Although the problems exposed during the training camp are a bit tricky, this training camp still gained something for Tianlu, that is, they practiced the NUKE map.

Although it is not said that they can practice Nuke as well as those teams that have played for several years, at least Tianlu has already understood some of the basic routines on this map. At least when facing teams that are not unique, they can do nothing.

At the same time, because of Zhao Yiyang's "foresight", while gradually training nuke, Tianlu also made some adjustments to the priority of other map pools. The cache that will be removed from the map pool will not be used as the focus of team training, but it will not be the same as the castle at the beginning of the year. It is just that the training time placed on the cache is spent on the two maps of Nuke and Overpass.

...

The training period passes very quickly, mainly because the players do not have much time of their own during this period. They review the game every day after training. After reviewing, they will take a break directly. If they are not tired, they will continue to play FPL. Anyway, they are not allowed to play other games.

Zhao Yiyang didn't have much time to play FPL during this period, mainly because he would fly some time to videotape with Zhao Xiaojia.

People say that love is an opportunity for the strong to become weak, but it also varies from person to person. For most competitive players, in fact, the impact of dating on them is completely within the controllable range. Most of the well-known situations of decline due to love are basically because the players themselves are immersed in the land of gentleness, go out for dates with their girlfriends or do some further actions.

However, this problem cannot affect Zhao Yiyang, because he has no chance to be kind to his girlfriend and spends most of his time flying around the world to play competitions.

On the contrary, chatting with your beloved after the intense training will also help Zhao Yiyang relieve the stress by himself.

In a blink of an eye, it was early July. On the first day of July, Tianlu boarded the plane from Kiev to Cologne.

Cologne is located on the banks of the Rhine River. It is the fourth largest city in Germany, and it is also a historical and cultural city and a heavy industrial city in Germany.

Unlike other cities, Cologne can be said to be a better city that combines modernity and history. In the entire city, you can not only see rows of tall buildings and feel the strong atmosphere of modernity and prosperity, but also see the Gothic double towers of Cologne Cathedral, which makes people feel that history and modernity are intertwined.

For young people, this city is also a game capital. Since 2009, around August every year, there will be a exhibition of the largest, most authoritative and professional comprehensive interactive game software, information software and hardware equipment in Europe. It is also known as the world's three major interactive entertainment exhibitions, as well as the E3 game exhibition in Japan.

At the same time, the Cologne Game Exhibition is also the only large-scale international exhibition in Germany that integrates game software, hardware, entertainment equipment, information software and equipment. Every year, a large number of software and hardware manufacturers participate in the exhibition, which is the main platform for game manufacturers to exchange information with European players and media.

For all CSGO players, Cologne is also a holy place for this professional game event.

Since five years ago, Cologne has become one of the hosting sites of the ESL One event. With the professionalism and scale of the event, today, Cologne has become the world's top offline competition like IEM Cato and Major events.

Here, not only is the total prize pool of 1 million US dollars waiting for the players to chase, but also the unified participation of the world's strongest team. For example, in Cologne in 2018, among the 16 participating teams, twelve of the world's top thirteen teams came, and the remaining four places were G2 after the reorganization. They were directly invited because of their pretty good results in the ESL competition in the first half of the year. In addition, there is also the German team Big, which is the strength of this team ranked 22nd in the world. In Zhao Yiyang's impression, this German team also passed the hurdles in this competition, reached the finals, and became a dark horse.

The remaining two teams are the Polish Board ENce team, which is already the complete team of the dark horse in the future. There are not only veterans like Allu, but also talented young men like Sergej. It can be said that ence's growth path began in Cologne.

The last team is a bit unfavorable than other teams. Originally, ESL only gave one spot in Asia, but because Tianlu's performance in the first half of the year was really good, ESL official directly gave Tianlu the invitation slot.

Since Tianlu got an invitation quota, the organizer decided to give Asia a pre-selected quota after repeated considerations, which is also for the promotion of the ESL event system in Asia.

In the end, BOOT-d[S] from Singapore successfully qualified in the qualifiers in the Asian region.

...

Because this year's Cologne is not a major, it still uses the traditional ESL competition system, that is, the 16 teams are divided into two groups, and the double-loss competition system is adopted in the group. Finally, the six teams are decided to enter the top six directly.

According to the draw before the game, Tianlu was assigned to Group A, and the teams in the same group also include Astralis, EnIP, MOUZ, navi, C9 and G2.

Judging from the team distribution, Tianlu wants to win three qualifying places in the group, and his main opponents are Team A, Mouse and Navi.

If this was the grouping situation seen a month ago, Tianlu was more confident to get a qualifying place, but after the training camp in Europe, their confidence in this competition was not so strong.

"Damn, why is Cologne the top six knockout matches!"

It was obviously an event of the same level as Kato, but Kato was the first gambler, and when he arrived in Cologne, he became the top six knockout match, which made the already guilty Tianlu players feel as if they were targeted.

"Hey, we don't know what the organizer thinks!"

In fact, Zhao Yiyang has always not understood the choices of some organizers for the competition system. In fact, compared with other e-sports events, the competition system of CSSGO is really weird.

Not to mention the major's Swiss round system, it is a single knockout match with 16 teams playing 6 teams. In Zhao Yiyang's opinion, he doesn't know how to use popularity.

For example, the major event in dota2 has been a double defeat from the group stage, until the knockout stage, or a double defeat.

Or Lol's S match is also divided into group stages, but they also play in the quarterfinals singles.

The organizer may think that the five offline knockout matches are easier to attract the enthusiasm of the audience offline, but Zhao Yiyang really thinks that seven offline games are a better experience.
Chapter completed!