CS: A young talent from Peking University, you want me to play professionally?

Chapter 108 Refusing a Clean Slam? How to Break the Stalemate in a Desperate Situation!

On this Nuclear Crisis map, FaZe undoubtedly had a very difficult time playing as a team.

The reason is simple: Na's attack in the first half, led by Li Mo, was almost perfect.

In the first 15 rounds, Na anticipated the weak side of most of Faze's defensive rounds.

Then, with the NA team using gadgets and firepower to suppress the defense, the defending team is often forced to either give up positions or use counter-gadgets to slow down their attacks.

However, after losing several rounds in a row, FaZe realized a terrible problem: they were being led by the nose by NA and had no initiative at all throughout the game.

Ultimately, on this map, Nuclear Crisis, NA secured their first victory in the best-of-three series with a score of 16:7.

Before the match, although most people no longer dared to underestimate this dark horse, or even the favorite to win the championship, NA, not many people expected that FaZe would lose the first custom map by such a large margin.

It's worth noting that FaZe chose the Nukem map partly because NA rarely played it in previous matches and scrims, but another important factor was that FaZe was quite good at it and had a relatively high win rate.

Despite these initial conditions, NA still easily defeated Faze by a large margin, undoubtedly showcasing NA's terrifying strength to a wider audience.

"So let's congratulate NA on winning the first map. After watching this match, I had a very strong feeling, and I wonder if you two feel the same way."

"Many times we feel that we have high expectations for the NA team, but after watching the game, we find that NA is much stronger than we imagined."

"Most importantly, the greatest strength of the Na team is that it can constantly give you unexpected surprises."

Soon, both teams entered the second map, Sand II.

Both sides have a very high win rate on this map, especially this side, which has a very high chance of winning the pistol round.

As we all know, if you lose the pistol round against NA, it could have a series of very serious consequences in the first half. NA's win rate after winning the pistol round is almost 80% or higher. Under such circumstances, no team wants to lose the pistol round when facing NA.

Therefore, choosing this map indicates an intention to gain at least a military advantage in the first half. Based on previous matches, if the score against Nana falls too far in the first half, both the individual player performance and the team's overall performance will be significantly worse in the second half if they try to catch up.

Huh? For any team, if there is a huge score difference in the first half, the players' mentality will be greatly affected.

Even for a top team like FaZe, if the players' mentality is greatly affected, they are likely to encounter all sorts of absurd situations in the subsequent matches. Therefore, in this case, FaZe's choice of the Dust 2 map is obviously because they do not want to be eliminated 2-0 by Na in the first round of the Tao match.

In this match, FaZe is on the offensive side. From an offensive and defensive perspective, giving the ball to the offensive side is actually very good news for them.

Because the Sands II map is actually a map that favors the attacking side in professional matches.

Although this map is often considered a very easy map to defend in ranked matches, in professional matches, the attacking side has a significantly higher win rate than the defending side.

First of all, on this map, the bandits can make the most of their items to gain control of the map.

Furthermore, the attacking side clearly has more tactical options than the defending side. In fact, the defensive side has extremely limited defensive positioning and tactics on this map. Under such circumstances, after such a long period of time, all professional teams have a very clear defensive strategy for this map.

In this situation, professional teams have more offensive options on this map, while the defending side is in a relatively passive position.

In the pistol round, Na's defensive strategy was also very extreme.

Li Mo chose to have 4 people stay at point A and 1 person stay at point B.

This defensive positioning is clearly a gamble that the opposing attacking team will come to point A in the first pistol round. If the opposing team does not choose to come to point A, but instead chooses to rush point B with 5 people, then the defending team at point A will face enormous pressure to retake the position.

Because you have to understand that on this map, once the terrorists have taken control of the bomb site, the CTs will obviously need to use enough gadgets to retake it.

In the pistol round, the defending team naturally wouldn't have enough utility. If they miscalculated the opponent's offensive strategy, it would be extremely difficult to mount a successful counter-attack and win the pistol round. However, before the preparation phase ended, a small strategic adjustment was made.

One of them, who was originally assigned to defend point A, has been moved to the middle.

Positioning the player at this location and the resulting change in the number of players clearly indicates that player A believes that in the pistol round, the opposing team might be able to attack point B.

If you send someone to the middle lane, it allows for a relatively quick return to defend both points. More importantly, the middle lane position allows for immediate support to teammates at the B bomb site.

If the attacking team accelerates their push towards point B, then the middle lane, after receiving the information, can quickly rotate back to defend.

It's important to understand that when one person is facing four attackers, the pressure to defend is immense, and the effectiveness of their defense is extremely limited. However, if teammates in the middle can also provide immediate support for point B, then it can at least slow down the attackers' rush on point B.

In the pistol round, the attacking side immediately chose to explore information about A site and gain control of the map. Obviously, the opposing side knew that if they lost control of A site, it would mean losing a very important vantage point on the map for both the attacking and defending sides.

Both sides made some attempts to penetrate the enemy's defenses in the early stages, but neither side achieved a good result.

After a brief period of back-and-forth, the attacking side positioned three of their players in the middle lane. Their tactical intention was quite clear: to launch a pincer attack on point B from the middle.

This is evident from the fact that they have already placed someone on level B, which clearly shows their tactical intentions. It can be said that this is a very wise choice for the attacking side.

Typically, the defending team will deploy a large force at point A. For the attacking team, once they gain control of the central front position and their teammates push forward at point B, all they need to do is provide basic smoke in the central area to encircle point B.

After seeing the smoke grenade the attackers placed on the mid-lane CT spawn, team A clearly understood that the attackers intended to launch a pincer attack on the mid-lane spawn point. Under these circumstances, team A on B2 took down one defender first. However, the defenders quickly placed a smoke grenade on the second floor, preventing team A from quickly encircling the spawn point.

After the attack from the middle, the defending side successfully caught the first terrorist trying to enter the bomb site.

So after eliminating the two defenders, the attackers now have a significant numerical advantage, especially after they have completely taken control of the B bomb site. Their current position is very comfortable, and it will be very difficult for the defenders to gain control of the B site.

Moreover, after gaining a numerical advantage, the attacking side became very bold, with one player directly pulling the team to the Jing family's position. This positioning clearly indicated that the attacker wanted to block the left-hand side's counter-attack from point A.

Overall, FaZe executed their pistol round tactic very well. By giving false information at the first moment, they actually tricked A's thinking.

Seeing that the opponent had three players positioned at point A, especially at the front, and that there was a clear indication of their presence, team A believed that the opponent was likely to exert pressure on point A.

However, after receiving a false message from A, the opposing team quickly moved to the mid lane and launched a silent push.

Because the defenders in the middle lane quickly went to their assigned location to provide backup after not seeing any attackers, the terrorists gained a rapid advantage in the middle lane. By the time the defenders who went to the B bomb site to provide backup and then tried to check the middle lane for information, it was already too late. The attackers could then launch a pincer attack on the site after providing smoke.

Under these circumstances, the attacking side won the pistol round without much trouble, which was great news for both the player and the other teams watching the match.

As is well known, FaZe faces immense pressure in the pistol rounds against NA, both tactically and in terms of individual player skill. NA has demonstrated an overwhelming level of dominance in previous matches.

However, after FaZe lost the first map with a huge score disadvantage, they were able to win the pistol round on the second map. This made a very different difference in terms of both the players' mentality and the overall situation.

In fact, Li Mo did not expect that in this round, the opposing team's Fei Zi would not choose to take control of point A and then further break through the point. Instead, they patiently took control of the middle lane and then gradually launched a pincer attack on point B.

From Li Mo's perspective, having just lost a map, he believes the opposing team is probably quite anxious at this point. Given that A has already revealed information and provided items, he thinks they won't attempt a second rotation, as that would not only waste the items they've already given but also hand over control of the front point that they've worked so hard to secure.

In fact, when faced with such situations, these unconventional ideas often have a very good effect, because most of the time Li Mo will first assume a conventional way of thinking and making a tactical choice. In such cases, he will not consider too much the tactical arrangements made by the opposing attacking side in this round of the pistol round.

After winning the pistol round, the team didn't linger. All five players were equipped with guns: two AKs, one AK-5, and two submachine guns. This weapon advantage put A under significant defensive pressure.

Nevertheless, Li Mo still chose to attempt a forced buy with a bird sniper rifle in the second round of the economy round, and as a carrier for him in terms of positioning, he also played the role of a FAMAS. Obviously, they wanted to try something in this round.

(End of this chapter)