# Chapter 129
Breaking the Boats and Burning the Ships, Fighting with Backs to the River.
Check-in, identity verification, sign the pre-match agreement, do a quick touch-up on appearance, change into the competition uniform, the randomly selected referee comes over for coordination, one final equipment check before the match, another signature to confirm all the competition computer accounts and peripherals are working properly…
Throughout all the pre-match procedures, the backstage area was filled with the deafening roar of fans from both sides in the arena—their cheers and encouragement crashing like a tidal wave. The local European players were provoked by the sea of light boards from the Chinese fans, wanting to take advantage of their home court to turn the tables. But the Chinese fans had no intention of backing down.
There was no home or away advantage here—whichever side had more people and louder voices made that place their home court.
From entering the venue to the official start of the match, the fans from both sides had been screaming at each other for a full two hours. The Chinese fans were determined to yell back every bit of debt from the past three years, and despite being outnumbered, they actually managed to push the other side down.
Until the first match of this tournament's quarterfinals officially began.
The details of that practice match against Saint at the start of the season were still fresh in everyone's memory.
When Saint played against strong teams, they were masters of playing reactively. During the early game, they wouldn't clear the poison or engage enemies—instead, the whole team would lurk like ghosts in the cover of their own map, waiting for the perfect moment. They'd wait until the opposing team started clearing poison, then encircle and ambush them, grab a kill and immediately retreat without lingering, fighting, or grabbing extra resources. Like crocodiles in a mudflat, they'd slither back into cover to wait for the next opportunity, fully protecting their team's resources.
In that first practice match against Saint at the start of the season, Free had been worn down and killed by this tactic alone.
Other than those two matches, the two teams hadn't faced each other again for the rest of the season—not even the league's top data analyst could predict what strategies both sides would bring to the table when they met again.
Inside the soundproof booth, as the map countdown began, the Free players, as usual, got into each other's heads a bit.
"Puppy." Chen Huo raised an eyebrow. "I just noticed your hands are shaking… a sniper, actually shaking? Isn't that a bit of a problem?"
"Too pumped, can't help it." Puppy rubbed his hands as he waited for the countdown, his voice several degrees louder than usual. "It's been too long since I've been this excited. Don't be too surprised later when you see me go above and beyond and grab the MVP, okay?"
Chen Huo sucked in a breath lightly. "I feel like I'm the one who's going to go above and beyond… I might even steal the first MVP."
"It's best of five, so at most each of us can get three MVPs. Whoever doesn't get one is going to be embarrassed…" Yu Sui adjusted his headset. "Shi-ge, you're being pretty quiet… nervous?"
"No." Shi Luo lowered his eyes to his keyboard. "...Just thinking about how many games we need to play today."
Chen Huo spoke rapidly, "I dreamed about it last night—3 to 2, we win."
Puppy scoffed. "3 to 2? Are they even qualified for that? We'll finish it 3 to 1. Old man here is rushing back to the hotel to stream, very pressed for time."
Yu Sui smiled faintly. "What about you, Shi-ge? Your prediction?"
Before Shi Luo could answer, the match began.
The four of them sprinted out from the respawn stone at lightning speed.
Since they had defeated Free using reactive tactics before, Saint naturally wasn't about to abandon this advantage. At the start of the first round, Saint once again laid in ambush behind cover. The match commentators, unaware of the details of that practice match, explained: "This is a tactic Saint occasionally uses against strong teams—luring the enemy into a trap and advancing step by step. They let the opponent take the initiative in clearing poison, sacrificing a small portion of the early map in exchange for advantage in the first engagement. Let's see how this tactic fares against Free… Eh? Why is Puppy suddenly rushing forward?!"
At the very center of the map, Free pressed forward with their entire team from the very start.
Normally, the two strikers charging the front line would pause briefly halfway before reaching the map border, giving the medic time to apply the initial photon shields. From the game countdown ending to when the three front-liners reached the map border, this was the distance where route optimization mattered—using the least time to shield all three people while getting them to the border simultaneously. This was a severe test of the medic's mechanics.
This brief preparation phase at the start was essentially each team's medic's personal show. Which team's strikers could reach the map border first wasn't about who had faster strikers—it was about whose medic had slicker positioning and more skilled hands.
Even arriving half a second early gave their strikers a crucial half-second head start in engagement preparation—vital for professional players.
Until now, no medic had ever been able to steal this opening advantage from Yu Sui.
When Saint faced Free before, choosing to play reactively was partly due to this consideration.
When your medic's micro-management skills were clearly inferior to your opponent's, winning meant playing to your strengths—avoiding direct confrontation with Free in aspects that relied heavily on medic performance.
Saint was an incredibly strong team overall. They had confidence that giving Free just one or two seconds at the opening wasn't too large a disadvantage. As long as they performed well later, they could still reclaim that advantage.
But at the start of the first round, Free completely changed their usual dominant opening strategy. Everyone charged toward the map border like lightning—no one paused for even a step. Yu Sui didn't shield anyone. Shi Luo and Chen Huo reached the map border at the exact same moment, both immediately setting down purification dishes. One, two, three…
These two strikers, who usually couldn't stand the sight of each other and found playing double queue together for even one round agonizing, moved as one person with perfectly synchronized positioning. Each set down three purification dishes, then rapidly retreated behind cover after the first shot landed.
At the same moment, Puppy and Yu Sui were inside cover less than five meters from the map border. Yu Sui seized these precious seconds to shield Puppy and himself with the initial photon shield and top off their status exactly as Shi Luo and Chen Huo retreated behind cover.
Puppy immediately scoped in and fired a shot at the fog where Saint had just shot from.
At such a close range, with the previous gunshot as guidance, for a sniper of Puppy's caliber, it was impossible for the target to miss.
The shot landed—Saint's player lost one side of their photon shield.
Puppy chambered another round and fired again. Another photon shield shattered.
During this window, Yu Sui had already shielded Shi Luo and Chen Huo and applied bandages. The next second, all six purification dishes that Shi Luo and Chen Huo had set down finished clearing the poison. The cover in front of Saint's three front-liners was completely exposed. Before they could react, Yu Sui, now at full status, charged out first. Using extreme positioning to dodge one shot, he charged directly to Saint's cover and, with a signature spinning kick, sent Saint's striker flying out of cover. Puppy fired one more shot and secured first blood. Meanwhile, Yu Sui inside the cover had already finished off Saint's medic with his dagger. Shi Luo and Chen Huo, both strikers, had their health restored simultaneously. At optimal status, the two strikers emptied their magazines and harvested Saint's last striker.
Triple kill secured. The commentators stared in disbelief at the match start time—
Exactly 37 seconds had passed.
In those 37 seconds, Free didn't waste a single moment. Every strike hit home. They secured both the fastest first blood and the fastest triple kill of this World Championship.
The timing was so precise that without slow-motion replay, the commentators couldn't possibly provide commentary.
"This isn't Free's usual way of starting the match!" The commentator gaped. "What was that coordination just now? What kind of play was that from Yu Sui? How did he manage to deal damage while shielding four people? What kind of time efficiency is this?!"
In the backstage area of the competition venue, Lao Qiao and Free's data analyst wore subtle expressions of satisfaction, not saying a word.
Zhou Huo also stared intently at the live broadcast screen. He couldn't make out the finer details of the plays, but he remembered that after their team lost to Saint in the domestic regular season, facing doubts from Chinese fans about Free's strength, the players hadn't been overly worried.
When Saint had revealed all their tactics without any hidden cards, Lao Qiao, Yu Sui, and the others had questioned: if they really made it to the World Championship, what were they planning to use?
He remembered that after confirming their spot at Worlds, during another practice match, the players had relaxed and sighed: it felt so good to play practice matches without holding anything back.
He also remembered that during a break in practice, the Saint captain had joked with Yu Sui: "You've been hiding it well."
Free was incredibly strong—ever since their founding, every club had kept close watch on them. Every tactic they developed had been copied, studied, and countered.
All the blades in their arsenal could only be drawn in life-or-death battles.
The biggest surprise at this World Championship for Free was facing Saint already in the quarterfinals.
The blade they'd spent an entire season honing, meant to be unsheathed in the grand finals, had been sharpened ahead of schedule.
"It doesn't matter."
Lao Qiao stared at the broadcast screen, speaking to the data analyst but also to himself. "...For us, this is the finals."
"It's fine if they're analyzed a bit earlier." The data analyst said quietly. "You can study this tactic inside out and find countermeasures, but can you keep up with it?"
Saint was already a team with nearly maxed-out strength in every aspect. They had the ability to handle all kinds of unexpected situations and had anticipated that Free would bring out some fresh tactics in the quarterfinals. They weren't completely unprepared.
But even with preparation, they couldn't keep up.
In the game, Puppy死死压制着圣剑狙击手，一枪一枪穿过毒雾擦着对方耳朵呼啸而过，圣剑在场上仅存的一个狙击手根本不敢贸然做什么，一旦他也死了，圣剑这局就真的没了。
"留他一个无所谓，Puppy压着他给我日他。"余邃飞速指挥，"下净化皿。"
Free completely abandoned the border maps, dominating the very center of the map. Shi Luo and Chen Huo, the two strikers, hadn't lifted their fingers from the keyboard since the match began. Their operations were seamless, their keyboards clattering under the rapid fire of their inputs—one purification dish after another kept dropping. Shi Luo and Chen Huo had never been this in sync on stage before. Their positioning was precise, not wasting a single inch of space, not wasting half a second of time.
Saint's first striker respawned first. Yu Sui calculated the cooldown timing—second only to Shi Luo's, and without needing anyone to remind him: "I know they're back. Drop another."
Shi Luo and Chen Huo didn't retreat to cover. They kept dropping purification dishes.
Puppy's pressure multiplied exponentially. While suppressing Saint's sniper, he also had to disrupt the timing of their respawning striker. Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
One of Saint's striker's shots hit Shi Luo's chest. The photon shield shattered on impact. Yu Sui acted as if he hadn't noticed at all. "Drop one."
Shi Luo's expression didn't change. In the game, Evil's character still had a streak of blood on his face. His movements didn't stop. He疯狂地下着净化皿。
Saint's striker was still hiding in their own poison fog. The two strikers were still dropping purification dishes. Yu Sui had no long-range weapons—he was entirely relying on Puppy to hold the line. Yu Sui's expression was calm. He gauged the extreme range and shielded Chen Huo. Shi Luo's position was exposed with no cover to hide behind—he could only be abandoned.
Shi Luo took a shot. His health bar dropped by half.
Yu Sui said, "Drop one."
Puppy's photon shield was shattered by the enemy sniper, and he took a grazing wound. He had to retreat behind cover. The front-liners, Shi Luo and Chen Huo, instantly faced multiplied pressure. The next second, Saint's medic and second striker respawned in sequence. Yu Sui topped off Puppy's status. "Again."
Shi Luo and Chen Huo each dropped another purification dish. Yu Sui simultaneously restored Puppy's status. Saint's three front-liners were about to push into the center of the map.
With Yu Sui's hard-won command—"Retreat"—Shi Luo, hovering on a sliver of health, retreated into their own cover. Yu Sui's positioning was pinpoint. In the game, Yu Sui bumped Shi Luo's elbow, precisely shoving him into his medic range.
In the game, Whisper the medic's right hand photon shield gradually formed, meticulously wrapping around Shi Luo.
In the game voice chat, Shi Luo exhaled. "...Coworker indeed."
Chen Huo swore. "My damn hand is going to cramp!"
Saint's three front-liners finally reached the center of the map, only to be greeted by a despair-inducing sight—an entire twenty-two purification dishes still hissing away—and their own map gradually cleared bare.
The broadcast director gave a close-up of the match time—
Match duration: five minutes, twenty-three seconds.
Five minutes and twenty-three seconds into the first round of this BO5, the outcome was already decided.