Would You Like to Duo?

Buying a gun for a teammate on the pistol round is, oddly enough, a tactic that shows up even in the pro scene.

A player with the weaker aim spends their credits to fatten an ace's carry. If the one who received the gun dies for nothing, the loss is brutal — a high-risk call, no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠question. But when the gap between teammates looks like this, it can stop being a bad idea.

"Sova, you should request one too. I'll buy it for you."

"...Okay."

Whatever Killjoy had seen in Omen, it was enough. She told Nebula to request a gun as well, and the round loaded a very heavy weight onto the two of us: a Sheriff, light shields, and abilities for me; a Ghost, light shields, and abilities for him.

If the two of us died, four teammates' money vanished for nothing. Then again, through the whole first half we had not won a single round once Nebula and I were both dead, so it hardly counted as a new risk.

Second-half pistol. Snake set her E, Toxic Screen, on A Site and walked off toward B alone. Killjoy took mid with her turret and Alarmbot, and Nebula, Omen, and I held A — three A, one mid, one B.

Nebula and I were something like ninety percent of the team's strength, so stacking A was a serious overinvestment. With the roster this far behind, though, somebody had to gamble.

I decided to push up to Pipe, the one angle that sees every enemy entering A at once. To live there, someone had to watch the nastiest line off it: Belt, marked on the map as A Conveyor.

Of course I asked the one teammate I could actually trust.

"Yes. I'll use my recon bolt too."

With Nebula's support locked in, I hopped the zipline the instant the round began, nothing in the way.

The zipline is an Ice Room object. Hang from the cable and you can ride between the first and second floors inside the site, or travel from A Nest all the way into A. Halfway along I held shift and bled the speed off, so they wouldn't hear the rope. I made Pipe without a sound, and on that same timing Sova's recon bolt planted in the mouth of A.

A shot cracked. The dart died at once. Even so, it told us at least one of them was there.

I pre-charged Tailwind in case the shot went wide, then set my crosshair on the lane into A. From Pipe I was hopelessly naked to anyone on Belt, but that side I left to Nebula.

A Chamber swung the exact lane I was holding, and his crosshair was already on me up on the pipe.

We fired almost together. I took his head. He didn't take mine.

That was the whole difference, and it split the round in two.

A collateral — a skewer. A gun with the Sheriff's kind of penetration will punch a thin wall, or a teammate standing in front, and still deal the damage. Snake had been lined up directly behind Chamber, so when the headshot killed Chamber, Snake crossed over with him. An Operator collateral off a body shot is one thing. Eating a skewer from a Sheriff almost never happens, and Snake had simply been unlucky.

"Their Chamber's actually good, though. He thought to prefire that."

Peaker's advantage meant he had shot first, and the moment had been closer than it looked. If he had hit the head instead of the body... I didn't even want to picture it.

I had dashed backward with Tailwind as I fired. Headhunter caught me in the body, but the light shields left me at seventy.

"Caught the Raze on Belt. Snake, push B Main slow."

"Yep."

Nebula had picked the Raze off the top of Belt. Left to his usual style, he would have bought the Owl Drone for four hundred and shock darts at a hundred and fifty apiece, then lived with the stock pistol that loses the raw stat check. This round he had a Ghost. He no longer lost the long fight — and he turned it around on Raze.

"Whoa, nice, our team~"

"I knew you guys had it."

Less than ten seconds into the round, three of them were already dead. The round was over in ten seconds flat.

On Nebula's call, Snake pushed B Main, and Killjoy — already cutting toward their spawn from mid — caught the KAY/O and the Fade trying to rotate over to B.

"Nice."

The first flawless of the game. It did not look like the first half.

We took the full buy that followed without much trouble. The bonus, we lost — but not before killing two of them and putting two rifles on the ground. At 8–7, I pulled out that weapon.

Ice Room's entries run long, so the map naturally favors an Operator. One reason we had suffered so much on attack was their Chamber's Op.

A double-controller shell can make an Operator's life miserable, but our Omen was... his mechanics just weren't quite there.

With no flash and no concuss in the comp, we had two ways through that gun: answer it with an Operator of our own, or never go where Chamber was standing.

I had wanted to buy one and take the duel myself. I couldn't. The comp needed me on the front line, and Nebula, who likes a stable round, had no interest in an Op fight with Chamber.

So for the entire attack half we used Sova's utility to find Chamber and simply hit the site he wasn't holding. Somewhere under that, my pride took a real hit. It felt like running away.

From the round I finally bought the Operator, I meant to take that pride back.

"Ah, okay."

I sent Snake — who had been settling in to watch B the way she had last round — over to A, then used Updraft to climb onto Yellow, marked B Yellow on the map. Only a Jett with Updraft, a Chamber with Rendezvous, or a Raze with a Blast Pack can get up there. From the attacker's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠side, it is a miserable angle.

A KAY/O flash popped out of Main, wary of the Operator. Eating it on Yellow was a free death, so I dropped off and let it pass.

On the way down I charged Tailwind and hit Z, so the team knew they were coming B.

A ZERO/point came whistling in toward Yellow. Before it could detonate I peeked with the Op.

A hair before the ZERO/point blew, I caught the Raze flying in on a Blast Pack, then Tailwinds carried me clear of the radius.

The timing held. I wasn't suppressed. Leaving would have been the safe call. I got greedy instead.

Another KAY/O flash sailed out of B Main. I tucked behind the container, let it pass, and peeked the angle it had come from.

The instant KAY/O died I dropped Cloudburst at my feet and hid myself in it. They swung for the trade and sprayed, but I was already inside the smoke.

My health was down to thirty. In that same breath I had two kills, and the reset Tailwind was already charging.

The dash took me somewhere safe. All that chase, and they came away with nothing.

All of it had happened in five seconds. A blink.

They had respected the Operator — flash, ZERO/point, a layered attempt to kill me — and it had failed. They gained nothing. All they were handed was the death of their entry, and of the player behind him.

Honestly, even I thought I had just played that disgustingly well.

"Ahem... Just the basics."

It felt like I had paid Chamber back, in a single round, for every humiliation he had handed me on attack.

Unlike the first half, the second half ran one way.

They never found a real answer to my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Operator, and A Site had three people waiting, Nebula among them. Partway through, their Chamber gambled on an Operator of his own on attack. I won that duel too, and he never brought an attack Op again. They even tried hitting B or A through mid. That didn't work either.

Once I started running the Operator, we did not drop a single round. The map ended 13–7.

"Whew. That cleared me right out."

I was ready to close the game and end the stream when a notification popped in the bottom right.

"Huh?"

Not the sort of notification I could just swipe away.

He was proud enough that back when I was a guy, I was the one who had to send the request first. And now he was asking me?

"Hmm..."

There was no real reason to refuse. I accepted.