First Half


Defense: Lunatic
Offense: SK


Lunatic started this match off great, although they lost the pistol round, they did a great job controlling SK's money situation. In the first eco round for Lunatic they managed to get not one, but two of the first kills in the round, and that is huge. Following this, they managed to take down two more, and they had only lost two of their players in return, this put them in a three on one situation, but some great AK play by fisker ended that round very shortly after getting the bomb plant. In the following round, Lunatic got the first kill again, and managed to take out three SK players total.


On the defensive side this is huge. There are no money perks for the defense currently in Counter-Strike 1.6. When a team is on the offense and they manage to get a bomb plant, but lose the round, it is an automatic $800 extra dollars in their pocket. This is why losing pistol round is not that big of a deal for the offense, if they get a bomb plant. The defense, on the other hand, have no way of earning extra money after losing their pistol round. So when Lunatic was able to get seven out of ten kills in two rounds, it is huge. Not only did Lunatic get an extra $300 for each kill, SK was forced to buy guns the following rounds, when you would usually be saving money because you had guns from the two eco rounds.


Lunatic started this half off great. They lost the first three rounds, but with money control and winning the fourth round, SK was forced to save the forth round. Just when it looked like SK was going to start taking back some more rounds, Lunatic did their normal aggressive banana push and threw HE grenades over to the offensive tower, weakening SK. Once SK was naded, they attempted to push the banana, and this is where cliper came in. He was sitting behind the boxes towards the back of the banana and aced SK with three burst fires. He took out two with one, two with the next, and the last one took out the fifth SK player, giving cliper a great gun round ace.


It seemed as though Lunatic would have the next round in the bag. SK had no bomb plant due to clipers quick ace in the banana, so Lunatic knew they would have to save. The only problem with this next round when SK was saving, was that Lunatic let SK know that they were consistantly pushing the banana with three players every round. SK decided to use this eco round as a chance to test Lunatic's A bombsite, and boy did it work. Once SK came in and rushed the spawn side of the bombsite, they were able to pick up two colts, get the bomb down, and hold off Lunatic on their rotation from B to get a momentum changing round in the half.


One of the biggest problems that I saw from SK throughout the match, that made it a lot closer than it should have been, was SK simply just trying to get their eco rounds over and done with. Time and time again I have discussed that an eco rounhnbd is not for you to just go and lose as fast as you can. These rounds are for you to try and criple the other teams economy as defense (as Lunatic did at the start of the half), but more importantly to try and get the bomb down as offense which gets your team more money in the following rounds. If you can get that extra money on an eco, you may not have to do it again so soon after your last one.


SK really should have hit the B bombsite more. They had a great series of flashes and smokes coming into this site. The smoke grenades being thrown early in the round made Lunatic have to wonder if it was a fake, or an actual rush. By delaying and then smoking the spawn side again right before the attack, this actually screened for them to come in. They also had a long series of flashes along with the smokes to help them get into the site cleanly. SK timed the flashes perfectly to make sure that the two players in bombsite B blind for the entire attack, even if they had not entered the site yet.


One factor that I noticed about Lunatic, that made this half end in only 8-7 in their favor, was that they do not really understand yet how to harness their skills. As many people know, Lunatic has far superior aim above most any team out there. Not on an individual basis, but more as an all around team basis. They started played their bombsites very far back after SK had won the eco round due to Lunatic having three players aggressive in the banana. That should not have stopped them from using their individual skill. When you play far back in the bombsites and you have that much skill, it is a bad idea. SK was able to go pretty much wherever they wanted and merely smoke and flash Lunatic without Lunatic even expecting it. You aim does not matter when you are completely incapable of seeing your opponent.


Once Lunatic is able to understand how much skill they have, strictly from aim, I think they will find their play style can change drastically and it just might get them a championship.