May 9. Clear skies for ten thousand li.
The Antwerp Major officially began.
The first match:
TL versus Eternal Fire!
The two sides fought a grueling thirty rounds, and in the end TL edged out Eternal Fire 16:14.
The second match was Vitality versus COL.
That one was purely a crushing game of numerical superiority.
The map pick was Inferno, and Vitality went straight to a 16:1. As for the single point their opponents took, there might even have been an element of fatherly love in it.
There was nothing to be done. This was CS, with its rigid hierarchy.
Even if these second-tier teams made it through the RMR into the Challenger Stage, they would often be kicked to the roadside by the true first-tier powerhouses.
Stories of the lower defeating the higher were still far too rare in professional CS.
After that match ended, next up was the European samurai G2 against EG, rebuilt around the North American C9 championship iron triangle.
Backstage, in the EG lounge.
“G2 is a bit troublesome,” EG coach Vorborg said, drawing in a breath.
Although G2’s results this year had not been great, they had no shortage of star players.
There was no need to mention the elder of the Bosnian twin stars, and the younger was practically the longest river among riflers. The team also had NAVI Junior’s genius AWPer, the Prince.
Add little Li to that,
and the lineup was still very luxurious.
“No problem.”
2K smiled confidently. “There’s an old saying in China: when picking persimmons, choose the soft ones to squeeze. If they want to blame someone, blame themselves for picking up that piece of trash. Then we don’t need to be polite either.”
Autimatic from the C9 clique, a rifler and secondary AWPer, said without hesitation, “2K is right. That guy is our breakthrough point. His map pool is too shallow.”
“How shallow?”
“Remove Dust2, and we can play anything.”
“Hahahahaha!”
The EG lounge was instantly filled with a cheerful atmosphere.
At the same time, in the G2 lounge next door.
There were five minutes left before they went onstage. The G2 players gathered in a circle, stretching out their right hands and stacking them in the middle, heads pressed close together.
Coach XTQZZZ was giving a rapid-fire pre-match rallying speech.
In the corner, G2’s accompanying staff had set up a camera and continued filming the vlog.
“Boys! The match is about to begin!”
“No matter where we are! No matter who the opponent is, no matter what the format is! Let’s go all out from the start!”
“I want you to maintain good communication and a good tempo! Keep your minds sharp, make the right decisions quickly, and achieve our goal!”
“Remember! It is a team that wins a championship! Not one player!”
“So, brothers, let’s play with good teamwork! Everything we do in the match is as one!”
“All right! Time to go on! LetGoG2!”
At that, everyone pressed down hard with their right hands.
“Let’s fucking go!!!”
The pre-match huddle ended, and his teammates laughed and chatted as they picked up their peripheral bags, preparing to head out.
At that moment, however, Meng Lang suddenly took out a bandage. Lowering his head, he began wrapping it around his right hand, circle after circle, until the extremely thin and flexible bandage fit perfectly to the contours of his hand.
When he was done, he moved his wrist and glanced at the system panel.
[Time-Lag Anti-Entropy Bandage—while the bandage is wrapped, it can completely suppress the host’s hand injury, and slowly reverse and heal it until full recovery. (Progress: 86.7%)]
Soon, soon!
The seal would be lifted any moment now!
Meng Lang thought to himself.
But little Li and the others were stunned at the sight!
“No, bro! You’re wearing a bandage even for a match?”
The kid could not help asking.
“What’s wrong?”
Meng Lang turned his head and asked in confusion, “Is it not allowed in matches?”
“...” Everyone was speechless.
That was not the issue of whether it was allowed or not!
What pro player wore a bandage while playing an official match?
Was he going into battle wounded?
“Not really,” the kid said with a dry laugh. He could not help asking, “I’m just curious. Doesn’t that affect your mechanics?”
“It doesn’t affect them at all. It even improves them,” Meng Lang said seriously.
Fine, then!
No one believed him in their hearts.
But thinking back to Meng Lang’s trial at the G2 club base, when he had also been wearing a bandage and still put up an extremely eye-catching performance, they simply let him be. It was not unacceptable for a professional player to have a few quirks in competition.
Winning was the only truth!
Although the Antwerp Major Challenger Stage matches were held offline, they were not open to spectators. Instead, they were played behind closed doors in an offline studio.
Only later in the event, once it entered a large arena, would spectators be allowed in.
Douyu, livestream room 6657.
“It’s here, it’s here! Finally, my favorite G2 match!”
“Sisters, assemble! Sisters, assemble!”
“I came to watch Nini and Haihai’s match right after work without even taking off my makeup. Any sisters the same? Waiting!”
“Any sisters like me who don’t understand what 61b is playing at all and only came in to ship Nini and Haihai? Waiting!”
“Stop fucking waiting! When you squat down, you’re bigger than me!”
“...”
“No, am I really the only one who came tonight to watch that Dark bastard?”
“Same! I like Nini and Heihei! Shortened to Ni-Hei!”
“Machine, Machine! I haven’t heard Brother Xia’s third-floor fun story in a whole minute! Can you tell it again?”
“If you want fun stories, get the hell out! Don’t you know 6657 is CN’s biggest NIKO Fans CLUB?”
“Where’s Jijizi? After the Vitality match just now, he said he was going to the bathroom to wash his face. Where did he wash off to?”
“...”
Colorful bullet comments were flooding through 6657.
Suddenly, a man’s voice came through the livestream.
“Holy shit! Is it on? Thank god, thank god! I thought we were going to miss the pistol round again.”
“Oh right, brothers, something funny just happened.”
“I went to the bathroom to wash my face, but then my stomach suddenly hurt, so I took a big dump.”
“At that moment, I suddenly thought: oh no! Dark’s G2 debut tonight isn’t also going to dump a big one on us, is it?”
“Holy shit, brothers, I’m a little nervous.”
It had to be said, Wanjiqi really had something.
With one sentence, he turned 6657 into a livestream with a smell. The bullet comments all started spamming vomiting emojis.
Just then, the broadcast camera cut to the match venue.
In the studio, the players were logging into the server, and everyone from G2 and EG appeared on camera one after another.
When the camera landed on them, the players all raised their hands to greet the audience!
“The Prince is so damn handsome!”
“Little Li looks in good form today too!”
“Holy shit! Ni!”
“Young Master Ni really gets more flavorful the older he gets!”
“Where’s that Dark bastard? Playing against his old club today, isn’t he nervous as hell?”
“...”
Jianghai University, boys’ dormitory.
Li Shan frowned as he watched the livestream full of Nini and Haihai bullet comments.
There were too many fans of star players on a team like this. Although Meng Lang was a CN player, not many people in the livestream actually cared about him.
But today, for some reason, Li Shan did care a little.
In fact, as someone with a level-30 badge in the 6657 livestream room, he would have joined the trend and spammed Nini and Haihai in the past too.
But perhaps because he had accidentally looked up Meng Lang’s past and his growth journey last time, he suddenly really wanted to know what kind of state this CN prodigy, who had gone alone to Europe and North America, was in now after all the recent ups and downs.
“Fuck, stupid-ass director, stop staring at the star players!” Seeing the broadcast camera constantly move back and forth between the kid, Niko, and the others, a trace of irritation surfaced in Li Shan’s heart that even he did not notice, and he could not help cursing.
The next second, his brows lifted in joy.
The broadcast camera finally landed on an Eastern youth with handsome brows and eyes. He had slightly long, tousled hair, and beneath his team jersey were muscular lines full of strength.
On screen, the youth turned his head and glanced at the camera, his eyes bright and clear.
Of course,
that was not the main point.
The main point was,
there was not the slightest trace of nervousness on Meng Lang’s face as he was about to face his old club,
nor any solemnity before a major tournament.
No one knew what he said to Niko beside him, but old Ni laughed until he was practically shrimp paste, while Meng Lang himself kept laughing too.
The atmosphere was completely relaxed!
Across the studio, at EG’s competition seats, EG’s in-game leader, Banana Man 2K, seemed to sense something.
He raised his head and looked expressionlessly at the smiling Meng Lang. When he lowered his head again, his expression had turned somewhat gloomy.
“You like laughing?”
“Fine. Then I’ll beat you until you can’t laugh.”
But just then, 2K’s gaze swept over inadvertently, and he suddenly saw Meng Lang’s right hand. His expression could not help freezing slightly.
Was that the aftereffect of that punch?
Serves you right!!!
That’s what you get for fucking showing off!
Acting like you were trying so damn hard!
Pfft!
The gloating 2K burst out laughing!!!
At the same time, the broadcast director also seemed to have finally discovered the key point!
A close-up immediately appeared on the big screen!
Meng Lang’s right hand, wrapped in bandages, finally appeared on camera.
???
What the hell?
Playing the Major with a bandaged hand?
Did G2 pick up an injured man?
In an instant, Major livestream rooms across every major platform in the world all exploded!