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

After returning to the rifle rounds, Team A regained their confidence. While they had experienced some unfortunate endgame situations, they did not feel completely helpless against NA.

Although they had many opportunities in the previous round in the first zone but failed to capitalize on them, causing some psychological fluctuations, they still felt that the game was full of opportunities overall.

Especially after returning to the long-range rounds, they felt that if they could adjust their defensive strategy and, most importantly, seize the opportunity to engage in crucial gunfights, they could gradually catch up against NA.

"We still need to put pressure on them at the front post, and not let them easily accelerate and break through to the front post position. Otherwise, if we lose our position continuously, we will be in a very passive position."

For the players on Team A, they could clearly feel that by giving up their advantageous position at the front, especially by giving NA too much room to maneuver, they would be having a very difficult time.

Therefore, under such circumstances, once they have long guns and enough items, they obviously need to put pressure on the attacking side in terms of map control.

After returning to the rifle rounds, Team A was clearly playing more proactively than before. They positioned players at both the B site in the middle and the second floor of the A site, creating pressure and a sense of urgency for the attacking side. This meant that if the opposing team wanted to accelerate their breakthrough, they would need to use utility to clear the points first. Team A's positioning gave them opportunities to gather information and even secure kills during engagements at the front points.

Furthermore, Team A's most obvious adjustment in this round was deploying a shotgun at the A2 building. It's fair to say that their deployment of a shotgun at this point was absolutely unknown and difficult for NA to deduce.

More importantly, shotguns can be extremely lethal in such confined spaces, especially when the opponent is unaware of or has not anticipated this. If they are caught off guard and a shotgun gets close, they have almost no room to maneuver.

This is actually one of the differences between Team A and yesterday's SQ team. SQ is a very disciplined team; they are a very well-behaved team. Throughout most of every round of the match, they maintained absolute rationality and made the most reasonable judgments and choices.

So in fact, they rarely make too many unconventional attempts, whether in terms of tactics or weapon selection. Even when they use some unconventional things, it is still within the reasonable scope of basic tactics.

For Team A, unlike most other teams, they have played too many scrims with NA, so they know very well what kind of team NA is, and they understand better how to play against NA and ensure their own winning percentage.

In fact, whether it's conventional tactics or strategic choices, NA can usually make arrangements in advance. However, NA is not good at making judgments, and they might choose to place a shotgun on the second floor in this round.

Choosing a gun line like this is basically outside of NA's calculations. So if NA really chooses to continue accelerating and breaking through the second floor position this round, then this shotgun will undoubtedly be very effective.

"In this round, we'll focus on controlling the map. It's clear from the last round that the opposing team has made some adjustments to their tactical rhythm. They are quite prepared for our accelerated breakthroughs, especially our core push from the middle lane."

Therefore, if we choose to play a fast-paced style centered around the mid lane, the opponent will definitely be prepared in advance. In that case, it will be very difficult for us to easily achieve our tactical objectives.

Therefore, in this round, we'll first adopt a slow-paced, map-controlling strategy to keep them guessing about our true tactical intentions. Under these circumstances, by gathering information about the field and utilizing items, we'll continuously look for opportunities to determine our core breakthrough strategy for this round.

In Li Mo's view, his first reaction at the start of this round was to try and create a misleading illusion by speeding up the opponent. However, he believed that the opponent would also realize the possibility of some of their conventional tactics this round.

Therefore, under these circumstances, he no longer wanted to waste resources and time on tactical preparations that were not particularly meaningful.

Since both sides have a fairly deep understanding of each other's tactics and possible playing styles, it often comes down to who can remain calmer. Especially for the defensive side, if they become anxious because they don't have enough information, the offensive side will have a better chance to exploit Team A's weaknesses and find opportunities to break through on the field.

After all, if they can't easily break through in the mid lane, it means that it will be very difficult for them to quickly gain an advantageous position and create a numerical advantage in the early stages of the game.

Therefore, they must stabilize the pace and collect information. Only by obtaining enough information on the field can they avoid the opponent's defensive focus and choose the weak side to break through.

"Both sides played exceptionally calmly in this round. For the first 30 seconds, both sides were essentially playing on an empty map. Under these circumstances, NA, as the attacking side, should have been under some pressure."

After all, during this map control phase, although they did invest some items, Team A's positioning was excellent, so they didn't provide NA with any information. Therefore, without sufficient information, NA's default move in this round couldn't be considered a significant gain.

"In this situation, we see that NA is trying to find opportunities in the banana lane, so their forward positioning is quite bold. However, although the opposing team is at a disadvantage in the score, they haven't lost their initiative at all; on the contrary, they are playing with great confidence. Under these circumstances, they chose an opportunity to flash out and found a chance, directly taking down one of NA's players!" During the default map control phase, they were unable to obtain information about the defending team, Astralis. The fact that they couldn't gain an advantage during this period was already bad news for NA.

After all, they had spent time controlling the map, but in this situation, it was like adding insult to injury. They lost another player in the banana lane, which meant they were now at a disadvantage in terms of numbers.

For NA, it's already quite difficult to turn the tide in this long-range round.

Their numerical disadvantage wasn't due to losing a player during a speed-up breakthrough attempt to gain control of the bomb site. Rather, it was because they were directly eliminated while actively trying to expand their position.

In this situation, not only did they expose some of their location information, but they also failed to obtain anything of equal value from the one person they killed.

"Nice!"

For Team A, gaining a numerical advantage at the start of the game is definitely something to be thankful for. Most importantly, such kills can easily help improve their performance and make the team's atmosphere even more exciting.

With the numerical advantage, Team A was clearly playing more proactively. After providing utility in the mid lane, they significantly limited NA's ability to flank from there. NA is now in a rather awkward situation, as taking point B has become extremely difficult.

Following conventional tactical thinking, their best course of action now would be to focus on the middle lane, employing a pincer attack on both the middle and A building. In fact, based on the information currently available on the field, making this choice is the most likely way to avoid targeting A team's defensive focus.

In Li Mo's view, they are currently under considerable time pressure and don't have much time to strategize. Therefore, it's more reasonable for them to focus their attack on the middle lane. After all, the opponent has already established an advantage in Banana Lane, and if they were to forcefully try to break through Banana Lane given their current numerical disadvantage, they would likely pay a heavy price.

Furthermore, the opposing team should have some awareness of the intersection point. Therefore, if they have made personnel adjustments, breaking through the middle lane is obviously the most reasonable choice for them.

"Give the mid lane a flashbang, then use fire to clear the point and then we speed up. Use smoke grenades to block their CT positions to prevent them from hitting our side on the second floor during the replay. Be careful, though, as there might be someone on the front point. Just be as careful as possible."

After arranging the tactics, Li Mo had a vague feeling that the chances of them winning this round were not very high. After all, at the beginning, their strategy for this round had been almost completely predicted by the opponent.

Therefore, they spent so much time in the default phase without achieving anything. Furthermore, because they failed to remain calm and take the initiative to open up the situation, they ended up with a numerical disadvantage. So, their current tactical choice is actually a helpless one made out of desperation.

"We saw that after NA accelerated their mid-lane gank, the items they used almost completely covered the mid-lane and the second floor. However, Team A was prepared, so their positioning was very solid, and they weren't significantly affected by NA's items. Therefore, in this situation, it might be even worse news for NA."

Furthermore, they were completely unaware that there was a shotgun on the A2 floor. The two of them had broken through to the second floor, and while the flashbang's effect was good, the players on Team A had absolutely no intention of revealing themselves. They were essentially taking the flashbang's effect and remaining motionless. It seemed like NA was in serious trouble on the second floor!

As expected, without clear information from the second floor, Na's two players, after moving forward, were almost instantly killed by the enemy's shotguns, one after the other. After successfully eliminating Na's two players, the enemy players at the bomb site and CT positions coordinated perfectly. With three players firing in unison, and another player providing support, they formed three flanking fire, instantly overwhelming Na's two attempts to break through from the middle.

Although Li Mo's reaction was incredibly fast, almost ridiculously so, and he managed to instantly draw his gun and take down two opponents in this extremely tight situation, it was too late for this round. After he was finished off, the last remaining enemy was also taken down simultaneously.

In this round, Team A successfully won the round thanks to their composure, patience, and excellent marksmanship.

"In the default phase of map control, if there is no information, the first thing to do if you want to get information or seek an opportunity to engage in a gunfight is to peek and try to see if you can bait the other party into firing. Then, if you still cannot make any progress in this situation, then you can choose to move out to look for opportunities."

Although this attempt to carry cargo on Xiangzhou Road came at a great cost, even arguably costing NA their competitiveness in this round, Li Mo believes that it's a good thing when players proactively seek opportunities when the game is deadlocked and they are at a disadvantage.

(End of this chapter)