The Team Liquid of 2022 was, without a doubt, a roster where experience and potential coexisted!
Not only did they possess nitr0, an experienced in-game leader and one of the banner figures of North American CS, but they also boasted the evergreen tree of the NA scene, the "North American Headshot Machine" renowned for his terrifying frontline firepower—EliGE, a player who had placed highly as the TOP 6 in 2019, serving as the team's star veteran. Alongside them were the all-around support NAF and the lurker shox.
Both of these two were former HLTV annual TOP 10 players themselves. It was simply that North American CS hadn't produced significant results in recent years, causing them to fade from the spotlight.
Beyond that, Liquid also had fresh blood within the team. oSee was widely regarded in 2022 as one of the most promising up-and-coming AWPers in North America. His sniping style was steady and precise, and after joining Liquid, he had taken on the heavy responsibility of being the main AWPer, bearing the great expectations of the North American CS scene.
While G2 discussed today's opponent in their hotel training room.
At the same time, in Team Liquid's temporary training room.
The pre-match preparation meeting was also underway.
Coach adreN stood before a whiteboard with G2's player information and basic stats pasted on it.
"Alright fellas, today's opponent is G2. NiKo and huNter- — the Bosnian duo. I don't need to say more. Their individual skill is world-class; they are the greatest threat at any given moment. m0NESY, a young prodigy AWPer, is dangerous when he's in form. And their new IGL, Aleksib — we need to be wary of his tactical system."
At this point, he paused and tapped his pen on Meng Lang's photo.
"Then there's this newcomer, Dark. In yesterday's match against EG, he took the MVP. He handled several clutch situations beautifully, and his form looks blazing hot."
Hearing this, EliGE leaned back in his chair, arms crossed. There wasn't much change in his expression; with his bald look, he radiated the aura of a top-tier player at a single glance.
In fact, as an elite rifler renowned across North America and even globally for his direct aim duels, he had seen far too many newcomers with "stunning debuts."
"Every year, a few guys like this pop up in the Major Challengers Stage after playing one or two good matches," EliGE said calmly, carrying the confidence of a top-tier player. "But CS:GO operates on a rigid hierarchy. The match intensity from here on out will be completely different. Not to mention..."
He paused, seemingly recalling something, the corner of his mouth curving into a barely perceptible smile.
"Not to mention, he isn't a complete newcomer. Did you pull up his stats from his EG days?"
adreN nodded, casting the data from the tablet in his hand onto the whiteboard. "That's exactly what I wanted to say. I've watched his previous match demos and stats from EG. From beginning to end, he has been a typical 'pure aimer' type of player. Extremely reliant on form and individual performance; relatively weak in tactical discipline and team coordination. After his last hand injury, his form dropped severely. When EG lost, he was indeed one of the team's more unstable factors."
"But the reason EG lost yesterday was largely because they didn't expect him to recover this quickly or to be this hot. This type of player can be terrifying when they're rolling, but at the same time, they're also the easiest to counter."
adreN analyzed, "On the other hand, while G2 has brought in Aleksib and is trying to build a more academy-style, systematic approach, their foundation—or rather, what they're best at—is still relying on their star players' superlative individual skill to break open sites and secure rounds. NiKo and huNter-'s site-breaking ability is world-class."
"So, in our map veto, we must avoid maps where their individual skill can be maximized—like Dust2."
adreN rapped the whiteboard with his pen. "We need to pick a map that places more emphasis on tactical mind games, mid-round defaults, and team coordination—limiting the expression of their individual skill, especially this newcomer Dark's aim. If we trap him in our tactical rhythm, his threat level will drop drastically."
At this moment, EliGE spoke up, his tone carrying an air of matter-of-fact confidence:
"I don't think Dark is a cause for concern. We need to focus more on limiting NiKo and huNter-'s impact, keeping tabs on m0NESY's AWP, and dismantling Aleksib's tactical setups."
"As for this newcomer..."
A scene flashed through his mind—not long ago, that match against EG. At the critical moment, the bullet from the Eastern youth's AWP had struck his leg, while he himself had ended the match with a seemingly random AK spray bullet, seemingly ending the other's career at EG as well.
"If I could crush him once, I can crush him a second time." EliGE's voice was ironclad.
There is no such thing as pure luck in CS:GO. So-called "good luck" is merely the favor that the strong deserve.
And he,
Was clearly the stronger one.
When it came to world-class riflers, everyone knew NiKo was the longest river.
But his own rifle was no less sharp!
Hearing EliGE's domineering and supremely confident words, the atmosphere in the Liquid training room instantly relaxed, and everyone laughed.
nitr0 also smiled. As the IGL, he needed this kind of confidence from his teammates to boost morale. He immediately nodded and said:
"EliGE is right. We'll do as the coach says—pick a map we're better at coordinating on, and drag the match into our tempo. No matter how strong G2's individual skill is, it can't overcome five-man teamwork. Make preparations, win this match, and we can move into the 2-0 bracket, one step closer to the Legends Stage!"
Following this, Liquid's pre-match meeting concluded in a cautious but generally quite relaxed atmosphere.
Tactically, they still respected G2, but they didn't view Meng Lang, this "unexpected factor," as the greatest threat.
After all, in CS:GO's brutal competitive arena, a single breakout performance was far from enough to earn the respect of a top team.
Leaving aside Tier-0 players like s1mple and ZywOo,
Below them,
Among tier-one pros,
who hadn't been a prodigious young talent that drew gasps from the whole arena and the attention of the world when they debuted?
As for Dark,
He truly wasn't a threat to be feared yet.
In the afternoon, when they left the hotel to get in the car, Antwerp was nothing like yesterday's clear blue skies. Dark clouds blanketed the sky overhead, and the heavens were so gloomy it looked like evening.
Meng Lang looked at this weather where dark clouds pressed upon the city as if to crush it, suddenly thought of something, took out his phone, and snapped a photo of the gloomy sky overhead.
Click—!
m0NESY heard the sound and turned to look at Meng Lang curiously.
"What are you doing?"
"Oh, taking a photo to post an update."
Meng Lang quickly synced this photo to his Instagram and Weibo feeds.
Caption:
The Dark is coming!
Darkness descends!
Location: Antwerp, Belgium.
Hmm, a bit cringey.
He rubbed his nose and grinned with a crooked mouth.
But this was necessary. Interactions on Weibo and Instagram were also an important source of his GOAT points.
Thanks to the hype of recently joining G2 plus yesterday's eye-catching performance at the Major, Meng Lang had gained followers quite quickly. His Weibo had already broken 50,000 followers.
His Instagram had also reached 3,946.
Soon, his domestic fans who followed his Weibo received this update from Meng Lang.
"????"
"Is Dark trash acting cocky again?"
"Is he getting in the car to head to the arena?"
"Dark God played so well yesterday! That clutch made me cry from how cool it was, play well again today!"
"."
"Today I see G2 in the 1-0 bracket is playing Liquid, right? Tsk tsk, looks like Chicken might come discipline Dark trash again!"
"Remember that time in EG vs Liquid? Chicken had multiple duel kills on Dark. He won't go weak in the knees seeing Chicken this time, right?"
A dozen or so minutes later, the shuttle arrived at the arena.
Meng Lang got out of the car, took out his phone, glanced at the comments under his Weibo post, picked a highly-upvoted hot comment saying "Dark trash goes weak in the knees when he meets Chicken," and casually replied:
—"Don't worry, this little black fan won't lose to your Brother Kun!"
"???"
Right after he posted,
The replies below were nothing but question marks.
Meng Lang chuckled, caught up to NiKo in front of him, and entered the studio together.
Today they were scheduled for the first round.
Soon,
both teams' players were seated and ready.
G2's second battle of the Antwerp Major was about to begin.
Douyu, Room 6657.
"You guys are in luck today. The 1-0 bracket goes first, and G2's match is the very first one. Everyone can just sit back and enjoy," Wan Jiqi smiled and continued.
"Someone asked, 'Machine, Machine, who do you think will win today?' The streamer definitely supports G2. Hey, some said the hype team is just making noise. But G2 at this Major really isn't a hype team, and the streamer definitely trusts his good brother Dark."
Before he finished speaking, even Wan Jiqi himself burst out laughing. He coughed dryly and said, "Alright, no more nonsense. I actually think today's match is a 50-50 toss-up. After all, both are 1-0 teams from the winner's bracket, and Liquid is basically a top-tier North American team right now. EG definitely can't compare. Last year Liquid was ranked ninth in the world. In the first half of this year, they dropped one spot in the HLTV rankings, but they're still tenth in the world—solidly North America's number one."
"And also, in that BLAST match this January, I remember Chicken absolutely demolished Dark's AWP several times. Duel score 10 to 3—meaning he killed you ten times and you only fought back three times."
"To be honest, this guy somewhat counters Dark. Although now both are riflers, I feel like with Chicken's firepower, Dark will be under quite a bit of pressure today."
The livestream chat flooded with comments.
"Oh no! Could 2K have actually been right?"
"The sun burns bright, all things reveal their true form?"
"Where are those Dark fanboys who were singing his praises yesterday? Really making a fuss over one EG match."
"Exactly. A team like EG that scraped through the NA RMR getting stomped is completely normal."
"Actually, I'm kind of hoping Dark can get his revenge today. Fall down where you stand, get back up where you fell."
"I think it'll be tough. Whether G2 can win mainly depends on whether Shrimp gives his approval today."
"NiKo: Watch me skip rope with my shrimp whiskers ╰╯╭╮╰╯╭╮!"
"Angry, trembling, cold! What kind of stream is this? Is this really CN's biggest NiKo fan club?"
"."
Wan Jiqi switched the feed and immediately perked up. "Alright, no more chit-chat, bros. This round Liquid bans first. They immediately removed Dust2 and Mirage. What about G2? They removed Overpass, Nuke, and Vertigo. So now only Ancient and Inferno remain!"
Seeing the two remaining maps, Liquid's coach's eyes immediately lit up. He clenched his fist and hammered his palm, feeling as though things had gone exactly according to plan.
"Pick Inferno."
He said without hesitation.
IGL nitr0 was slightly stunned, then quickly caught on, immediately removing Ancient.
Thus, only one map remained.
Inferno.
At this moment,
nitr0 and coach adreN exchanged a smile. Inferno was precisely the map they had selected as the most suitable when designing tactics specifically targeting G2 that morning.
If Dust2 is the ultimate test of aim, and Mirage is the ultimate test of tactics, then Inferno is the ultimate test of teamwork.
On this compact map, the individual skill of star players is minimized.
Because the map has short paths and many corners, with almost no long-distance duel scenarios aside from T-spawn and Mid, making it extremely dependent on utility coordination.
This also limits the performance of star players with high firepower to a certain extent.
Not just in pugs.
Many mechanically gifted pros didn't particularly like this map either—EliGE frowned deeply upon seeing his team actively pick Inferno.
He had actually wanted to play Ancient.
On this map, he would be relatively ineffective.
But he also understood the coach's intention. After all, the opposition had the Bosnian duo.
If he was weakened,
the opposition would also be weakened!
After the veto phase, G2 actively chose to start on the defensive side this match.
During the match countdown phase, Aleksib started hyping up the team, emphasizing that they absolutely had to win the pistol round today.
After yesterday's match,
during the evening review, coach XTQ and Aleksib both felt that the reason yesterday's match against EG was so difficult was because they lost the pistol rounds.
The saying that pros don't need to win the first three rounds is a lie.
In professional matches, if you lose the pistol round, the next is an eco. If you lose the third-round full buy as well, then the next round goes without saying.
That's essentially conceding four rounds right from the start.
That's exactly what happened against EG yesterday. G2 lost the first four rounds in the first half, causing morale to plummet and no one to get into rhythm.
Their performance was inevitably off.
As a result,
they lost the second-half pistol round as well.
In fact,
if it weren't for Meng Lang pulling off a heaven-defying unarmored Glock 1v5 clutch in the fourth round, then grabbing an AK and leading the team to three consecutive rounds to build up momentum...
...it would really be hard to say whether they'd be playing in today's 1-0 bracket match.
"So, we absolutely have to take today's pistol round."
Aleksib said seriously.