Snax looked at the lifeless atmosphere on the team and felt a little drained himself.
Since leaving VP in 2018, he'd been drifting between second- and third-tier professional teams.
He'd accepted GL management's invitation to lead the team mainly because he wanted to use it as a stepping stone and make one last push near the end of his career.
But things hadn't gone as hoped. They'd been eliminated early from several S-tier events late last year without achieving anything.
At the Katowice qualifiers, they'd finally made it into the upper bracket in the first round, giving him hope of reaching the Main Tournament. Then they'd run into Nip.
More accurately, they'd run into Arrow, a monstrous rookie who'd made the whole team hesitant, yet they had no idea how to deal with him.
"Ugh..." The Polish bear let out a long sigh, grumbling inwardly about Nip's ridiculous luck. Where had they found such a strong and strange rookie?
The atmosphere on Nip's side was the exact opposite of GL's.
Su Zhe was chatting casually with his teammates. Their six-round lead at halftime left them feeling no pressure going into the second half. After all, Mirage was still a CT-sided map.
The few minutes of halftime soon came to an end.
"Guys! Keep it up! As long as we play normally, we can beat them easily. Let's take this map first!"
As they entered the round preparation phase, es3tag started laying out their Pistol Round strategy. "Let's buy two Dual Berettas. One each for the A and B anchors, holding Close Point to stop them from trying to rush us."
"Headtr1ck, stay near Jungle and be ready to support B bomb site."
After the sides switched, Nip took up the defense.
On Mirage, Su Zhe was playing as a CT, holding B Zone.
As the Countdown ended, Su Zhe followed the IGL's instructions and bought Dual Berettas, then headed toward B bomb site. He ran across White Car, quickly climbed onto Balcony, and tucked himself against the wall on the left.
If the Ts entered B Zone without checking that spot right away, he'd have an easy time mowing them down with his Dual Berettas.
"They smoked VIP and Archway. They might be trying to pinch B through Side Path!" Headtr1ck suddenly called out urgently over voice chat. "Hold them at B point! I'm coming!"
Headtr1ck's read was right. GL was indeed going for a fast attack, pinching B through Side Path.
"GL's going for a fast hit this round! They've fully smoked off VIP and the inside of Archway, and three players have gone straight up Side Path. Nip has nobody in Small Dark Room, so the two players at B point can only defend passively." Ma Xixi quickly analyzed the situation.
"Headtr1ck's rotating back fast, and k0nfig is already moving toward B Zone. Now it's a question of whether they can hold off the first wave. Snax is leading the way into Side Path. REZ, beneath B2, is waiting to let them in before looking for a kill, but sanx checked that spot right away!"
"REZ's USP let him down! He got finished off by several Glocks!"
With REZ, the B Zone support player, down, Su Zhe was the only one left anchoring B.
GL had also smoked off Market Window right away, leaving headtr1ck no chance to quickly find an angle.
Su Zhe assessed the situation and knew he had to make a move. Staying on the defensive would only get him slowly killed.
Hearing the footsteps drawing closer in B2, he didn't gamble on whether the opponents would check his position.
Judging by the footsteps, they'd reached Close Point. Su Zhe seized the timing and swung out.
Volt, who was leading the push, reacted immediately. He'd been wary of that spot from the start.
As soon as he saw the CT swing out wide, he snapped onto him and opened fire. But Su Zhe had his crosshair at head level and had already started firing as he swung out.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
[Arrow killed volt with a headshot using the Dual Berettas]
AcoR behind him had his line of fire blocked by his teammate's body, so he didn't dare shoot carelessly. He kept shifting around, trying to find an opening to trade.
Once his teammate fell, he had nothing holding him back. But after his first shot failed to hit the head, he never got another chance to fire.
Dual Berettas had a big advantage in close-range fights like this.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
[Arrow killed acoR with a headshot using the Dual Berettas]
After securing the double kill, Su Zhe immediately tried to find cover, but every window in B2 left him exposed.
In the end, he was traded by a T who pushed into the site and widened the angle.
But by then, his teammates had arrived to retake. Headtr1ck had circled from the Market entrance to the edge of the site. Seeing that the Ts' attention was on B2, he opened fire and easily claimed a double kill.
Keoz, the only one left, managed to trade a kill, but es3tag and k0nfig had already arrived.
They pinched him from both sides. He managed to take down one more with a burst of fire, but was then traded.
"Arrow's double kill in B2 was crucial that round!" Mo said as he reviewed the completed Pistol Round. "The two Ts dying in B2 completely stalled GL's attack. If Arrow had given away that position or only traded one, Nip would've had a much harder time winning the round."
Ma Xixi nodded and added, "Exactly. The timing on that swing was crucial. If he'd been even a little later, volt probably would've taken him down with his pre-fire. From his perspective, it was clear he'd noticed someone might be hiding on Balcony."
"But now that GL have lost the Pistol Round, they're probably done for."
The moment the Pistol Round ended, cheers broke out from Nip's players' seats.
"Nice! Arrow! That delay was so important!" K0nfig shouted excitedly after getting a kill.
Although he'd gotten the final kill, he knew exactly what had decided the Pistol Round.
Seeing this, es3tag smiled too. He was already starting to admire his bold decision the day before.
If he hadn't given Su Zhe the freedom to fire at will, Su Zhe wouldn't be putting on this kind of performance today. He was starting to wonder how far the young player could go.
After losing the Pistol Round, GL's morale completely collapsed.
They lost their force buy the next round, and Nip carried their momentum straight to Match Point.
With such a huge score difference, es3tag decisively chose to gamble on the defensive positions.
They guessed wrong twice at the start, but they had plenty of chances to adjust.
In the end, the score on the first map stood at 13–6. They were just one map away from making it into the Katowice Main Tournament.
"That was such an easy win!" K0nfig said as he stood up.
The rest of Nip could only think: How'd you manage to say what we were all thinking?
What kind of miserable days had they been through before? Nip had always been wildly inconsistent. One day one player would be in form, and the next day it would be someone else.
They'd go through entire matches without ever having two wheels on the same wagon at once, and they just couldn't win.
It had left everyone exhausted, and with each match, they'd lost more and more confidence in their careers.
Su Zhe could relate, at least a little. The match really had been an easy win.
They'd faced two teams in a row and hadn't met anyone who could put him under serious pressure.
Was this really the level of the European Division? What was it about CNCS that made them get crushed?
That's all for today. I'm starting to stockpile chapters for the launch. I'll update with 6,000 characters on time tomorrow.
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