Chapter 63: CSGO is Played with the Brain!

"A 1v1 post-plant situation! floppy is hugging the close angle on the outer perimeter! Can Arrow guess it? There's no time left! Arrow goes for the fake defuse! He secures it!"

Mashishi's voice grew increasingly excited, and the moment he saw the final kill in the clutch, he cried out in sheer thrill.

Mo's tone was equally pumped, "That was too down to the wire! It came down to the last two seconds! If floppy had just kept hiding and refused to peek, Complexity would have taken this round outright. Arrow handled that clutch with incredible composure!"

The 1v2 clutch, compounded by the extreme pressure of the clock, had countless viewers on edge. Once the final outcome settled, many let out a long sigh of relief alongside the shifting momentum.

The chat barrage, which had been filled with foul language just moments before, instantly vanished.

[That final play was genuinely so composed! There were only a few seconds left and he still had the guts to fake!]

[Who was saying Arrow has no brain earlier? Just someone who can aim a bit?]

[Hahaha, mostly because floppy is even more brainless. If he had just peeked a tiny angle at the end to get information, he wouldn't have lost this clutch.]

[Easy for you to talk smack from God's view.]

[Feels like Map 2 is in the bag and we're heading to Map 3! Let's go NIP!]

[......]

"Arrow! How on earth did you guess he was in that spot?!" k0nfig had been just as anxious watching Su Zhe's first-person perspective, but he never expected the opponent to be standing right outside, separated from Su Zhe's bomb-planting spot by only a single wall.

Su Zhe took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heartbeat before speaking slowly, "I originally thought the opponent was waiting for me to plant either by the white car or on the balcony, so right after tapping the bomb I immediately checked my right side, and we just happened to run into each other."

"Hahaha!! What kind of luck is that to run right into each other!" headtr1ck's laughter echoed through the team comms.

REZ shook his head with a smile, "With that kind of luck, even if it were me, I wouldn't have been able to capitalize on it. I probably would have just committed to the plant and gambled that they wouldn't dare to come out."

Securing a massive score advantage early on filled the NIP team with laughter and cheer. If Complexity lost another full-buy round here, the score would widen to 5-0, whereas their original goal for the first half was merely to scrape together seven rounds.

"Keep it up!"

"Let's go!!"

Having dropped five consecutive rounds and wrapping up their semi-buy, Complexity finally cracked under the pressure and called the first tactical timeout of the first half, setting up a heavy B-site defense specifically tailored against NIP's offense.

However, they underestimated NIP's tactical depth on Mirage.

es3tag immediately guessed their defensive intent the moment Complexity called the timeout, opting to take early control of mid in the next round followed by a secondary arch-side split into A.

jungle caught two full-blind flashes thrown by EliGE, collapsing and dying instantly before he could even open his eyes.

hallzerk, holding a direct angle with the AWP from CT spawn, successfully picked off one player, but was quickly traded by headtr1ck's aggressive counter-AWP.

With the double-A defense reduced to a two-for-one trade, JT didn't even harbor any desire to retake, immediately grouping up as a trio to hunt for save weapons.

At this point, Complexity fell into the exact same predicament NIP had faced on Map 1; they hadn't played Mirage even once since the CS2 update.

Today's pick was primarily driven by their desire to test out new strats prepared specifically before the match.

At the same time, they figured NIP's individual firepower was mediocre at best, entirely propped up by an unpredictable rookie. As long as hallzerk performed well with his AWP, rifleman Arrow wouldn't be able to make any waves in the match.

Yet once the game actually began, the rookie's performance and NIP's overall offensive pace far exceeded their expectations.

This was completely a different team from the NIP seen on Vertigo!

Complexity grew increasingly silent amidst the continuous round losses, and communication errors began to plague them frequently.

In the end, relying purely on map advantages and the individual performances of EliGE and hallzerk, they managed to salvage a few rounds.

When the first half finally drew to a close, the scoreboard was locked at 9-3.

Although it wasn't as exaggerated as the 11-1 scoreline from Map 1, Mirage was traditionally a CT-sided map. Realistically, Complexity needed to secure at least seven rounds to pass.

"It's my fault..." floppy covered his face in self-reproach as the first half ended.

His mental state had been compromised ever since they lost that first full-buy round. He felt that the team's subsequent streak of lost rounds was inextricably tied to his own defeat in the clutch.

Throughout the following rounds, he couldn't stop replaying the scenario in his head: "If only I had..."

It was just like losing an argument, only to keep running the mental post-mortem while lying in bed at night...

Complexity's coach, T.c, looked at the stifled atmosphere within the team and knew it was time for him to step in. He offered words of encouragement, "Don't worry, guys! The second half is your home turf! Don't forget what people call us—the North American kings. As long as we win the second-half pistol round, we still have a chance to mount a comeback!"

There was a well-known saying in CSGO: North America has no CTs.

This phenomenon had persisted ever since the rise of Team Liquid. Whether on T-sided or CT-sided maps, their win rate in attacking rounds far outpaced their defensive rounds.

As the team's in-game leader, JT adjusted his emotions and spoke up, "The coach is right, we haven't lost yet, everything is still possible! Don't forget what you guys said about NIP being trash before the match—if they can get nine rounds on the T-side, we can get ten to beat them!"

Hearing their words, the members of Complexity managed to fish their shattered confidence back out.

As the perennial runners-up of the North American region, they naturally didn't believe NIP was stronger than them, especially with a star player like EliGE on their roster.

EliGE showed no particular reaction, maintaining his usual expressionless demeanor, though his posture straightened up a notch.

Following a brief few-minute halftime break, the second-half match resumed.

After the side switch, NIP started on the defensive side.

"For the pistol round, we're gambling a 4-B setup. REZ, you stay solo at CT spawn for information. I have a feeling the opponent might rush B on the pistol round just like us. I'll buy a smoke and a defuse kit myself, so even if we guess wrong, it'll be easy to rotate back." Before the preparation time expired, es3tag shared his plan, and the rest of the team raised no objections.

They had played against Complexity on this map a few times back during the CSGO era, and the probability of the opponents rushing B was indeed higher.

Once the countdown ended, Su Zhe bought half-armor and followed his teammates directly toward the B site, while k0nfig and es3tag pushed aggressively out into the alley to gather mid information.

However, barely a few seconds into the round, REZ's shout echoed through the comms: "A1 and A2 are out! All five are hitting A!"

"Rotate immediately! Don't hold!" Armed with the information, es3tag immediately organized his teammates to execute a retake.

Seconds later, REZ's voice sounded in their headsets once more: "They aren't fighting for CT spawn, they've flooded into jungle! They planted the bomb in arch! I can't find an angle!"

Hearing this, everyone instantly understood Complexity's intent.

They intended to lock down VIP and Arch, which allowed them to both cut off the CTs' rotation and pick off anyone attempting to defuse from Arch.

k0nfig spoke up, "I'm going up to black room to watch VIP, you guys just rotate straight from apartments!"

Hearing this, Su Zhe and the other two discarded any lingering hesitation, sprinting straight through CT spawn to retake A. Along the way, REZ successfully picked up a kill on the player lurking near A1.

"I'll flash! You guys push out!" Reaching the CT spawn area, es3tag pulled the pin on his flashbang, and Su Zhe alongside REZ—who was hiding behind the kiosk—simultaneously swung wide into the bomb site.

To their surprise, EliGE had rotated back to the A-main area, dodging the flash and immediately dispatching REZ with a swift spray.

Seeing this, Su Zhe gave the opponent zero opportunity to re-peek, instantly snapping his USP crosshair over.

"Pfft! Pfft!"

[Arrow secured a headshot kill on EliGE using USP]

"There's one in jungle, the remaining two should be right underneath arch in mid." k0nfig, hiding up in the black room, provided crystal-clear information on the T positions.

es3tag weighed his options for a moment before calling out, "headtr1ck, throw a deep smoke sealing off arch and push into jungle! Arrow, help me cover the defuse!"

Before Su Zhe could fully process the command, es3tag whipped out a smoke grenade and tossed it directly onto the bomb.

Instantly grasping the intent, Su Zhe stepped right beside the smoke, holding an angle locked onto Arch, inwardly marveling at es3tag's boldness and precision.

To dare begin defusing the bomb while three opponents were still alive on the map...

floppy, stationed in jungle, heard the sound of the defuse immediately. Realizing the enemy might have a defuse kit, he chose to swing out and challenge.

However, headtr1ck had already hugged the wall and crept into close range at jungle, while Su Zhe snapped his crosshair over the split second the enemy appeared.

Under their combined crossfire, floppy was eliminated instantly before he could even fire a shot.

The two T's remaining under Arch desperately tried to spam through the smoke, but the thick smoke blocking the archway rendered their positioning useless—not to mention Su Zhe deliberately standing right in the front to absorb bullets.

Furthermore, k0nfig exited the black room shortly after to harass Arch from the side.

JT and Grim, isolated in mid, felt nothing but utter despair. Moments later, the pleasant notification chime of a successful bomb defusal echoed through their ears.

"Hahaha!" es3tag, having successfully pulled off the ninja defuse, was ecstatic, shouting triumphantly toward the opposing player booths, "CSGO is a game played with your brain!"