Do you understand the value of a sniper?

"Fuck, what does this mean?" ALEX frowned, looking at the game interface that had entered a pause.

As a player participating in the competition, ALEX had naturally read the complete PGL competition rules before participating.

Theoretically, players were not allowed to backtrack after dealing damage in the game.

Now Eternal Fire was saying their bomb was lost.

Did they not notice their bomb was missing from the start?

"What do we do now?" mezii glanced at ALEX beside him and picked up a banana to eat.

"According to the organizer's principles, backtracking is not allowed, but if we agree, we might be able to backtrack." ALEX frowned.

KRIMZ casually said, "Whatever you guys say. If we backtrack, we backtrack. We're in the zone."

Not only did the Fnatic players think this way, but even the commentators and the audience held the same idea.

Including the previous map, DUST2, Fnatic had already won 8 consecutive rounds.

In these 8 rounds, the Eternal Fire players hadn't even seen what the bomb site looked like once.

Even if they backtracked, it would only give Eternal Fire a chance to prolong their agony.

But no one expected that this match would be met with an incredibly long pause.

"What does the organizer mean by this?"

Wan Ji Qi, looking at the paused game screen, chatted with the audience out of boredom.

"Logically speaking, even if they backtrack, both sides shouldn't be discussing for so long."

"Losing the bomb should be an extremely rare event, and there's no need to worry about it affecting the subsequent match."

No one knew that this sudden pause lasted for a full 30 minutes.

Wan Ji Qi even took the time to watch a Bilibili video of someone dancing.

After 30 minutes, the match was finally announced to continue by the official PGL referee.

"Phew... is the match finally going to start?" Seeing a private message from a viewer, Wan Ji Qi switched from the dance video section to the PGL clean stream. "Let's take a look. The current score is 3-0, and Eternal Fire still has five full buys."

"So Fnatic finally agreed to backtrack."

"But for some reason, the game was paused for a full thirty minutes."

"Except for Aether, most of Fnatic's players are veterans who have been in many battles. I don't know if this long pause will affect their feel and mentality."

Wan Ji Qi's worry was also the worry of many viewers in the live stream chat.

[Seriously, can they not be disgusting? They drag it out for half a day to cool down our feel, and then deduct points. I used to like Eternal Fire, but now...]

[What's wrong with backtracking? Professional players are here to win matches. Isn't it normal to backtrack when there's a bug?]

[Backtracking is pretty normal, but the problem is that Fnatic agreed to backtrack and it was still paused for half an hour. Aren't the audience's time valuable?]

In fact, Qin Feng didn't have much of a negative reaction to Eternal Fire's actions.

It was a perfectly understandable action for a professional team to report a bug to the referee.

However, delaying the match for a full half hour did make him a little displeased.

"Aether, isn't your position a bit too aggressive?" ALEX asked hesitantly as Qin Feng, who was asking for a smoke grenade and a flashbang, approached him.

Although the coach had promised Qin Feng the right to choose his own position for sneaky kills, the risk of using a sniper rifle to peek from Banana was too great.

If he missed a shot, he could easily be killed by Terrorists from further back.

Not to mention the utility he would face from the enemy's approach.

"No," Qin Feng said, stepping on the wooden barrel and moving to the gap in the wooden plank. Under the white screen, he instinctively pulled the AWP's trigger.

"Bang."

[Fnatic.Aether used AWP to kill Eternal Fire.ImoRR with a headshot]

Retreating to the safe spot on the B site, Qin Feng continued to answer ALEX's question:

"I just want to tell Eternal Fire that the points we should get are ultimately ours."

Momentum is one of the key factors that determine victory in the game.

Perhaps Eternal Fire really didn't know how to break through Fnatic's dual sniper defense, or perhaps Fnatic's mentality had already adjusted.

Throughout the first half, Fnatic didn't give Eternal Fire many opportunities to score.

The only point Eternal Fire managed to get was when XANTARES, in the middle of A1, made two unreasonable PEEKs, directly taking down poizon's AWP in Connector and ALEX's M4 in Study.

However, that was all.

After the map switch, Fnatic gave Eternal Fire no chance to catch up.

First, a RUSH through B site's Banana shattered the B site's defense, securing the pistol round. Then, a default setup with five full buys directly neutralized Eternal Fire's forward push.

16-1, the overall score was locked at 2-0, and Fnatic advanced to the 2-2 group of the European Minor Qualifier for the Major.

If Fnatic wins one more BO3 match, they will directly qualify for the PGL Major Antwerp Challengers Stage.

April 20th.

The final round of the PGL Major Antwerp Qualifiers, Group A.

Fnatic faces the European squad OG, led by the gambling god nexa.

The map bans and picks were quickly completed.

OG banned Nuke and chose Vertigo.

Fnatic banned Ancient and chose Overpass.

The final reserved pick was Mirage.

Before the match began, OG's coach ruggah paced back and forth behind the OG players, constantly looking at the data provided by the analyst, seemingly contemplating something.

Finally, ruggah gritted his teeth and walked up to the team's sniper, mantuu.

"mantuu, be careful, the opposing sniper is a bit weird."

"That Chinese prodigy, Aether."

"After playing so many matches, his Rating is still around 1.5."

"And the analyst also pointed out a problem: his holding angles with the sniper rifle are incredibly fast, as if he never gets distracted."

"Try not to re-peek his sniper shots as much as possible."

mantuu smiled dismissively.

"Got it, coach."

mantuu naturally didn't take the coach's words too seriously.

Who were the snipers he had played with before OG?

Navi's sniper, Mouz's sniper, forze's sniper.

And who did Aether crush on the opposing teams?

Eternal Fire, GL's sniper.

Do you even understand the prestige of a sniper?

As an esports player from the UK, mantuu naturally knew the level of his compatriots mezii and ALEX.

Could they beat OG?

No!

They didn't have the skill, understand!

Seeing mantuu nod, coach ruggah was relieved.

Though both were in the 2-2 group, there were still differences.

The matches OG lost were to the strong Navi and a well-performing forze.

Fnatic's losses, however, were to a mediocre Heroic and the unknown SAW.

Not to mention, the favored team to qualify, Mouz, was directly defeated by OG in the first BO1 match.

Thinking this, the coach suddenly felt at ease.

"Play well, stay calm."

"Fnatic, after all, is just a team that has recently started to gel."

"The only reason they reached the 2-2 group was thanks to the newly acquired Aether, which kept their opponents guessing their tactics."

"As for this match, our analyst has already figured out Aether's preferred positions!"