Katowice's opening-stage schedule was packed. All sixteen teams had to play through their matches in just two days, with the final eight spots in the Main Tournament on the line.
They might only learn who their opponents were a day in advance—or even just a few hours beforehand—so it was impossible to prepare specific counter-strategies.
When Su Zhe sat down at his computer to prepare for the next day's match, he was no longer as nervous as he'd been the first time.
It was like, well, you know—the first time, you were nervous, excited, and full of anticipation. The second time, all that remained was the excitement and anticipation.
Their opponent this time was GL. If they could beat them in this Bo3, Su Zhe would have completed the task the club manager had assigned him.
"How strong are they? Easier to deal with than ENCE yesterday?" After a round against the bots, Su Zhe asked his teammates for the scoop, hoping to prepare himself mentally.
REZ smiled. "GL were the runners-up at the last Paris Major. What do you think?"
"Huh? They're that good?"
Even players who didn't play CSGO knew a thing or two about the Major tournaments—and GL had been the runners-up last time?
K0nfig shot REZ a sidelong glance. "Don't scare the kid."
Then he turned to Su Zhe. "Don't listen to him. GL were runners-up at the last Major, sure, but their most important player, caller siuhy, and their best performer, IM, have both left the team."
"Overall, they're neither strong nor weak. About a tier-two team now."
Su Zhe nodded. He had a clearer picture.
"But don't let your guard down too much. Their current caller is snax!" Es3tag reminded him.
Su Zhe asked, puzzled, "Snax? Is he good?"
"Emmmm..." es3tag hesitated. "He used to be. He was a Top 20 player for four years in a row and even won a Major."
"Tsk." K0nfig scoffed. "So what? Back in 2017, I was the 14th-best player. He'd only just made it to 20th."
REZ called him out. "We get it, you were great back then. How about you make Top 20 again this year?"
K0nfig: ...
Coach djL heard their banter and reminded them, "All right, map vetoes are starting. Focus on the match."
From the second round onward, both the upper and lower brackets used a Bo3 format.
Compared to Bo1, Bo3 was friendlier to teams with shallow map pools.
After all, most teams only had one or two strong maps. In a Bo1, those could easily be banned away, but in a Bo3, they were guaranteed to get at least one map they were good at.
The map picks were decided quickly.
Map One was Nip's pick, Mirage.
Map Two was GL's pick, Inferno.
Map Three was Death Arena.
"I thought they'd leave Ancient Ruins open. Didn't expect them to ban it," Headtr1ck said regretfully. He didn't like Death Arena.
K0nfig complained, "You think they're stupid? GL's win rate on Ancient Ruins has been just 12% lately. Why would they leave it open for us? Besides, our new kid played so well on it yesterday."
"Right, Arrow?"
As he spoke, k0nfig raised his eyebrows at Su Zhe. He might have been getting older, but he still preferred the younger crowd—not in that way, of course.
Before, headtr1ck had been the youngest on the team. Now that Su Zhe had joined, he was the youngest.
Su Zhe smiled in response. He felt that k0nfig acted nothing like someone about to turn thirty.
Soon, at the referee's signal, the two teams entered the server for Map One.
Map One: Mirage
GL: acoR, isak, volt, Keoz, snax
Nip: es3tag, k0nfig, headtr1ck, REZ, Arrow
As Nip had picked the map, GL chose to start on the CT side.
csboy Live Room.
"Hello, everyone, and welcome to Nip versus GL. I'm your commentator, Ma Xixi."
"I'm Captain Mo."
"And I'm the assistant commentator, Ming Ri Qing~"
"Who are you guys?"
[I'm Ming Ri Qing's dog~]
[I'm UZI, Stockholm Major champion and MVP!]
[I'm Danking! I can play at the Shanghai Major!]
Ma Xixi ignored the bizarre comments and said, "I'm sure everyone knows what the main talking point of this match is. Mo, what do you think of Nip's newcomer, Arrow?"
Mo smiled. "How can I watch? Sitting down, of course. Haha, just kidding. I watched the demo from that match closely afterward. I can only say that this newcomer is very willing to take fights. He doesn't have the usual rookie jitters at all. I think that's pretty impressive."
As the former captain of old Tianlu, Mo had been one of the biggest contributors to the team's rise to the peak of CNCS in 2018. His words carried a lot of weight.
"Oh?" Ma Xixi said with a smile. "I heard 259 still doesn't rate this newcomer."
"You know about that?" Mo sounded surprised. He'd only talked about it privately with 259!
Ma Xixi replied, "What did you expect? I have connections everywhere."
Mo sighed. "Fine, 259 did say that. He thinks Arrow's playstyle isn't suited to the European Professional Arena, and that he might not last three months at Nip."
Ma Xixi's teasing got the chat firing off question marks.
[Come on, does 259 even hear himself? It's not enough that he didn't want Xiao Zhe—now he's cursing him!]
[Is 259 in the Live Room? If Xiao Zhe lasts three months at Nip, you should retire!]
[Even if he's not the best, he still made it to Nip. The last time Tianlu played Nip, they got their heads blown off.]
[Xiao Zhe played so well yesterday, with a 1.53 Rating. How could Nip kick him? Unless their management are CS players.]
Mo looked at the comments in the Live Room, unsure why Ma Xixi had suddenly brought this up. He was just about to message him privately when the match started.
Ma Xixi's deep voice came through. "Mo, let's get the timing right..."
Es3tag planned to use a burst of utility in the Pistol Round to speed up an A Site hit.
Su Zhe bought Half Armor at the start and headed for A2 Floor, intending to support his four teammates at A1 with trades.
"Throw the smoke under the jump-up right away. Watch out for a B2 push—they might get info and rotate early," Es3tag said, immediately calling for the utility.
The CTs had a standard 3A2B setup this round. Snax had bought dualies and was holding close on Second Floor.
As soon as his teammate said the Ts had thrown an Archway smoke, he knew his read had been right. He pushed straight into A2 Floor with his dualies.
If he got a kill, he could coordinate with the teammate at CT Spawn to create a crossfire.
But just as he swung out, spotted the Ts, and was about to fire, he heard the sound of a Headshot.
"Bang, bang! Pfft!"
[Arrow killed snax with a Glock Headshot]
"WDF! That rookie's reaction is so fast!" Snax grumbled after dying.
"Oh~ Rookie Arrow shuts down snax's push! He's really strong in a straight-up duel!" Ma Xixi praised the kill.
"The Ts at A1 are coming out too, but acoR at CT Spawn is ready! He takes down two with consecutive USP kills! Volt at Archway catches the timing and pushes through the smoke for a kill!"
"Good thing k0nfig reacted quickly and traded volt!"
In just a few seconds, the situation shifted rapidly, leaving a 2v3.
"There's one more at CT Spawn! Careful! The last two should be holding B!" Se3tag shouted over comms.
He hadn't expected them to end up at a numbers disadvantage after Arrow had secured the opening kill.
With the information in hand, Su Zhe pre-aimed CT Spawn and swung out.
AcoR wanted to fall back and wait for his B-site teammate to rotate in before using their numbers advantage to play the clutch.
But Su Zhe wasn't about to pass up such a good chance for a kill. He spotted the CT bouncing toward cover, landed a shot to the body to slow him, then unleashed a spray.
"Bang, bang, bang!"
[Arrow killed acoR with a Glock Headshot]
"Nice shot! Hold CT Spawn! Someone's already close!" K0nfig called over comms. He had made his way around to Long Box.
After hearing him, Su Zhe jumped down from Second Floor, planning to push CT Spawn with k0nfig and trade the kill. But Keoz, the B-site defender, chose to rotate through the VIP Window.
Just as they went to take CT Spawn, Keoz came out through the Archway smoke.
Seeing the T at Long Box with his back turned, Keoz immediately opened fire and easily took down k0nfig.
"He came through the smoke!" K0nfig shouted as he died.
But Su Zhe reacted even faster. The moment he heard the USP, he turned to the right.
"Bang, bang!"
[Arrow killed Keoz with a Glock Headshot]
"Already three kills in the Pistol Round! It's a 1v1 clutch now! He has the bomb. Lsak is playing safe at CT Spawn, trying to run down the clock!"
"Smart move. If you don't plant, I won't come out! But Arrow can safely plant at A1!"
Su Zhe held the angle at CT Spawn for a while. When the CT didn't give him an opening, he went to A1 and started planting at the safe spot.
As soon as he heard the CT swing out and fire to pressure him, he switched weapons and circled around to the right side of Long Box.
When lsak realized the C4 wasn't actually being planted, he knew something was wrong. He hurriedly shifted his aim to the left side of Long Box.
But the T's dark muzzle was already trained on him.
"Bang, bang! Pfft!"
[Arrow killed lsak with a Glock Headshot]
"Nice! Arrow! That's four kills!" K0nfig shouted excitedly in Su Zhe's headset.
"Your aim's on fire already! I whiffed several shots just now!" Headtr1ck said happily. When he'd watched his teammates get picked off one after another, he'd thought the Pistol Round was lost.
"Not bad!" Su Zhe said, bumping fists with his teammates and letting out a breath.
He hadn't felt like the opponents had especially good aim, but his teammates had put a lot of pressure on him right from the start.
Still, he wasn't going to blame them. Everyone had off days.
There's an opinion thread in the comments section. If anything feels off, feel free to say so. I'll fix what I can. Thanks for your support.
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