The Scout, the king of cost-effectiveness, a weapon that in most people’s hands is a helpless choice made only when money is tight.
But sometimes, it is also a weapon capable of creating infinite possibilities.
Because high risk
is often accompanied by high reward.
The second round of the second half.
An ECO force-buy round.
In the 6657 livestream room, Wanjiqi’s voice suddenly rose, carrying a hint of tension and anticipation.
“Alright! The second round of the half, G2’s ECO force-buy! Let’s see how both sides play this one out! I feel that whether G2 can complete the comeback will largely depend on whether Niko’s Deagle can create a miracle!”
“Oh? Little Li is still choosing to focus on B at the start. There’s nothing wrong with that idea. After all, they’re all on short guns, aside from Dark’s Scout… But on a map like Inferno, where so many fights happen at close range, that thing really doesn’t have much room to shine. Banana’s narrow terrain is indeed more suited to short guns, so there’s no problem with going B at the start.”
At this point, Wanjiqi changed tack, his tone turning grave. “But wait, Vitality! apEX seems to have predicted Little Li’s tactic! They’re starting this round with a 3B2A setup! With this 3B start, they’ll definitely use the CT side’s rifle advantage to come out early and retake Banana control!”
“In a round like this, once Vitality takes control of Banana, G2’s short-gun lineup will be completely restricted. It’ll be very hard to play!”
In-game, the countdown ended!
Meng Lang, as the first man in, immediately asked Aleksib behind him for a support flash into Banana the moment the fast smoke at T entrance bloomed.
“Flash!”
The instant the flash popped, Meng Lang charged straight out through the T entrance smoke with heavy steps. Relying on his extreme familiarity with the map, he precisely seized the tree position on Banana, a spot that had practically been dominated by ZywOo when they were on the T side in the first half. At the same time, he had already readied a smoke grenade in his hand.
Sure enough!
Less than a second after he got into position, a Molotov came whistling over, landing precisely toward the recess by the tree position!
“The fire’s coming! Dark’s smoke…” Before Wanjiqi could finish speaking.
Meng Lang’s smoke grenade left his hand almost the instant before the flames spread. With a soft “puff,” it landed accurately at his feet, extinguishing the newly ignited flames in a seamless transition!
“Beautiful! That self-smoke was crucial! He didn’t take a single tick of fire damage!” Wanjiqi praised. “Dark’s control over utility timing really is getting better and better!”
Almost at the same moment the smoke bloomed, another HE grenade came crashing over right after it!
“Bang!”
The grenade exploded at the edge of the smoke!
But after throwing the smoke, Meng Lang instinctively made a small lateral sidestep, causing him to take only the edge damage from the explosion. His HP dropped by just a dozen points.
“Wow! That little movement! He dodged most of the grenade damage again! Dark’s handling of the details on Inferno today really has improved far, far too much compared to yesterday against Liquid!” Wanjiqi couldn’t help exclaiming again.
At this moment, at Vitality’s player seats.
Seeing the mid-Banana smoke at the tree recess, apEX frowned slightly, a little worried that G2 might use the chaos to sneak close and tuck in by the slab—he himself liked playing that way, so naturally he had to guard against the opponent doing it too.
“Magisk! Jump-spot close slab. Don’t let them get in!”
apEX quickly called.
“OK!”
Magisk answered.
He hurried behind the slab, then suddenly jumped up, using the brief airborne vision to scout Banana.
However!
The very instant the CT’s fly-like head rose from behind the slab—
“Bang—!”
The Scout’s unique gunshot abruptly rang out from the smoke in the direction of tree.
The sound was not loud,
but it was exceptionally lethal!
While Magisk was still in midair, a burst of blood exploded from his helmet, and he abruptly toppled down headfirst!
【G2-Dark killed Vitality-Magisk with an SSG08 headshot!】
Meng Lang, using the Scout’s high mobility, slipped back down from the woodpile in front of him and returned to the tree smoke like a nimble assassin after his one-shot kill.
In his heart, he raised his brows in satisfaction.
Who told you to look?
“Whoa—! My god! Dark’s shot was a scalp-taker! He plucked the jump-spotting Magisk right out of the air! No peeking allowed, apparently!”
Wanjiqi’s cry instantly tore through the livestream room!
“Wow! Dark really is proficient with this Scout! It actually caught them off guard! Vitality had absolutely no defense against G2 not only force-buying this round, but even buying such an off-meta Scout!”
The bullet comments in the livestream room also flooded the screen.
“6666!”
“What the hell! He really did steal one with that Scout!”
“Magisk really is the old unlucky bastard.”
“But now that the Scout’s been exposed, feels like it’s not much use anymore!”
“.”
At Vitality’s player seats.
Magisk stared at his screen, which had instantly gone gray, completely dumbfounded.
“WTF?! What the hell was that? Where did the AWP come from?” he subconsciously shouted, then immediately reacted. “No! It’s a Scout! But… buying a Scout on an Inferno ECO?! What is this guy even thinking?!”
Even the ever-composed ZywOo was stunned for a moment.
On Inferno, the paths were narrow and there were countless corners, so for a sniper, there was indeed limited room to operate.
On the CT side, he might buy an AWP to hold, but when playing T, sometimes he would not even buy an AWP and would simply use an AK.
On one hand, he felt that if tactics did not require it, the AK was far more useful than the AWP on T side. On the other hand, this was naturally also the perfect display of a top-tier world No. 1 player’s “all-round” ability.
At this moment, seeing Dark on the other side buy a Scout in an ECO round, ZywOo truly did not quite understand it.
The key was, Dark had actually plucked someone out of the air with it.
For a moment,
ZywOo did not know whether to say the opponent’s Scout was too accurate, or whether Magisk’s luck was just too bad.
Over at G2’s player seats, it was a different scene altogether.
“Nice, brother!”
Aleksib shouted excitedly, the smile at the corners of his mouth harder to suppress than an AK recoil. “That shot was so crucial!”
When Meng Lang bought the Scout this round, his expectations had only been that he might hit a body shot and make the opponents bleed a little.
Who would have thought Meng Lang would come out and pluck one straight out of the air?
Gaining a man advantage at the start was undoubtedly tremendous good news for them in an ECO force-buy round, allowing Little Li to once again see hope for a comeback.
Having bought a MAC-10, he knew there was no time to lose. While the opponent had lost a player on B and had yet to rotate, he had to act immediately.
“Ilya, give me a flash! I’ll take control in front of slab! You guys follow and push up!”
“No problem.”
Hearing this, the kid immediately pulled out a flashbang.
However, Vitality had started this round with three on B.
apEX, who was holding near triple boxes, reacted extremely quickly. Seeing his teammate get instantly deleted, he immediately threw a Molotov toward the close slab position, followed right after by an HE grenade!
“Oh! apEX’s nade-and-fire combo is here!” Wanjiqi cried.
Little Li, just about to push forward, bore the brunt of it. The MAC-10’s effective range was extremely short; he had to get close to deal meaningful damage.
But just as he stepped out from cover, that HE grenade exploded almost at his feet!
“Bang—!”
Slowed!
Immediately after, he stepped into the spreading flames!
“Bad news! God Li is getting tortured by the nade-and-fire combo! His HP instantly hits rock bottom!” Wanjiqi’s tone plummeted.
With low HP and slowed, Little Li was caught between a rock and a hard place. Forcing his way out through the fire, he had only just raised the muzzle of his MAC-10.
ZywOo, swinging out from sandbags to trade, lifted his hand and sprayed him down, easily taking him out with the M4A1.
【Vitality-ZywOo killed G2-Aleksib with an M4A1!】
The kill feed appeared!
Wanjiqi sighed helplessly.
“Sigh! God Li was a little too hasty there! But then again, you really can’t blame him entirely. That’s how force-buy rounds are. You have to push forward and seize the advantage while you have more people against fewer. He just didn’t expect Vitality to have a heavy 3B defense this round. Their utility came out too quickly, and the pressure was too great!”
“Now the numbers on both sides are even again at 4v4! But G2 have lost their in-game leader, and they’re all on short guns. The situation is still passive!”
“Oh, wait! apEX at second box is already waiting for the fire to fade, preparing to throw a yellow-wall retake flash for ZywOo!”
“G2 can’t keep stalling on Banana anymore. They have to make a decision as soon as possible!”