Auto news on Youtube Mar 1 2018

The ELEAGUE Boston Major was a scene shifting tournament for a lot of reasons, including broken

broken viewership records, to multiple upsets and Cloud9's miracle run.

And while all that plus roster shuffles will probably dominate the conversation around

upcoming tournaments, there's also an interesting pattern of play that, while experimented with

before, really broke out and legitimised itself at the major.

In Boston, we saw a lot of teams look to make more frequent use of the 'hero AK' buy

on T-side force rounds.

Essentially, this strat sees one or two players force up AK's while the rest of the team

supports, be it with upgraded pistols or utility to maximize the AK's effectiveness.

We see this most generally on the second round when a team wants to catch the CTs off-guard

and have an exceptionally strong superstar who can dominate with the rifle.

Understandably, Na`Vi (who try to facilitate s1mple in any way they can) have experimented

with this the most, going as far back as DreamHack Winter.

We can see then how one AK pushed into the correct position can punish CT's who peek

one at a time, and give a broke Na'vi a shot at taking a round.

Watch as s1mple pushes deep into bathrooms in an unexpectedly early, yet quiet timing.

Notice how he trades off of his teammates who are on pistols with no armour, dominating

each peeking CT player in a straight duel with superior aim and confidence.

With the tool to do it, s1mple was able to completely open up the matchup and put Na`Vi

in a chance to win an otherwise impossible round.

This is the power of the hero AK.

Not all teams approach this economic decision so linearly though.

While Na`Vi nearly full-saved around s1mple's Ak on that second round, we can see SK's take

on the strategy at the Eleague Major semifinals.

It's a bit later into the half for SK, so they have the money to fully force with armour,

pistols and utility around Coldzera's hero AK.

Rather than try to send Coldzera to dominate straight-up duels, SK are able to push top-mid

and punish autimatic's push through smoke and snowball the round from the man advantage.

They have the utility on their players to effectively get onto a site, and importantly,

the armour to pick-up dropped weapons and take fights on equal footings with the CT's.

Coldzera's hero ak isn't used to open up the site, but rather, he becomes the splitting

force in the execute and pushes arch.

From there, he's able to take duels against the fully equipped rotators with less pressure

and a stronger chance of surprising the CT's - especially if the CT's only spot the upgraded

pistols pushing from quad.

In the same set at the major, Cloud9's approach to the Hero AK showed the versatility of the

strat.

Here, we can see it's the second round and both autimatic and RUSH have dropped Ak's

for C9's two star T-players, Stewie2k and tarik, who both have head armour and light

utility.

C9 use these two rifles to push top mid in a trading cross-fire to try and win crucial

map control very early in the round.

Stewie2k is able to punish felps, who is playing out-of-position at arch corner due to expecting

only to encounter pistols.

Rather than play fast behind the pick and try to snowball the round as we saw SK and

Na`Vi try to do, C9 slowdown and play patient behind the pick making the CT's sweat.

This decision to be disciplined and smart with their pace actually wins them the round,

as SK get nervous about a B hit late in the round.

You can see SK rotate Cold off of A site, allowing C9 to overwhelm TACO and close the

round.

C9 are able to use the ak's to open rounds and entry for picks, but in a style wholly

their own.

Despite all the success we saw from the Hero AK, it obviously has its flaws.

In the Quarterfinals of the Major, we can see G2 try their hand at it, giving shox the

hero ak in their game on Overpass vs C9.

Shox finds the opening pick as G2 sets up their default plan to take bathrooms control

from connector.

But, as G2 try to take map control, skadoodle is able to use the AWP dynamically around

bathrooms to shut down any map control gained by the inferior weapons.

C9 are able to easily punish G2 due to their lack of cohesion.

Tack on the fact that the French team's economy is now out of sorts due to the mix buy, and

you see some of the draw backs to the Hero AK play.

Overall though, given the success we saw the hero Ak have in Boston, expect to see more

of these rounds popping up as we enter the busy 2018 season.

However, don't just focus on the T-Side; pay attention to how CTs figure out how to

adjust against this.

As the Hero AK sees more and more play, we will undoubtedly see varying counters coming

out from CT sides.

Over the next couple events, we'll find out if the Hero AK will now be a standard at top

level play, or if it will remain a pocket pick used to throw off the established meta.