The Bomb! You're Not Even at Terrorist Base-Where Are You Hiding?

It was a 4v5 clutch, and the pressure was back on the Counter-Terrorists.

"Watch mid for me. I'm holding the cross from A Short." After speaking, Calyx glanced at imoRR at Elevator. "Tell me if you hear anything. I'll throw s1mple's smoke."

But Fnatic had taken A Main and smoked off CT Base, and they didn't choose to speed up right away. Instead, they crept toward A Site, careful not to give the CTs any information.

Fnatic's silent approach clearly caught Eternal Fire off guard.

By the time Calyx realized the Terrorists had reached A Site, he was already a beat too late with his Smoke Grenade.

Before the smoke had fully bloomed, ALEX spotted Calyx as he pushed up the slope.

"Rat-tat."

Bullets flew. Thanks to the glimpse of Calyx's outline before the smoke bloomed, ALEX's two AK bullets caught him while he was still hiding in the smoke.

Then a fire grenade at A Short completely cut off the CTs' route back from A Short.

With Calyx dead, the CTs had lost nearly all their defensive angles. The remaining Eternal Fire players had no choice but to Save Guns.

5–0!

Over the next few rounds, Eternal Fire's players fell further and further out of form.

Within the first minute of each round, the CTs were almost forced to give up every forward angle and defend around A and B Site.

Qin Feng's Sniper Rifle was putting far too much pressure on them.

After picking up a Sniper Rifle, woxic had tried holding A Short directly, but he was almost always forced off his angle by flashes and smoke.

When he tried to REPEEK, Qin Feng was already holding the angle and naturally gave woxic no chance to fire.

After the first ten rounds of the half, the score had reached 9–1.

Although Qin Feng wasn't leading the team in stats, the AWP in his hands was putting unparalleled pressure on Eternal Fire.

Every time the Counter-Terrorists tried to retake an advantageous angle, they were ruthlessly punished by Qin Feng's Sniper Rifle.

The CTs holding the Bomb Sites were left isolated and helpless, unable to deal with Fnatic's explosive execute.

"This isn't working." woxic gritted his teeth. "We can't defend if we let them control the map like this. Their AWPer is too good at holding angles."

XANTARES nodded in agreement. "Let's use utility to push up through mid. Playing like this is way too passive."

As they talked, the eleventh round began.

Aside from one player scouting A Main and one CT heading to B, the rest of Eternal Fire chose to push up through mid.

Perhaps because they'd been winning rounds in a row, ALEX, who had been clearing B Lower Floor, seemed to have let his guard down. XANTARES pushed up to B1 and caught him with a headshot.

"Careful, they pushed B Lower Floor," ALEX reminded his teammates, sounding annoyed.

They'd started with a standard 4A1B setup. He should've taken a safer position.

"Yeah." Qin Feng nodded, threw his utility, then held toward mid.

To avoid getting caught by a wide swing from the pushing CTs, Qin Feng held his Sniper Rifle a little farther from the wall.

But he hadn't expected woxic to push up with an AWP.

[Eternal Fire.woxic killed Fnatic.Aether with an AWP]

The three remaining Fnatic players had taken A Main, but XANTARES had already cleared out B.

With their attack direction revealed, the three Terrorists naturally failed to win the 3v5 clutch.

The score moved to 9–2.

Over the next few rounds, Eternal Fire seemed to find a way to break through.

They disrupted Fnatic's attack by pushing up at the start of the round and trading kills.

Although Qin Feng's Sniper Rifle often caught one of the pushing CTs over the next few rounds, the other Fnatic players clearly hadn't adapted to Eternal Fire's sudden change of pace.

The teams traded rounds, and the first half ended with the score at 11–4.

After a brief halftime break, Eternal Fire and Fnatic switched sides.

The Terrorists took a simple dry peek through A Short and headshot the defenders at CT Base and A Main.

As for Qin Feng, rotating back from B, the crossfire and quick trades from the Terrorists meant he could only just manage to trade out woxic in the alley.

The score naturally moved to 11–5.

Eternal Fire didn't want to give up this hard-won chance. They took Fnatic's Gun Round and ECO in succession, closing the gap to 11–7.

Since Qin Feng hadn't forced with his teammates after losing the Pistol Round, he now had a Sniper Rifle in hand.

That Sniper Rifle became Eternal Fire's absolute nightmare.

No matter how elite a rifler was, it was always difficult to gain an advantage in a duel against a top-tier AWPer.

Even XANTARES.

And he was up against Qin Feng, who never let his guard down, no matter how long he'd held an angle.

The rest of Fnatic had also found their form.

Once Fnatic had rifles, Eternal Fire couldn't find another round. They lost the first map 7–16.

After a short break, the teams moved on to Inferno, Fnatic's map pick.

Unexpectedly, Eternal Fire chose to start on the Terrorist side, just like Fnatic.

But Fnatic carried their hot form over from the previous map. After winning the Pistol Round, they took the score straight to 3–0.

The fourth round began—the first Gun Round of the match.

Eternal Fire didn't choose to hold angles by default with their weapon advantage, nor did they use utility to launch an execute.

Instead, they seemed to be playing separately, each one looking for a CT to duel across the map.

In less than a minute, Eternal Fire found themselves in a 2v4 clutch.

"Is Eternal Fire crazy?" ALEX said in surprise, clicking his tongue as he hid near the tree on Banana Alley.

Were Eternal Fire just handing them free rounds and giving them easy practice in their gunfights?

But not long after ALEX said that, messages began popping up in the in-game chat again.

Eternal Fire.ImoRR: .pause!

Eternal Fire.Calyx: Can't find the bomb.

The game was paused by a PGL administrator.

"What? Why did the game suddenly pause?"

"Did a player disconnect?"

Wan Ji Qi couldn't see the players' in-game chat, so he opened the tournament organizer's official social media account.

"Oh, let's take a look. It seems an Eternal Fire player reported a bug in the game."

"The bomb has disappeared from the map, and they can't find it. They're discussing with the tournament staff whether to restart the round."

"According to the official announcement, the tournament observer had already warned them about the bomb at the start of the round, but it seems several Eternal Fire players didn't see the message."

"The organizer and both teams are still discussing it."

[The bomb! You're not even at Terrorist Base—where are you hiding?]

[They didn't pause when they couldn't find the bomb, but now they're pausing in a 2v4?]

[Wild, irresponsible guess: if Eternal Fire had killed everyone, they wouldn't have paused.]

[Holy crap, Aether's playing so well right now. What's with this pause?]