Chapter 54: Ordering Food and Hitting a Brick Wall

"A 1v1 clutch! Snappi retreats into cover to stall for time, time is running out! Ah!? He actually hit that!?"

Machine let out an incredulous sound. He clearly saw Snappi exposing just a tiny fraction of his body to gather information and prevent Su Zhe from flanking from the other side, yet even this microscopic window was seized!

"This reaction speed is completely absurd! NIP has converted the force-buy!"

As the chat filled with question marks, he offered a brief tactical replay of the pistol round:

"Converting a force-buy is partly due to NIP's excellent tactical counter-strat, successfully neutralizing Magisk in the deep pit, which allowed them to successfully split crossfires. That was the crucial factor in winning this round."

"Of course, the nail in the coffin was this final clutch. Relying on raw individual skill, Arrow found a tiny opening in an impossible situation. If Snappi had delayed for even one more second, they would have won this round."

[That dynamic vision and reaction time are genuinely insane. If not for the X-ray, I wouldn't even have seen the shadow of that arm.]
[Is this the gap between a pro player and a regular player? But Xiao Zhe looked genuinely calm just now.]
[Where are the people who said NIP were going to lose? Freaking out over losing a pistol round!]
[Magisk in the deep pit had it so rough, deleted before he could even fire a shot. He was holding the team's only hero M4, and didn't get off a single bullet.]
[Let's GO! NIP! I've been a fan of yours for ten years!]

This outrageous kill sparked lively discussions among the viewers in the live stream. Even though it was past three in their morning, it did nothing to dampen their passion for watching the match.

...

"Nice!! Well played, Arrow!" The moment the round victory prompt appeared, k0nfig pumped his fist and shouted in praise.

Sitting right in the middle, es3tag let out a long sigh of relief. He had already given up hope on winning the force-buy comeback.

He had merely hoped to trade a few of Falcons' weapons to keep their economy in check, but he never expected they would actually win. Rookies really are monsters!

Hearing the words of encouragement and cheers over team comms, es3tag smiled and said, "Guys, it's our turn to pick up some rounds!"

With this loss, Falcons' economy completely collapsed, forcing them to resort to another desperate Desert Eagle buy.

Meanwhile, the T-side had already equipped themselves with three Galils and two MAC-10s, putting the firepower of both sides on completely different levels.

At the start of the round, Su Zhe solo-defaulted all the way up to the A-Main balcony. After confirming information on two players holding the A bombsite, the front line at Banana also initiated a utility-pushed assault.

Facing Falcons' dual-B defense, they smoothly secured the force-buy round.

Entering the fourth round, Falcons opted for an eco round, stacking four players on B to gamble on a site hit. Although they guessed the correct site, they still lost the point due to having neither armor nor proper weapons.

K0nfig completely transformed into a commando this round, sweeping up three kills with his MAC-10.

When both teams reached the first critical full-buy round, the score had already reached 3-1.

"This round, let's use utility to take control of Banana," es3tag called out as they entered the tactical preparation phase of the full-buy round.

"Arrow, drop me your Galil so I can buy an AK. Once we lock down Banana, you can play a bit more aggressively to get info out of second-floor."

Facing a crucial full-buy round, es3tag opted for a standard T-side default: secure Banana control first, and then play off intuition depending on where the opening presented itself.

Right after the brief tactical setup, the countdown timer hit zero. Su Zhe dropped his Galil, switched to an AK, and headed out toward the side alley.

The lurker role is vital within a team, frequently tasked with solo harassment or flank-watching.

Especially during solo plays for early picks, the rest of the team cannot rotate to help immediately. This was why es3tag wanted him to have an AK—to maximize his winning odds in direct gunfights.

Just like in those commercial advertisements, if you want to pull off incredible plays...

As Su Zhe arrived beneath the spiral staircase, he began jiggle-peeking to guard against any unorthodox counter-aggression.

"Faze utility just landed mid! Watch yourself in the side alley!" REZ's voice suddenly echoed through the headset.

Upon receiving the info, Su Zhe immediately retreated deeper into the side alley. However, k0nfig overperformed, mixing his shots through the T-spawn smoke thrown by the CTs to secure the opening kill on Banana.

"Can you get mid info from the side alley!?" es3tag shouted over comms, clearly intending to accelerate and execute onto the B bombsite.

Hearing this, Su Zhe abandoned any thought of hiding. His current mission was to trade his life for information on mid and the A bombsite, allowing his teammates to hit B with peace of mind.

He pressed the W key once more, arrived at his previous position beneath the spiral staircase, and wide-swung mid with his crosshair pre-aimed.

Upon spotting a CT sneaking across mid, he immediately crouched and controlled his recoil.

"Da-da-da!"

[Arrow killed B0ROS with a headshot using an AK-47]

Just as Su Zhe secured the kill and checked if anyone else was swinging mid to trade, the sound of gunfire rang out from the VIP position above.

Fortunately, the silenced M4 has a slower fire rate and missed his head, allowing him to survive, though he was left with only around 30 HP.

He re-peeking the spiral staircase to relay information to his teammates when a sudden black dot came flying through the air.

Blind from the flash, Su Zhe paused for a single second before holding down the fire button and spraying based entirely on instinct.

"Da-da-da!"

[Snappi killed Arrow with a headshot using an AK-47 while blinded]
[Magisk killed Arrow with a headshot using an M4A1-S]

"Oh! Facing Falcons' side-alley counter-aggression, Arrow single-handedly took down two! Falcons' improvised side-alley counter-play is a bit rough around the edges!"

Machine watched the play and felt that Falcons were practically handing them the round. If they had made any noise in mid as a decoy...

Had the CT on the spiral staircase coordinated to swing out and trade together, they might have taken him down without conceding a single kill.

Such a loophole-ridden strategy looked like a spur-of-the-moment decision or something learned just yesterday after finding out their opponent was NIP.

Su Zhe's double kill in the side alley completely freed up es3tag to call a fast utility execute onto B.

The Guardian tried to replicate a classic highlight reel position at the triple-boxes, but a landing incendiary forced him straight out of cover. In a panic, he managed only one kill with the AWP before being traded out.

Facing a 1v3 post-plant, Magisk saw the C4 was already down and gave up on retaking, instead crouching inside the T-second-floor kitchen to save his weapon.

Seeing that Falcons had urgently called a timeout, Machine sighed and said, "Falcons' tactical depth on Inferno is just too shallow. Ever since their roster change, they've never played a single tier-one team on this map."

"They probably watched NIP's previous matches and figured they were equally terrible on this map, which is why they let it through. You could say Falcons wanted an easy win, but they ended up kicking a steel plate."

Machine's guess was spot on; Magisk had indeed decided to let Inferno through after watching NIP's match against GL.

Aside from Su Zhe's stellar performance, everyone else in that match could only be described as mediocre.

Consequently, Magisk felt that by simply implementing anti-strats against Su Zhe's lurk position, taking this map would be a breeze.

Yet he never anticipated that Su Zhe's individual skill vastly exceeded his expectations. Without a positional advantage, he wasn't confident in taking a direct duel—after all, he was already 26 this year, relying far more on current form and feeling than in his younger days.

Moreover, the performances of the other NIP players today were shockingly good.

Following the timeout, Falcons slightly adjusted their defensive strategy. Returning to a full-buy round, they placed the AWP in A-Second-Floor to specifically target Su Zhe.

And this round, the Guardian actually seized the opportunity, using the AWP to secure Su Zhe's opening death, followed by a side-alley forward pressure to gather info and stack three players on B.

Falcons finally scraped together their first round since the pistol round.

However, NIP's members didn't care too much; after all, their economy had long since built up to a massive surplus, and they hadn't expected to shut out their opponents 11-1 in the first half anyway.

Realizing that the opponents loved stacking defensive utility in A-side lanes, es3tag threw smokes for A-Main and library connector, executing a connector-pinch onto B.

Falcons' split-up A-site retake was exceptionally difficult, and following a cascade of lost gunfights, they dropped another round.

Through the remainder of the first half, Magisk couldn't conjure up any targeted counter-strategies. When the half concluded, the score stood firmly at 9-3.

Following a brief halftime break, Magisk hoped that switching to the T-side would allow them to win the pistol round and breathe some life back into the match.

Yet the final result proved that while their newly formed roster possessed decent individual skill and a positive honeymoon-phase team atmosphere,

they performed even worse on the T-side, which demanded far greater team synchronization.

Conversely, NIP—despite featuring a rookie—required no synchronization period whatsoever; Su Zhe operated almost entirely as a free-roaming agent in most scenarios.

Meanwhile, the other four players had already fought side by side for over half a year.

The two teams were simply not on the same level when it came to coordination.

Ultimately, when the first map concluded, the scoreboard froze at 13-4.