Chapter 65: His position seems to be a libero...

"Arrow takes down JT with a wide swing! His position is locked down! He's still buying time! Grim is starting to panic!"

"He gets the kill on a low-health Arrow, picks up the defuse kit, and starts defusing! Can he pull it off? Ahahaha! The bomb goes off!"

Mashixi's voice gradually became frantic: "NIP pulls off the force-buy comeback! Although Arrow didn't get a quadruple kill, he stalled for enough time! He secured this crucial round for NIP!"

Mo chimed in from the side, exclaiming: "Netizens used to say Arrow only had raw aim and a crude, aggressive playstyle, but there are so many details packed into this play today!"

Mashixi replied: "Indeed! His clutch decision-making and crosshair placement were truly refined! But his raw aim is just too insane! Otherwise, he wouldn't have managed to get the opening kill on EliGE. Now that Complexity loses this round, they're going to be in a tough spot!"

...

"Bang!"

After being eliminated early at A-Short, EliGE had a bad premonition. Seeing JT fall subsequently and Grim failing the defuse, he slammed his fist furiously onto the table in sheer rage.

A three-versus-one turned into losing two players! And they still lost! Against the opponents' zero-economy force-buy, no less!

Even in ordinary matchmaking, a situation like this would sting for quite a while.

Hallzerk right beside him was startled badly by the table slam, his body jerking slightly, while the others didn't even dare to utter a word.

As the in-game leader, JT comforted them: "It's fine, we just need to pull off a force-buy of our own next round..."

EliGE didn't echo his sentiment.

After readjusting his state, EliGE remained silent.

He wasn't the type to put pressure on his teammates, especially since he bore some responsibility for losing that clutch, even though he had already secured two kills.

...

"Nice!!" Watching the bomb detonate, Su Zhe could no longer contain the excitement in his heart, pumping his single fist and shouting.

"Arrow! You actually won that, what the hell! You're an absolute beast!!" k0nfig yelled loudly, giving Su Zhe a fierce high-five.

Su Zhe's emotions gradually calmed down after shouting. He finally understood why some people loved to scream and yell during matches—it felt unbelievably good!

Smiling, he spoke over the voice comms about the previous clutch: "The opponents gave us way too many openings. If A-Short had pushed out any earlier, I probably wouldn't even have gotten EliGE's kill!"

Es3tag, sitting right in the middle, was equally happy: "Clutch situations against multiple opponents are basically built on the enemy's mistakes, but not everyone can capitalize on those opportunities. Besides, Complexity's play was just a positional error, not even a true mistake."

Headtr1ck pointed out the key factor: "That's because they've started to be afraid of you!"

...

After losing the force-buy, Complexity's economy completely collapsed, leaving them with no choice but to force-buy Desert Eagles in the following round.

With the previous round serving as a cautionary tale, NIP played very cautiously overall, ensuring they gathered general information on the opponents before executing a smoke-grenade wave onto B-Site.

Although EliGE rotated back to B-Site immediately, the margin for error with a Desert Eagle is simply too low, and they didn't have a Niko-level Desert Eagle god on their side. NIP pushed through the bombsite while only losing a single player.

The remaining two players on A-Site lost any desire to retake, and the duo simply huddled together to find a safe spot to save their weapons.

When the match entered the first critical full-buy round, the scoreline between the two teams had reached 3-1.

"This round, let's take control of Banana first, then group up for an execute on A," es3tag said after considering the tactical approach for this round.

They had studied Complexity's defensive tendencies on this map prior to the match.

Complexity's primary firepower was concentrated on EliGE, but EliGE was an extremely team-oriented player. If the pressure on B-Site was heavy, even though he might not rotate instantly from Connector, he would definitely pull his positioning closer to CT spawn.

As long as they could isolate EliGE outside of the active battleground immediately, it would be easy for them to trade kills and flood the bombsite.

Es3tag continued detailing some utility specifics just as the countdown timer hit zero.

Su Zhe started the round by heading toward the side alley, though this time he had no intention of aggressively pushing deep into A-Apartments.

That was because the opponents had the economy for an AWP this round, and running solo meant he could easily get picked off by the sniper and hand over the team's opening death.

The AWPer only needed to hold a static angle, whereas he, as the lurker, had a lot more variables to consider.

Having played a few professional matches now, combined with the post-match reviews with the coach, Su Zhe belatedly realized how risky his past playstyle had been.

Now, he just wanted to win, just wanted to push the team into the Katowice playoffs, which naturally meant there were many more things to weigh during the rounds.

As a result, just as he reached the bottom of the spiral staircase, trouble struck his teammates in Banana.

Complexity threw a fast smoke into the bottom of Banana at the start of the round, looking to contest Banana control as well. K0nfig, naturally not one to let them have their way, pushed aggressively through the smoke coordinated with a teammate's flashbang. However, he didn't expect Complexity's JT to already be positioned behind the wooden barrels, easily collecting k0nfig's head.

Seeing the kill feed, Su Zhe recalled what the coach had told them yesterday: although JT was the team's in-game leader, he was also adept at actively creating opportunities for his squad.

His opening death rate ranked first on the entire Katowice statistics leaderboard—yes, opening death rate; the last time they played against EF, they handed over 17 opening kills across the entire Bo3.

However, today in this crucial match, it had expanded his team's win rate. By the time es3tag pushed through the smoke again to trade trades, JT had already retreated back into the bombsite, ceding control of Banana.

After using utility to clear out Yellow Wall and Sandbags and confirming no one was hiding there, es3tag gave out the call: "Let's stick to the plan. Headtr1ck, stay back in Banana to watch our flanks and be careful of an opponent counter-flash. We'll continue with the A execute."

With that, he retreated to T-spawn to toss a gap smoke dividing A-Main and Connector, while REZ hurried over to the side alley to coordinate with Su Zhe for the A-Apartments push.

Before long, however, the sharp crack of an AWP echoed across the map.

"The opponent's AWP is on an A1 double-peek!"

A fallen es3tag shouted frantically, but immediately afterward, the top right corner of the screen displayed the notification that headtr1ck had been flashed and killed, leaving only Su Zhe and REZ staring blankly at each other.

Neither of them had any desire to attempt a 2v5 clutch.

Control of Banana had already been reclaimed by Complexity, and coupled with es3tag dropping in Mid, the opponents definitely had a bead on both of their positions.

Fortunately, Complexity's economy wasn't great, and when the pair retreated to the kitchen to save their weapons, the enemies didn't push forward to hunt them down.

Losing this crucial round forced NIP to call their first tactical timeout of the first half.

"That round was on me... I didn't think the CT would step out that fast... and I shot right into the slate after exiting the smoke," k0nfig sighed and said.

Es3tag shook his head: "Don't blame yourself. Our mid-round positioning was too spread out, and the opponents capitalized on that."

Coach djL spoke up from behind: "Alright, stop fighting over who takes the blame. Let's talk about how we play the next round. The opening tactic was correct, but we shouldn't have skimped on that Banana fire. Next round, the three of you take control of Banana at the start, and REZ, you coordinate with Arrow to push A-Apartments."

"Put some pressure on the opponents, don't let their AWP roam freely for free kills."

Since buying an AWP on the T-side of Inferno heavily drags down the pace of an execute, the coach wouldn't let headtr1ck buy an AWP; thus, they had to apply pressure from another angle so the enemy sniper wouldn't dare move around recklessly.

Once the coach finished explaining the details regarding utility usage and positioning coordination, the one-minute timeout came to an end.

"Let's go! The opponents' economy isn't great! As long as we win this round, we still have a chance to widen the score gap!" es3tag encouraged the team.

When the countdown ended, Su Zhe headed toward the side alley once again, but this time, with REZ to back him up, he could afford to play much bolder.

"Boiler fire is thrown! Wait for me to step onto VIP! Swing!"

Upon hearing the cue, Su Zhe immediately pre-aimed the second floor and wide-swung. Hearing the sound of footsteps in the upper gallery, he accelerated instantly.

With REZ providing a safety net in Boiler, all his worries were lifted.

As Su Zhe cleared the gallery with a wide crosshair placement, the CT's model was just about to enter the balcony.

Spotting half of the CT's body, Su Zhe immediately crouched and unleashed a controlled spray.

"Da-da-da!"

[Arrow used AK-47 to headshot and kill floppy]

"Arrow seizes the opportunity and takes down floppy pushing up early in Apartments! This opening kill is massive! Hallzerk intended to use the AWP's advantage to push Boiler, but now he's forced to fall back to Pit, and EliGE in Connector is also forced to abandon his primary holding angle and back up!"

In professional matches, as long as a team secures the opening kill, they generally hold roughly a 75% win rate for that round.

It's not just the numerical advantage, but more importantly, the dominance over map control.

Now that Complexity had surrendered control of Mid, the moment NIP executed, Complexity's A-bombsite defenders wouldn't even have a buffer time to wait for their teammates to rotate back.

After a brief hesitation, JT called out: "Wait for me on A-Site, I'm guessing they're still hitting A."

With that, he headed toward CT spawn, but just as he reached Connector to coordinate a flash with EliGE to retake Mid, Grim's frantic shout echoed in his headset: "The opponents are executing on B-Site!"

Immediately following that was the notification that Grim had been flashed and eliminated.

JT let out a long sigh: "Just save..."

...

"Hahaha! I knew the opponents would gamble on A in the second wave!" es3tag let out a hearty laugh, marveling at how brilliant his own brain was.

"Arrow, that opening kill of yours was pivotal!" Ignoring es3tag, k0nfig smiled and fist-bumped Su Zhe.

REZ chimed in abruptly from the side: "Isn't Arrow our player with the highest opening kill rate?"

K0nfig raised an eyebrow: "Of course. I've taught him quite a lot of things over this past month or so."

He looked over at Su Zhe, continuing with a wink: "Am I right?"

Su Zhe was amused by k0nfig's expression, nodding in agreement: "You really did teach me a lot of experience."

However, REZ followed up with another question: "Isn't his role the lurker? K0nfig, aren't you supposed to be the entry fragger..."

K0nfig:......