# Chapter 73
For Game 2 of the BO3, the players re-entered the stage.
Earlier, in the break room, Free's crew had discussed several strategies with Old Qiao and the data analyst who came along.
The first option was for Whisper to play support too, copying Saint's lineup. Both sides would just grind it out, seeing who could outlast the other in every team fight. This approach was proposed by Chen Huo and immediately shot down by Old Qiao.
Whether they could develop chemistry in their first match was secondary. While Whisper's healer was among the top in high-rank matches, he genuinely fell short compared to Angel Sword.
Each profession has its own specialization—playing for fun was one thing, but facing off against Angel Sword in a serious match made the odds too unfavorable.
The second option was for Puppy to abandon the traditional playstyle. Instead of staying back to provide vision for the team, all four would push forward together, going head-to-head with Saint in a 4v4. Free had nothing to fear from Angel Sword and company.
But problems arose here too. How could anyone know how Saint would play this round?
What if their sniper didn't show up? Saint's sniper would be positioned in the back, scoping through their scope, able to pinpoint the location of Free's four frontliners the instant they appeared. Saint's three frontliners could simply slip away early and continue their guerrilla tactics. Puppy, with his scope, would be stuck at the map's edge with a severely reduced vision cone, rendering his contributions minimal.
They had only ten minutes of break time. In the back, Free ultimately failed to devise a complete, workable counter-strategy.
The game was about to start. The broadcast cut to an external shot, the camera sweeping across the glass booth on Free's side. Viewers could see the team members had been discussing the entire time since sitting down, putting on their headsets and continuing to discuss—only gradually falling silent once the countdown began.
Saint's new tactics had proven extremely successful in Game 1. This round, they would most likely continue the same approach. For Game 2, the commentators and everyone in the venue, plus viewers watching through streamers, were most focused on how Free would respond. The moment the game started, the broadcast immediately switched to Free's side.
The two commentators had also discussed at length during halftime, speculating that Puppy wouldn't stay back this round. Free's four frontliners would group up and make a overwhelming opening with their signature high-damage output. But contrary to both commentators' expectations, in the new round, Puppy still held position at the back of the map.
Commentator A frowned. "This doesn't look good. From our omniscient view, we can see Saint is once again bringing four players, all pushing to the front together. Free still has one fewer person. Are they just going to replicate the previous round's disadvantage?"
Commentator B was equally confused. "This doesn't make sense. Did Free make absolutely no adjustments? Do they still want to try the same thing again? But... the ending of the last round already showed us that Saint's counter-pick strategy can't be solved through direct 3v4 engagement."
"Hard to say..." Commentator A spoke quickly. "Here they go again, contact!"
On the map's junction point, the two teams met. As the commentator said, this round's opening was nearly identical to the previous one. Free played extremely cautiously this time, the three frontliners' movements practically flawless. But after securing one kill on Saint, the three frontliners were still wiped out. Free was left once again with only their rear sniper, Puppy.
This time Puppy hadn't even provided adequate fire suppression—firing one shot to help snipe before immediately changing position, going into hiding.
"I... honestly don't get it." Commentator A was bewildered. "What's wrong with Puppy? Not only did he not stay with the frontliners, he didn't fulfill the sniper's role either. That earlier shot did take about a third of Angel Sword's health, but it wasn't lethal, and then he just stopped supporting. This..."
Commentator B quickly stepped in to smooth things over. "Saint clearly came prepared—this is a套路 they developed over a long time. How could Free possibly come up with a solution so quickly?"
"But shouldn't they at least try other approaches? Blind rushing clearly won't work anymore. Now Saint has upgraded everyone's gear across the board. All their combat stats went up. It's going to be even harder to fight them." Commentator A shook his head. "Free's being a bit reckless here. Look, they're fighting again."
Before Commentator A could finish, the second team fight in-game erupted. Shi Luo this time didn't even wait for the shield Whisper was about to give him—he just charged straight at Angel Sword.
"To be fair, looking at things objectively, among domestic flankers, Evil has the fastest reaction time, what with being younger. Having him initiate face-to-face combat is reasonable, but does he have to go this hard?" Commentator A forced a rueful laugh. "Luozhai's gone a bit feral. Look, he got taken out again."
Commentator B quickly came to the rescue again. "As you said, Evil is young—it's the boldness of a young player. 'I'm going to fight you head-on. Let's see if I can do it. If not, I'll try again. I refuse to accept this.'"
"Comparatively, Chen Huo is more mature, more conservative. He prioritizes staying alive first before considering follow-ups... um... Chen Huo's dead." Before Commentator A could finish his sentence, Chen Huo on the battlefield, like a man possessed, charged directly at Angel Sword with his rifle raised. He was instantly riddled with bullets by the two flankers in front of Angel Sword. Commentator A's face was slapped hard. He paused for a beat, embarrassed. "Chen Huo might've lost his cool a bit too—last game was pretty frustrating. This..."
In-game, after Shi Luo and Chen Huo died, Whisper escaped cleanly. But in the back, Puppy seemed to have started a single-player game—he didn't fire a single shot this round.
"Puppy's really..." Commentator A couldn't help but laugh. "This isn't like him. I admit, his game experience last round was pretty rough. Looking at his expression when the game ended, he was clearly a bit irritated, but come on. We're talking about competition-level players here. They should be able to adjust their emotions quickly..."
Commentator B offered勉强. "They're only human, not machines. It's understandable. Both teams are taking this regular season match seriously. Both sides currently have perfect win records. While there are more games ahead, we all know that whichever team takes this match will essentially secure first place in the regular season standings for playoffs. I'd say both sides are under considerable pressure."
"They need to adjust quickly—this state isn't right." Commentator A said as he watched Chen Huo charge at Angel Sword once more without a shield. He couldn't help but laugh. "Fine, we know Chen Huo holds grudges, but... he's dead again."
Commentator A shook his head. "Free is completely falling apart right now. They need to adjust their state immediately. There's still a chance to counterattack. Or even if defeat is inevitable, they need to try, see if there's any way to break through Angel Sword's ultimate health-pig tactic... Chen Huo's charging again, Shi Luo's going too."
"Hahaha..." Commentator B couldn't help but laugh. "I've heard Chen Huo really enjoys duo queueing with Angel Sword. Evil used to regularly duo with Angel Sword too. From their usual streams, both of them seem to really like Angel Sword—they probably have decent私下relations. What is this? The deeper the love, the deeper the hate?"
Commentator A nodded helplessly, playing along. "Chen Huo's so angry, maybe it's because Angel Sword is the only support who ever properly healed him? So now being countered by Angel Sword's scheme makes him especially furious?"
"If you say that, Wa Wa's going to be sad." Free's Game 2 was playing out terribly. The two commentators had automatically shifted to lightening the mood. Commentator B smiled. "Did our Wa not heal Chen Huo well enough?"
Commentator A chuckled. "Based on how their ranking dropped, it doesn't seem to have gone particularly smoothly. Let's get back to the match. Current situation: Free has already accumulated fourteen deaths. The Saint side has cleared nearly half of the poison along the direct path to Free's respawn stone. This... another down."
"Now even adjusting tactics seems a bit late. Looking at both sides' data, right now... Wait?" Commentator B's eyes widened little by little. "Am I... seeing things...?"
Commentator B asked the director to open the omniscient view showing both teams' economic resources—
Saint Economic Resources Remaining: 4,420.
Free Economic Resources Remaining: 7,790.
Game setting: players can only see their own remaining resources, not their opponents'.
"How much do they still have? I really can't hold on anymore!" Chen Huo was fuming. "I wanna kill these two little flanking brats啊啊啊啊啊啊啊 I can't control the urge to spray them!"
Whisper: "4,500."
Shi Luo: "4,400."
They spoke simultaneously. Chen Huo raged, "Why aren't they the same?!"
"Go with Evil's number." Whisper said. "Keep track yourself if you think it's inaccurate."
"If I could remember I wouldn't need to ask you two?!" Chen Huo yelled louder than anyone. "Puppy, how much do you have?"
Puppy lay prone in the back, not firing a single shot, but his eyes were glued to the monitor. Hearing the question, he said slowly, "With those two around, I generally don't bother tracking this stuff, but I have a rough idea in my head. Angel Sword's team should have about 5,000 economic left."
Chen Huo spat in disgust. "You're even more vague."
"Then keep track yourself if you're so talented. If you can't, just listen to your elders." Puppy cautiously fired a shot, then hid. "Do you have any idea how hard this is? Every time they shoot, I have to remember. They fired one shot, I need to note they spent 10 gold. Angel Sword casts a shield, I need to remember he used 30 gold... Damn it, supports are the most annoying. The different shields don't even cost the same. Initial shield is one price, upgraded half-body hexagonal shield is 25 gold, ultimate three-sided hexagonal shield is 30 gold..."
Puppy's position was detected. He scrambled to hide, muttering while being shot at. "Bandage 5 gold, health syringe 30 gold... Angel Sword doesn't buy the long dagger, so he doesn't spend that 50 gold..."
"Have to remember how many bullets they fired, how many shields they broke, how many meds they used... Chen Huo, fuck your dad!" Puppy snapped. "By the time I finished talking to you, I forgot how many shots they just fired!"
"Twelve shots, minus another 120 gold." Shi Luo said coldly. "Saint's remaining economic: 4,280."
Whisper gave Chen Huo a pitiful initial shield. "What are you waiting for? Go die some more."
Chen Huo was about to spit blood. He grabbed his rifle and charged forward with Shi Luo again. After another team wipe, from the commentator's perspective, Saint's economic had dropped to only 3,560.
"Crazy damn it!! I knew they couldn't have been affected emotionally!" Commentator B兴奋地 said. "I get it now, I understand! Free is using poison to fight poison! Angel Sword can heal, right? Likes using attrition tactics, right? So Free is going to attrit Saint through economics!! The more kills Saint gets, the more economic they consume. There's still one-third of the poison uncleared before reaching Free's respawn stone. If Saint can't use their remaining 3,000-plus economic to push straight through, they'll be standing naked before Free's revenge!"
"What a comeback..." Commentator A was completely stunned. "Puppy not firing was to preserve economic, giving as much economic as possible to the frontliners, Chen Huo and Evil, letting them effectively obstruct Saint's advance while depleting Saint's economic! My god...自古真情留不住，唯有套路得人心. Where did Free learn this dirty trick? This is incredible!!"
"Practice matches weren't for nothing. Learn from the enemy..." Puppy clicked his tongue. "But our two flankers did get it pretty rough."
"You noticed that too?!" Chen Huo cursed. "Whisper, you're a point-whoring slave! To win, you'd harm your own brothers!啊啊啊啊 I died again!"
Whisper, while healing Shi Luo, said, "You agreed yourself before the game started, didn't you?"
Chen Huo seethed. "I agreed!"
"Then stop crying about it." Shi Luo loaded a full magazine, said coldly, "Respawned yet? Keep borrowing arrows."
Choking with resentment, Chen Huo followed Shi Luo in charging at Angel Sword. After being wiped again, he was scolded by Shi Luo. "Why did you only take four hits?"
Chen Huo gritted his teeth. "I'm bad. I can't borrow arrows like you. Happy now? Give me an accurate answer—how much longer?"
"You just need to hold out for three more minutes. If they can't destroy our respawn stone, they'll have to retreat themselves." Whisper calculated rapidly in his head. "They know their own economic is about to run out. Puppy, stop hiding and come block."
Puppy heard the call and rushed to the front. By this point, Saint had also realized the problem—their play instantly became cautious.
Chen Huo bared his teeth. "They noticed? Fine, fine, let's fight, let's fight! Can we do this or not?!"
Shi Luo glanced at his team's economic, hesitating briefly.
On the other side, Whisper also hesitated for half a second. Saint's four players had racked up so many kills—their equipment was now fully upgraded. Theoretically, a direct confrontation would be unwinnable. But Saint had already realized the economic problem. If they didn't fight now, Angel Sword might choose to spend the last of their economic reserves to reach Free's respawn stone. The timing was too tight. At this point, both sides' win probabilities had reached a delicate balance. The only choice now was to gamble on extreme mechanics and luck.
In that split second, Whisper already said, "Fight."
Before the words even finished, all four had charged. Shi Luo dodged left and right, evading several bursts of gunfire while taking half a health bar off Saint's frontliner. Chen Huo flanked simultaneously. Angel Sword retreated in time but crashed straight into Whisper, who had been hiding behind Saint for ages.
Whisper murmured, "You're quite the healer..."
Whisper精准地 drove a dagger into Angel Sword's back, simultaneously kicking them away. Angel Sword's shields shattered. At the same instant, Puppy landed a sniper kill on Angel Sword.
Chen Huo's rifle was too weak at this point—he'd already been taken out. Whisper, at the extreme edge of range, shielded Shi Luo while dealing a flanker strike and a dagger hit to Saint. Saint's flanker was left with a sliver of health, but a full magazine took out Puppy.
Whisper frowned slightly. His own shields had shattered long ago—there was no time to shield himself. Saint's sniper was still alive. Without a doubt, he was about to die. Whisper slashed his dagger at Saint's other flanker, and as he was hallucination-sniped by Saint's sniper, he took Saint's last flanker with him.
Only Shi Luo and Saint's exposed sniper, Illusion, remained on the field.
"No problem. Same as when you 1v1'd me that day." Puppy said calmly. "Illusion is at... damn, too late."
Saint's players hadn't died many times in the early game—their respawn timers were shorter than Free's. In the time it took to say this, Angel Sword had already respawned.
With Angel Sword back in play, Shi Luo couldn't handle a 1v2. But they couldn't let Saint advance any further. Shi Luo loaded up on ammo and started疯狂输出, expression calm, internally counting down Saint's economic. 1,200, 1,000, 800, 500...
"We can still fight this."
After Whisper respawned, there was no time to shield anyone—he charged in again for a face-to-face duel, single-handedly stabbing Saint's flanker to death. Meanwhile, Shi Luo directly sprayed Angel Sword to death.
In the same second, Saint's economic had hit rock bottom. Saint's surviving flanker, under a hail of bullets, placed their last Purification Disc. The disc began working, slowly, over one second...
In that same second, Whisper cut down Saint's flanker. Puppy had been疯狂sniping Illusion the entire time. In a straight 1v1 sniper duel, Puppy had nothing to fear from Illusion. Illusion knew this too. Illusion had no intention of dueling Puppy. Their economic was depleted. What Illusion needed to do now was snipe Free's respawn stone. But the Purification Disc hadn't fully cleansed the area yet—the respawn stone was a blurry mess, nothing visible. Illusion was afraid Puppy would take his head the next second. Gritting his teeth, he fired a blind shot into the gradually clearing poison fog!
The bullet went straight through Free's respawn stone.
Game over.
"My god..."
Commentator A was震惊. "I already... I can't commentate anymore. This this this..."
"It really was just half a second off. If Illusion had died half a second earlier, this shot wouldn't have happened. And he literally couldn't see anything at that moment—it was a pure blind guess! As long as his luck was a little worse, this absolutely would have been Free's win!" Commentator B, still in shock, rushed to explain. "Of course, of course, we can't say Saint won this round on luck alone. In that situation, both sides were operating at their limits. Either team winning or losing was possible. All we can say is... the goddess of fortune stood on Saint's side this time. Congratulations to Saint!"
Commentator A still hadn't come back to his senses from the match. He clapped constantly. "Yes, congratulations to Saint. But let's also give a round of applause to Free. Although Free lost Game 2, they've already found a way to counter this strategy. What they lacked was just a bit of luck and subsequent intensive practice. Yes, once again, congratulations to Saint!"
In the soundproof booth, Chen Huo ripped off his headset. "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
"I fucking..." Puppy hesitated. "We were that close. I..."
"First attempt at a counter. Already did everything we could." Whisper stood up, packing up his peripherals. "Let's go."
Whisper noticed Shi Luo hadn't stood up. He turned to look at Shi Luo. "Evil?"
Shi Luo hadn't gotten up. He stared at his monitor, shaking his head softly. "I'm fine."
The match was already over. Shi Luo didn't need to control himself anymore. Right now, he had too many negative emotions pent up—it would take a moment to work through them.
This was the first time since joining Free that they'd lost 0-2. Shi Luo's chest felt tight. When he went out later, if he heard the commentators say something about the "healer twin stars" or whatever, he was worried he'd lose his composure.
But Shi Luo didn't need Whisper to comfort him about anything.
To play in playoffs. To win the division championship. To go to Worlds. To become a competition-level player like the other three on the team—this was the必经之路.
Half a minute later, Shi Luo stood up, packed up his peripherals, and walked out of the booth carrying his messy mouse, keyboard, and mousepad. Through the sound of the audience cheering for Saint, he entered the backstage hallway.
The first second into the backstage, Shi Luo took a deep breath. It suddenly occurred to him—in this situation, Whisper had already experienced something like this countless times over ten years ago.
In the backstage hallway, everyone else had already gone back to the break room. Only Whisper stood there, holding his own peripherals, waiting for Shi Luo.
Whisper looked straight at Shi Luo, saying softly, "You really don't need me to?"
Shi Luo knew what Whisper was implying. Knew he wanted to help him adjust his emotions. But Shi Luo instinctively furrowed his brow, refusing. "No!"
Thinking about how Whisper might have already gone through all this and more at sixteen or seventeen, Shi Luo felt his own situation wasn't that bad after all. He glanced at Whisper, muttering quietly, "You better wait tonight... After I sort out my emotions, I'm coming for you."
Whisper froze for a moment, then smiled. "Okay."