Aleksib's Consideration

The attacking team's remaining utility was no longer enough to support them in completing the A site execute.

G2's team comms suddenly fell silent.

Fnatic's unexpected forward push had, in essence, crushed G2's momentum for consecutive rounds.

"If it doesn't work, let's do a quick A-short execute. I can go out and take duels," Niko suggested proactively.

As the star player on the team, Niko knew he had to do something now.

Otherwise, if they continued playing at this pace, G2's initial 7-1 lead could very well be overturned to 7-8.

Aleksib naturally had no objections to Niko's idea.

After all, Niko was the de facto leader of G2.

Most of G2's attacking-side strategies were formulated around Niko and m0NESY.

With that in mind, Aleksib nodded, "Alright, we'll smoke off A-short and the spawn archway smoke."

"Then we'll throw an A-main flash to block Aether's angle, and I'll jump out from spawn to push A-main."

"..."

A rapid A-short execute from G2 was about to commence.

Fnatic, with their sole sniper controlling A-main, did not risk scouting mid.

ALEX was hiding on top of the spawn box for back-site defense and was naturally unaware of the attackers' movements in mid.

However, Ma Xixi and the viewers in the livestream chat saw it all clearly.

"Is G2 planning a fast A-short execute?"

"Fnatic is in a 2-1-2 defense right now. Aether is at A-main, KRIMZ is on the ramp. ALEX in spawn should quickly know about the Terrorists pushing A-short."

"ALEX is afraid G2 might fake and doesn't want to move, but G2 is probably going for it for real."

"There's no info from Fnatic at A-main, Aether is probably just going to hold A-door."

"If KRIMZ falls, Aether can only rotate to the pit."

"G2 is executing. A-short smoke, archway smoke, a sniper position fire grenade, and a flash from A-short to push back the CTs."

"KRIMZ knows someone is about to enter the bombsite from short."

"Do they peek?"

"No, they're waiting for Aether at A-main to help them with a flash."

"Aether threw it!"

"KRIMZ directly peeked out, using the flash behind him."

"The Terrorists are all blinded now."

"One, two, three!"

"The big bald guy got a triple kill, completely crushing G2's A-short execute."

"Only Li Zi left at the elevator position, he's facing a 1v5 clutch."

"He directly peeked out, trying to finish off Aether who helped his teammate with the flash."

"Too bad, Aether had already switched to his sniper rifle."

"He didn't get the kill!"

"Fnatic got a 0-for-5 round, directly taking the round victory."

"..."

[Fast forward to Li Zi only making us play default.]

[As everyone knows, G2 = GG.]

[JACKZ is lost again, 2-10, whose viewer is this?]

[Don't hate, JACKZ is a hero in the late game. It's understandable for him to farm more early, right?]

[Let's see what happened? Turns out Olaf hacked KRIMZ's computer, and the time on KRIMZ's computer is now 2015!]

The 0-for-5 round also caused G2's economy to completely explode.

Even though G2 had maxed out their loss bonus, the roughly 3500 credits per player on the attacking side couldn't support them in buying full utility and guns.

G2 finally welcomed their first ECO round.

The score then became 6-7.

Niko also seemed to have suddenly lost his touch.

In the last two rounds of the half, G2 looked like they had lost their souls, completely unable to find their offensive direction.

Fnatic directly turned the 1-7 score into 8-7.

Halftime break.

The team comms for G2 were unusually quiet.

Only "Little Li Zi" was still diligently devising tactics for the second half's pistol round.

While reaching seven points as the attacking side was a passing grade, being outscored from 7-1 to 7-8 was clearly hard for everyone on G2 to accept.

"In short, Fnatic doesn't have many attacking strategies. We can easily win the match if we just play default holds."

"Besides, the match has 16 rounds. Letting them take a few rounds first is also part of the game's fun."

Aleksib quickly tried to comfort his teammates before the pistol round began.

G2 usually messed around, but they tended to get tilted easily during matches.

"Mhm," Niko responded to "Little Li Zi" with a flat tone.

Only JACKZ glanced weakly at Aleksib.

Why does this sound so familiar?

It's like Aleksib said the same thing last time G2 played Anonymo in the qualifiers?

After the second half started, the G2 players initially thought it would be easier.

After all, DUST2 was considered a map that leaned more towards the CTs.

However, everyone on Fnatic seemed to have found their rhythm, their aim on fire.

As the attacking team rushed B with a fast push in the pistol round, JACKZ, G2's late-round hero on B Site, was quickly eliminated.

The rotating players also struggled to break through the Terrorists' crossfire on the bombsite.

The score was 9-7, and Fnatic took the second half's pistol round.

After losing the pistol round, G2 once again chose to force buy.

However, this time, Niko's Desert Eagle and m0NESY's Scout Rifle couldn't create miracles like they did in the first half.

Fnatic executed a fast push through A main, instantly shattering G2's defensive formation at A ramp.

Qin Feng's Scout Rifle, positioned in the pit, also held enemies at the CT spawn and A platform.

The remaining 4 players on G2 chose to save their weapons just 20 seconds into the round.

Thanks to the analyst's review of Aether's footage, almost all of G2's players were very familiar with Aether's sniping.

In their eyes, Aether was the type of sniper who was both the easiest and the hardest to counter.

Easiest to counter because Aether's sniper would choose a relatively conservative position most of the time, making it easy to target with utility.

Furthermore, Aether's sniper didn't have a high plant-breaking rate on the attacking side, often needing to advance position by position with utility coverage.

But at the same time, Aether was also considered the hardest sniper for most people to counter.

He didn't seem as strong as s1mple, who flicked between sides like aimbotting while holding mid, nor did he have ZywOo's seemingly clairvoyant awareness.

Yet, he appeared to be the most stable sniper in all of CSGO.

As everyone knows, people can't maintain 100% focus every second.

Even top players like s1mple and ZywOo would get distracted at times while holding angles.

But Aether seemed completely immune to distraction.

Any angle he held was almost impossible to challenge with a dry peek.

Unless you had a faster sniper.

This was why Aether gave Fnatic's opponents a headache.

He almost never made mistakes.

With this in mind, Aleksib began devising tactics for G2's upcoming full-buy rounds during the save time.

"M0NESY, I saved money this round. I can get you an AWP for the first full-buy round."

"But you'd better not peek Aether's sniper."

"Of course, if Aether is shooting from another position, you can peek their rifles."

"Besides Aether's sniper, Fnatic's other players have very poor site-breaking capabilities."

"And Aether's sniper advances position step by step with utility."

"We'll play default defense in the back, stall for time."

"Finally, time your utility usage well, try to disrupt the game's flow."

"Once we get into aim duels, our advantage in individual skill will show."

"..."

Thank you to all the big brothers for the rewards.

I bow to you all.

Thump thump thump!

I'm not too sure about "Little Li Zi's" position within the team.

After all, the previous removal of "Big Cousin" was due to a disagreement with Niko. I think star players might sometimes have more say in the team than the IGL.

And "Little Qian" is 17, it's only natural to be young and impulsive!