On Team Vitality’s bench.
apEX saw the opponents take the forward position right off the bat and immediately called a switch. “ZywOo, you go A. You’re not needed here.”
apEX was, after all, a veteran IGL.
On one hand, he knew all too well that a place like Banana could easily end up a ghost town even if you dumped ten thousand utility in the opening, so he had to stay on guard for a B-fake into A.
On the other hand, Vitality’s triple-B setup was meant to contest Banana control, but now that they couldn’t break into close positions and were forced to fall back, the triple-B setup was naturally unnecessary.
For a deep defense, two players were more than enough.
It had to be said, apEX’s reasoning in this crucial round was clear-headed, and this time he had indeed read Aleksib’s intentions correctly.
Because right at the start, as Aleksib and NiKo dumped utility to send Meng Lang into Banana’s forward positions, m0NESY and huNter- on the Apartments side had silently pushed up to VIP, securing control of A Apartments and Boiler.
At 1:20, the smoke wall blocking Banana faded, and apEX, holding from deep on B site, threw a follow-up smoke to keep it blocked.
Meng Lang held down left-click the moment he saw the smoke, spraying through an entire AK magazine, followed by a grenade toward Coffin to bleed them out. The B fake was looking incredibly convincing.
But a fake is like the paradox of “the bigger the fish, the smaller the fish.” The more convincing the fake, the more fake it becomes.
apEX scoffed, completely unmoved.
Twenty seconds later! When G2 popped the first connector smoke from mid, he even sent Magisk, who had been holding B with him, back toward A. Leaving only utility behind, he soaked B alone, running a heavy 4A setup.
“What—! apEX has read Aleksib’s tactics once again! This round is crucial! Vitality’s defense on A is rock solid. Can G2 break through? They’re prepping a flash execute to speed things up!”
Boom!
The AWP cracked!
ZywOo, hard-scoping down A1, caught huNter- the instant G2’s mid flash popped, then immediately ducked back to preserve himself.
Sure enough, the next second, two flashes detonated above the A bombsite.
Though huNter- had dropped, it didn’t slow G2’s A-site push.
At this point, Aleksib’s read was that having sold the B fake so hard at the start, the enemy had to have at least two on B, if not three. Even if they lost one, they could still force a 3v3 onto the site.
But the next moment, when Magisk appeared on A to get a kill, the instantly deleted Aleksib realized something was wrong!
ZywOo showing up on A site was normal—the CT primary AWP was supposed to hold mid, only occasionally swinging out to Banana for a pick.
But Magisk was the main B anchor! What did Magisk’s presence here mean? It meant the enemy had at most one player left on B, and in all likelihood, everyone else had stacked A!
Realizing his mistake, Aleksib tried to call the retreat, but it was too late. dupreeh threw a retake flash for his teammates to flood out, chasing down NiKo, who had killed Magisk but couldn’t fall back in time.
In an instant, the T-side’s A-site execute had collapsed, leaving only m0NESY clutching the bomb and falling back!
m0NESY quickly circled around through Apartments to get back to Banana and link up with Meng Lang.
Wanji shook his head and sighed:
“The A-site hit failed. m0NESY wants to rotate the bomb toward B to meet Dark, but the problem is, after Vitality dropped NiKo, they didn’t see the bomb, so they’re all rotating back to B from CT spawn. That means G2 has no opening to hit B anymore either.”
“Ah—! Looks like Map 1 is heading to overtime after all? Well, a 15-14 scoreline has always been a bit mystical. The score is so tight the players are under immense mental pressure. Sometimes the leading side is just one breath away from closing it out, yet it’s so easy to get dragged into overtime.”
“But overtime won’t be easy for G2.”
Before Wanji could finish, a staccato, suffocating burst of AK fire exploded through the headsets!
“Tat-tat! Tat-tat-tat—!!!”
The observer’s camera instantly locked onto B site.
Right at the same moment that the A-site push failed and teammates fell one after another, Meng Lang—who had been holding the forward angle on Banana the entire time!—moved without hesitation!
He first tossed a precise close platform flash, then burst out from the smoke alongside it, like a bolt of lightning!
No pre-aim! All wide swings!
“What? Dark is swinging like this?”
Wanji was stunned!
The instant Meng Lang cleared the smoke, his crosshair made an infinitesimal adjustment, sweeping past Coffin—clear.
He rotated to sweep the deep corner and triple stack! Still clear!
Suddenly, a figure flickered in his peripheral vision!
Without pause, Meng Lang flicked his crosshair violently toward the gap between single and double stack, zeroing in on apEX peeking through!
“Tat-tat-tat—!”
apEX’s M4A1 fired first!
“Tat—!”
[G2-Dark killed Vitality-apEX with a headshot from the AK-47!]
“apEX!!! He’s down! One bullet! A single headshot!!! Dark dry peeked and one-tapped apEX! No shift-walk! No pre-aim! This is practically an exhilarating micro-adjustment drill!”
Wanji’s voice skyrocketed, filled with disbelieving shock!
On Team Vitality’s bench.
apEX stared at his instantly grayed-out screen and slammed his mouse in rage, blurting out a “F***!!!” before quickly calling out the position to lead his team.
The feeling of firing first only to get kicked to the curb like roadside trash was absolutely infuriating!
After killing the B-site anchor, Meng Lang immediately juked back and hurled his last smoke!
It landed perfectly to block off CT spawn.
“Smoke! A CT spawn smoke! Dark is so calm! The moment he gets the frag, he smokes to stay alive!” Wanji rattled off at breakneck speed. “Now he’s going to Banana to receive m0NESY with the bomb!”
At this moment, m0NESY was falling back to Banana with the C4.
After linking up with him, Meng Lang first cleared the path from Banana, letting m0NESY enter the bombsite ahead.
Confirming the approach was safe, he held Coffin to cover m0NESY planting at B.
Once the plant was down, m0NESY AWPed from triple stack toward Coffin, while Meng Lang turned to hold the smoke angle.
Map control, breaking the site, receiving the rotator, covering the plant, holding angles… This entire series of fluid, clear-headed plays left the haters who had mocked his low Inferno proficiency utterly speechless.
Dark can’t play Inferno? Are you sure his map proficiency is low?
On Vitality’s side, the remaining three—ZywOo, dupreeh, and misutaaa—had all rotated back to CT spawn.
“ZywOo is shift-walking into Church! He’s looking for an opening toward Coffin! dupreeh popped a flash to get him the angle!”
“m0NESY got flashed and tucked back! Honestly, he doesn’t need to move right now. He can wait for the CT smoke to fade, let Dark move first and then follow up!”
But no sooner had Wanji spoken than m0NESY suddenly jiggle-peeked from behind triple stack, trying to gather info.
ZywOo’s AWP wasn’t fooled by the jiggle! The instant m0NESY tucked back, ZywOo’s eyes narrowed slightly as he aligned his crosshair’s horizontal line with the gap between triple stack’s two pillars—
A wallbang through triple stack!
“Boom—!!!”
[Vitality-ZywOo killed G2-m0NESY with the AWP!]
“m0NESY!!! Agh!!!”
Wanji cried out in anguish, “Why did you peek?! If you lost the angle, just hide! This peek shows zero respect to ZywOo! Or rather… did he want to kill ZywOo that badly to prove himself?!”
The livestream chat instantly exploded. Even G2 fans couldn’t help but flame:
“Holy sh*t! Does this sea cucumber have ADHD?”
“That peek was pure int!”
“LMAO, so we’re rewarding Dark with a 1v3 clutch this round too?”
“It’s over, what’s the point, definitely going to OT now!”
“.”
Wanji also let out a sigh. “Ah, it’s really over now. Coffin’s been blown open by ZywOo. Dark is isolated on B site with no utility whatsoever. Facing a three-man retake from Vitality, how is he supposed to hold this?”
“Wait! What?! Dark isn’t holding!!!”
“The smoke’s fading! He’s pushing straight through the smoke toward Church!”
In the observer’s camera, the moment m0NESY fell, Meng Lang didn’t choose to hold his ground and wait to die. Instead, he made a decision that left everyone stunned—he actively pushed out through the CT spawn smoke, seeking to seize control of Church’s close angle!
“But the three Vitality players in Church are already grouped up for a retake! They were planning to loop back through CT spawn to hit B together! Right now they’re separated from him by only a single wall! The moment Dark enters, he’s going to run headfirst into the three Vitality players exiting!”
Wanji’s voice was laced with tension:
“Dark!!! Last round ZywOo only got one in a 1v3… this round… how many can you get?!”
Before he could finish!
The CT spawn smoke dissolved in the wind!
At the Church doorway, both sides were inches apart!
In a flash! [Spider Sense] screamed in Meng Lang’s mind!
He jolted violently!
The next instant! Meng Lang and the trio of dupreeh, misutaaa, and ZywOo appeared in each other’s lines of sight almost simultaneously!
“Tat-tat-tat—!”
In that instant, AK rounds seemed to have eyes of their own, drilling precisely into dupreeh’s head as he charged in the lead!
[G2-Dark killed Vitality-dupreeh with a headshot from the AK-47!]
First blood!
Almost the instant the frag registered, Meng Lang’s wrist flicked horizontally at an impossible angle! Target acquired! Spray transfer!
“Tat-tat-tat—!!!”
The AK’s muzzle flash traced a lethal horizontal line!
Bullets swept like a reaper’s scythe, instantly shearing through the heads of misutaaa and ZywOo on the other side behind dupreeh!
[G2-Dark killed Vitality-Misutaaa with a headshot from the AK-47!]
[G2-Dark killed Vitality-ZywOo with a headshot from the AK-47!]
In the top-right corner of the screen! Three kill feed messages flooded out almost simultaneously!
Spray transfer triple kill! All three were headshots!
And aside from dupreeh in the front who got tapped first, misutaaa and ZywOo behind him didn’t even get a shot off before being melted by this terrifying spray transfer!
The next second, [Terrorists Win!] The massive victory banner dominated the screen!
The score froze at 16-14!
G2 vs Vitality! G2 takes the first map, Inferno!
“Ooh—!!!”
At this moment, Wanji’s voice produced an absolutely otherworldly vocal fry that transcended the limits of the human vocal range, nearly launching him out of his chair!
“Holy sh*t! Dark clutched it?!”
“Spray transfer headshots! This is the real spray transfer heads! Dupreeh aside, the two behind him didn’t even fire their guns, brothers! That’s insane!”
“This is the AK clutch! What ZywOo’s AWP couldn’t do! Dark’s AK can!!!”
“Dark—! You ultimately killed the match with your AK! Now you’re just one map win away from the Legends Stage!”
In that instant, the hearts of all the fans who had been holding their breath finally settled. The 6657 livestream was instantly drowned in countless gift effects and colorful chat messages!