Is This the Level of the European Division?

Snax felt exhausted watching the lifeless atmosphere in his team.

Ever since leaving VP in 2018, he had been drifting through tier-two and tier-three pro teams.

Accepting GL management's invitation to IGL this time, his main goal was to use this as a springboard for one last burn in the twilight of his career.

But the results fell short. Several S-tier tournaments at the end of last year ended in early eliminations with no achievements.

This time at the Katowice Play-In, they finally made it into the winners' bracket in the first round, giving him hope of entering the Main Tournament—only to run into Nip.

More precisely, they ran into that rookie monster Arrow, who alone had made their entire team hesitant and unsure where to even start fixing things.

"Ugh~" The Polish bear let out a long sigh, inwardly cursing Nip's dumb luck for picking up such a strong and bizarre rookie from who knows where.

The atmosphere on Nip's side was the exact opposite of GL's.

Su Zhe was chatting casually with his teammates. Holding a six-round lead from the First Half, they faced the Second Half with zero pressure—after all, Mirage was still a CT map.

Soon, the few minutes of halftime break ended.

"Alright boys! Keep it up! As long as we play normally, we'll take them down easy. Let's get this first map!"

As the round prep time began, es3tag started laying out the Pistol Round strategy: "We'll buy two Dual Berettas this round. One for the main A player and one for the main B player, hold close points to stop them from trying to Speed Up."

"Headtr1ck, you hang around Jungle and be ready to support B bomb site."

After the sides swapped, Nip moved to the CT Side.

On Mirage, Su Zhe's defensive position as CT was holding the B Zone.

When the Countdown ended, Su Zhe followed the IGL's instructions, bought the Dual Berettas, and headed toward the B bomb site. He jumped onto the White Car, quickly got onto Balcony, and hugged the left wall.

If the terrorists didn't check this spot First Time when entering B, he could easily clean up with the Dual Berettas.

"They're smoking VIP and Arch! Might be a Side Path pinch into B!" Headtr1ck's urgent voice suddenly came through comms. "Hold B a bit! I'm on my way!"

Headtr1ck's read was correct. GL was indeed going for a fast Side Path pinch into B this round.

"GL is going for a fast push this round! With the full smoke on VIP and inside Arch, three players went straight up Side Path. Nip doesn't have anyone in Small Dark Room, so the two B players have to play a passive defense." Ma Xixi quickly analyzed the situation.

"Headtr1ck's rotate is fast, and k0nfig is already moving toward B Zone. The question is whether they can hold off the first wave. Snax leads the charge into Side Path. REZ under B2 wants to let them in and then look for a kill, but sanx checks that spot first time!"

"REZ whiffs with the USP! He gets traded out by several Glocks!"

With REZ, the B Zone support player, down, only Su Zhe was left holding B alone.

And GL had also smoked Market Window First Time, preventing headtr1ck from quickly finding a Gun Position.

Analyzing the situation, Su Zhe knew he had to do something Proactive. Staying passive would only lead to a slow death.

Hearing footsteps approaching from B2, he didn't gamble on whether they would check his spot.

Judging by the footsteps that they were already at Close Point, Su Zhe timed a Peek and swung out.

The first player, volt, reacted immediately. He had been wary of this position from the start.

Seeing the CT swing wide, he instantly aimed and fired. But Su Zhe was holding Headshot angle and came out with a Pre-fire.

"Bang bang bang!"

[Arrow uses dual Berettas to headshot and kill volt]

Behind him, acoR's view was blocked by his teammate's body, so he couldn't fire recklessly. He just kept shifting, trying to find a gap to trade.

Once his teammate dropped, he had no more hesitation. But unfortunately, after missing the first Headshot, he never got another chance to shoot.

The Dual Berettas had a huge advantage in close-range fights like this.

"Bang bang bang!"

[Arrow uses dual Berettas to headshot and kill acoR]

After securing the double kill, Su Zhe immediately tried to find cover. But the entire B2 was lined with open windows.

In the end, he was traded by the terrorists who had entered the bomb site and opened up their angles.

But by then, his teammates' rotate had arrived. Headtr1ck had already circled from Market Window to the outside of the bomb site. Seeing the terrorists' attention drawn to B2, he opened fire and easily cleaned up for a double kill.

The last remaining Keoz managed to trade, but es3tag and k0nfig had already arrived.

Under a double peek, he managed to take down one more with a burst before being traded himself!

"Arrow's double kill in B2 this round was crucial!" Mo reviewed the finished Pistol Round. "Losing those two terrorists in B2 completely stalled GL's entire attack tempo. If he had just given away or only traded one, Nip would've had a much harder time this round."

Ma Xixi nodded and added, "True. The timing of that proactive swing was key. Any later and he would've been traded by volt's Pre-fire. Watching his POV, he clearly sensed someone might be hiding on Balcony."

"But now that GL lost the Pistol Round, they're probably done for."

The moment the Pistol Round ended, cheers erupted from Nip's player booth.

"Nice!! Arrow! That timing was crucial!" K0nfig shouted excitedly after securing the kill.

Even though he got the final frag, he knew exactly where the key moment of the Pistol Round was.

Es3tag saw this and smiled, inwardly admiring his own bold decision from yesterday.

If he hadn't given Su Zhe free rein to fire, Su Zhe wouldn't have performed like this today. He was starting to get curious about how far this young man could go.

After losing the Pistol Round, GL's mentality completely collapsed.

After losing the force buy in the previous round, they were directly carried by Nip all the way to match point.

Under such a huge score difference, es3tag decisively chose to gamble on a defensive setup.

Although they guessed wrong twice at the start, they had plenty of room to make mistakes.

In the end, the score for Map 1 was locked at 13-6—they were just one map away from entering the Katowice Main Tournament.

"This match was way too easy to win!" K0nfig stood up and let out a remark.

The rest of Nip wanted to say just one thing when they heard that: How dare you say what we were all thinking!

What kind of miserable life had they lived before! The old Nip was defined by inconsistency—one day this guy played well, the next day that guy played well.

It was like a carriage that could never find both wheels working at the same time during a match; they just couldn't win.

It drained everyone mentally, and the more they played, the less confidence they had in their careers.

Su Zhe felt a bit of sympathy hearing that—this match really was an easy win.

They had run into two teams in a row and hadn't faced anyone who could put serious pressure on him head-on.

Was the European Division really just this level? What exactly was the reason CNCS got crushed so badly?

That's all for today. Starting to stockpile chapters for the release. Tomorrow's update will be 6K words on time.