Chapter 46: Is This Really the Level of the European Region?

Snax felt somewhat weary as he looked at the gloomy atmosphere within the team.

Ever since leaving Virtus.pro in 2018, he had spent his time bouncing around tier-two and tier-three professional teams.

Accepting the invitation from GL's management to act as the in-game leader this time, his primary goal was to use this as a stepping stone to ignite one last blaze for the twilight of his career.

However, the results had been less than satisfactory; several S-tier tournaments at the end of last year ended in early exits without any notable achievements.

Now, having finally fought their way into the winners' match in the first round of the Katowice Play-in, giving him hope of reaching the main event, they ran into NiP.

To be precise, they ran into Arrow, that rookie monster who single-handedly made their entire team hesitant and timid, leaving them clueless about how to counter him.

"Sigh~" The Polish bear let out a long sigh, complaining inwardly about NiP's sheer dumb luck in finding such a strong and bizarre rookie.

......

The atmosphere within the NiP camp was the exact opposite of GL's.

Su Zhe and his teammates were chatting relaxedly. Having a six-round lead in the first half left them under zero pressure heading into the second half, especially since Mirage was fundamentally a CT-sided map.

The few minutes of halftime intermission ended quickly.

"Guys! Keep it up! As long as we play to our normal standards, we can easily take them down. Let's secure the first map!"

As the round entered the buy-time phase, es3tag began calling the tactics for the pistol round: "Let's buy a pair of Dual Berettas this round. One holding A and one holding B will play close up to prevent any attempts by the opponents to execute a fast push."

"headtr1ck, you stand near Jungle and be ready to rotate and support the B site at any moment."

After the teams switched sides, NiP assumed the defensive role.

On the map Mirage, Su Zhe, playing as the CT side, was positioned as a primary defender for the B site.

When the countdown hit zero, Su Zhe purchased the Dual Berettas according to the tactical call, made his way to the B site, stepped onto the white van, and quickly pressed tight against the left wall of the balcony.

If the T-side failed to clear this angle immediately upon entering the B site, he would easily be able to clean up with the dualies.

"The opponents have smoked VIP and Connector; they might be executing a short-to-B split!" headtr1ck's urgent voice suddenly came through the comms. "Buy some time at B! I'm on my way!"

headtr1ck's read on the information was entirely correct; GL was indeed executing a fast short-to-B rush this round.

"GL wants to play a fast execute this round! With full smokes landing deep inside VIP and Connector, three players have pushed straight up Short. NiP doesn't have anyone stationed in Apartment, so the two players at B are forced into a purely passive defense," Mo rapid-fired his analysis of the situation on the field.

"headtr1ck's rotation is very fast, and k0nfig is also drifting toward the B site. It all comes down to whether they can hold off the initial push. Snax leads the way into Short, while REZ at B Apartments wants to let them walk in deeper before picking up a kill, but Sanx clears that angle immediately!"

"REZ's USP whiffs completely! He gets traded out instantly by a volley of Glocks!"

With REZ, the secondary B-site defender, going down, only Su Zhe remained to hold the B site alone.

Furthermore, GL had immediately smoked off the Market window, preventing headtr1ck from quickly finding a clear line of sight.

Analyzing the situation, Su Zhe knew he had to proactively make something happen. Continuing a passive defense would only lead to a slow death.

Hearing the approaching footsteps in B Apartments, he didn't gamble on whether they would check his corner.

Judging from the footsteps that the opponents had reached close quarters, Su Zhe proactively timed a wide peek.

Volt, holding the first angle, reacted instantly, having anticipated someone hiding in that position from the start.

Seeing the CT wide-peeking, Volt immediately squared his crosshair and opened fire, but Su Zhe had swung out while holding head-level crosshair placement, firing a pre-fired burst.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

[Arrow killed volt with a headshot using Dual Berettas]

acoR, positioned right behind, had his crosshair blocked by his teammate's body and dared not fire casually, merely shifting his position to find a gap to trade.

Once his teammate dropped, he lost all hesitations, but unfortunately, after missing his first headshot attempt, he never got another chance to shoot.

Dual Berettas maintained a massive advantage in such close-quarters gunfights.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

[Arrow killed acoR with a headshot using Dual Berettas]

Having successfully secured a double kill, Su Zhe immediately tried to find cover, but B Apartments was riddled with open windows.

In the end, he was traded out by the T-side players who had entered the site and spread out their crossfires.

However, his teammates' rotation had already arrived by then. headtr1ck had wrapped around from the Market doorway to the outer edge of the site, and seeing the T-side's attention drawn to B Apartments, he opened fire, effortlessly picking up a double kill.

Although the lone remaining Keoz managed to secure a trade, es3tag and k0nfig had already arrived.

Caught in a crossfire, Keoz managed to burst down one more player before being traded out!

"Arrow's double kill in B Apartments this round was crucial!" Mo reviewed the just-concluded pistol round. "The two T-side casualties in B Apartments completely stalled GL's entire execution tempo. If that position had been given away for free or only traded one-for-one, this round would have been much harder for NiP to play."

Mashi nodded in agreement: "Indeed, the timing of that active peek was critical. Any later, and he probably would have been prefired by volt. Judging from his POV, he clearly sensed someone might be lurking on the balcony."

"However, with GL losing the pistol round now, they're probably done for..."

The moment the pistol round ended, cheers erupted from the NiP player booths.

"Nice!! Arrow! Stalling that time was so crucial!" k0nfig shouted excitedly after getting the final kill.

Even though he had secured the last frag, he knew full well where the turning point of the pistol round lay.

es3tag smiled at the sight, inwardly admiring his own bold decision from yesterday.

Had he not granted Su Zhe the freedom to fire at will, Su Zhe would not have delivered today's performance. He couldn't help but wonder just how far this young man could go in the future.

After losing the pistol round, GL's mental state completely collapsed.

Following a failed force-buy in the next round, they were smoothly ushered straight to match point by NiP.

Facing such a massive score disparity, es3tag decisively opted for stack-and-guess defensive setups.

Although they guessed wrong twice at the start, they had plenty of room for error.

Ultimately, the score for Map 1 was locked in at 13-6, leaving them just one map away from entering the Katowice main event.

"Winning this match was way too easy!" k0nfig remarked as he stood up.

The rest of the NiP members thought to themselves: You just said out loud what we were all dying to say!

What kind of miserable times had they lived through before? The previous NiP squad was defined by inconsistency—one day player A showed up, the next day player B showed up.

Try as they might, they could never get two wheels of the carriage turning at the same time, making it impossible to win matches.

It left everyone mentally exhausted, eroding their confidence in their professional careers match by match.

Su Zhe felt a degree of empathy upon hearing that; winning this match indeed felt effortless.

Neither of the two consecutive teams they faced had featured players capable of putting genuine, immense pressure on him face-to-face.

Was the European region really only at this level? What on earth was holding Chinese CS back from being anything other than brutally outclassed?