The first map of the BO3 was Vertigo, which OG had picked themselves.
Fnatic chose to start on CT on their opponents' map pick.
"Buy me Dual Pistols. I'll hide behind the sandbags."
Qin Feng glanced at mezii, the team's utility player.
Half a month ago, he'd still been a rookie who had only recently joined the team.
After more than ten days of scrims and four Major qualifiers, Qin Feng had firmly established himself as the team's core player.
It wasn't unreasonable to ask mezii for a pair of Dual Pistols, was it?
"Clack."
"Clack."
A Smoke Grenade and a pair of Dual Pistols landed at Qin Feng's feet.
mezii's voice came through his headset. "Aether, here's another smoke. If they use fire on the sandbags, put it out yourself."
"Got it."
Qin Feng nodded and ran toward the sandbags on A Site.
However, OG didn't choose to hit A, where Qin Feng was mainly defending.
OG's analyst had already watched Fnatic's previous matches over and over.
Nexa knew that, in most of Fnatic's CT-side Pistol Rounds, they had mezii buy Aether Dual Pistols to hold a site.
And Aether was one of Fnatic's—and indeed the entire group stage's—most terrifying players statistically.
There was no reason not to hit B instead of challenging A, where Dual Pistols could be so effective.
The reasoning was simple.
When playing G2, for example, their opponents were far more likely to attack the area Aleksib was mainly defending than the one Niko was holding.
In the 6657 Livestream Room, Wan Ji Qi watched.
"They're rushing B!"
"Can poizon and ALEX hold on at the ramp?"
"They're both completely blinded by a flash, but poizon and ALEX haven't fallen back. They're firing while blind!"
"It's over! Both of them are taken out by valde as he rushes in!"
B was breached in no time.
The chat in the Livestream Room filled with messages saying they'd been handed free kills.
mezii was scouting mid, but without armor, he didn't dare rotate directly through CT Base and the plank. He could only hold the Exit Point, in case the Terrorists pushed into CT Base.
Qin Feng and KRIMZ, who were on A, quickly chose to rotate through CT Base.
Unfortunately, the 3v5 retake only managed to trade out OG's flameZ.
OG easily took the first Pistol Round on their map pick.
In the second round, Fnatic decided to force buy.
Qin Feng took mezii's Scout Rifle, bought full armor for himself, and spent another $700 to get mezii, who had no armor, a Desert Eagle.
The other three Fnatic players also chose full armor and Desert Eagles.
But the force buy didn't work out well.
The entry fragger flameZ picked up an AK and cut down every CT who tried to push up mid.
Qin Feng arrived to back him up and took out the wounded flameZ, but he still couldn't hold back OG's attack.
OG easily wiped out all five Fnatic players at the cost of only one Submachine Gun and one AK.
In the third round, Fnatic went Full Eco and didn't even manage to take a single gun off OG.
The truth was, Fnatic weren't very familiar with Vertigo.
If Ancient hadn't been an even worse map for them, ALEX wouldn't have wanted to leave Vertigo open.
In the fourth round, Qin Feng bought an AWP and held mid, but OG still chose to push quickly.
They launched a fast B Execute, and valde instantly killed ALEX, who was scouting from behind the boxes on B, breaking through the site.
As expected, the score reached 0–4.
Fnatic had saved four rifles, but they were still in a tough spot.
"Aether, maybe you should push up with the AWP this round."
"I don't think we can hold against OG's fast executes if we play default."
"It's an online match, anyway. There's no crowd, so don't put too much pressure on yourself."
"Just treat it like an FPL match. We need you to push up and catch someone off guard."
In previous matches, ALEX might have advised Qin Feng to be more careful with his positioning.
But looking at the situation on the server, Fnatic's IGL knew that if they wanted to win this one, someone had to step up.
And the player most likely to do that was the team's core, Aether.
However, the next few rounds didn't go as smoothly as ALEX had hoped.
Qin Feng tried pushing up from various positions again and again, but he had little to show for it. Most of the time, the Terrorists had someone watching the angle from farther back and shut him down.
Throughout the first half, Fnatic had no good answer to OG's map control and executes.
Qin Feng and poizon put on some brilliant performances to win a few Clutches, but the momentum kept swinging OG's way.
As the score went back and forth, the first half ended at 5–10.
During the break, mantuu was relaxed enough to chat with his teammates.
"So this is that genius kid from China?"
"Doesn't look all that impressive to me."
"How's his Rating higher than s1mple's?"
"I guess their previous opponents were just really bad."
The gambling god, nexa, calmly reminded him, "The match isn't over. Don't get too comfortable."
mantuu gave an awkward smile and said no more. He kept pressing F to inspect the ruby dagger in his hand.
"The Second Half Pistol Round is underway."
"OG seem to have figured out Fnatic's CT-side defaults. They've also done a good job using utility against Aether's AWP."
"Let's see if Fnatic can surprise us on the T side after the teams switch."
Wan Ji Qi commentated on the match in his usual passionate voice.
But even with Qin Feng taking the P250 mezii had bought him, Fnatic still struggled to break through OG's default crossfire.
"Hey, Fnatic are sending all five through mid, trying to trade off each other."
"What? Nexa has chosen to stack three players in mid!"
mezii, leading the way to draw fire, was taken out by a single shot from nexa. Aether only managed to trade niko.
The remaining Terrorists tried to swing out and trade, but nexa and flameZ, holding mid, mowed them down one by one.
"It's over! Fnatic haven't won the Pistol Round they desperately needed."
5–11.
Fnatic chose to force buy.
But this time, too, OG's players watching from farther back shut down the push.
As expected, the score reached 5–13.
In the rounds that followed, Qin Feng's AWP caused OG's defense plenty of trouble, but he still couldn't turn around Fnatic's overall disadvantage on the map.
As soon as OG's front-line players traded Qin Feng out, even Fnatic's man-advantage Clutches usually ended with OG successfully retaking the site.
In the end, Fnatic lost the first map of the BO3, 8–16.
Inside Fnatic's training room.
Qin Feng glanced at his dejected teammates and knew he had to say something.
"Guys, it's just the first map. It's nothing."
"And Vertigo was OG's pick. We were never that familiar with it."
"Next is OVERPASS, our map pick."
"We've been through plenty of tough matches on the back foot."
"And we knew from the start that today's match would be a hard one, didn't we?"
"They're strong, but so are we."
"Gambit in 2017 and C9 in 2018 both went on to win the Major when no one expected them to."
"The team only signed me for two months. Maybe once this match is over, I'll be a free agent again."
"But whatever the result, I'll be grateful for the trust you've put in me, and I'll enjoy every match I have left with the team."
"..."
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