00:36. We made a mistake. We pushed too hard. It was the wrong decision. The enemies had better guns. Taking these long-distance gunfights were suicidal. And now, I’m the only one alive. 00:35.

A quick tab shows me the scoreboard. We are down 0:2. I managed to get one frag in all this the racket, hitting someone by luck, spamming my pistol blindly. With 400 credits on average, we can’t buy next round if we lose here. The other side is pretty rich since they won 2 rounds in a row. I quickly pick up the gun from the inanimate body of my enemy, in the middle of all my friends’ corpses. A vandal. Now I have a machine gun, oh, oh, oh. But more importantly, it costs 2,900 credits. Interesting, they bought.

“Save it”. WillyGunnz says in my com. Probably the safest play. I’m 1v4, I have a meagre chance to win this round, and my team is poor. If I don’t die, I can guarantee at least one good gun for our next round. A quick glance on the radar. There should be one enemy on base A. One of my friends died on cat, in mid, killed by somebody in market. And from experience, there must be one enemy rotating from B to A. I don’t know where is the last one. So, that one is probably behind me. 00:34.

I turn around. Hundreds of hours of dedication, repeating the same peek, from the same angle, helped me put the crosshair exactly at head-level without even looking. Thousands of hours of dedication, repeating the same click, aiming at these small pixels, helped me to tap unconsciously, at an average of 160ms. Sova drops dead in front of me. My brain processes the information. There is nothing more satisfying than a clean, one-tap, headshot. But no time to self-congratulate. At 00:33, I turned a 1v4 situation into a 1v3. Better than that: I know where are all my enemies.

I quickly hide behind a corner. If my guess is correct, there was one on base A, and now they heard the trigger and saw that frag, they know exactly where I am too. And they have number-advantage. It is hard for me to hide until the end of the round. Actually, I might have a chance to win. A slight one. A minuscule one. But if I win this round, I cripple their economy, and I make my team rich. Worth it. I prepare my ultimate. It is 00:29.

The right play for the enemy at this moment is to be aggressive and push. If I’m correct, and there is one person still rotating, it means that they can get create a 1v2 gunfight and easily win. If I frag one, the other trades. The only play for me is to prevent that from happening. I wait about 1 second and launch my ultimate at the main corridor that connects base A from my place. If my timing is just, I should get someone trying to chase me. 00:25. Omen dies. 1v2.

I immediately turn around and run to the opposite side, knife out, to increase velocity. “You don’t have time”, says Nox in my com. Yes, I know. And my hope is that the enemy doesn’t. If my ultimate increased my chance of winning a bit by removing one factor, it also gave more time for the one rotating to close the gap. If I don’t do anything, I will still be in a 1v2 gunfight where I will lose. Now, if the enemy doesn’t make any mistake, I should have lost already. But I’m alive. My enemies are human, and they are making mistakes. I just have to force them to make more and abuse these situations. I keep running until 00:20.

I hold shift. I turn back and, knife still out, I walk back to base A. This is a gambit. If they don’t do exactly what I want them to do, I’m dead. Anything that doesn’t go to plan will end the round in their favour. From where I am, I need to execute everything absolutely perfectly. I walk, and I take the shortest path possible. 00:12.

I hear something. It’s a jump. First validation: someone was remaining on base A. Second validation: this one didn’t know the timing as well as I do and is now checking the other side. 1v2 becomes a potential 1v1v1. And better: I have the information advantage. At 00:10, it was winnable.

With my vandal out, I slow peek the entrance of base A. I catch the other Brimstone running back to the garden, probably thinking I went to mid. It was a hard shot, but I could have won it. Not taking that chance. Or I could also have chased to get the frag. No. With less than 10s on the clock, I would have lost the round. I would have hurt some of their economies, but I’m not here to inflict pain. I’m here to deliver death. I’m here to turn the tide and win the war. I go for the plant. It takes 4s. I take my knife out, I keep walking and when I hit that plant zone -00:04.13- I immediately start putting the spike on. Brimstone heard it. 00:01.17. I hear him running back. 00:00.23. The spike is planted. A few milliseconds saved me. So far, so good.

I instantly switch to the vandal and start moving back towards the generator, where I can hide. But I know that Brimstone will probably try to frag me. And if he does that, I know where he comes from, he has to guess where I’m at. The character appears. The bullets whistle, only echoed by the exhilarating cry of a headshot. The spike is planted; 1v1; I have an information advantage. Not throwing away my shot. Fear me now.

Sage is the last player, and by the timing, I validate that she is rotating from B. Now, there are many ways she can get here. The spike is at the generator and the best angle to defend is to hide at main A. I could have a better angle. But Brimstone saw me and probably relied that information to Sage. At that level, I expect the enemy to play that retake correctly, and if I go to main, she can catch me going there from tree or from heaven. Being open to 2 different angles is terrible. So I decide to go hide in hell. I dislike that position because I don’t have much room for movement. But considering it is Sage, and she doesn’t have any sort of grenade, if she really wants to take me out, she will have to take my duel anyway. I’m fine with it.

Down to 65. 56. Ouch. I got hit in the back. Sage came to base much faster than expected. I was still going to hell, and I didn’t see her coming. And she came from tree. I’m lucky she missed her shots. She is panicking. Good. I hide behind a corner. I will win this duel. One tap. One last tap to the head. Come on… come on… where is she… wait… no… NO!

An ice wall starts to form, completely blocking me in hell. I can’t believe I forgot about that: Sage’s ability! I hear the countdown. Beep… Beep… Beep… Not fast enough. Sage still has plenty of time to defuse that spike while I’m blocked in hell. I start to shoot the ice wall.

What.

Out of bullet. You must be kidding me. I forgot to reload! No time. I can hear Sage taking out her defuse kit. I take out my pistol. I shoot the wall. Come on. Come on!

What.

Out of bullet again. Sage is now defusing. Now, I’m panicking. What an idiot. The only thing I missed. The only thing I didn’t plan. I take out my knife and start cutting that wall.

None of my teammates has said anything for a while now. I thought they trusted me. Do they? The silence of the com was a loud testament to my skills. Now, it is a solemn judgement of my mistake.

It broke.

The ice wall broke in a crunch. I take out my empty vandal as a reflex. I start to reload. Sage starts to shoot. Her bullets are captured by the rest of her wall, saving me. I strafe to my left, taking cover behind the generator. Our eyes meet for a fraction of a second. She keeps shooting out of frustration. She isn’t defusing anymore. Time is back with me now.

I strafe back and forth, playing hide and seek. In just a few seconds, Sage won’t be able to defuse before the spike explodes. I hear her running, probably pistol out, to be faster. My vandal is fully reloaded. I turn my crosshair towards the limit of the generator. I can see the movie playing in front of my eyes. I know exactly what will happen. I’ve done it before. Over and over again. It isn’t arrogance, it is confidence. I know I’ve won. It is just a matter of…

Sage appears. Even before she could react, her head bounces backwards, catapulting her entire body to the ground. The com goes nuts. I can’t distinguish who is who. Everyone is yelling. Pure happiness. Pure joy. I let go of my mouse and keyboard. I close my eyes and enjoy that brief moment of peace. 1:2. We are back in the game.