It’s not something that is typically seen inside of professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, regardless of how long you’ve been watching the scene, and what tier you prefer to make your home at.
In the August 10th Dreamhack match that pitted Endpoint against MAD Lions, Endpoint lost the first map of Vertigo (Endpoint’s pick) in a clean-sweep. Meaning of the sixteen points necessary to claim a win on a map, Endpoint didn’t win a singular one.
Instead, MAD Lions, for lack of a better term, dumpstered the UK team handily for sixteen rounds straight, starting as CT.
Considering it’s Vertigo, where the classic strategy is to simply go up the ramp and hit A site, again and again, that’s surprising. A lost pistol round to start the second half sealed the deal.
Endpoint came out swinging in the second map of Mirage (ML’s pick), however, winning the first four rounds in a row which bolstered the CT economy for Endpoint, a difficult manoeuver considering CT economy is difficult to stack in the current patch. In the first half, with MAD Lions on T, they managed three points; two by the bomb and one by eliminating the other team. The half ended at (12-3).
https://twitter.com/dnaksyy/status/1292865512989491203
MAD Lions put together a far stronger showing on the second half as CT, but Endpoint simply had too far of an advantage to claw their way back; they only needed four points, which they claimed on the 24th round of Mirage.
You can likely see where this one is going; the final map was Train, and everything was coming up MAD Lions for the first half, as Endpoint started on T and had a whopping total of three points; two by elimination, and one by the bomb.
Going into the second half looking at a (3-12) was demotivating at the least, and the second half saw MAD Lions put up an impressively fast point by elimination on the pistol.
With a desperate economy, and staring at a (3-13), Endpoint strung together an impressive eleven rounds in a row, with the 20th round notably ending due to time running out as Endpoint put together a fearsome defense that had MAD Lions tripping over themselves to find a place to plant safely.
Endpoint managed to win on the 30th round by elimination, meaning that Endpoint becomes one of the very few teams that ever managed to come back and win after losing the first map without putting a point on the board. It’s rare, it was a blast to watch, and it just goes to show that anything can happen in Counter-Strike.
