VS forZe

May 11th, Antwerp Challengers Stage Round 4, Fnatic vs. ForZe.

At 8:30 PM China Standard Time, in stream room 52327 on the Mouya platform.

"The match is officially underway, welcome everyone to the broadcast."

"This is the PGL Major Challengers Stage 2-1 group match, the winner will directly advance to the Legends Stage of the Antwerp Major."

"I am your caster, QUQU!"

QUQU's clear voice echoed into the ears of every viewer in the stream room as the match began.

"Here we go, the first map is Mirage, Fnatic starts on the defensive side."

"Standard defense, nothing fancy."

"ForZe plans to rush A to draw attention, then sneak through the Sewer."

"The Sewer... oh no, two are pushing forward, can shalfey hold them?"

The PGL director had already switched the view to Aether, who was forward at the entrance to the Sewer.

From the Fnatic players' perspectives, the entire Mirage was shrouded in silence.

"Hmm? Does forZe have some surprise for us?" ALEX, positioned further back in the Sewer, looked relaxed.

"They're using utility on A, but it's just one smoke at spawn," pozion, behind the connector, added. "No need to rush back, they haven't planted."

Qin Feng, holding the close angle in the Sewer with Dual Pistols, and ALEX, holding the far angle with a USP, remained steady and didn't move.

"We can try to push the Sewer now." Jerry, forZe's IGL, decided to let his teammates in the Sewer make the first move after some hesitation.

shalfey hugged the right wall of the Sewer, cautiously peeking for any enemies pushing forward.

However, what he saw was a pair of Dual Pistols waiting for him.

"Bang, bang, bang."

Three precise shots. Although shalfey wasn't headshot, he lost more than half his health.

"shalfey, spotted an enemy, took 40 damage, are you still going to peek Aether?"

QUQU's commentary was passionate, instantly immersing himself in the play-by-play.

"If a CT is peeking forward, there must be more than just you in the Sewer."

"I won't push, I'll wait for you."

"You come in, you go out! You come in, you go out!"

"Woo~ Aether peeked shalfey with a small angle."

"You can spray with an early peek, this gun is too OP."

"A pistol that can spray, Dual Pistols!"

"zorte, who came out of the T spawn and reached mid, was also taken down by ALEX."

"The remaining Terrorists can only force a plant on A."

[Dual Pistols, finally seeing God A's Dual Pistols again!]

[Rebuild Fnatic's glory, it is our unshirkable duty!]

[Standard!]

With the deaths of shalfey in the Sewer and zorte in mid, the remaining three forZe players naturally couldn't hold their ground and decided on a quick rush to A.

5 vs. 3, Fnatic wasn't in a hurry. The CTs on the platform and at spawn even retreated to the second defensive position.

No Terrorists were seen at the bomb site, so they could only fake a plant at spawn.

poizon didn't peek.

Jerry continued the fake plant.

poizon still didn't peek.

However, when Jerry chose to plant for real for the third time, the CTs rotating back from B to spawn had already arrived.

A quick double push from spawn by poizon and KRIMZ instantly eliminated KENSI, who was holding an angle, and Jerry, who was planting.

Jerry was almost furious.

What a timing!

You won't push out unless I plant, right?

With the elimination of forZe's last two players, the score became 1-0. Jerry gritted his teeth and decided to force buy after losing the pistol round.

Terrorists who didn't plant only got a $1900 economic bonus. ForZe, with their TEC-9s and Desert Eagles, directly chose a quick rush to the B Site second floor.

However, Fnatic opted for a stable 2-1-2 defense.

At the start, KRIMZ with an M4A1 went to the machine position, while mezii stuck to the area below the second floor with an MP9.

Before the forZe players could even exit their spawn, they were hit by two full flashes. The only survivors, zorte and Norwi, only fired a few shots symbolically on the B second floor before quickly becoming two corpses, lying neatly with their teammates on the B second floor.

The score, as expected, became 3-0.

The fourth round. It was forZe's first full buy round, and zorte managed to get his hands on an AWP thanks to the money his teammates had saved up.

"I'll go check A1, see if I can get a pick," zorte said, glancing at his position. He decided to head to A1.

After learning their opponent was Fnatic, forZe had naturally studied Fnatic's demo recordings overnight.

Everyone knew that Aether's AWP liked to hold the site from the "mi-la-ji" VIP position.

Naturally, zorte didn't want to go head-to-head with Aether, who was in top form.

"If we can pick one off, maybe we can speed up our push to A Site," zorte thought, unable to hide his killing intent after getting the sniper rifle.

"Bang."

[Fnatic.Aether killed forZe.zorte with an AWP headshot]

Unfortunately, when he aimed at A1, not only did he fail to get a pick, but he himself was taken out by Qin Feng, who had just reached the platform, with a single sniper shot.

From the start, forZe was facing a four-on-five situation.

Jerry suddenly had a bad feeling.

All the plans they had made for Mirage before the match were almost entirely centered around how to counter Aether's AWP.

But today's Aether seemed exceptionally aggressive.

In fact, Jerry's intuition wasn't wrong.

The fundamental problem truly lay with Qin Feng.

Facing a team like forZe, which didn't have any standout star players, Qin Feng knew his sniper rifle would have a lot of room to operate.

Qin Feng had analyzed forZe's players' typical positions for at least six hours with the Fnatic members the day before.

It had to be admitted that forZe's initial 2-0 lead was due to the stable performance of all their team members, with virtually no significant weaknesses.

However, similarly, the reason forZe wasn't favored by most before the match was also because the team lacked a particularly outstanding star player.

Once they faced a phantom-like AWP, forZe's weakness of not having a star player would be infinitely magnified.

Qin Feng also understood that rather than waiting for forZe to execute a rush and force him out of his position, it was better to use his aggressive positioning to secure the first kill.

Fnatic's requirement for Qin Feng was to take the initiative.

Yesterday, facing Vitality, if Qin Feng had been aggressive, he might have worried about falling victim to ZywOo's AWP.

But today, facing forZe, Qin Feng's lurks carried no pressure at all.

The seemingly well-rounded forZe was clearly thrown off balance by Aether's forward push.

Looking at the AWP dropped at A1, Jerry reluctantly decided to execute a fast A Site execute.

Due to insufficient funds in the third round, forZe only had two smoke grenades at this point. Jerry eventually directed his teammates to smoke off Connector and Platform.

However, unbeknownst to them, Qin Feng, who had just secured the first kill on the platform, had already rotated back to the CT spawn sniper nest.

"ForZe is going for an A execute?"

"But with insufficient utility and wasted smokes earlier, forZe doesn't have a complete set of grenades."

"Knowing Aether's AWP was on the platform, they planned to smoke Platform and Connector to push the bomb site from CT spawn?"

"Things have gone wrong, Aether has already rotated back to the CT spawn sniper nest."

"What do we do? ForZe is pushing hard."

"Three go to A1, one goes to A2."

"The flash from the pillar didn't blind Aether at CT spawn."

"Jerry, who was peeking from A1, was immediately taken out."

"The Terrorists still want to push for that AWP at CT spawn."

"shalfey on the second floor was also traded."

"Aether with three kills."

"Are the players at A1 still pushing?"

"Going for it?"

"Aether has no misses, four kills."

"The last Terrorist is hesitant to peek, but Aether actively sought him out."

At this point, QUQU took a sharp breath.

Increasing the speed of global warming by a tiny bit.

"Actively sought him out."

"Five kills!"

"ACE!"