Chapter 45: Libero? Breakthrough Player? A Free Breakthrough Player!

After losing the pistol round, GL, playing on the CT side, could only scrape together around $2,000 in economy per player. Snax opted for a force-buy with Desert Eagles, setting up a 5-A defensive gamble on the sites.

Fortunately, es3tag was cautious and chose a default opening. Su Zhe, playing the default setup in the B Apartments, accidentally took a few steps too far forward and found the entire B site completely empty.

The score smoothly progressed to 3-0, leading into the first full-buy round of the match.

"A 7-0 KD start! This rookie is still feeling it today. Is he going to go god-mode again?" Unlike Machine's skepticism toward Su Zhe's bold plays yesterday, Mashixi had no such doubts.

He believed that as long as a player could secure effective kills to help the team score points, they were a good player!

Mo chimed in from the side, "These stats are indeed exaggerated. It just depends on whether snax watched that ENCE match yesterday and prepared a counter-strategy against this aggressive rookie."

While the result of the pistol round was certainly crucial, the full-buy rounds were the fundamental basis for deciding the match's outcome.

Snax had naturally watched NIP's match from yesterday. As for whether he gained anything from it, yes, there was some, but not much.

Mirage and Ancient were two completely different map structures. He didn't even know which positions this rookie favored on the T side, let alone his positioning habits and the like.

He only knew that this rookie had fast reactions and precise crosshair placement; everything else was a mystery to him. Therefore, to play it safe, snax opted for a conventional 3-A, 2-B defensive setup for the full-buy round.

......

"Let's play a default opening this round," es3tag also chose conservatism.

Although GL's overall strength wasn't great right now, NIP wasn't doing much better.

If not for Su Zhe's quad-kill in the pistol round, the current 3-0 scoreline might very well have been 0-3.

After stating the plan for the round, es3tag turned his head to look at Su Zhe: "Arrow, this round you..."

Su Zhe: "Huh? What's up?"

es3tag: "...... Never mind, just play according to your own instincts."

Once the countdown ended, Su Zhe, fully armored with an AK, headed straight toward the B Apartments.

Both teams only secured the map control they were supposed to. With one minute left on the round timer, not a single firefight had broken out across the entire map.

Growing a bit impatient, Su Zhe actively unmuted his mic: "Should I push up and gather some information on B site?"

es3tag: ...Why does this kid look so quiet and gentle on the outside, but as soon as the match starts, he's so restless and eager?

Still, it was indeed time to start looking for an opening.

es3tag, holding the default angle at T-Ramp, considered this for a moment and said, "Hold on for a second, I'll go throw a flash for B site. And you guys at A-Main, watch out—be careful of a CT counter-flash."

He was slightly worried that any commotion at B Apartments would prompt GL to push A-Main to relieve pressure on the other side.

"I'm in position."

With a flashbang clutched in his hand, es3tag watched Su Zhe's movements, ready to toss the flash into the site at a moment's notice.

Hearing es3tag's voice, Su Zhe instantly caught the scent of freedom. Prefiring the White Car position from the kitchen, he executed a crouching peek.

Keoz, who was standing under the balcony tossing utility to jump-spot B Apartments, immediately screamed upon catching sight of the terrorist's silhouette: "They're coming!"

Snax, positioned in Alley, had already readied an incendiary grenade in his hand. With a teammate watching Mid from Arch, he didn't need to worry about any terrorists suddenly rushing up Alley.

Moreover, there was no need to worry about saving utility at this timing; as long as the terrorists couldn't push out immediately, they could follow up with smokes to further compress the terrorists' execution window.

As the molotov flew through the B Apartments window, Keoz under the balcony also tossed a HE grenade, preparing to retreat toward the sofa and hold the balcony angle.

Instead of backing off upon seeing the molotov burst onto the ground, Su Zhe's first thought was that if he didn't push out right now, he wouldn't get another chance.

Thus, he chose to ignore the risk, braved the fiery hazard, and pressed forward with a heavy-footed rush.

Snax, positioned in Alley, had intended to follow up with another grenade to chip away at the terrorist's health. But just as he pulled the grenade from his pocket, he suddenly saw the barrel of an AK pointed straight at him.

The explosion of Keoz's grenade just moments before had completely drowned out the sound of footsteps crunching through the fire.

"Rat-tat-tat!"

[Arrow killed snax with a headshot from an AK-47]

Securing the kill, Su Zhe vaulted straight from the B Apartments window onto the bomb site.

Keoz, who was in the middle of repositioning, never expected the enemy to move this fast—especially since there wasn't even a smoke to put out the fire!

Hearing the thud of the terrorist landing, and uncertain how many more were trailing behind, Keoz chose to drop a self-preserving smoke on the sofa and wait for his teammates to rotate back.

Su Zhe had anticipated his general position, and the sudden burst of the smoke grenade made it even more certain.

Directing his crosshair straight at the default corner behind the sofa, he began spamming bullets through the smoke.

"Rat-tat-tat!"

[Arrow killed Keoz through the smoke with an AK-47]

"B site is clear, we can walk right in!" Su Zhe communicated to his teammates in voice chat after quickly clearing the angles.

NIP members: ?

Glancing at the kill feed in the top right corner, they fell into a brief silence.

We're still playing the default, how on earth did you clear out B site already? Are we even playing the same team?

Su Zhe wanted to push forward into Market, but unexpected to him, a grenade came flying out of the Market doors. Too slow to dodge and already low on health, he was instantly blown away by the blast.

However, that no longer mattered. Seeing the kill feed, es3tag immediately dropped down into the sewer: "The enemy has probably all rotated back. You guys just shift-walk into A site in silence, I'll wrap around through Mid and take Arch."

Su Zhe's double-kill breakthrough had genuinely panicked GL. Two of the players holding 3-A immediately sprinted to Market for the retake, leaving only isak standing in Jungle to prevent a flank.

In a 3-versus-1 scenario with a silent entry onto the site, isak managed to trade only k0nfig before being picked off by headtr1ck, who swung wide from A Apartments.

With a numerical disadvantage and the terrorists firmly occupying the site, a powerless snax instructed the two players who had rotated back to B to save their weapons.

"My bad, I didn't expect their Market retake to be that fast," Su Zhe said apologetically after the C4 detonated.

NIP members: ?

Bro, what are you talking about? You single-handedly took B site and traded two of them, and you're still saying "my bad"?

Forget a trade of two-for-one; even a one-for-one trade would have been a massive profit.

"Nice! You played that brilliantly! If not for you, this round wouldn't have been won so easily." Coach djL stepped up from behind to bump fists and offer encouragement.

k0nfig, on the other hand, was left somewhat bewildered: Wait, am I the entry fragger or is he the entry fragger?!

Mashixi hadn't cast NIP's match yesterday and had only reviewed the VOD afterward.

Knowing Su Zhe's aggressive playstyle, he had mentally prepared himself before the broadcast began.

Yet, seeing it live on stream still left him slightly shaken: "I remember his designated role is a free agent / lurker, right? Is this really how the free agent role is played in CS2 nowadays?"

These two rhetorical questions left Mo momentarily speechless: "I suppose so... Maybe this is just part of NIP's tactical system?"

The viewers in the livestream chat were also thoroughly amused by this exchange.

[Free agent? Entry fragger? I can't tell! I genuinely can't tell anymore!]

[What free agent! This is clearly an entry fragger!]

[Nonsense, this is clearly a free-spirited entry fragger!]

[The key is that he actually cleared out everyone on B site! If the CTs hadn't rotated back so fast, he probably would have kept hunting for more kills!]

[This is pure CS at its finest! Just fight! Pure satisfaction!]

After securing the victory in the full-buy round, GL managed to save two rifles, but it failed to yield any positive results for them, and the scoreline marched steadily to 5-0.

However, the consecutive round losses failed to crush snax's mentality. The two-meter-tall Polish bear had no intention of giving up the match early.

After calling a tactical timeout, he was still actively boosting his teammates' morale, trying to figure out a way to put points on the board.

Yet, some things cannot be achieved through sheer effort alone; Arrow in the B Apartments remained a problem they simply could not solve.

Whenever they organized a coordinated push to contest B Apartments, Su Zhe would greet them with a stream of bullets and wipe out two of them.

And if they tried playing honest, passive defense, he would unreasonably and directly rush straight onto the site. While snax's mentality as the IGL remained intact, Keoz, who primarily held the A site, cracked first.

He figured that when he went to sleep tonight, he would probably have nightmares about a heavily armed terrorist bursting out from under his bed with an AK.

By the end of the first half, the scoreboard froze at 9-3.

"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, it would truly be hard to imagine Arrow putting on a performance like this today. In only his second professional match, he has completely turned GL's defense upside down."

Looking at the stats at the end of the first half, Su Zhe's KAD stood at 18-3-8. Even though GL made defensive adjustments targeting B Apartments later on, his overwhelming individual firepower always allowed him to taste success and disrupt the opponents' defensive rhythm.

Mo chimed in from the side, "Indeed, but the prerequisite for this kind of playstyle is having monstrous individual skill; otherwise, it's very easy to just give away free kills."

Both commentators' tones were practically overflowing with pride. Back when 2K, that North American player, hadn't yet fallen from grace, certain casters would hype him up to the heavens the moment his KD went slightly positive.

Let alone Su Zhe, who was a bona fide homegrown talent—and absolutely terrorizing the European region like this!