[I can't accept this.jpg]
[Euro, eat my spear!]
[Just got here. Is the streamer sponsored by Gaben?]
[Newbie here. How much is this full-blue-hardened AK worth?]
[It's not just a matter of how much it's worth. It really is the kind of thing that's incredibly rare...]
[Who's rare? Who are you calling rare? Who?!]
[For those who don't know, a Field-Tested Dark Gold 661 sold for 150,000 USD before. A God A's is Factory New. It's also the only Factory New Dark Gold 661 in the world. Even the Souvenir Dragon Lore is trash next to this.]
After leisurely swapping his previous Field-Tested Vulcan AK for the Blue Gem AK, Qin Feng glanced over the flood of comments again.
"Hey, I told you ages ago I was lucky, didn't I?"
"Too bad I'm a sniper. I should've bought a Knight to craft a Dragon Lore."
"Am I selling it? I'm a pro player, so I definitely have no plans to sell my skins for now."
As he chatted with his viewers, a soft chime sounded.
A ranked FPL match had just been found.
After entering the room, Qin Feng glanced at the two teams' lineups.
Team ZywOo: ZywOo, Aether, gade, Rico4top, Zarwoo1996.
Team siuhy-: siuhy-, SZEEEEJN, Jimpphat, xertioniiic-, mhL_.
In this little FPL match, the entire Mouz NXT academy team was on Qin Feng's opposing side.
And his own teammates included France's CS prodigy, Big Potato—ZywOo.
The map was eventually settled on Ancient.
During the switch to the Terrorist side, Qin Feng took a moment to glance at the comments scrolling by on his screen.
"This is a match you'd really regret missing."
"The other team's no pushover. It's the whole Mouz NXT lineup, a mid-tier second-division team."
"Of course, I reckon ZywOo and I will still tear them apart."
[A God: Tear them apart. ZywOo: No, I'll tear them apart!]
[ZywOo's so diligent. I hear he keeps in shape by playing ranked matches.]
[There's a cheater on the server. I won't say who.]
While they chatted, the pistol round began.
All five Terrorists bought armor.
"B?" gade asked casually, looking in the direction the five of them were facing.
"Yeah. We can go straight out B Door and group up to hit B from the slope," ZywOo replied in fluent English.
Tch, ZywOo's English is better than mine now, Qin Feng couldn't help thinking.
Two years ago, ZywOo's English had been stuck at "I don't know."
"Want me to entry?" the random teammate Rico4top asked, glancing at ZywOo, who was closest to B.
"Thanks, no need." ZywOo was as unassuming as ever. He pulled out his knife and headed straight for B Site Bomb.
And then...
[ZywOo killed siuhy- with a headshot from his Glock-18.]
[ZywOo killed Jimpphat with a headshot from his Glock-18.]
The two Mouz NXT players defending B at the start of the round were instantly wiped out.
Qin Feng hadn't even fired a shot.
[666, what an opening. A God, can you type KILL in the console and die? I want to watch ZywOo's POV.]
[That's what you call getting schooled.]
[Vitality and Fnatic both made it into the Major Challengers Stage. Maybe they'll get to face A God's AWP in a few days.]
After planting the C4, Qin Feng even found time to glance at the comments flying by.
After all, his four teammates had already covered every position the Counter-Terrorists could retake from.
"Careful, lots of footsteps from CT Base," gade warned from the back of B, where he was hiding to catch someone off guard.
"Got it." ZywOo picked up a USP and swung out from close range at B Door.
"Bang."
[ZywOo killed mhL_ with a headshot from his USP.]
xertioniiic-, who was retaking from CT Base alongside mhL_, hadn't even reacted before ZywOo had fallen back to close range at B Door.
With five against two and the bomb to defend, the Terrorists gave the Counter-Terrorists no chance.
The score opened at 1–0.
In the second round, Mouz NXT decided to force-buy.
Though Qin Feng's AK got only a one-for-one trade while breaking into A Main, his teammates behind him cleaned up the Counter-Terrorist who was covering the three boxes.
Down three to four on the retake, Mouz NXT chose to save their guns, but gade's Mac-10 took two of them anyway.
The score moved to 3–0.
Knowing the Counter-Terrorists had a full buy this round, the Terrorists didn't slack off. They chose the safest default, starting by contesting mid.
Qin Feng, pushing out of A Connector, instantly killed SZEEEEJN, who was heading for Donut, but was quickly traded by the sniper in Mid Hall, xertioniiic-.
"The Counter-Terrorist going Donut from mid is dead, but there's still a CT sniper holding Mid Hall." After saying that, Qin Feng switched to ZywOo's POV.
"Okay." ZywOo nodded at the callout but didn't throw a Smoke Grenade into Mid Hall. Instead, he raised his AK and swung wide.
[ZywOo killed xertioniiic- with a headshot from his AK-47.]
"What a XANTARES peek." Qin Feng clicked his tongue as he watched ZywOo's POV.
From Qin Feng's first-person view, ZywOo's play seemed simple enough.
Swing out, stop, headshot.
But he knew that if he switched to xertioniiic-'s perspective, that shot would look terrifying.
Qin Feng hadn't even heard the sniper rifle fire. That meant xertioniiic- had practically no time to react.
And the instant ZywOo swung out, his crosshair was locked squarely on xertioniiic-'s head.
That definitely wasn't luck.
It was an unbelievably good pre-aim and read.
[666, as expected of ZywOo. One-tapped him.]
[Sniper rifle, is it? Hold, hold, hold, hold, you Steel Helmet.]
[Thanks, A God. I know you deliberately traded yourself so we could watch ZywOo's POV.]
[A God's at 4–2, ZywOo's at 8–1. In fewer than four rounds, A God and ZywOo have racked up twelve kills together. As expected of A God!]
"Don't get carried away. I haven't even bought an AWP yet." Qin Feng happened to be dead and used the time to reply to a passing comment. "Besides, 4–2's fine, isn't it? They're a second-tier team on the international stage."
In the game, the three remaining Mouz NXT players were left with a three-against-four clutch.
mhL_ had an M4A1 covering Mid Hall from CT Base.
He glanced at the minimap, where two teammates were positioned at A Site's first box and the B stairs. "Should we push back? Playing like this is too passive."
siuhy-, scouting from the B stairs, nodded. "Stop holding the site. Let's push mid and clear Dog Hole and B Connector. Otherwise, whichever site they hit, they'll have a local four-on-one."
xertioniiic-, who'd been picked off by ZywOo, complained, "ZywOo's insane. He wide-swung and one-tapped me while I was holding the angle with my sniper."
"If you guessed wrong, come back to Mid Hall and pick up my sniper."
"Yeah." Jimpphat nodded, then offered xertioniiic- some consolation. "Just bad luck, getting one-tapped. If he hadn't hit your head, you would've killed him."
Meanwhile, on the Terrorists' team voice chat.
Because of the FPL environment, the team voice chat was fairly active.
ZywOo had taken control of mid. As long as the Terrorists didn't make any major mistakes, they'd most likely win the fourth round.
"I haven't seen anyone at B Connector or the B slope. I've still got my Mac-10, so I'm going mid to trade it out." gade glanced at the Mac-10 in his hands and gave up control of close B.
"Yeah, we can hit mid," Zarwoo1996 added. "We can go through Donut or CT Base, but Donut's too easy to get caught off guard in. How about CT Base?"
Rico4top, the last one left, quickly backed away from the front of A Hall toward A Connector.
The Terrorists gathered in mid just like that.
As luck would have it, the Counter-Terrorists had chosen to push mid, too.
Mid instantly turned into a seven-player brawl.
"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat." A string of gunfire rang out.
[Jimpphat killed gade with a headshot from his M4A1.]
[Zarwoo1996 killed Jimpphat with a headshot from his AK-47.]
[mhL_ killed Zarwoo1996 with his M4A1.]
[ZywOo killed siuhy- with a headshot from his AK-47.]
[Rico4top killed mhL_ with his AK-47.]
The Terrorists instantly traded two for three and won the fourth round.
ZywOo picked up the sniper rifle xertioniiic- had dropped in Mid Hall.
[Oh no, A God. Big Potato picked up the other team's AWP. You don't have a sniper rifle to play with now.]
[Potato's getting mad this time.]
[A God, it's fine. You can carry the bomb behind ZywOo and plant after Big Potato kills everyone. I call this strategy "Let ZywOo Do It."]
"Doesn't matter." Qin Feng smiled at the comments flying by. "I'm not so arrogant that I think I'm better than ZywOo. Besides, I've always been a Big Potato fan."
"And the 661 looks pretty good, doesn't it?"
During freeze time, Qin Feng furiously tapped F to inspect his gun.
"Clack."
Suddenly, he heard a weapon being dropped in-game.
An AWP appeared in front of him.
It was the one ZywOo had just picked up in mid.
"For me?" Qin Feng asked in surprise over team voice.
"Yeah." ZywOo's voice came through Qin Feng's headset. "I know you, Aether, Fnatic's sniper. I've watched your demos. You're really good with the AWP. Besides, I think the AK kills faster."
Qin Feng: ...
Listening to Big Potato's voice, he could almost picture ZywOo's honest smile on the other side of the screen.
But what was that about the AK killing faster?
Was he seriously treating the other team like they weren't even people?
They were the entire Mouz academy team, after all.
The viewers in chat were having a field day.
[That's awesome, A God. Big Potato approves of you!]
[Wild guess: Potato thinks A God's only rifle play is dry-peeking, then going on his phone.]
[The AK kills faster? Now we're getting to the truth. I was wondering why Big Potato rarely snipes on the Terrorist side in FPL.]
[Stay calm, A God. Vitality are your opponents at the Major. Potato's definitely trying to make you drop your guard.]
[Don't get carried away. What kind of bad intentions could Potato have?]
After thinking for half a second, Qin Feng tossed his Dark Gold 661 to ZywOo. "Then I'll hold the B slope and stairs from outside B Door."
"Okay. They're probably on a half-buy this round, so we can just hold our angles by default." Somehow, gade had stepped in as the Terrorists' temporary in-game leader. "We should still have two people contest mid. They probably don't have much utility this round."
"Okay." The two random teammates both agreed with gade's call.
Once freeze time ended, Qin Feng took the AWP Big Potato had given him and headed toward the B slope outside B Door.
The Counter-Terrorists didn't use any utility to push out toward B Connector or B Door.
"They're not contesting mid, either. ZywOo, watch out for a push from A Site." gade glanced at the minimap. "We can..."
[ZywOo killed mhL_ with a headshot from his AK-47.]
[ZywOo killed siuhy- with a headshot from his AK-47.]
[ZywOo killed Jimpphat with his AK-47.]
[ZywOo killed xertioniiic- with a headshot from his AK-47.]
[SZEEEEJN killed ZywOo with his Desert Eagle.]
The string of kill-feed messages cut gade off.
After the feed cleared, Big Potato's somewhat earnest voice came through team chat. "All five of them pushed A Hall. You can go plant at B."
"Oh, one guy picked up my AK. He might run toward CT Base. You can try to cut him off."
gade: ...
Seems like I don't need to call anything anymore.
Can't we just let ZywOo kill everyone?
The only other random teammate on the Terrorist side, Zarwoo1996, happily took the C4 and headed to B Site Bomb to plant.
As expected, the score reached 5–0, and gade successfully picked up SZEEEEJN's AK-47.
The first half seemed rather one-sided.
Qin Feng's AWP locked down the Counter-Terrorists' forward pushes, while ZywOo's AK-47 became a site-breaking machine the Mouz academy players couldn't handle.
Even when the Mouz academy players relied on tucked-away positions to trade effectively and string together a few rounds, the Terrorists quickly found a way to counter them.
They had gade and Zarwoo1996 entry, while ZywOo's AK-47 and Qin Feng's AWP traded out the Counter-Terrorists defending the site.
As long as they could trade evenly, the Counter-Terrorists had almost no chance of retaking.
Even when the defenders managed to secure a numbers advantage at the site, Qin Feng and ZywOo could often use their individual skill to clutch the bomb defense while outnumbered.
Throughout the first half, the Mouz academy players could barely show their usual form.
The first half finally ended with the score locked at 11–4.
Carried by ZywOo and Qin Feng, their teammates had built a seven-round lead on the difficult Terrorist side.
"Pretty strong, guys," Qin Feng said, taking a deep breath as he looked at the stats on the game screen.
After fifteen rounds in the first half, ZywOo's KD had already reached a staggering 25–9.
Meanwhile, as the team's primary AWPer, Qin Feng had only managed to get fifteen kills.
[ZywOo and God A are stomping Mouz's academy team with randoms. Their actual matches must be a breeze, right?]
[Not gonna lie, these randoms with the little potato are pretty strong. So, that means Vitality must have great results, right?]
[The little potato? Total cheater! Who's this guy? Oh, a two-time TOP 1? Never mind.]
Qin Feng watched the chat and suddenly felt a little melancholy.
Vitality might well be one of the opponents they'd face at the Antwerp Major in May.
If his Sniper Rifle were up against ZywOo, could Fnatic really gain an advantage with a single star AWPer?
Besides, even someone as strong as ZywOo couldn't guarantee he could lead Vitality to victory.
Qin Feng knew full well that ALEX, KRIMZ, and the others were hard to compare with apex or Magisk.
"Aether?"
"Get moving. The Second Half is starting."
His teammates' calls brought Qin Feng back to the game.
As the academy team for the main Mouz roster, Mouz NXT eventually showed its resilience in the Second Half.
At one point, they pulled the score back to 11–9.
That was, until Qin Feng and ZywOo each picked up a Sniper Rifle.
The Terrorists had no room to make a play anymore.
Whether they tried to take mid control or control A Site, the Terrorists were at a huge disadvantage.
Even if they took the Bomb Site, they found it hard to deal with two Sniper Rifles rotating back to defend.
It was ridiculous.
But it was the reality Mouz NXT was facing.
Sorry, I noticed that the section below had been pasted in twice. I've fixed it; just refresh and it should be fine.
Thanks to Bookhold Zaiwu for the 500-point tip.
Thanks to Tang Song Yuan Ming Qing for the 100-point tip.
Thanks to Deng Feng Lai for the 100-point tip.
Before you continue