Carry (Project A)
The first half opened on a pleasant 2–0.
We'd taken the second full-buy round flawless, which meant every gun we'd bought stayed in our hands, and on the third round we dropped four of the enemies who'd bought rifles—only to lose it anyway, by a hair.
"Ah!"
"Agh, so close!" — Jett
"That's just the gun diff. For real." — Phoenix
I was sure I'd hit the head first. A Spectre's headshot only does 115, though, and from behind heavy shields that isn't always a kill. The rifle in their hands did 160 to the head. Whatever shield you were wearing, that was one shot.
"Tch. The Spectre really is weak..."
Just like chat said, the round had been a bonus—guns carried over from the round before. We'd made them drop four of the rifles they'd bought, so it still counted as a result.
We'd saved so much last round that everyone came in flush, and we finished the buy with rifles, heavy shields, and every ability. Full kit.
"I think we can try cracking mid. They don't have a Killjoy." — Snake
Their weakness was the same as ever. No Killjoy, and Killjoy was the sentinel in Project A who could lock down the most space. Leave her on the bench and splitting your numbers gets ugly in a hurry.
"Then let's try double doors?" — Me
"Okay." — Phoenix
We had a Phoenix, so mid doors—the spot where a Curveball actually earns its money—was the place to hit this round.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
The round started, and my team walked mid at an easy pace. I pulled Haunt and got ready to read inside the center doors and along B link.
"Soon as Haunt goes live, swing and go." — Me
Not like the first round. This Haunt went out before the entry, not after. Mid doors want the second player swinging in first, and Phoenix can't live inside a smoke the way Jett can, so the old setup was useless here.
Tat-tat-tang!
On the center doors, you play it like this.
Pop!
Tat-tat-tang!
The moment their crosshair climbed to break the Haunt, you send the entry through. That's the use.
"Okay, straight to B." — Me
Snake, holding the mid doors, was dead, and we took B link toward B site.
"Pressure B main too. Right now." — Me
Killjoy had been lurking to stop them walking up B main or slipping off that way. Now she pushed B main herself, and the site was pinched from both sides.
That left them two choices. Give up the site and set a retake, or hold B for as long as they could.
Ta-tang!
A retake must have looked too thin with Snake already dead. They chose to hold the site.
"Jett, twenty HP!" — Jett
Tang!
"Nice trade." — Jett
"One back site, careful!" — Killjoy
Ta-ta-ta-tang!
"Agh, ate the eye, damn—nice trade." — Phoenix
The angle was the kind where a fight's first rule, the trade, snaps off without anyone having to think about it. Bodies kept swapping until it was three against two, and on our side there was nothing to regret.
"Planting for main." — Snake
They left me alone on B link. Killjoy and Snake planted, then fell back toward B main.
Pop!
KAY/O's flash went off, and the other team hit B with it. Even if they got on the defuse, we could see it from B main. The round was overwhelmingly ours.
But in a game like this, there is always a variable.
"What the— Astra, what was that? Sorry, sorry. I dry-peeked way too alone." — Killjoy
"Fade's mid, you don't even have to peek for no—" — Jett
Ta-tang!
"I'm sorry..." — Snake
"No—if you're just going to die like that..."
Three-on-two had become one-on-two in a breath. The spot I was holding assumed someone would still be alive on main, and fighting two from here had far too much going against me.
Krrk!
"Defuse sound." — Phoenix
I sliced the angle a little at a time, and Astra's smoke came into view. Someone in there was on the spike. Almost certainly.
I didn't take the smoke shot. I pressed Q.
Fade's Q. Seize.
The orb works a lot like Haunt. The moment it touches the ground it bursts, and anyone inside the radius is seized. They can't step out of it. Their audio muffles, seventy-five health comes off at once, and Decay starts its slow climb on top of that.
Fwaak!
The sound said it had caught clean. I threw Haunt—cooldown back—straight into Astra's smoke.
They were inside the smoke, both of them, and Haunt had their positions anyway.
Ta-ta-ta-ta-tang!
Killing the pair of them was the easy part.
"Hoo!"
"Wow!" — Snake
"Nice!!!" — Jett
A Haunt by itself, they would have shot out on reaction. Seize had their audio muffled, so they never even registered that it had been thrown. And if the two of them hadn't been tucked into that smoke together like old friends, the accident never happens in the first place.
From where they'd been standing, Astra had been body-blocking for the KAY/O on the defuse, on the read that I was still on main. Whatever the call had been, it wasn't my problem.
"Great Eunha! Great Eunha! Great Eunha! Great Eunha!" — Phoenix
Ugh. There he goes again.
Whoever lost this round wouldn't have rifle money for the next one. They'd be on an eco. That made it one of those rounds people call a two-point round—a real knife fight—and my play was the only reason we'd scraped it.
Well. That's just how it is.
"Ahem..."
We won the knife-fight round, then their eco after it, and the half sat at 4–1. The next real buy went the wrong way and made it 4–2. We took the round after that for 5–2, and another two-point round came around.
Lose this one and the money said the round after it was likely to fall with it. And we had one piece of news that wasn't especially good.
"Watch for an Operator this round." — Me
"Copy." — Jett
Their Jett's bank had crossed 5,100. An Operator is 4,700, which meant they could buy it and still afford light shields without thinking twice. Remember what an Operator does to a defense, and the round gets tiring before it starts.
But if we could kill that Operator, the whole conversation changed. Forty-seven hundred hurts no matter how much money you have. A normal full buy—rifle, heavy shields, abilities—runs about 3,900 credits, so the gun is absurdly expensive, and the risk of losing it is just as large.
Win the round, and burn that Operator on top of it, and the first half of this game was as good as broken open.
"So... A is the right hit, then?" — Snake
"Yeah. I think so." — Me
Pearl's B main is long enough to be the Operator's home stage. Better to leave the site where that gun gets to live, and go at A through a mid their missing Killjoy had left soft.
"Killjoy, use the turret and just keep a little eye on B main and mid doors. Snake, A main with me. Phoenix, Jett, you two entry through Art." — Me
In case they walked up B main, Killjoy covered it—and with the space she locks down, the mid-door push as well—while the rest of us took A slowly. That was the plan.
"...I play with my brain to begin with, you know?"
A narrative. Every time.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
Buy time ended. Killjoy took B main, and the rest of us split between mid and A main.
"Op on B site." — Killjoy
We were still setting up the slow take when her call came in. The voice line said the turret had died, so she'd checked through it instead of with her own body. Smart. Around Chaser, even a jump-peek gets shot if the other person has the reactions.
Zzzzip—pak!
KAY/O's ZERO/POINT had gone out clean as well. Operator confirmed on B. Nothing left on A for us to flinch at.
"We're cracking Art. I'll put a Haunt in for you." — Me
From where the ZERO/POINT had landed, KAY/O was inside A Art. They might already have left, but you can't reach A without passing that choke, so I spent the Haunt to make the fight certain.
From A main, the lineup that catches anyone sitting in Art.
I couldn't remember the exact spot and threw it by feel, but Haunt still pulled the info from inside Art, clean.
Tat-tat-tang!
The info turned straight into Phoenix's kill.
"Nice. Tempo up." — Me
"Okay. I'm just sending it onto site." — Jett
God. How long had it been since a game where every teammate actually moved the way they were supposed to?
After nothing but players who couldn't manage the basics, a lobby like this was heaven with nowhere else to go.
Haah... Project A is fun...!