Dust2 was undoubtedly CS’s most iconic map, renowned for its outstanding balance, clean and brisk layout, and fierce aim duels.
The map was like a neat “田” character, symmetrical in structure and clear in its routes. It was mainly divided into three attacking paths: A Long, mid, and the B site passage. With its many long corridors and open spaces, it was the favorite of pure aim demons.
Then why was Vitality so good on this map? Why had countless fans even dubbed ZywOo the Sand Emperor?
That was because key positions like A Long and mid doors were a sniper’s paradise. An outstanding AWP could completely lock down an entire area—ZywOo’s big green had once practically built an illegal “toll booth” at mid doors.
If you wanted to pass,
you had to pay the “toll.”
In fact, most teams built around a sniper were especially skilled at and fond of Dust2.
After a brief break between maps for adjustments, both sides entered the Dust2 map server.
Because Dust2 was the leftover map from the veto phase, the two sides determined side selection through a knife round.
After Vitality won the knife round, they decisively chose to start on the T side.
Although Dust2 was known for its balance, it was actually slightly T-sided.
On one hand, the T side held the initiative on offense, able to concentrate their forces and attack one point, easily creating local man-advantages; meanwhile, the CT side had to split up to defend the two bombsites, A and B, which were quite far apart.
In addition, the randomness of T spawns could also bring “spawn advantages,” making one-wave Rush tactics even more threatening.
Of course, to what extent Vitality choosing to start T this time was because of the deterrence of Meng Lang’s AK across the first two maps, in order to avoid letting Meng Lang come up on T side, freely play the AK, and carry over his hot hand… no one could say for sure.
At the G2 player booths, the tactical arrangements were underway.
“Dark, this round you and I will hold B together. If there’s no pressure on B, you support mid. At other times, you can decide based on the situation whether to push mid or take positions freely.”
At the start, Aleksib took the initiative to adjust the deployment, increasing Meng Lang’s freedom on the defensive side.
In G2’s CT system on Dust2, huNter and NiKo usually held A Long pit, while m0NESY would, according to tactical needs, use the AWP to move between A Long, mid, and B in search of opening kills.
After Meng Lang replaced JackZ, he had originally been mainly responsible for relatively fixed B-site defense.
But after the matches over the past two days, as well as today’s first two maps, Aleksib had clearly seen that this young player from CN showed no fear at all despite his first time on the Major stage. His firepower had even gone off the charts at one point!
Thus, on this deciding map, as the in-game leader, he decisively chose to give Meng Lang greater tactical weight.
“No problem,” Meng Lang nodded in response.
Hearing that, Aleksib immediately smiled!
What he appreciated about Meng Lang was precisely this unhesitating confidence. Young people playing professionally needed exactly this sharpness, the spirit of “if not me, then who?”
If you didn’t have confidence, what were you playing pro for?
In the 6657 livestream room.
The countdown ended, and Wanjiqi’s voice sounded once again.
“All right, next up is Vitality versus G2 on the deciding map, Dust2. This one starts with G2 on the CT side. Let’s first look at both sides’ pistol-round setups. G2 has four USPs plus one set of utility. Dark once again gets dualies at the start and goes to hold B tunnels first. G2 are adopting the classic 2-1-2 setup.”
At this point, Wanjiqi added with great interest:
“Back on map one, Inferno, Dark’s dualies swept up a five-kill round. I wonder if Dust2 can bring us another surprise?”
However, at the same time, Vitality were not being stubborn.
The scene on map one where Meng Lang, at sandbags on Banana, swept with dualies and instantly got a five-kill had left a deep impression on every one of them. To avoid him starting with dualies and holding B tunnels again, apEX decisively called an A Short rush tactic.
At the start, apEX jump-threw a mid-door smoke from T spawn, then at 1:10, after completing their early default, all five grouped up and pressed onto A Short!
CT smoke!
Ramp molotov!
Then another full-white flash for anyone hard-aiming A site!
It had to be said that at Major-level competition, even a pistol-round execute still had abundant utility.
With this set from Vitality, huNter on ramp was instantly forced out of his gun position, and it also cut off rotations from CT spawn and B.
“Oh! Vitality are executing in one wave here! huNter on ramp is burned out and forced to take a duel against Vitality! At this distance, the USP has the advantage, but ZywOo’s P250 is very accurate! He directly takes down huNter.”
“Now there’s only NiKo left around A site, in A Long pit. NiKo has already rotated back to the CT cross. He isn’t pulling out in a hurry. He’s waiting for m0NESY, who’s sneaking through the CT smoke, to swing together!”
“m0NESY catches Magisk from the side! He takes down Magisk and then duels ZywOo over the headshot angle at elevator! Oh! ZywOo kills m0NESY! He jumps down, picks up m0NESY’s USP, and then finishes off NiKo, who had killed apEX at the CT cross! ZywOo gets three! ZywOo!”
At this moment, the situation facing G2 had become a 2v3.
Vitality had occupied A site and quickly planted the bomb. Aleksib, rotating from B, quickly had Meng Lang go up A Short, while he chose to retake from CT spawn.
Meng Lang was not reckless either.
He knew that since Vitality had taken A site so quickly, there was an eighty to ninety percent chance someone would be watching the flank. So when he went from mid Xbox up A Short, he chose to crouch up, and the instant his head appeared, he fired rapidly with the dualies!
Tap tap tap—!
Sure enough!
On Vitality’s side, dupreeh was holding in the A Short cubby. He had just jiggled for a look when Meng Lang caught the timing.
【G2-Dark killed Vitality-dupreeh with Dual Berettas!】
The kill appeared on the screen!
“Nice! Dark’s dualies on map three are still fierce! He directly destroys Vitality’s backline!”
“Wait! But ZywOo here—ZywOo on ramp catches Aleksib too with the USP! Now it’s another two-on-one clutch for Vitality!”
“What now? What? Neither of them is peeking?”
“My god! Vitality are showing way too much respect!”
Under the director’s camera, after ZywOo picked off Aleksib rotating from CT, he actually hid together with Misutaaa behind the wall at the CT cross.
Immediately after,
when the C4 timer grew increasingly urgent and they estimated that Meng Lang was about to swing out from A Short,
Vitality directly used a bait-and-hide setup—Misutaaa, who didn’t have much HP left, actively Peeked out, jiggling and taking the duel to bait, while ZywOo hid on ramp.
The C4 was about to explode.
Meng Lang had no more choices.
He could only swing out and forcibly seek the duel. His dualies tapped down Misutaaa, and from the corner of his eye he spotted ZywOo exposed on ramp. But just as he wanted to transfer over, ZywOo killed him with two USP shots.
“Aiya! What a pity! Dark’s dualies were originally for holding B tunnels. Rotating back to A Short and dueling ramp, dualies really struggle at this distance. With the weapon disadvantage, there’s completely no way to fight a USP.”
“ZywOo gets a five-kill with the USP in this round!”
Wanjiqi shook his head in regret.
At the Vitality player booths, the instant ZywOo completed the final trade, apEX directly spread his hands arrogantly and shouted:
“Welcome to Dust2!”
Wanjiqi heard it and almost couldn’t hold it in, laughing as he said, “Holy shit! What is apEX saying? He’s saying ‘Welcome to Dust2.’ That’s declaring map ownership! But Dust2 really is one of the two strongest maps for Vitality’s new lineup!”
“How should I put it? All I can say is G2’s pistol-round curse is still chasing them. There’s nothing they can do about losing this one. When they win later, they can find a chance to flame back.”
The bullet comments in the 6657 livestream room also flooded the screen.
“Hahahahaha!”
“You let Big Potato get his hand warm at the start and still want to win?”
“New viewer watching my first match. You guys keep saying ZywOo is insane, so the one shouting the loudest must be ZywOo, right?”
“That’s ZywOo’s built-in human loudspeaker.”
“Feels like map three is dangerous for G2 too!”
“In a corner no one noticed, NiKo secretly died again.”
“Hahaha! No idea how long Shrimp Bro can stay hard, but once he goes soft he’s soft to the end.”
“This brat only got one side-shot steal this round, then got executed by ZywOo in the headshot-angle duel again!”
“.”
At the G2 player booths.
After losing the pistol round, watching ZywOo’s USP flood the kill feed on the screen, Meng Lang also smiled a little helplessly.
Dualies versus USP at mid-long range—there really wasn’t much to say.
Speaking of which, his own USP was also pretty average. If one day he could fuse with the remains of a USP master, that would surely greatly increase the team’s pistol-round win rate.
“It’s fine, just a pistol round.”
Aleksib quickly lifted the mood too. “Next round we half-buy, five-stack B and gamble one wave. Let’s see if there’s any chance.”
“Works.”
NiKo took a deep breath.
Unfortunately, Dust2 was ultimately still Vitality’s strong map. They understood far too well how to snowball after gaining an advantage on the T side of this map.
They advanced triumphantly all the way,
directly pushing the score to 3:0.
G2 lost one half-buy, then full-ecoed one round and lost that too.
When they took the third point, apEX, growing increasingly comfortable calling on this strong map of Dust2, seemed to sweep away the shadow that Meng Lang, this rookie, had cast over him across the first two maps.
He proudly shouted toward the G2 booths:
“Who is Dark?!”
“Who?!!”
After he said that, laughter burst out from the Vitality player booths.
m0NESY’s face tightened when he heard it!
In truth, across these three points, he hadn’t had much impact at all.
Including the second half-buy round.
In that round, in order to let him afford the AWP after the ECO, Aleksib, who had bought utility, even supported him and dropped him a Deagle. But his Deagle had not become the key to a comeback.
Now, hearing apEX’s taunt, even though everyone knew this French captain’s personality was like that, m0NESY still felt as if needles were stabbing into his heart.
He felt like he had let his teammates down.
NiKo patted m0NESY on the back and jerked his chin toward Meng Lang.
m0NESY turned his head and glanced at Meng Lang.
Only to find that Meng Lang was full of fighting spirit for the upcoming first rifle round, completely unaffected by the three points they had dropped.
He couldn’t help but take a deep breath too!
In his heart, he silently told himself.
Come on!
In the 6657 livestream room.
“All right, next up is the first rifle round for both sides on map three. G2 absolutely must seize this chance. If they lose this rifle round too, then they won’t have many opportunities to score in the first half.”
“Let’s look at the start. This round Aleksib calls a 3B opening. He probably has a premonition that Vitality might hit B. m0NESY’s AWP goes to the B sniper position first to look for the opening kill. Oh! They’re showing a lot of respect to ZywOo when crossing mid doors here. Aleksib specifically throws a cross smoke.”
But just as Wanjiqi finished speaking—
Bang—!
From T lower, an AWP shot suddenly roared!
The next second,
m0NESY, who had gone through mid doors, had merely jump-spotted through the smoke while crossing, wanting to get a bit of mid info, when his lower body was tagged by ZywOo’s AWP!
-85!
In an instant, m0NESY’s HP dropped to only 15.
“Holy shit!”
“6666!”
“Building an illegal toll booth again, huh?”
“Brother ZywOo, stop hacking!”
“Lmao! Brat likes to jump?”
“.”
Wanjiqi couldn’t help sucking in a breath either. “Whoa—! ZywOo hits m0NESY through the smoke with that shot! This guy is really too transparent! Actually, m0NESY was lucky he jumped to look just now. If he hadn’t jumped, that would’ve hit the body and he’d be gone. Feels like G2 are off to a rough start in this rifle round.”
“Let’s look at Vitality’s tactical setup. apEX throws a mid-door smoke from T spawn. Vitality are also adopting a 3B opening here. Could it be that Aleksib’s gamble has actually guessed right?”
At this moment, on Vitality’s side, ZywOo, dupreeh, and Magisk entered upper tunnels first and held B tunnels to prevent a CT reclear or push. Then ZywOo popped a spiral flash for Magisk, sending Magisk down to clear lower tunnels.
Magisk carefully cleared all the way down.
This round, G2 had no one pushing up lower tunnels, so he smoothly took lower-tunnels control.
But afterward, the three Vitality players in B had no further movement. The three who occupied upper and lower tunnels quietly held their positions on the spot.
Time ticked by second by second, and soon reached 40 seconds.
At this moment.
The director pulled the camera away.
Only to see apEX at T spawn bringing Misutaaa to the outside of A Long doors. First he jump-threw an A Long deep smoke, then immediately unleashed a mad barrage of utility toward A Long.
Decoy!
A doors flash!
A Long high flash!
Wanjiqi instantly saw Vitality’s intention.
“Oh! Vitality are playing this round very smartly. After taking lower and upper tunnels control, they see no one pushing A Short, so they’ve guessed that G2’s early default in this rifle round is very conservative. That means G2 can’t get much information! So Vitality decisively choose to harass A doors!”
“What does Aleksib do now?”
“Oh! Aleksib seems a little panicked!”
“But that’s understandable too. They started 3B this round, so A-site defense is extremely empty, with only NiKo there! They haven’t seen anyone for so long! Even huNter has gone to A Short now. They can only call people back to rotate.”
“Aleksib’s choice is to stay alone on B, using utility and jiggling for info, while m0NESY and Dark both rotate back to help! They’ve fallen for it!”
Just as Wanjiqi finished speaking.
After making plenty of noise outside A doors, Vitality directly executed onto B!
Slow smoke for window!
Fast smoke for B doors!
Then another synchronized smoke for the sniper position!
The instant the three smokes bloomed!
Vitality first popped a B tunnels contact flash!
Then added another fake-door flash!
The next second, the three of them charged straight in with loud footsteps!
“Oh! Aleksib throws a B tunnels molotov! But Vitality are stepping through the fire to enter anyway! Magisk and dupreeh swing out together and take Aleksib away!”
“HuNter on A Short wants to rotate back, but apEX, who had been throwing utility to harass A doors, has already reached mid-long. With one tap, he plucks huNter out of the air as he jumps onto Xbox from A Short!”
“It’s over! Feels like this rifle round is slipping far away from G2 again!”
At this moment, Vitality had already taken B site and planted the bomb.
Seeing this, Wanjiqi completely lost hope.
“Damn, it’s doomed! Now apEX, who just picked off huNter in mid, has had Misutaaa return to upper tunnels above spiral. He’s cutting off G2’s retake route in mid, and Vitality still have three guarding the bomb in B!”
“Retaking B has always been a historic problem! How do you even play this? Gone, gone. Feels like G2 can save in this round!”
Hearing Wanjiqi’s words, the trolls and Vitality fans in the 6657 livestream room immediately began flooding the chat.
“Hm? Saving again?”
“Lmao, didn’t they say Dark was the Sand Emperor?”
“Is this Sand Emperor’s passive invisibility?”
“Hurry it up! We agree to speedrun! Stop pretending.”
“.”
However, just then, Wanjiqi’s voice suddenly rose sharply in the livestream. “Wait! What? NiKo still wants to try it!”
“Oh! NiKo and Dark are going A Short! But they have to get past mid first! apEX is on Xbox. This is going to be very hard to guard against!”
“NiKo is slowly pushing forward, pre-aiming very carefully, but will he pre-aim Xbox? There isn’t enough time! NiKo won’t have time to clear it! He rushes straight out to draw the crosshair for Dark!”
“Oh! apEX fires. He plucks NiKo out of the air as he drops from Xbox, then turns back to hold Dark. Dark has an M4A1 in his hands right now. Feels like he might not necessarily win this duel!”
“Wait! What?”
Before Wanjiqi finished speaking,
only a “bang” of the AWP rang out beside his ear!
“Whoa—! m0NESY, pushing up from CT mid, wallbangs apEX behind the door with one shot! He clears the mid obstacle for Dark!”
“Wait! apEX even drops an AK! Dark picks up his signature weapon! Could it be…”
The bullet comments in the livestream room instantly flooded the screen.
“Don’t could-it-be.”
“What difference does getting an AK make?”
“B-site retake! Still 2v4! If they can get in, I’ll eat it straight up!”
“.”
Wanjiqi also shook his head, laughing somewhat helplessly. “Sigh, true. The main issue is G2 lost people too fast this round! Forget it, forget it, better to save. At least next round they can still have a hero gun.”
At the G2 player booths.
Save a hero gun for the next round?
But,
why wait for the next round?
Meng Lang did not have that thought.
He had always seized the day!
“Ilya!”
“Here.”
“We’re going in!”
“Okay!”
Thus, in the next moments, Wanjiqi and the viewers in Major livestream rooms across every platform in the world witnessed a suffocating scene!
At the Vitality player booths, apEX, who had traded NiKo in mid, was still joking with his teammates, saying that he had farmed another kill, but dropped an AK, so the other side would probably save, and so on.
Who would have expected that in the next second,
Meng Lang, after picking up the AK, showed not the slightest hesitation. From lower tunnels, he made an extreme wide swing, his crosshair snapping upward toward the boxes above the upper-tunnels spiral stairs!
Almost at the exact moment he swung out, Misutaaa, who was above spiral and preparing to Peek for information, had just revealed half his head!
“Tap tap—!”
【G2-Dark killed Vitality-Misutaaa with a headshot using the AK-47!】
Instant kill!
Clean and decisive!
Beep beep beep—!
The C4 bomb was counting down to detonation!
Meng Lang killed his way into B tunnels without stopping!
“Ilya! Flash!” Meng Lang spoke extremely quickly.
“Throwing!”
From CT mid, m0NESY immediately responded. A flashbang was thrown through window, and the next second, he added a smoke for the sniper position.
Vitality had used too much utility on their fake this round. At this point, they had no smoke left and could only throw a B tunnels molotov!
Flames spread across the entrance of B tunnels!
But the instant the fire came in, Meng Lang also threw a molotov of his own toward the tall boxes on B site!
“Molotov! Dark also throws one toward tall boxes! He’s clearing it back!”
Wanjiqi shouted!
Behind tall boxes, as one person was burned out, he threw a flash into B tunnels. But Meng Lang, without the slightest hesitation, turned from the flash while wide-swinging out of B tunnels at the same time!
“No way! He’s stepping through the fire and swinging straight out!”
Wanjiqi’s voice tore!
Meng Lang made one wide swing!
His gun emerged like a dragon!
Tap tap tap—!
Tap—!
He first took down dupreeh by the fake door on the left side of B tunnels, then with a degree and speed of crosshair movement that ordinary people could hardly imagine, he performed a 180-degree transfer and directly one-tapped Magisk, who had come out from car trying to trade!
The kill feed in the upper-right refreshed repeatedly!
【G2-Dark killed Vitality-dupreeh with a headshot using the AK-47!】
【G2-Dark killed Vitality-Magisk with a headshot using the AK-47!】
Another double kill!!!
In just the blink of an eye,
the two Vitality players defending the B tunnels entrance had their bodies almost simultaneously flipped to the ground by the terrifying impact of the AK bullets!
“Whoa—! Dark! He gets two more! Completes two target acquisitions within one second! He comes up from lower tunnels and directly kills through B site!”
“This damn wide swing is terrifying! This damn crosshair placement is terrifying! It’s pure violence within violence!”
Wanjiqi himself sucked in a cold breath as he spoke!
“Brothers! Seriously! I couldn’t even see Dark’s counter-strafe! In an instant! Three Vitality Ts were removed from the server by him!”
“This AK! This AK dropped by apEX really was foreshadowing!”
The bullet comments in the livestream room completely exploded. Question marks and exclamation marks drowned the screen like a tsunami!
“Holy shit???”
“Isn’t this damn aimbot?”
“No way! This crosshair placement is way too fucking accurate!”
“Wait, did Dark really counter-strafe just now?”
“.”
At the same time, the fans Meng Lang had accumulated during this period also leaped up in the bullet comments!
“Haters, speak!!!”
“This is the Dark-style wide swing!”
“Hahaha, slapped in the face, weren’t you, the ones saying the AK wasn’t foreshadowing?”
“Do you understand the value of Dark’s signature weapon?”
“.”
Wanjiqi’s voice was already trembling slightly. “Now Vitality only have ZywOo left on B site? When ZywOo threw the B tunnels flash just now, Dark’s molotov burned him into repositioning, and Dark happened to turn from the flash! He didn’t see him!”
“Now ZywOo only needs to hide in the dead angle under window, guard the bomb, and waste time! He hasn’t fired a single shot so far! That means his position is somewhat mysterious!”
“The key is there isn’t much time left! The C4 is about to explode!”
“m0NESY! m0NESY is going down from window! His AWP is watching the sniper-position smoke! It’s over! He’s about to get stolen by ZywOo!”
“ZywOo is right below you, m0NESY!”
However, just one instant before Wanjiqi said this, Meng Lang’s voice suddenly rang out in G2’s comms.
—“Below!”
Brief, yet certain!
Below?
m0NESY, who had jumped down from window, froze!
Below window?
The dead angle?
But if someone were in the dead angle, how could he have gone this long without firing?
That was clearly unreasonable!
According to common sense, ZywOo’s most likely position should be somewhere near the sniper position, using the smoke he had thrown to make a play. The dead angle was far too passive, and not firing all this time also made no logical sense.
But those words came from Meng Lang.
From the teammate who had just used one AK to smash through B tunnels and pull the team back from the edge of the cliff! From the partner who had smiled during the break and asked him, “Do you believe me?”
Therefore,
at that instant!
What flashed through m0NESY’s mind was not “reasonable or not,” but the answer he had given back then without the slightest hesitation:
He had said,
“I believe you!”
And so, at the very instant his body leaped out of window and hung in midair, a bolt of lightning flashed through m0NESY’s mind!
In midair,
relying on his absolute trust in his teammate and the talent of a top-tier sniper, his wrist snapped downward at an inconceivable angle!
In an instant, the muzzle of the AWP traced a deadly arc through the air, flicking toward the dead-angle corner directly below window!
He pulled the trigger!
Bang—!
The AWP’s iconic roar exploded above the dead angle!
ZywOo, crouching in the dead angle and preparing to swing first to take down m0NESY, suddenly froze. His screen instantly turned gray-white, and his entire body collapsed to the ground with a muffled thud.
【G2-m0NESY killed Vitality-ZywOo with a midair no-scope using the AWP!】
At the Vitality player booths!
The expression on apEX’s face instantly froze.
He only felt as if the sky had collapsed!
They could fucking lose this clutch too?
“Whoaaaa—!”
Wanjiqi once again let out an extraordinary subwoofer cry:
“m0NESY! m0NESY descends from window! One no-scope flick kills ZywOo hiding in the dead angle! This position! There was once another man! In the same position! With a Dragon Lore descending from the heavens, he completed a legendary kill!!”
“He’s awake! He remembers! He remembers everything! m0NESY! You were NAVI’s supernova! You were that man’s prince! This spot, this shot, had to be yours to hit!”
“One triple kill! One double kill! He and Dark! Together they completed this historic problem of a 2v5 B-site retake!”
Wanjiqi was so excited that his words became incoherent!
But the next second, he suddenly froze. “No, wait! Holy shit, wait! When m0NESY jumped down just now, he was clearly staring at the sniper-position smoke the whole time, wasn’t he? How did he suddenly flick to no-scope the dead angle?”
“Could it be… someone called the position for him?”
As if answering Wanjiqi’s doubts,
very soon, after the CTs defused the bomb at the very last moment and won this rifle round, the kill replay was quickly brought up.
This time, the Antwerp Major director was even considerate enough to include G2’s team comms from when only Meng Lang and m0NESY were left.
“Ilya!”
“Here!”
“We’re going in!”
“Okay!”
“.”
Next, the instant m0NESY leaped out of window, Meng Lang’s brief but extraordinarily certain voice suddenly rang out clearly:
“—Below.”
Then came that earth-shattering no-scope shot!
Bang—!
In the replay, m0NESY midair-flicked right into ZywOo’s face with a lightning-fast no-scope, and the replay and comms cut off abruptly.
“???”
“Holy fucking shit! Hacks!!!”
“This is so damn transparent that even m0NESY got wallhacks!”
“If it isn’t turned off, it isn’t turned on!”
“Big Potato: Bro, are you two sharing a soft router or what?”
“.”
Boom—!
The entire 6657 livestream room, and even the bullet comments across every platform in the world broadcasting this Major match, instantly erupted into chaos!