The Antwerp Major Qualifiers weren't being held offline.
There were no cheering spectators, and no grand arena.
All there was was the sound of mice and keyboards clicking in the training room.
On the second map, Overpass, Fnatic lost the Pistol Round, and the score went straight to 0-3.
In 6657 Wan Ji Qi's Livestream Room, the chat had been packed with messages supporting Fnatic before the match. Now, only the occasional one drifted by.
"OG's lucky charm, nexa, has decided to gamble on a site again in the first Gun Round."
"With no information from A Site, nexa has chosen to have four teammates gamble on B."
"My god, how did he make that call?"
"Fnatic are just about to go for an execute on B."
"Oh, no—they've walked right into them."
With crossfire covering the site, OG took two players in exchange for five and won the first Gun Round in a flash.
Even Aether's fans, who usually supported him, didn't think Fnatic could turn things around against OG now.
[Aw, this is rough. Even carrying four teammates has its limits.]
[God A was carrying four on TBD before. I didn't expect him to still be carrying four after joining Fnatic. Makes you think.]
[Losing isn't shameful. We'll get them next time.]
[Truly, a glorious defeat.]
Watching the messages fly by, Wan Ji Qi couldn't help letting out a rueful sigh.
"Things are looking really bad for Fnatic right now."
"Everyone knows the other Fnatic players aren't in good form. Their attacks usually rely on Aether to open things up by himself."
"But valde has proved he deserves to be the team's backbone in this match. He hasn't given Fnatic a single chance."
"And even when Aether gets the opening pick, he's usually traded out immediately by an OG player holding the back site."
"That kind of setup, where the back players trade kills, really counters Fnatic's single-core attack strategy."
"Should we go for a fast execute next round?" In Fnatic's team voice chat, ALEX glanced at Qin Feng beside him, sounding uncertain.
According to the tactics they'd planned before the match, they were supposed to use Qin Feng's Sniper Rifle to control the map's forward positions.
But valde and mantuu were both playing well, and Qin Feng's Sniper Rifle seemed to have little chance to catch anyone off guard.
"If we can't get in, we'll have to try speeding things up." ALEX sounded helpless.
Qin Feng glanced at [Sniper Rifle Mastery (SSS) (Fragment)] in his system inventory and shook his head.
"We're on an ECO next round, so we can run an execute."
"But I can buy a Sniper Rifle in the sixth round."
"Trust me. Don't run an execute. Keep letting me use this Sniper Rifle to make the entry."
"Everyone except the player doing the default should stay close to me and wait for me to get the entry."
As he spoke, Qin Feng used the fragment in his inventory.
The fragment had a long cooldown: one month.
But there was no need to save it anymore.
"In the fifth round, Fnatic have built up their economy bonus and are going for a half-buy."
"Can the Desert Eagles and TEC-9s work a miracle?"
"They're fishing for kills—but they didn't get one."
"valde has bought an M4A1 and given Fnatic's players no chance at all."
"Four headshots, and Fnatic's fast push into the site is completely crushed."
Wan Ji Qi sounded dejected.
After all, Aether was the last player from Huaguo still in the Antwerp Major.
Almost every player from Huaguo hoped Fnatic, with Aether on the roster, could go further and make it to the Major's venue in Antwerp.
But now, time was running out for Fnatic.
Some viewers in the livestream rooms couldn't even bear to watch the rest of the match.
They were afraid.
Afraid Fnatic would end up just like Tyloo.
The sixth round. Fnatic's second Gun Round.
"Oh? Fnatic aren't going for a fast start this time?"
"Fnatic are setting up for a four-man boost in T Spawn at Amusement Park?"
"The boost goes off without a hitch. Qin Feng scopes in, looking toward the second floor of B Site Bomb."
"OG haven't noticed. Nexa's positioning has given Aether a chance. Can he do it?"
"Beautiful! He caught the moment CT just showed a sliver of himself."
The viewers in the livestream room suddenly came alive again after Qin Feng's opening kill.
[I know this Amusement Park map. As a T, one minute is plenty.]
"That Sniper Rifle's pretty fast."
[Keep it up, God A! I'm still waiting for that four-kill gold sticker on your Sniper Rifle.]
"They've got four players boosted in T Spawn, so we can hold a little farther up." Nexa, who had just been picked off by Qin Feng, looked impassively at his teammates.
"Yeah, don't worry. I'm already holding T Spawn from the balloon." mantuu sounded confident too. "Aether's AWP isn't as fast as people say. He won't be able to get out."
After the first map, Vertigo, mantuu was naturally full of confidence.
"Bang!"
[Fnatic.Aether killed OG.mantuu with a headshot using the AWP]
mantuu suddenly felt awkward.
"I got a little distracted by what I said just now. Looks like they're about to come out of T Spawn to take control of A."
With three against five, OG's remaining players naturally couldn't keep holding the back site.
But Fnatic were ready and waiting, holding their angles from the back.
After a 0-for-3 trade, Fnatic finally got their first point on the map.
The score was 1-5.
The seventh round.
If Aether killing mantuu, who had been holding the angle, had been a fluke, OG's players had figured mantuu was simply distracted.
But when Aether put out the fire at T Spawn and came out for a second time, then instantly killed mantuu through the balloon smoke again, mantuu finally felt that something was very wrong.
"Wait, that was my one-way smoke." mantuu sounded aggrieved. "How did he pre-aim that spot right away? And I'd only just shown the top of my head."
mantuu said this because he had no idea how Qin Feng had landed that shot.
But everyone in the livestream room had seen the ridiculous shot with their own eyes.
"My god, how did Qin Feng hit that shot?"
Wan Ji Qi's voice cracked as he shouted.
The livestream showed clearly that Qin Feng had aimed into the balloon smoke, but not at mantuu's actual position.
The instant he scoped in, Qin Feng flicked onto mantuu, who was outside the scope's field of view.
A true one-frame flick.
And he'd hit an enemy outside the scope's field of view.
"What? Even after the broadcast replayed it at 0.2 speed, that shot still looks unreal to me."
"Even in slow motion, I can barely make out the blurry top of a CT's head in the balloon smoke."
"mantuu was already being so careful. How did Aether do it?"
Wan Ji Qi could barely contain his excitement.
"I originally thought that after OG started targeting Aether, Fnatic might be eliminated in the final round of the Qualifiers today."
"But Qin Feng just proved himself with that one shot."
"He's shown that as a Huaguo CS player, he has just as much potential as any top Sniper Rifle player in the world."
"It's as if he's trying to tell the whole world that he's good enough to take Fnatic to Antwerp!"
"Aether, this prodigy from Huaguo—can he save Fnatic?"
"..."
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