At this moment, the broadcast director cut to a replay of Meng Lang’s triple-kill retake just now.
One headshot at the stone slab!
Two kills through smoke!
When he executed apEX behind the slab, the director even replayed it in slow motion three times!
On the screen, the crosshair of that AWP, which had originally been aimed at tree, really was yanked over in an instant as if he were “fighting his inner demons”!
The more you watched, the more ridiculous it looked!
If this hadn’t been an offline match with referees standing behind them, it felt like he would have been reported on the spot.
“Tsk, tsk! Dark really is taking one point all by himself this round! It feels like that wallbang headshot Big Potato landed on NiKo earlier activated some kind of mysterious power inside Dark!”
Wan Jiqi was speechless, yet also somewhat amused.
“And did you guys notice? Those three shots from Dark—every single time, he forcefully shut Vitality down one second before they were about to launch their attack!”
“apEX was hiding behind the slab saying, ‘I’m about to pop-flash and rush!’ Bang, Dark shoots him dead! Magisk was by the smoke at the slab saying, ‘I’m gonna rush!’ Bang, Dark shoots him dead again! Dupreeh sticks close to the divider smoke saying, ‘I’m really gonna rush!’ Dark fires another shot and shuts them all down!”
“It feels like that kind of… that kind of situation where your pants are already halfway off, and it’s just really uncomfortable, you know? It really messes with your mentality.”
The 6657 livestream chat flooded the screen again.
“That really is uncomfortable.”
“Wan-trash, do you have no other way to describe it? Even a strawberry-flavored little beauty like me is blushing watching this.”
“This Wan-trash really is vulgar. Ten men are here playing with mice and he can fantasize a whole bunch of filthy nonsense out of it.”
“…”
And at this moment in the match, Vitality’s mentality in the next round did indeed seem somewhat affected.
After losing the first full-buy round, even though ZywOo had a hero AWP in this round, they still failed to take it.
G2 directly tied the score at 3:3.
There was no helping it.
Vitality could only go for a full eco.
As a result, they lost another round.
4:3.
However, after that, Vitality also displayed their resilience as a team.
The score between the two sides remained very close, and neither side managed to pull too far ahead all the way to the end.
When the first half ended, the score between G2 and Vitality was fixed at 8:7. On the surface, G2 seemed to hold a slight upper hand.
But considering that Inferno was a “CT-sided map,” once the sides switched in the second half, G2’s tiny advantage from the first half could basically be ignored.
During the halftime break, the atmosphere at Vitality’s player area seemed somewhat heavy.
As one of the most experienced veterans on the team, dupreeh pondered for a long while before finally speaking, his tone carrying a trace of confusion and gravity:
“That Dark on the other side… his performance in the first half today really doesn’t look like someone unfamiliar with Inferno.”
He said this not only because Meng Lang had put up a 13/6 K-D in the first half, almost matching ZywOo’s 13/7 on the scoreboard.
More importantly…
The map awareness, positioning, and grasp of key timings that Meng Lang displayed on Inferno were completely at the level of someone playing one of his strongest maps!
“It really doesn’t look like it. But that doesn’t make sense!”
Magisk, who habitually leaned back with both hands behind his head, frowned at those words, his face full of incomprehension.
“When they played Liquid last time, his Inferno clearly still had a lot of rusty spots, and there were quite a few problems with team coordination too. How can someone improve their proficiency on a map by this much in just one day?”
This simply went against his many years of professional understanding. Map comprehension and team coordination required a great deal of time to polish; they were absolutely not things that could be achieved overnight.
apEX had actually noticed this point long ago as well, but the brief halftime break was clearly not the time to delve deeply into the issue.
He suddenly clapped his hands, forcefully breaking the slightly low atmosphere, and raised his voice.
He began his classic rallying speech:
“Bro! Bro! Listen to me! Now is not the time to discuss why that CN guy suddenly got enlightened! What matters is, the second half is here! Inferno is a CT-sided map! Now it’s our turn to play CT!”
“Win the pistol round! If we win the pistol round, we can take the rhythm into our own hands!”
“Focus up! Forget the first half! Pistol round! We have to win it!”
As if infected by apEX’s impassioned mood, the originally somewhat heavy atmosphere within Vitality was swept away at once.
Everyone pulled themselves together and began focusing on discussing their defensive strategy for the pistol round.
The second-half pistol round
began very soon.
With sides swapped, G2 were now the attackers (T), while Vitality were the defenders (CT).
“All right, the second-half pistol round begins! G2 have a standard Glock plus P250 setup, while Vitality have USPs and Dualies.”
In the 6657 livestream, Wan Jiqi commentated, “Looking at Vitality’s opening positions, it’s a 3B2A start. Oh? They cleared Banana at the start, then apEX left only himself in cubby holding a smoke, directly shifting into a heavy 4A defense!”
“apEX’s call here is very bold! They’ve guessed that G2 are very likely to speed up and hit A in the pistol round! They’ve chosen a gamble-stack tactic.”
Sure enough, on G2’s side.
After a brief default, in-game leader Aleksib decisively called out the order in voice chat:
“Fly out A apartments! Speed it up!”
However, this decision had been completely predicted by apEX!
When the G2 players surged toward A apartments and A1 like a tide, what greeted them were four USPs that had long since been waiting in full formation!
Crossfire formed instantly.
The lines of fire were airtight!
“Oh no, fuck!!! G2’s speed-up just ran straight into a brick wall!” Wan Jiqi cried out in shock. “The exit of A apartments is locked down by Magisk, dupreeh, and ZywOo from three gun positions! A apartments has turned into a serving window.”
【Vitality-ZywOo killed G2-Aleksib with a USP-S headshot!】
【Vitality-Magisk killed G2-huNter- with a USP-S!】
【Vitality-dupreeh killed G2-NiKo with a USP-S headshot!】
G2’s attack collapsed in an instant!
Amid the chaos,
only Meng Lang and m0NESY managed to trade one kill each before helplessly falling as well.
In the pistol round, Vitality relied on an excellent defensive setup and apEX’s gamble-stack prediction to take it with ease!
“This is the weight of a heavy 4A defense!”
Wan Jiqi laughed and shook his head. “Nothing you can do. Trying to fly out apartments in front of apEX—God Li’s call this round was completely read! Looks like G2’s pistol-round curse is still chasing them.”
“Then what does G2 do next? Force-buy? Oh! m0NESY and NiKo have already bought Deagles, and God Li has bought a hair dryer too… Wait! Dark! What did Dark buy?!”
Wan Jiqi’s voice suddenly rose!
Under the broadcast camera,
Meng Lang could be seen, after losing the pistol round, choosing not to buy an SMG or a Deagle, but… buying a Scout?!
“A Scout?! Dark bought a Scout on Inferno?!”
Wan Jiqi’s tone was somewhat hesitant. “This… what kind of understanding is this?! Even if Dark did indeed perform well in that Banana round in the first half, a Scout is different from an AWP! If he doesn’t make an impact this round, the next round will just be a complete collapse!”
The 6657 chat was instantly drowned by question marks!
“?????”
“Buying a Scout on Inferno? Has he gone crazy?”
“He’s getting cocky?”
“Why not just honestly eco? What is he thinking?”
“…”
At this moment, it was not just the commentators and audience. Even G2’s teammates were stunned for a moment.
They had decided to force-buy on this eco, after all. In the first half, Vitality had lost the pistol round, force-bought, and turned the game around. There was no reason for them not to try as well.
But what the hell was this Scout?
NiKo could not help confirming over voice chat: “Bro? You sure?”
m0NESY could not help glancing sideways too.
Meng Lang’s voice was extremely calm:
“Yeah. I’ll try.”
His gaze fell on the light sniper rifle on the screen, and the extreme focus and agile feel he had experienced when fusing with the 【Socially Anxious Remnant Body】 flashed through his mind.
Aleksib, however, swiftly made his decision.
“Fine! Then let’s try.”
When he said this, he glanced at apEX across from him and could not help gritting his teeth slightly.
apEX’s style was like a mad dog’s, completely ignoring common sense.
Yet he just so happened to catch people off guard.
In the first half, it was precisely because Aleksib’s tactics had been too conservative, too academic, that apEX had bitten off several rounds with his unreasonable mad-dog tactics.
So this round,
he also decided to gamble once.
It was not that he held much hope for Meng Lang’s “Inferno Scout.”
But as long as it could catch the other side off guard, take one down, or even chip away some HP,
that would be a huge advantage.
Dark!
Can you do it?