Thank you for 666,000 subs, which as everyone knows, is famous for being 2/3 of the way
to a million.
I don’t think there’s another reason.
Nope, no other reason.
To celebrate, here are 4 ‘what if?’ moments from the recent Boston major.
Three of these happen to involve Cloud9, but I only cover things you’ve asked me to!
So that’s on you.
The first takes place in the semi finals between SK and Cloud9.
It’s the third round and Felps rushes B without armour.
Cloud9 launch 2 grenades at him, but he doesn’t take a single point of damage!
What gives?!
The first should have done about 50 points of damage, but went off just around this corner
and thus he was completely fine.
This is a well-known and well-documented issue with the grenades, which are regularly blocked
by small things like steps and pillars when they otherwise shouldn’t be.
Now it seems like a simple issue, but remember that if you let damage bend around corners
then you run the risk of it going too far the other way, where it ends up hurting players
who SHOULD have been totally fine.
Something does need to be done about instances like this though.
The second grenade is more concerning, as there doesn’t seem to be anything in the
way.
This would have done about 20 points of damage had it actually worked.
Let’s look at the map file for suspects.
My first thought was this wall decoration.
Some props in Source, when rotated to an odd angle, cover a lot more area than they first
appear to.
When highlighted you can see this prop’s outline extends far out from the wall.
But then if this was a problem then we’d be getting glitched on it when running past.
Plus this prop has collisions disabled any way.
Let’s rule this out.
The wireframe netting here is the collision model for the grassy stuff lining the corner.
This stuff has collisions disabled and I don’t think interferes with this problem grenade,
but deserves mentioning any way, plus an award for the most approximate hitbox model I’ve
ever seen.
And lastly, the floor cobbles which DON’T have collisions disabled.
But they don’t extend above their height on the floor, so this would only have mattered
had the grenade exploded at ground level.
Now, it didn’t look like it did in the replay, but maybe the grenade’s position was misrepresented,
hence the explosion decal appearing closer to the wall than the grenade model may have
suggested?...
I don’t know.
And I don’t really know how to investigate this.
Over to you, Valve.
Please fix.
But any way.
Say these 2 grenades had worked as intended… would it have changed the outcome of the round?
…Well, not if he had remained in banana.
I’m honestly surprised he didn’t hear or see the CT’s here, who utterly rekt him.
Unless his reduced health encouraged him to fall back to mid, I think it’s safe to say
that Felps was doomed in this round, even if he was impervious to explosions.
B0R1TO asked me to investigate Faze VS Mousesports.
This was one of the few times Nuke was shown in the major.
Oskar, armed with an AWP, decides to rush first into bombsite A. And then he misses
this shot.
One of those classic ‘where did it go’ situations.
Rather than looking at where it goes, let’s instead see where it came from.
Watching Oskar, he’s still moving a bit as he fires.
At quarter-speed it’s more obvious and the blur around the crosshair indicates that he
hasn’t waited long enough.
This results in the bullet skimming Niko’s vest, landing below his arm pit.
Even if the gun wasn’t 100% accurate, this is certainly an unlucky shot.
Honestly, I find it reassuring.
Reassuring that it’s not just me that CS:GO hates.
Unlucky, Oskar.
But this is why you don’t storm a site holding an AWP.
Especially not on Nuke.
Didn’t matter any way- Mous still won the round.
But only just.
The third clip I’m covering takes place in the semi finals, this time in the first
map.
It’s 14-3 to Cloud9 on Mirage.
Yet despite losing both pistol rounds, SK managed to win the next round and are now
desperately trying to win the 3rd.
Before he falls…
Fallen heroically tosses the bomb to Coldzera, who is then left in a 1v2 and with just 12
seconds left on the clock.
Unfortunately he hesitates and by the time he picks it up there are just 7 seconds left
to plant it.
He decides to hide in a corner instead, ensuring his survival but losing the round and ultimately
dooming SK in the first map.
The question is: did he have time to retrieve and to plant the bomb?
Yes, yes he did.
In this video here you can see the latest he could have left it to pick the bomb up
and to plant it before the time ran out.
But it wasn’t an easy decision for him to make.
He starts off by running to the site, probably expecting FalleN to be following close behind.
And then when he’s left alone, he knows there are members of Cloud9 in A who will
shoot at him the moment he shows himself.
Ultimately, he lost the round the moment he doubled back into cover.
Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing.
And lastly, that super important round in the Grand Finals.
It’s 15-14, with Cloud9 needing to win to push it into over-time. 3 players from Faze
rush bombsite B where Stewie is guarding, all alone.
He takes down the first 2 then shoots Rain as he’s planting, which makes it 15-15 and
leads to overtime.
Cloud9 eventually wins the game, thereby winning the whole tournament.
BUT… what if?
What if Rain hadn’t been rudely SHOT IN THE FACE by Stewie?
Did he have time to plant before the round ended?
I’ve never actually tested this before, but it turns out that you can still be too
late to plant even if it says that there are 4 seconds left on the clock, as seen here.
However, upon recreating Rain’s situation, turns out he had more than enough time to
plant the bomb!
As long as his FACE remained intact.
But!
Even if Stewie had missed the first shot, he would have had time to fire again, though
admittedly with limited accuracy.
And we all know what happens if you fire too soon!.
Had he waited to regain decent accuracy then Rain would have been able to plant!
In fact I’m going to say that had he missed that first shot then the bomb would have been
planted.
But then Rain would be shot and it would be left to Karrigan to defend the bomb plant
in a 4v1, armed with just a UMP and on 34 HP.
He’s good, but I don’t like his chances here.
I think Faze’s fate was sealed.
BUT… say Stewie blunders and misses his second shot as well!
Maybe because, in a desperate attempt to thwart the bomb plant, he fires before it regains
accuracy – like this.
This would have let Rain plant and then given him a decent chance to beat Stewie in the
close-quarters engagement as he was equipped with an AK47.
Say he then defeated Stewie, it would have been 2v3.
Karrigan could have fallen back to the site, found a rifle and the 3 remaining CT’s would
have had to deal with 2 well equipped and entrenched terrorists.
It could have ended very differently.
But that is only following a string of unlikely ‘ifs’.
The last-minute rotate from Faze was a good idea, but it wasn’t to be.
Cloud9 won that round.
Well done Cloud9.
I made a similar video to this in 2015, once again analysing Cloud9 and trying to determine
if the train on overpass stopped them from winning against fnatic.
It’s always Cloud9.
Why are you obsessed with them?!
Onto something different now, for April Fools I teamed up with Motboy8 to analyse flames
and to see if Cloud9 could have won the round where they got swallowed up in hellish, welcoming,
cleansing fire.
And if you think the coloured squares that make up this celebration map are too small
to appreciate, then here’s a video about low bitrate.