In livestream room 6657, Wan Jiqi’s voice also grew louder as the final round of the first half began:
“Alright, now it’s the last round of the first half. How’s this one gonna go? After calling that timeout, will FAZE have a surprise for us?”
As he spoke, FAZE opened the round by jump-throwing a smoke for Main, then broky—using the hero AWP he’d saved from the previous round—aggressively pushed up to Red Box and successfully killed Niko, who was trying to gather information Outside!
Immediately after, FAZE popped flashes to boost rain from Outside fast up to the third floor, coordinating with Big Cousin karrigan and Twistzz flashing out together from Yellow House and Metal Door to execute a swift inner-site pinch on A!
For this round, G2’s IGL Little Li had considered that the opponents were on short guns and might try to take close-range positions quickly—such as Iron Plate—so he specifically sent Meng Lang, who was on fire right now, to hold Iron Plate.
But never did he expect that after the timeout, FAZE would pull an incredibly cunning tactic, applying pressure toward Iron Plate at the start—even throwing in a small execute as a fake! In reality, the main force smoked Main and hit with a three-way synchronized pinch onto A from the third floor, Yellow House, and Metal Door!
“Oh!” Wan Jiqi exclaimed. “Rain God rain is so nimble, shift-walking up to the third floor! m0NESY below the third floor had his attention drawn by Broky’s AWP Outside! He didn’t notice someone had already walked all the way up!”
“Oh no! The Kid was blown away by Rain God rain’s hairdryer! Rain God has successfully made it up to the third floor!”
“But Cousin on Yellow House held strong! Oh! Cousin pulled off a fantastic spray transfer, first taking out Big Cousin pushing out through the fire from Yellow House! Then he flicks his crosshair and mows down Rain God coming from the third floor as well! Beautiful!”
“Oh wait! Cousin was traded by the Director!”
“No way around it—Director Twistzz came out from Metal Door! Little Li Aleksib at Main had his attention drawn by Broky’s footsteps Outside, so he couldn’t watch Metal Door for Cousin. Fortunately, he traded back with Director Twistzz in time, but his HP is already in the red!”
Bam—!
A sniper round drilled through the smoke!
Broky Outside saw his AWP flick miss and immediately switched to a grenade, tossing it low!
Boom—!
“God Li! God Li was blown up by the grenade!”
“Now the situation has instantly turned around! Only Dark is left, facing a 1v2 clutch against ropz and Broky! What’s he gonna do? Dark has already rotated back from Iron Plate and arrived on the third floor!”
“ropz is inside Yellow House, and Broky is near Main. Dark has to judge whether they’re hitting A or rotating to B.”
Alongside Wan Jiqi’s commentary, inside the FAZE voice comms, though Big Cousin karrigan was dead, he immediately called the shots, issuing the order to smoke off the third floor and plant the A bomb.
ropz inside Yellow House understood perfectly. He switched to a smoke and threw it toward the third-floor exit, cutting off Dark’s line of sight from the third floor looking straight onto the A bombsite.
Near Main, Broky—who had just grenaded Little Li to death—saw ropz’s smoke and immediately hugged in through Main, wanting to hold an angle with his AWP at the edge of the third-floor smoke, waiting for his teammate to plant or to catch the timing of his opponent stepping out.
But he never expected it!
The instant before the smoke bloomed completely, a figure ghosted out with a wide swing from the third-floor smoke’s edge. He came to a sudden stop, and the muzzle of his AK belched flame!
Bang!
A kill feed appeared in the top-right corner of the screen!
[G2-Dark killed FAZE-broky with an AK-47 headshot!]
Wan Jiqi instantly cried out, “Oh! My god! Dark! He wide-swung and tore apart Broky’s AWP holding the Main smoke! Broky didn’t react at all!”
“Ah! Broky peeked too early this time! The smoke hadn’t fully bloomed yet. Or maybe he thought ropz in Yellow House would help hold the third-floor angle after smoking it off! Whatever the case, it’s too late now! The very moment after shredding the AWP, Dark jumped straight down from the third floor and landed on the A bombsite!”
“Now it’s down to a 1v1 clutch between Dark and ropz! Speaking of which, the role Dark plays on G2 right now leans closer to a lurker, and ropz is one of the best lurkers in the world! This is an ultimate showdown between the two teams’ lurkers!”
“Is ropz going to come in for a duel? Or rotate to B to plant? There’s still plenty of time to rotate!”
Wan Jiqi had barely finished speaking when, with thirty seconds left on the clock, ropz inside Yellow House turned decisively, fell back from Yellow House into T-hall, and then… directly pulled out his knife!
He charged full speed toward Iron Plate!
“Oh! ropz is rotating! He’s going to plant at B! Can Dark realize it?”
“If he drops straight down the vent right now, he might still catch the timing of ropz planting!”
Wan Jiqi was still speaking when he suddenly noticed something was wrong!
Because the minimap showed that after charging to Iron Plate and jumping down to create a landing sound, ropz suddenly doubled back… slowly creeping toward the third floor again!
“No! ropz isn’t actually rotating! This is a fake run to bait Dark! He used the landing sound of dropping down Iron Plate to create the illusion that he’d gone to B! In reality, he looped around and crept back toward the third floor! He still wants to plant A!”
“Wow! Is… is this ropz’s clutch ability?”
He had just uttered that admiration when Wan Jiqi glanced at Dark’s position on the minimap. His eyes suddenly went wide, his tone filling with shock:
“But wait! Dark isn’t moving! He’s been inside the A bombsite the entire time, hugging the wall behind the barrel, listening! He’s carefully distinguishing the sounds, judging whether ropz actually dropped down! He even has a flashbang in his hand that he’s subconsciously fiddling with!”
At this moment, a slight smile played at the corner of Meng Lang’s lips.
He even felt a little emotional inside!
Sure enough, this was exactly the flavor. ropz was still that familiar ropz he knew.
Got you~!
Robin Kool!
“Oh! Dark switched to his gun!”
“He figured out ropz didn’t actually drop down! He’s circling back to the third floor from the other side of Iron Plate! ropz still wants to plant A! But Dark is here! He’s been here the whole time! From start to finish, he never left the A bombsite! He’s waiting in place for ropz to come back and die!”
By the end, Wan Jiqi was completely flabbergasted!
At this point, ropz, with time running out, had no room to think through more details.
After circling around, he seized the final dozen-odd seconds to jump down from the third floor, rushed to the A bombsite’s C4 planting spot, and hurriedly started planting!
His attention was focused mainly on the vent’s direction.
In his mind, even if his opponent had been baited into dropping down the vent just now, realizing the mistake and climbing back up would take more than enough time for him to finish the plant and find a defensive position.
However, just as he entered the C4 code, ropz—crouched on the ground planting the bomb—felt a shadow seem to loom over him from above…
He instinctively looked up—
A CT wearing the iconic "fly-head" helmet was standing before him, AK in hand, quietly… with a pitch-black muzzle aimed down at him from above.
???
In that instant, ropz’s brain nearly crashed!
A chill shot straight up his spine to the top of his head!
He had always been the one ghosting around and startling others. Never could he have imagined that this time, at the most crucial moment, he would be… frightened by his opponent in such a manner!
He didn’t even have time to raise his weapon,
nor time to cancel the plant.
“Bang!”
The crisp report of an AK-47 echoed across the A bombsite.
In the top-right corner of the screen,
the final kill feed flashed!
[G2-Dark killed FAZE-ropz with an AK-47]
Bomb planting interrupted!
Counter-Terrorists win!
The first-half score was set in stone:
G2 11 : 4 FAZE!
“Whoa—!”
The chat across countless platforms around the world erupted into an uproar!
“Dark: Didn’t see that coming, did you? I predicted your prediction!”
“Holy shit! This mind game! This is a showdown between top-tier lurkers!”
“Dark is playing in the stratosphere this round! He never believed ropz would rotate!”
“11:4! Dark has 21 kills! I hereby declare Dark is the daddy of the first half!”
“Big Cousin’s face must be green, right? And they said they weren’t good on Nuke?”
HLTV comments section:
“Honestly! Karrigan’s pre-match interview looks like a joke now.”
“ROPZ actually lost a psychological battle to a rookie? Unbelievable!”
“How do FAZE fans feel right now? How do you feel?”
“I must admit, this CN player impressed me. He’s not just some brainless muscle aimer with no game sense!”
“broky needs to come out and apologize, or ropz will feel insulted!”
“It’s FAZE who need to wake up right now, or today’s match is already over.”
“.”