

"come on!!"

The athletes sat in front of their computers and began warming up at the shooting range, while the coaches started selecting maps for the BP (Browser Draft) phase.

Based on the outcome of the pre-match coin toss game, the winning GIA has the right to choose first.

The first thing to consider when banning characters is the permanent ban chart on both sides.

GIA banned Fission Canyon, and EDG banned Lotus Ancient City.

Subsequently, GIA selected its own strongest map.

——Neon Town.

Any opponent who does a little research will know that EDG is very strong on this map, having never lost in the domestic qualifiers, but GIA clearly doesn't take the wildcard region's matches seriously.

Seeing the opponent's contempt and arrogance, After was secretly annoyed. He sneered and chose to start defensively, then selected the Source City as the map. The opponent also chose to start defensively.

Both sides banned one map they didn't want to play, and the last one left was Deep Sea Pearl. GIA chose to play defensively.

Below the stage, the Los Angeles audience erupted in applause and cheers.

The competition has officially begun.

The lineups of both sides are as follows:

—Zmjjkk, Raven, CHICHOO, Smoggy, Nobody

—Fit1nho, nukkye, rhyme, hoody, and cloud.

-----------------

"Su Shen, what's your opinion on EDG's last-minute coaching change?"

In Huya's livestream room 116864, Su Di read aloud the comments from viewers and replied, "To be honest, based on my years of experience as a coach, making last-minute substitutions rarely ends well, especially when it's the strategist who's replaced, and then a complete newbie who's never played a match before..."

After glancing at the live stream chat filled with "Explosive!", Su Di immediately changed his tune: "However, I did encounter this young player named Raven in ranked matches, and he's really strong. Several streamers thought he was cheating! Everyone can still look forward to his performance."

Just then, a slightly nonchalant and carefree voice came through his earphones.

"You have years of coaching experience? You skipped all your matches for your girlfriend, and you're acting like a professional here."

The person who said this is Danking, a popular streamer on Huya and the top streamer in the CS section.

He is a retired professional player, and some fans used to call him "Asia's No. 1 Sniper".

Danking, with his dyed blond hair and a sexy, childlike physique, chewed gum and launched into a tirade against his former coach: "You're the most unprofessional one, you know that, Karsa! If it weren't for you, I'd have stickers on me by now!"

"You lucky idiot..."

Su Di had a clumsy tongue and could only reply with a muffled voice.

He's transitioning to the Valorant project, so he'll definitely be broadcasting the matches.

Danking has also been playing Wa recently and gets along quite well with EDG's KangKang. They are both following this match and the two are doing a live commentary together.

Knowing he was in the wrong, he didn't dwell on the matter and quickly changed the subject.

"Alright, the pistol round has begun. EDG is on defense, setting up a 4B1A formation..."

On the field.

Package A is empty; only Nobody Skye is collecting information.

Su Ming and Zhang Zhao rode a double platform to B passage, while Kang Kang and Qiu Qiu stood on B2.

The reason for this positioning is quite simple...

"With Rez and Skye as the two vanguards, no one can stand in the elevator building." Nobody commanded, "That's where their lineup is strong, and they'll probably put pressure on the mid lane... If we attack A, I'll give way and we'll switch back to defend. If we attack B, you guys hold on."

In the team voice chat, the group discussed the execution details, and then the countdown ended.

—The light curtain dissipated.

Nobody fired directly, destroying the security camera that the guard outside A was using, and then threw the [Guiding Falcon] towards outside A, creating a very powerful commotion.

The enemy team placed a smoke grenade on the side of the middle lane near B2, and Qiuqiu immediately raised the [Miasma] in the middle lane.

With a sound like the skill "Mountain Collapse and Earth Crash," the enemy stepped into the elevator building.

"Grandpa Badi is amazing!" Qiuqiu exclaimed in praise of Nobody's reading.

"Skye's driving the dog towards B2, I'll take it!"

Kang Kang immediately reported the information.

Su Ming glanced at the minimap. B2 had already fallen, and Kang Qiu and the other man were positioned at the back. He immediately said, "Zhang Zhao, give us a B-channel recovery smoke, and we'll push it out."

"Okay," Zhang Zhao replied immediately.

The commander of the team is only responsible for the general direction and strategic decision-making.

When it comes to the execution phase, it often comes down to the team members' free rein.

So some actions that seem silly to viewers from an omniscient perspective are not actually due to poor command, but rather to poor execution by the team members, which gave the team an opportunity.

Commanders like Boaster, who are meticulous and insist on explaining every single detail, are extremely rare.

Fnc executed their tactics very well, but because the commander had to say so much, the pace of the game was incredibly slow. When they were at a disadvantage, it was like constipation, which was a test of patience for both sides.

Nobody, or rather EDG's overall style, is free and not very disciplined, allowing players to make free moves in specific areas.

Su Ming's pistol team purchased the Ghost + Parade combination, while Zhang Zhao had the Ghost + Three Stars; both weapons were quite good.

After Star Stone retrieves the 'celestial body', it will create a two-second fake smoke effect.

While the fake cigarette was unfolding, Su Ming and Zhang Zhao silently counted to one second before pulling it out together!

Suddenly, a shadowy figure appeared in their field of vision, wielding a standard-issue weapon.

Two Ghostly weapons fired, and the Shadow was instantly killed.

"Huh?" Nukkye frowned. He was rushing back to the middle lane from the sewers, preparing to flank B with his teammates from B2.

Did the main cigarette fall when we were only halfway there?

EDG reacted so quickly? And played so proactively?

This is different from the video... According to their research, EDG is more inclined to group up in the bomb site and provide cover fire for each other.

"Speed ​​up! Don't change their positions!"

Cloud, the commander of GIA, immediately spoke.

Without smoke, if the enemy moves to a position that normally requires smoke to cover and holds a position, there's no way to fight back.

Taking a direct and aggressive approach might actually offer a glimmer of hope!

GIA immediately organized the bombs, and Iron Wall placed cannons at the stairs to prevent the other side from pulling them out. Then, two Vanguard items were thrown out from B2.

[Flashpoint Devastation] + [Guiding Falcon]

For a moment, yellow and green lights flashed alternately.

nukkye Ryze, with two consecutive bombs, jumped into the point and fired the standard three-shot combo, taking down Qiuqiu's head in mid-air.

However, the impact of the Shadow's first death was still too great. Without pushing the black, the props could not achieve full coverage. Su Ming and Zhang Zhao pulled out from the left side of the B-site pillar and finished off the bomb girl.

Su Ming threw the "Float Parade" to the right of the pillar and threw a grenade to the left, making the arena even more chaotic and distracting the enemy.

"right!"

Zhang Zhao enjoyed the pleasure of clearing his mind and completely obeyed commands, pulling Su Ming and Su Ming towards the right side of the pillar.

The two unleashed their full firepower, abruptly stopping their position and firing rapidly, eliminating three enemy soldiers.

Kang Kang pulled him out from the stairs at the right moment, and pinned him down on the B2 floor with precise precision!

1 for 5!

Nobody, who was still cutting his knife and rushing back to defend, immediately grinned and showed his signature silly smile.

"Nice, guys, great gun!!!"