May 11.
Antwerp, cloudy turning to sunny.
At noon, the G2 members had a simple buffet at the hotel, then shouldered their respective gear bags and boarded the business van heading to the tournament studio.
Before getting in the van, Meng Lang opened his phone and glanced at his Weibo.
After defeating Liquid yesterday, his Weibo had gained another ten-thousand-plus followers. Now he had exactly seventy thousand followers.
Why seven?
That wasn't important.
But the more followers he had, the more anti-fans he naturally attracted.
There was a Vitality fan, [Shenru Da Liegu], who had @'d him in the comment section of his previous Weibo post, asking whether there would be sweat or urine in his pants after today's match against Vitality?
Meng Lang hadn't wanted to respond.
But considering that every little hater was a source of emotion-converted Goat points—without them, there would be no nightly simulated training sessions.
Especially after spending four thousand to unlock the new map Inferno last night, plus another thousand consumed by training, his Goat points were down to just over nine hundred.
Meng Lang thought about it, the corner of his mouth quirking up, and edited a reply:
"—@Shenru Da Liegu, thanks for the concern, but I'm actually fine. I've already started researching Legend Stage opponents recently."
The moment this comment was posted, many people who followed Meng Lang's Weibo received notifications.
Holy shit?
Acting like this?!
In an instant, the Weibo comment section exploded!
Meng Lang simply smiled easily, put away his phone, hid his merits and name, and turned to get in the van.
The atmosphere inside the G2 van wasn't particularly tense, but it carried the focus that came before a major match.
For the first BO3 showdown of this Antwerp Major, when they left the hotel today, NiKo and the others were all holding the "little pink juice" they often drank during matches.
Only the side pocket of Meng Lang's backpack held a bottle of eerily colored "little green juice"—this was precisely the [Beginner Energy Potion] he had obtained from the system's newbie gift pack.
The description stated it could quickly replenish energy and repair physical exhaustion. Supposedly it could also drop from mission treasure chests, but he had never obtained one that way.
Considering that today they might have to fight a grueling battle across three maps, he simply mixed the potion into a bottle of purified water, creating this exclusive special drink.
On the road to the studio.
m0NESY looked at the energetic, bright-eyed Meng Lang beside him, who showed absolutely no signs of staying up late, and couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement. "Bro, you practiced until so late last night, yet you're still so energetic today? Your stamina is way too insane, right?"
Meng Lang turned to look at m0NESY and discovered there were actually two faint dark circles under his eyes. He couldn't help but chuckle, lowering his voice to ask, "Ilya... rewarded yourself last night?"
m0NESY was stunned for a moment, then reacted, his face flushing slightly as he punched Meng Lang without any real anger. "Screw you! I never... mm, I rarely reward myself!"
Meng Lang nodded, seamlessly changing topics. "Got it. Anyway, how about it? You got confidence to execute the opponent's AWPer today?"
Unexpectedly, the moment these words came out, m0NESY's expression instantly shifted, a hint of imperceptible pressure flashing across his face.
After all, the opponent's main AWPer was that ZywOo called the "Executive Vice-GOAT."
How could he not feel pressure?
NiKo, who had been smiling as he listened to their conversation from the side, couldn't help but smile and pat m0NESY's shoulder.
"Don't put too much pressure on yourself. Vitality's roster looks luxurious; anyone you pick out is a Major champion. But in the first half of this year, they didn't even make playoffs at ESL and Katowice. They're about on our level, still adjusting to each other. Get your mental state right, and our chances of winning today are very high."
After comforting m0NESY, NiKo turned his head to look at Meng Lang, whose face was completely relaxed and even carried a trace of a smile at the corner of his mouth. He couldn't help but blink as he asked:
"Bro, what about you? You're seriously not nervous at all?"
He had wanted to ask this for a long time.
This guy Meng Lang seemed born different from others. The bigger the match, the more crucial the occasion, the more composed he appeared.
In yesterday's and the day before yesterday's matches, even when the team was temporarily behind, he could always step up and attempt to break the deadlock.
His mental fortitude was shockingly good—simply a born "big-match hardfoot crab."
NiKo himself had played professionally for so many years and deeply understood how precious this mentality was; he even felt a bit envious. He himself often overthought during crucial rounds.
Then transformed into a soft-footed shrimp.
At this moment, hearing NiKo's words, Meng Lang somewhat strangely countered, "Why should I be nervous?"
m0NESY, who was still conflicted beside him, couldn't help but cut in. "We're playing Vitality! The other side is Vitality! So many Major champions! That ZywOo..."
"Wait." Meng Lang interrupted him, his tone calm and candid, that somewhat heartless grin still hanging on his face. "But everything I can do, all the preparations that can be made, I've already finished. What's left is just going up to play, isn't it?"
These words stunned NiKo and m0NESY for a moment. If you finish all the preparations you can do, you won't be nervous?
This way of thinking sounded somewhat reasonable, but how could it actually be that simple?
Easier said than done!
Yet looking into Meng Lang's clear and focused eyes, there seemed to be only anticipation for the upcoming match, without the slightest fear of a strong opponent or anxiety about the result.
For a moment, NiKo and m0NESY had to admit that this teammate from the East possessed a "purity" rarely seen and precious in the professional scene.
A purity that only concerned the match itself, only focused on doing his own part well.
The van drove smoothly. The Antwerp streetscape outside the window continuously receded, the tournament studio already visible in the distance.
Douyu, Room 6657.
The match hadn't started, and Wan Jiqi had already gone live early.
Today's match between Vitality and G2 was undoubtedly the focus of the Challengers Stage. The stream room with 6.5 million popularity had directly reached 100,000 VIPs, and the bullet comments were filled as usual with countless trolls running wild.
"Baguette stuffed into the Great Rift Valley, I am Vitality's Big Sweet Potato!"
"ZywOo: Bro, can you let me advance to the Legend Stage today? Shrimp Bro: Since you're calling me bro, what else is there to say? Just take that Legend Stage spot."
"Boohoo! Shrimp Bro is so real for that!"
"Wan Jiqi, tell us the truth, can you be a neutral caster today?"
"Holy shit bro! Is Play God not neutral? Caster neutral, gender neutral, sexual orientation neutral—just not very neutral in the brain!"
"Bowl Chef: Can't be neutral at all. If G2 wins, I can cash in on Love Ni airplanes. If Vitality wins, I can only get Love Zy glow sticks. Neutral my ass!"
"Really miss when Play God was a small streamer. He'd get a few glow sticks and pretend to be hot, undoing a button on his shirt."
"Nobody following that Dark bastard's Weibo? This asshole said he's already researching Legend Stage opponents!"
"?????"
"."
In the stream room, Wan Jiqi finished the takeout his feeder Hebei Yu Jie had ordered, plopped down in front of his computer, and undid a button on his belly.
He let out a burp, looked at the bullet comments, and said calmly, "Alright audience friends, this is Room 6657. I am Wan Jiqi Ma Xing. Coming up next is the first BO3 advancement match of this Antwerp Major, G2 versus Vitality. The winning team can advance directly to the Legend Stage."
"There are bullet comments asking who can win?"
"Who will win? Do you even need to ask? It's definitely whoever can stay hard at the end that wins. I'm really not trolling—a BO3 is just like this. You can't say you carried two maps, lost one and won one, then went soft on the last map. You definitely can't win like that."
"There are also comments asking who is harder?"
"On Vitality's side, Big Sweet Potato needs no introduction—that's stable hardness. On G2's side, who's soft I won't say, but right now I'll mention one person: Dark! Have you guys noticed that when it's time to be hard, this person is really, really hard? He never accepts defeat in crucial rounds."
"So if we're really talking about which side has a higher chance of winning today, I can only say both teams are composed of star players and former Major champions. It just depends on which side has more players who can channel their peak god-mode selves at crucial moments, right?"
"."
Wan Jiqi opened with a half-joking spiel.
On both sides of the studio. After the G2 and Vitality players took their positions and finished adjusting their setups, the two sides flipped a coin, and Vitality obtained the right to ban first.
For the first map, Vitality banned Ancient.
G2 didn't hesitate either. They immediately removed Vertigo as well.
Vitality's Vertigo and Dust II were two well-known strong maps for them.
Next it was Vitality's turn to first-pick.
Inferno!
"Here it comes! Inferno!"
Wan Jiqi smiled and said upon seeing this, "Looks like Vitality did their homework. They know that although G2 won on Inferno against Liquid, it's actually a pseudo-strong map. So what does G2 say?"
"Nuke? Huh? G2 actively picked Nuke?"
"Eh, actually it's not impossible. I heard since the first half of this year that G2 has been practicing Nuke. Now although they have a newcomer, Dark should be replacing Jackz on Squeaky. This position is pretty easy to adapt to, so this Nuke pick is fine too."
Next, both sides banned one more map each.
G2 removed Overpass. Vitality removed Mirage.
One map remained: Dust II. The draft concluded.
Map 1: Inferno
Map 2: Nuke
Map 3: Dust II
On Vitality's side of the stage, the atmosphere appeared quite relaxed.
Seeing that the opponent had actually not banned Inferno, apEX leaned back in his gaming chair and exchanged a smile with Magisk beside him, his face carrying a playful expression of "just as planned."
"Looks like they really don't know how terrible their performance on Inferno has been," apEX said to his teammates with a smile, his tone full of confidence. "Including that newcomer on their team, Dark. Yesterday against Liquid, his Inferno stats looked very impressive, but that's because Liquid's offensive defaults were completely read by Aleksib. His personal details and positioning choices on that map actually have huge problems."
Magisk nodded along very supportively:
"Yeah, as long as we do our early-round defaults well, we can easily find breakthroughs."
apEX spread his hands, made a "done" gesture, his smile growing even brighter.
"Brothers, play a good opening, take map one, and the pressure moves to their side."
dupreeh also chimed in with a smile: "Maybe we won't even need to play map three Dust II. We can end the fight directly on Nuke."
Although Nuke was G2's pick, how could dupreeh, a rifler from peak Astralis, not know Nuke? He had always been very confident in his performance on Nuke.
Even ZywOo, who usually didn't talk much, smiled slightly with pursed lips.
The few of them chatted easily, their tones full of confidence to win the upcoming map one, as the warmup countdown quietly ticked away in an optimistic atmosphere.
Soon, map one Inferno began.
First half.
G2 versus Vitality!
T: apEX, ZywOo, dupreeh, Magisk, Misutaaa
CT: NiKo, huNter, m0NESY, Aleksib, Dark!
Pistol round—!