Chapter 56: Thanks, Valve!

After securing the triple kill, Su Zhe finally understood why he had felt that inexplicable sense of familiarity just moments ago.

Wasn't this the exact scenario from when he had first comprehended donk's technique?

During the previous spray-transfer, he felt as though he had returned to that very moment of epiphany, wielding the AK-47 as naturally as moving his own arm.

After being eliminated, instead of listening to his teammates' voices coming through the headset, he squeezed the hand holding the mouse.

Spray control had always been his weakness. During matches, he typically tried to rely on rapid crosshair placement combined with maximizing kills in the first few bullets. Otherwise, once his spray went wild on the opening burst, it was extremely difficult to pull the recoil pattern back down.

Yet in that brief instant just now, he had suddenly gained a fresh understanding of recoil control.

Though he couldn't quite articulate exactly where the breakthrough lay, he now simply wanted the match to end as quickly as possible so he could jump onto the Aimbotz map and slaughter thousands of bots to recapture that exact feeling.

"Awesome, Arrow!"

"Hahaha, the AK the opponents dropped last round really came back to haunt them! I knew giving it to you was the right call!"

His teammates' excited shouts gradually pulled his thoughts back to the present. Meanwhile, after sustaining heavy damage, Team Falcons called a tactical timeout to adjust their offensive strategy.

Seeing a teammate's outstretched hand, Su Zhe smiled and high-fived him.

Having lost the full-buy round, Falcons had no choice but to opt for a half-buy next round to preserve their economy and prepare for the subsequent full buy.

Looking at the 4-1 scoreline, Snappi, the in-game leader of Team Falcons, felt deeply exhausted.

While his teammates might not be extraordinarily dazzling superstar players, they undoubtedly belonged to the upper echelon of tier-one professional players. Yet now that five individually brilliant professionals were gathered together, why couldn't they generate any chemistry?

Once the timeout ended, Falcons seemed to have a sudden awakening. Following a half-buy rush that tested short, they found that NiP was still playing a 3-A defensive setup.

Consequently, when the next round transitioned into a full buy, Falcons directly launched an explosive execute onto the B-site, finally securing their second round of the first half.

History proved that NiP's defensive tactics on the map Inferno—or rather, Overpass—were indeed relatively sparse; es3tag could only make simple reactive adjustments to Falcons' attacks by shifting his defensive formations.

For instance, if Falcons scored on the B-site this round, es3tag would station a 3-B defense the next round; if Falcons scored on the A-site instead, es3tag would once again heavily stack the A-site at the start of the round...

After trading blows for several rounds, Snappi finally figured out es3tag's defensive pattern and initiated a comeback mode.

By the final round of the first half, the score had reached 7-4.

Faced with Falcons' relentless point-scoring, es3tag grew somewhat anxious. If Falcons managed to secure one more point to lock the first-half score at 7-5, their T-side attack in the second half would become extremely passive, leaving them with very little margin for error.

Yet he still hadn't figured out where the root of the problem lay, merely grumbling about how Falcons always seemed so lucky, correctly guessing their defensive setups every single time.

After pondering for a moment, es3tag spoke up, "Let's start this round with four players set up at B to counter a potential rush. If there's no movement, we'll make defensive rotations afterwards."

This was the best countermeasure he could think of, especially since Falcons had executed a long-pipe combined with a B-short accelerated push just the previous round.

***

Once the countdown ended, Su Zhe purchased an M4A4 in the buy menu and followed his teammates toward the B bomb site.

"Give me a boost. Let me see if I can sneak a kill at construction," k0nfig said to REZ, who was helping defend that area this round.

Hearing this, REZ crouched beneath the boosting spot without hesitation. However, the moment k0nfig stepped up and glanced toward construction, his health bar plummeted rapidly, startling him so badly that he immediately jumped back down.

Fortunately, the terrorist peeking construction in the opening seconds was only armed with a Mac-10; had it been an AK, he likely would have given away first blood instantly.

Witnessing this scene, Machine let out a long sigh, "NiP's attention to detail on Overpass is still far too poor. When boosting in a position like that, why wouldn't you throw a flashbang over construction first? Falcons already know NiP's opening setups now and are starting to push out toward the A-site."

Seeing that Falcons had no intention of executing onto the B site, es3tag first executed a counter-flash of construction and then sent REZ running back to A.

As the round timer ticked away, Su Zhe was holding the short-pipe position from outside the sewer iron doors when urgent shouting suddenly echoed in his headset: "Someone's pushed into bathrooms!"

Su Zhe glanced at the minimap and discovered that the moment REZ returned to A, he had pushed up into the middle of bathrooms under the cover of headtr1ck's AWP, hoping to lock down an angle so the sniper could better hold A-long. Instead, he had been caught and instantly eliminated head-on by Magisk.

"REZ throws away his life in that position yet again! Now the terrorists have secured full control of bathrooms, and Falcons are pulling out their utility to set up an explosive execute!" Machine felt as though he were stuck in a loop; NiP had lost a point in the exact same manner earlier.

"headtr1ck's AWP catches the gap of B0ROS jumping through A-short and fires a shot! What a pity, the sniper shot went through the cover and failed to secure a kill. The smoke grenades for bank and trash can have already bloomed, and the AWP has been forced off its angle. This round is looking tough for NiP once again!"

Hearing the commotion at A, es3tag immediately organized the rotation. Su Zhe, standing outside the sewer doors, intended to flank around and catch the enemy in a pincer movement with his teammates.

He cautiously tested the door, and finding no one in the close angle, began moving silently up the stairs.

As he reached the middle of the stairwell, he performed a quick jiggle peek. B0ROS, who was standing in an unorthodox position to the right of the stairs, took the bait and fired prematurely.

Pinpointing the enemy holding the rear guard, Su Zhe burst out with a wide swing.

"Rat-tat-tat!"

[Arrow used M4A4 to headshot B0ROS]

"They're pushing up out of the sewer opening!" the eliminated B0ROS hurriedly reported to his teammates.

SunPayus, who was pushing alongside the main group, immediately spun around and locked his AWP onto the bathroom entrance.

Su Zhe micro-peekoed and spotted the enemy sniper hard-scoping A-short, prompting him to hold his ground and avoid any rash actions.

By this time, the terrorists had already planted the C4. headtr1ck, who had fallen back to the bank area, attempted to proactively make a play, resulting in a trade with Snappi.

Meanwhile, the rotating teammates were blocked off by a cascading wall of terrorist smoke grenades, leaving them with no lines of sight to execute a retake.

Seeing the stalemate, Su Zhe knew he had to proactively create an opening; dragging it out any longer would only make their situation increasingly passive.

He pulled out a flashbang, bounced it off a wall, and dashed out with a wide jump swing right as the flash popped.

SunPayus wasn't fooled by the flash; his AWP crosshair whipped across instantly, though luck was slightly on the CT's side—he clearly saw a burst of blood blossom from the CT's legs.

Instead of retreating back into cover, the low-health Su Zhe kept his crosshair locked onto the A-short cover position.

Knowing the opponent had pushed up, SunPayus pulled out a Glock intending to secure the trade proactively, but the moment he swung his body out before completing his secondary crosshair placement, his screen turned black.

***

"Rat-tat-tat!"

[Arrow used M4A4 to headshot SunPayus]

"Arrow gets the kill on SunPayus! Falcons' three-man defensive setup around the bomb is broken! Although he was tagged down to absolute minimum health by the sniper, the two remaining players on the site are now forced to split their crosshairs to watch the flank!"

Machine's voice suddenly rose in volume: "It all comes down to whether NiP can capitalize on this numbers advantage for the retake!"

The sound of the C4 grew increasingly rapid. As es3tag waited for the smoke grenade at the trash can to dissipate, his eyes lit up upon seeing Su Zhe's flank-kill notification.

es3tag spoke up in the comms: "They probably don't have any utility left! Arrow, wait a second, I'll draw the crosshair for you!"

Hearing this, Su Zhe hurriedly stopped him: "Don't! I'm super low HP! Call out the moment the smoke clears, and I'll act as the bait!"

He knew how difficult it was to score a headshot from behind; if he missed and gave the enemy time to react, a single stray bullet flying his way would cost him his life.

"Alright, the smoke is about to fade. Move out the second the flash pops." With that, es3tag, positioned beneath the trash can stairs, watched the thinning smoke grenade and pulled out a flashbang.

Meanwhile, Su Zhe had already edged forward to the bathroom entrance near the bomb site. Hearing the flash detonate, he immediately crosshair-pre-aimed the car position and swung out wide, only to be easily intercepted by Magisk, who was positioned behind the shadow cover on the bomb site.

"Bank is clear to push!" the eliminated Su Zhe shouted immediately.

Hearing the gunfire on the site, k0nfig crouch-swung out instantly. Seeing Magisk trying to turn and reacquire targets, k0nfig froze his crosshair and fired.

"Rat-tat-tat~"

[k0nfig used M4A1-S to headshot Magisk]

Maden at the car position failed to secure the refrag in time; his initial plan had been to stall for as much time as possible, but caught in the crossfire between es3tag and k0nfig from left and right, he couldn't even last two seconds.

"Nice!! Great teamwork!!" k0nfig, defusing the bomb with one hand, high-fived his teammates on either side.

"Arrow, that flank was absolutely crucial!" es3tag exclaimed in admiration.

First securing two kills and then proactively drawing crosshairs to create space for his teammates, his contribution value this round was simply maxed out.

Su Zhe smiled and fist-bumped the coach and es3tag standing behind him: "I have to thank CS2 for this; otherwise, I might not have even survived that AWP encounter."

If that kill on B0ROS was due to the opponent's poor positioning, then SunPayus's flick-shot was purely a gift of an opportunity.

If AWPs still possessed the mechanics from CSGO where firing and flicking could happen simultaneously, Su Zhe felt he would have already turned into a corpse the second he exposed his model.

"We really do have to thank Valve; AWPs should have been changed like this ages ago!" k0nfig nodded approvingly, and the others chimed in agreement, creating a joyous and harmonious atmosphere among the team's riflers.

Only headtr1ck sat silently to the side, contemplating a switch to a rifler role himself.