Chapter 44: The Pressure All Comes From Teammates

The schedule for the Katowice play-in stage was intensely demanding. The matches for all sixteen teams had to be wrapped up within two days to determine the final eight slots for the main tournament.

Opponents might be revealed just a day or even mere hours in advance, making any tactical anti-stratting virtually impossible.

When Su Zhe sat in front of his computer to prepare for the match the next day, the nervousness of his first time had completely vanished.

This sort of experience was rather like certain other activities: the first time brought tension, excitement, and anticipation; by the second time, only the excitement and anticipation remained.

Their opponents this time were GL. As long as they could defeat them in this best-of-three series, Su Zhe would have successfully fulfilled the task assigned to him by the club's manager.

"Are our opponents strong this good? Are they easier to handle than ENCE yesterday?" Su Zhe asked his teammates for some intel after finishing a round of Deathmatch bots, hoping to mentally prepare himself.

REZ, sitting beside him, laughed and said, "GL were the runners-up at the last Paris Major. What do you think? Strong or not?"

"Huh? That legendary?"

Even for people who didn't play CS:GO, Major tournaments held a certain level of fame—and they were the previous runners-up?

k0nfig slanted a look at REZ. "Stop trying to scare the kid."

He then turned his head toward Su Zhe. "Don't listen to his nonsense. Sure, GL were the runners-up at the last Major, but their most crucial in-game leader siuhy and their best-performing player IM have both left the team."

"Overall, they're neither too strong nor too weak. Right now, they're sitting comfortably at tier-two level."

Su Zhe nodded, a mental picture forming in his mind.

"Still, we shouldn't get too complacent. Their IGL right now is none other than snax!" es3tag chimed in with a reminder.

Su Zhe asked in confusion, "snax? Is he very strong?"

"Umm..." es3tag hesitated for a moment before answering, "He used to be very strong. Back in the day, he was in the Top 20 players for four consecutive years and even won a Major."

"Tch," k0nfig scoffed dismissively, "So what? Back in 2017, I was the 14th best player, and he was barely scraping in at 20th."

REZ immediately popped his balloon. "We know you were a big shot back then. Let's see you make the Top 20 list again this year if you've got the chops."

k0nfig: ......

Coach djL, overhearing the casual banter among the team, stepped in with a reminder. "Alright, the veto and pick phase is starting. Focus up and get ready for the match."

Starting from the second round, both the upper and lower brackets adopted a best-of-three format.

Compared to a single map, a best-of-three was much kinder to teams with shallower map pools.

After all, most teams only had one or two strong maps; in a best-of-three, those might all get banned out, but a best-of-three guaranteed at least one map they excelled at.

The final map selection results were soon released.

Map one: NIP's active choice, Mirage.

Map two: GL's choice, Inferno.

Map three: Decider on Overpass.

"I actually thought they'd let Ancient through. Never expected them to ban it," headtr1ck said with a hint of regret, as Overpass wasn't his favorite map.

k0nfig scoffed, "Do you take them for fools? GL's win rate on Ancient lately is a pathetic 12%. There's no way they'd leave that open for you, especially after our rookie phenom performed so insanely well on it yesterday."

"Am I right, Arrow?"

With that, k0nfig raised an eyebrow at Su Zhe. Even though he wasn't the youngest anymore, he still had a soft spot for the youngsters—not in that sort of physiological way, of course.

Previously, headtr1ck was the youngest on the team, but now with Su Zhe's arrival, that title naturally fell to him.

Hearing this, Su Zhe smiled and acknowledged the remark. He felt that k0nfig's mindset bore no resemblance whatsoever to a man about to turn thirty.

Soon, at the referee's prompt, both teams entered the server for Map 1.

Map 1: Mirage

GL: acoR, isak, volt, Keoz, snax

NIP: es3tag, k0nfig, headtr1ck, REZ, Arrow

As NIP's map pick, GL chose to start on the defensive side.

......

Inside the CSBOY streaming room:

"Hello everyone, welcome to the broadcast of NIP versus GL. I am your caster, Ma Xixi."

"I am caster captainMo."

"I am assistant Ming Riqing~"

"Who are you people?"

[I am Ming Riqing's dog~]

[I am the Stockholm Major MVP player, UZI.]

[I am Danking! I can play the Shanghai Major!]

Ignoring the abstract barrage of chat messages, Ma Xixi spoke up, "I suppose everyone knows where the focal point of this match lies. Mo, what are your thoughts on NIP's new player, Arrow?"

Mo chuckled and replied, "What kind of thoughts could I have? Just sitting here watching, hahaha. Kidding aside, I carefully reviewed the demo of that match afterward. All I can say is that this rookie plays with immense courage; he completely lacks the timidity typical of newcomers. I think that trait alone is quite remarkable."

As the former captain of the legendary TyLoo and one of the primary driving forces behind TyLoo's rise to the peak of Chinese Counter-Strike in 2018, Mo's words carried substantial weight.

"Oh?" Ma Xixi smiled. "I heard that 259 still doesn't think highly of this rookie?"

"You even know about that?" Mo looked slightly surprised. This was supposed to be a private conversation between him and 259!

Ma Xixi retorted, "What did you expect? My sources are extensive."

Mo sighed helplessly, "Alright, fine. 259 did say that. He mentioned that Arrow's playstyle doesn't quite fit the European professional scene and that he probably won't even last three months in NIP."

Stirred by Ma Xixi's deliberate instigation, the chat stream instantly flooded with question marks.

[Bro, are you kidding me? Doesn't 259 have any self-awareness? Not only did he pass on little Zhe, but now he's jinxing him!]

[Is 259 in the chat right now?! If little Zhe lasts three months in NIP, you better just retire on the spot!]

[At least the guy made it into NIP. Back when TyLoo ran into NIP, their heads were literally blown clean off.]

[Little Zhe played so well yesterday with a 1.53 rating; there's no way NIP would ever kick him unless their management is brain-dead.]

Watching the chat roll by, Mo couldn't figure out why Ma Xixi had suddenly brought this up. Just as he was about to message him privately on his phone, the match officially began.

Ma Xixi's deep voice echoed out: "Mo, let's sync our timers..."

......

For the pistol round, es3tag intended to execute a fast-paced A-site contact play with a full utility dump.

Su Zhe purchased half-armor at the start of the round and headed toward A-Apartments, planning to follow up and trade for his four teammates pushing A1.

"Just throw the smoke under balcony immediately. Watch out for them pushing B-Apps early to get info and rotate back," es3tag instructed without hesitation, barking the execution command.

The CTs were running a standard 3A-2B defensive setup, with snax starting with dual Berettas to hold a close angle inside Apartments.

The moment his teammate called out that the T's had thrown the arch smoke, snax knew his gamble had paid off. He gripped his dualies and pushed aggressively straight into A-Apartments.

As long as he secured a kill, he could coordinate with the players in site to form a deadly crossfire.

However, the moment he wide-swung and caught sight of the terrorist, just as he was about to pull the trigger, he heard the sharp sound of his own head being penetrated.

"Bang bang! *Puff!*"

[Arrow headshot snax with a Glock]

"What the fuck! Does this rookie react this fast?!" A frustrated snax muttered upon dying.

"Oh! Rookie Arrow successfully shuts down snax's aggressive push! That raw mechanical skill is truly formidable!" Ma Xixi praised upon witnessing the kill.

"The T's are pouring out of A1, but acoR's aim is on point! The USP picks up two consecutive kills! And volt timings it out of the arch smoke to secure a frag!"

"Good thing k0nfig's reflexes are fast—he trades out volt!"

In the span of just a few seconds, the situation on the board shifted rapidly, leaving a two-versus-three scenario.

"There's still one in site! Watch out! The remaining two must be holding B!" es3tag screamed over comms!

He never imagined that even with Arrow securing the opening kill, they would somehow find themselves in a man-disadvantage.

Having gathered the information, Su Zhe pre-aimed the site position and wide-swung.

acoR, holding site, originally wanted to fall back and wait for the B players to complete their rotation so they could leverage their numbers advantage to win the post-plant.

Yet Su Zhe was never going to let such a prime kill opportunity slip away. Spotting the CT hopping back toward cover, he landed a body shot first to apply the movement slow, then unleashed a flurry of rapid fire.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

[Arrow headshot acoR with a Glock]

"Nice shot! Lock down the site! Close-range reinforcements are already arriving!" k0nfig spoke up on open mic, having already looped around toward long boxes.

Hearing this, Su Zhe immediately dropped out of Apartments, intending to rush site alongside k0nfig to trade, but he hadn't anticipated that Keoz, holding B, would choose to rotate back through the VIP window.

The moment they moved to contest site, Keoz slipped out through the arch smoke.

Catching the terrorist at long box completely exposed from behind, Keoz opened fire instantly, cleanly removing k0nfig from the board.

"He pushed through the smoke!" the fallen k0nfig shouted immediately.

However, Su Zhe's reaction was even faster. The split-second he heard the crack of the USP, he snapped his crosshair toward the right.

"Bang, bang!"

[Arrow headshot Keoz with a Glock]

"That's a triple kill in the pistol round! We're down to a 1v1 clutch! What's the play? The bomb is on him, and isak is playing it safe to run down the clock!"

"Very smart! If you don't plant, I won't peek! But Arrow has the option to plant the safe bomb at A1!"

Su Zhe held an angle on site for a long moment, realizing the CT refused to give him an opening, so he retreated to the safe plant zone at A1 and began tapping the bomb.

Hearing the CT wide-swing and fire to harass, he immediately drew his pistol and wrapped around to the right side of long boxes.

Realizing the C4 plant was a fake, isak instantly knew something was wrong. He hurriedly dragged his crosshair toward the left side of long boxes.

Only to find the dark, menacing barrel of a terrorist's weapon already staring him down.

"Bang bang! *Puff!*"

[Arrow headshot isak with a Glock]

"Nice! Arrow! That's a quad kill!" k0nfig's excited voice echoed in the headset.

"Is your hand really this hot right out of the gate? I missed almost all my shots just now!" headtr1ck chimed in happily, having assumed the pistol round was a lost cause when he and his teammates fell one by one.

"Just lucky!" Su Zhe breathed a sigh of relief after fist-bumping his teammates.

He hadn't felt that his opponents' aim was particularly terrifying, but the pressure his own teammates had accidentally put on him right off the bat was something else.

Still, he harbored no resentment—after all, anyone was bound to have cold streaks.

......

(Author's note: I've set up a feedback thread in the review section. If anything feels off to you, feel free to point it out. I'll change whatever can be changed. Thank you all for your support.)