"Okay, the timeout's finally over."
"Aether doesn't seem to be playing it safe this time. He's planning to challenge m0NESY with the Sniper Rifle."
"Fnatic didn't use any utility at Mid. mezii jumped past Mid while hugging the wall, and m0NESY landed a shot through the smoke."
"Aether swung right out and took down m0NESY in Dark!"
"M0NESY must be stunned. What on earth was that?"
"Looks like Fnatic started pulling out tricks after the timeout."
"..."
Thanks to Qin Feng's opening kill, Fnatic finally gained the upper hand in map control for the first time.
"Keep pushing up. Don't just hold back." ALEX charged into B Lower Floor without hesitation. "M0NESY dropped his Sniper Rifle, so we can play more aggressively."
"They've left A Main open. I'm falling straight back to A Site," poizon said, alerting his teammates after taking A Main at the start.
Meanwhile, over in the CSboy Livestream Room, Ma Xixi began analyzing the situation for the viewers again.
"ALEX has pushed up into B1. He should realize B is clear pretty soon."
"G2 will probably go for an Execute here."
"No problem. If a play is working, they can keep using it."
"But G2's bomb is still back at Terrorist Base."
"They probably wanted m0NESY to take Mid control and then pick up the bomb for an A play. Now Little Li Zi and JACKZ have to double back to Terrorist Base for it."
"On the minimap, it looks like Fnatic's Mid players are planning to push up."
"Can they catch Little Li Zi and JACKZ while they're picking up the bomb?"
The PGL director suddenly cut to Qin Feng's Sniper Rifle.
At some point, Aether—the defensive AWPer known for his steadiness—had become Fnatic's sharpest blade.
"Wait... Fnatic's player pushing up Mid is Aether with an AWP? And KRIMZ is the one holding Dark with an M4A1."
"That's some confidence."
"Little Li Zi and JACKZ will definitely be wary of this angle, but do they know Fnatic sent Aether forward with an AWP?"
"They didn't see that coming! Little Li Zi gets taken out by Aether in one shot."
"That's bad. G2 dropped the bomb."
"JACKZ is stunned."
"He threw a flash and wants to pick up the bomb. Can he get it?"
"Here it comes—the world-class Aladdin flash! Aether isn't blinded at all."
"Is he going to peek and take the fight?"
"He lost!"
"Only the two Bosnian brothers are left in the pit at A Site."
"Nice. Fnatic should get their second point."
"One leads to two, and two leads to three."
"..."
As expected, the score reached 2–7.
Fnatic had finally won their first Gun Round.
Qin Feng's triple kill with the Sniper Rifle had finally helped Fnatic get back on their feet.
After the round win, the Fnatic players high-fived, and their nerves settled considerably.
Once they knew they'd be facing G2, every Fnatic player had prepared for the possibility of losing before the match even began.
But once the game started, they were still so afraid of making a mistake and giving up the opening kill that they kept surrendering the forward angles.
That made defending from the back even harder.
Rather than keep doing that, they might as well take the fight to G2 up front.
Once ALEX realized this, his calls became more aggressive.
Their three-man push into A Main instantly crushed G2's attack through A Door.
The score reached 3–7!
Cautious as ever, Aleksib called G2's first timeout as soon as the round ended.
"We were getting too comfortable early on and got a little careless." Aleksib glanced at his teammates. "Fnatic pushed up in both of those rounds. We just need to play our default properly. And m0NESY, watch out for Aether's AWP. As long as you don't get picked off, we'll have a big advantage in controlling the map on attack."
"Don't worry. I'll be more careful from now on. But Aleksib, don't get too tense either. Fnatic aren't exactly a top-tier team, and our goal is to win the Major," M0NESY replied.
Aleksib nodded thoughtfully.
It was true. Even with the addition of the Chinese prodigy Aether, Fnatic could only just be considered a tier-two team.
If the bald KRIMZ were still as good as he'd been a few years ago, G2 might have had to think twice.
But now...
After seeing that every player had at least five thousand in equipment money, Aleksib felt he'd been too cautious.
At 3–7, the match continued.
G2 finally opened with the safest default strategy, but things didn't go as smoothly as everyone had expected.
Aether's triple kill with the Sniper Rifle seemed to have flipped a switch for the Fnatic players.
After thirty seconds of defaulting, G2 went for a Mid-to-B split, but ALEX killed one of them while hidden in the smoke at CT Base.
Meanwhile, Qin Feng's AWP in B Tunnels safely caught another Terrorist coming out of Mid, with the smoke at B Main covering him.
Down 3v5, G2 couldn't rotate with the bomb lying in Sand Area, so they had no choice but to keep fighting.
But poizon had already made it around from A Main.
"Rat-a-tat, rat-a-tat."
[Fnatic.poizon killed G2.M0NESY with an M4A1 headshot]
M0NESY, holding an angle from the inner side of Mid, was caught off guard and taken out.
Once again, it was Niko and hunter in a 2v5 Clutch.
"We can see that G2 has adjusted to Fnatic's repeated pushes."
"Clearly, Aleksib called for a default."
"But their Mid-to-B split after defaulting was really poorly executed."
"And with them not controlling A Door, poizon can flank them pretty quickly."
"The bomb's down. Niko and hunter are stuck on B Lower Floor, so they can only head out to B Upper Floor and Sand Area to pick it up."
"They're giving up? Niko and hunter are heading straight back to the back garden to save their guns."
"It's 4–7 now."
"This is getting interesting."
"Aether must be a last-minute stand-in for Fnatic, right?"
"Does G2 just lose whenever their opponents have a stand-in?"
"Faze Clan, Fnatic, and Mouz have all beaten G2 with stand-ins."
"Could Fnatic pull off a repeat this time?"
"..."
Over on G2's side, Aleksib watched his teammates save their guns as the team's economy teetered on the verge of collapse, and frowned.
Aleksib had always understood G2's weakness.
The team's performance was inconsistent.
At their best, G2 were good enough to contend for the Major title.
But at their worst, they could even lose to the little-known Polish team Anonymo, as they had in the previous Major Qualifiers.
"We can still buy up next round, so let's start with a default again. The other team loves pushing up."
While Niko and hunter saved their guns in the back garden, Aleksib continued assigning roles to his teammates.
"JACKZ, play default from the wooden boxes in B back garden. Just don't die."
"M0NESY, keep controlling Mid with your Sniper Rifle."
"As for A Main, we'll check our spawn positions."
"If we get good spawns, whoever it is should go straight to A Main and contest them."
"If we don't, we'll throw a flash and take A Main on the second timing."
"..."
When the timeout ended, JACKZ had spawned in the first position to contest A Main.
G2 did want to fight for A Main, but Fnatic weren't about to let them.
This time, Qin Feng had the first spawn, and he took up position at A Main with his Sniper Rifle.
JACKZ used a flash to swing out, but Qin Feng still managed to kill him instantly while fully blinded.
The game had barely started, and G2 were already in the awkward position of being down 4v5.
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