[Holy shit! What kind of monster reflexes are those?!]
[That awareness! That positioning! Since when did Dark get this clear-headed?]
[Wasn’t he just an aimer before? His brain evolved too?]
[Wait! He used the bandaged hand! You’re telling me he pulled that shot off with an injured hand?]
[He’s faking it, right? He has to be faking it!]
[Stop blindly hating. I’m an old fan—Dark posted his diagnosis report and rehab videos on Weibo. His hand was swollen like a steamed bun back then. No way it was fake! I remember the doctor said if he kept training at high intensity, his hand might be done for!]
[Holy shit! It was that serious?]
[Could Dark really be playing his last dance at the Major while risking the end of his career?]
[I’m tearing up, Bro!]
The barrage in 6657’s stream was flying by like crazy!
Over at Team Liquid’s player booth,
the atmosphere was heavy as hell!
The score on the field had already reached 8:1.
In the previous round, Liquid’s meticulously designed ABA tactic had looked like it was about to become the starting point of their comeback, only to be forcibly wrenched back by that player whose ID was “Dark” in an almost unreasonable manner.
Looking at the score on the screen, in-game leader nitr0’s expression was rather complicated.
To be honest, when there were just over thirty seconds left and he, at Banana, saw that isolation smoke at CT spawn, he had been almost certain the tactic had succeeded.
And in truth, it almost had.
They got the bomb down smoothly.
But who could have expected Niko and Dark’s clutch to be so utterly unreasonable?
That final fake defuse into an instant lock-on headshot onto EliGE was so calm it barely seemed human. At the time, he had been stunned numb watching it.
Beside him, EliGE, who had lost the clutch, looked remorseful and spoke up of his own accord.
“My bad. That was on me.”
Yes. If he had been a little steadier just now, if he had waited and counted the seconds after the opponent tapped the bomb before peeking,
then regardless of whether he won that duel or not, at the very least, they would have taken that round.
Why hadn’t he waited?
EliGE suddenly felt a little dazed.
The answer in his mind was:
because the score deficit was too large, the pressure of the clutch was too great, and his judgment had deviated.
But deep down, he knew
it was not only that.
It was also because that guy on the other side, that former defeated opponent of his, had been shining far too brightly today, stirring up some of his competitive spirit.
He had felt that in that duel,
there was no way he could lose.
And yet the result was:
he lost that clutch.
nitr0 took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the irritation in his heart. Now was not the time to assign blame. The team’s morale was already extremely low.
“There’s no right or wrong in a clutch. It’s fine, man,” nitr0 said, trying to keep his voice steady.
Besides, how could he be harsh on the teammate with the most kills on the team? If not for EliGE tearing apart m0NESY’s AWP holding from the mid hay cart angle during the rotation in the final thirty seconds of the previous round, once m0NESY and huNter- in Pit linked up, Liquid might not have been able to time their way into A and plant so easily.
“We still have the loss bonus. We can still get rifles. Stay steady and take it one round at a time,” nitr0 said, trying hard to pull the team together and lift their morale.
However, fluctuations in mentality were not something a few words of comfort could calm.
Whether it was being overturned by an eco earlier, or the five-versus-three after planting the bomb just now, for Liquid, both had been winnable clutches that they had lost.
That kind of thing was the most damaging to mentality.
After that,
although Liquid triggered the loss bonus in the remaining rounds of the first half and their economy eased up, their overall rhythm and confidence seemed to have been beaten out of them.
Their offense was no longer as smooth and decisive as before. Occasionally, they would pull off an exquisite bit of teamwork and win a clutch, but they still found it hard to form any continuous scoring momentum.
In contrast, G2,
after Meng Lang won that extreme clutch, the entire team’s morale soared, and their aim grew hotter and hotter.
Niko and m0NESY’s gunplay remained fierce, huNter- repeatedly made outstanding contributions with his scouting and pulling, while Meng Lang, within Little Li’s calling system, grew increasingly comfortable.
Whether it was his steady solo defense of B or his timely rotations and trade kills, he seemed impeccable.
The rest of the first half seemed to become G2’s show.
In the end, the first half concluded with the score fixed at 12:3.
Aside from the one point from the pistol round, Liquid had only barely taken two rounds from G2.
As the team ranked ninth in the world last year,
the first half of today’s match between Liquid and G2 had undoubtedly left many people stunned.
At G2’s player booth,
Coach XTQ was beaming as he said with a smile, “You all played well, Bro. Keep it up! Maintain this momentum, and let’s take down Liquid and enter the 2-0 group!”
“Strange. Why do I feel like Liquid isn’t as hard to play against as I imagined?”
m0NESY said with a grin.
Niko smiled and glanced at him, then turned his head and looked at Meng Lang approvingly.
“Of course it’s because of Dark. Dark’s performance in the first half today was outstanding. With him holding Banana together with me, it really took a lot of pressure off me.”
“No, actually, later on they didn’t really hit Banana much. I played pretty badly in a few of my retakes toward A site. I’m not that good on this map. I’m planning to really cram it properly.”
Meng Lang scratched his head as he spoke.
What he said was also the truth.
As a professional player, it was naturally impossible for Meng Lang not to know how to play Inferno.
But compared to Dust2 and Mirage, the maps where his current stats were the highest, his proficiency on Inferno was simply not on the same level as those two.
Meng Lang felt that if his map understanding of Inferno today had been on the same level as Dust2 and Mirage, then after shattering Liquid’s mentality, the opponent would not have been able to take even a single point.
Some people might think that as long as a pro player’s aim was strong enough, he would not play badly on any map—but in truth, the importance of map understanding was not much lower than gunplay.
Gunplay was the foundation.
It determined whether you could complete the kill after spotting an enemy. Without gunplay, even the best awareness and positioning might not be able to convert an advantage.
Map understanding, meanwhile, was the multiplier.
It allowed you to bring your gunplay into effect more efficiently and seize the initiative before the enemy could react. It determined whether you were the one who “saw the enemy first.”
That was also why, on the professional stage, some teams looked like gods descending when playing their strong maps, but got ruthlessly farmed when playing their weak maps.
And the map Meng Lang was facing today, Inferno, was one that placed heavy emphasis on team utility coordination. As the ninth-ranked team in the world, Liquid’s utility synergy was part of their fundamentals.
At certain times in the first half, Meng Lang would rotate over and get bombarded by utility, leaving him with hardly any opportunity for a straight gunfight. He could only give up that round.
Meng Lang could not help thinking that, right now, there was only one map, Mirage, in his simulated training map pool. It looked like he had to expand the map pool in the simulation space.
Mm. After finishing against Liquid, he would switch tonight’s post-sleep simulated training opponent to Liquid’s Inferno.
Very soon,
the second-half pistol round began.
In 6657’s stream.
“Let me tell you guys something a little scary. G2 haven’t won a single pistol round at this Antwerp Major so far. So what about this one?”
“I feel like this pistol round is crucial for both sides! If G2 win it, they can easily reach match point. The same goes for Liquid—if they want to chase points and make a comeback in the second half, they have to win this pistol round.”
“Alright! Let’s first take a look at the setup for this round. On G2’s side, it’s four Glocks and one P250, with two sets of utility.”
“What about Liquid? Good grief! They only bought one set of utility, two armorless USPs, but they have two Kevlar Dualies and one Kevlar USP! Looks like Liquid understands very clearly how important this round is. For this pistol round, they’re going all in! They are determined to take it!”
“Oh! G2 came out of T spawn without making any fake! They’re directly speeding up toward B site this round! Looks like they’re going for a full-on RUSH B. Wait! But after Li-shen entered Banana, he called for silent contact. Could there be a change?”
“Liquid’s setup over at B site is one pair of Dualies and one set of utility, with two players defending deep—one outside first box and one at Coffins.”
“Now G2 are making silent contact. They’ve already crept up to the slab, and Liquid has absolutely no information.”
“How is this round going to play out?”