The Grand Finals of the ESL ESEA Pro League Tournament saw Cloud 9 against Fnatic.
Spoiler alert: Fnatic won, in part due to a 16-14 win on overpass.
It was a close game... but could it have been closer?
After the match, Cloud 9's N0thing posted a tweet saying how the train came late and
as a result, his molotov failed and his team-mate died as a result.
Let's take a look at this train.
Yes, it is noisy.
It is also distracting.
But can it block grenades?
Yes.
Yes it can and I believe it holds no place in a game as competitive as CS GO, particularly
in a tournament where it should be skill and teamwork that determines the winner, and not
from variables beyond the players' control.
But then, you could argue that skill also involves learning things specific about the
maps you play.
This could even include when the train arrives!
Sadly, this can't be done since looking at the map file itself reveals that the timings
are random.
The train passes by based on a timer that triggers between 25 and 60 seconds apart.
I tested the random times on a map of my own and I can confirm that this is reset every
round so when it says a minimum of 25 seconds, it means from the start of the buy time.
With competitive settings, this means that the earliest a train can spawn is at 1:35
on the clock, plus several more because it takes a number of seconds for the train to
actually reach the visible area.
But In the doomed game, N0thing gets blocked by
the train not once but TWICE in two consecutive rounds when trying to set up a molotov to
block short B. Had the molotov landed it would stop crafty enemies who were attempting to
push the area.
This gains terrorists some safe-ground and helps if they were to rush the tunnel to this
location.
Both times, the train turned up earlier than it would have done had there not been a pause
during the buy-time of the round.
You can even see one passing while the match is paused!
I'll start with the first of the two, round 26.
He throws the Molotov as his two team-mates rush ahead.
It's worth mentioning that the molotov didn't land.
He had aimed too high-up and it exploded in the air... as had happened earlier in the
game as well.
Oh dear.
This should immediately negate any impact the molotov had on the round but we've all
seen movies where the smallest of changes can lead to massive repercussions later.
So for argument's sake let's say that his pause before throwing it wasn't to let his
team-mates get into position, but was because he had to wait for the train to get out of
the way first.
This in turn forced his team-mates to wait for a couple of seconds before pushing.
Well actually this didn't happen since Freakazoid ran in all guns blazing.
You can see the battle-crazed look in his eyes as he smokes a molotov that FNATIC had
thrown, kills a fnatic player and then is killed by another.
Shroud is the one that Nothing said died as a result but perhaps he got confused in the
heat of the moment, since Shroud followed Freakazoid into the fray- ignore that flashbang-
but then stops short of the smoke grenades and then pussies out and runs away once his
team-mate dies.
He then helps with the A site attack that ultimately wins Cloud 9 the round.
Even when only watching the battle in water courtyard, almost all of Cloud 9's grenades
failed and Fnatic's succeeded.
I'd say that they were very lucky to get a trade kill and then to leave the situation
a 4 v 4.
Props to Freakazoid for being the entry fragger, I'd love to have the guy on my team in matchmaking!
There are other things to consider as well.
Maybe the train stopped N0thing from lining up the molotov correctly in the first place-
though he didn't have the same excuse when he failed the same throw earlier in the game.
But Cloud 9 won the round!
I don't think that any more has to be said about this incident.
But what about the 27th round, where they began their losing spree?
What difference did the molotov make there?
Well, during the pause time before it started, N0thing mentions the train to his team.
'This pause is flumpin' glitched, because the train will start running?
...and I can't throw the molly.'
Bro I gotta pee Very insightful and it's a shame that pro
players have to worry about something so... random.
Funnily enough he sees it this time as well but throws it any way.
Maybe he felt that it was a race against time.
Or perhaps he wanted it to get blocked so that he could wallow in self-pity.
Who knows.
What impact did it have?
Did it lose Cloud 9 the round?
Remember that, being alone this time, N0thing was simply there to serve as a distraction.
At best he was hoping to keep the two fnatic players in B occupied until his team had taken
the other site.
The molotov was a failure but the smoke and flashes were great successes, resulting in
flusha throwing most of his grenades and even spamming the smoke in case somebody had pushed.
N0thing's distraction had worked and it wasn't for a whole 50 seconds after the molotov was
thrown, with just 45 seconds remaining on the clock, that they began rotating to bombsite
A and defeated Cloud 9.
The cause for this rotation itself was because Olofmeister heard cloud 9 flashing and rushing
from long A.
In my opinion, the failed molotov had no impact on the round's outcome.
I am happy to say that Cloud 9 lost the round fair and square and that the molotov would
have done...
N0THING to hinder them further!
I don't even know what these two rounds had to do with Shroud, who had a long and healthy
existence until the very end of both rounds.
Perhaps N0thing mistook poor Freakazoid for Shroud or combined the two rounds into one
tweet to emphasise the difference that the train made.
Ultimately though, it didn't make a blind bit of difference.
But that's not the point.
Remember that this match helped determine which team walked away $40,000 richer than
the other.
There's just too much at stake for players to have to worry- and to potentially blame-
one-on-a-million occurrences such as these.
N0thing has a right to be upset about it- he even predicted that it was going to happen.
And it did.
But it didn't have to.
Valve, please fix.