Fnatic's Invitation

One week later.

Great Britain Empire.

Heathrow Airport.

Qin Feng pulled his suitcase, feeling a mix of emotions as he walked out of the airport with the crowd.

Reaching the area outside the terminal, Qin Feng didn't hesitate. He directly got into a taxi and, using his imperfect English, informed the driver of his destination.

His uncle Qin Long's house was a two-story villa located in the suburbs, with a lawn and trees in front, looking quite cozy.

After entering the house, Uncle Qin Long and Aunt Qin Long, who had just finished dinner, smiled warmly at Qin Feng.

"Xiao Feng, it's been so many years, you've grown so much."

"Uncle almost didn't recognize you."

"When you were little, you used to pester your uncle to play with you every day."

As soon as he put his luggage aside, Qin Feng was immediately met with a bear hug from his uncle.

"Xiao Feng, you haven't eaten yet, have you?"

"Perfect timing, let me show you my cooking skills."

His aunt was a Jiangnan Woman in her forties, appearing gentle and virtuous, as if the years had left no trace on her face.

After dinner.

Qin Feng's room had already been cleared out and tidied up spotlessly.

A brand new desktop computer sat quietly on the desk in the center of the room.

"Xiao Feng, your parents mentioned it, and asked us to specifically prepare a new computer for you."

"I heard it even has a 240Hz monitor."

"We've also set up the router and connected the network cable for you."

"However, the computer is newly assembled, so you'll have to download anything you need yourself."

"You don't need to help out at the restaurant this week. Get used to life here first."

"You've had a long day today, so get some rest early."

His aunt said solicitously after accompanying Qin Feng into the room.

"Okay, thank you, Uncle and Aunt."

After turning on the computer and starting to download CSGO, Qin Feng gazed at the ceiling, lost in thought.

He thought of a CSGO professional player.

The Great Britain Empire's top sniper, who had played for Eps, Reg, BIG, Chaos, and MR.

Smooya.

He heard that he was now frying fries at McDonald's every day.

The night passed without incident.

The next day, warm sunlight streamed through the gaps in the curtains, making Qin Feng feel a little dazed.

After a quick wash, he discovered that his uncle and aunt had already left.

All that remained for him was breakfast and a note.

"Breakfast was prepared for you in advance."

"If it gets cold, remember to heat it in the microwave."

Qin Feng couldn't help but smile in surprise.

After hastily finishing the bacon and bread on the table, Qin Feng returned directly to his room, opened the Faceit platform, and registered "Aether" as his Faceit username.

He didn't want to waste a single second.

If he wanted to play professionally abroad, the simplest way was to dominate various professional players in FPL.

The best example was Ropz.

Qin Feng glanced again at the system's daily available missions.

[Get 30 headshot kills with the Scout Rifle.]

[Get 30 headshot kills with the Desert Eagle.]

Qin Feng felt no impatience towards the system's missions.

Firstly, the daily optional missions would grant him three or more free attribute points.

Secondly, the system's missions were mostly reasonable and logical, and wouldn't include strange weapons like the R8 or Negev.

Thus, Qin Feng began his long journey of daily missions from Faceit level 3.

Another month passed in the blink of an eye.

Qin Feng's attribute points, obtained from daily missions, had already reached a total of 100.

With the accumulation of time, Qin Feng's current status panel was completely renewed compared to a month ago!

[Qin Feng]

[Class ID: Aether]

[Age: 19]

[Team: None]

[Marksmanship: 90 (S)]

[Movement: 84 (A+)]

[Awareness: 95 (SS+)]

[Appearance: Data Overflow]

[Specialties: Sniper Rifle Mastery (A), Pistol Mastery (B)]

[Skill: Killing Intent Perception]

[Available Missions Today: Get 8000 headshot kills on BOTs, Achieve a 1-for-2 kill with the AWP.]

In one month, Qin Feng's stats had reached a terrifying level through daily missions.

According to the system, S-tier marksmanship was already at the level of top-tier professional players.

While he might not match human cheats like Spinx or b1t.

He was more than capable of handling second or third-tier European teams.

The only drawback was that after reaching 90 points in marksmanship, Qin Feng could no longer increase his marksmanship attribute using free attribute points.

To further increase his marksmanship with free attribute points, Qin Feng would need to earn Dream Points in major tournaments like IEM, PGL, or ESL.

The better Qin Feng performed in matches, the more Dream Points he would earn.

Only by using the corresponding Dream Points could the cap for each attribute be unlocked.

And on this very day, as Qin Feng was about to continue his solo queue, he unexpectedly saw a friend request on his Steam account.

"Again?"

Normally, Qin Feng would ignore friend requests.

Unrecognized Steam friend requests were most likely from scammers.

API hijacking, please add our team leader... such scams were endless.

However, just as he was about to block the request, he unexpectedly noticed that the applicant's avatar was a team logo.

"Is it because I recently dominated FPL-C and got promoted to FPL?"

Frowning, Qin Feng still accepted the friend request.

Soon, Qin Feng's Steam chat window lit up.

"Aether, hello, I am Samuelsson, the coach of Fnatic. Are you interested in playing professionally?"

Fnatic?

Although he had anticipated receiving tryout invitations from some professional teams after reaching FPL, Qin Feng never expected that the team inviting him would be Fnatic, who were about to participate in the European RMR qualifiers.

Didn't they just sign poizon to replace the newcomer Banjo?

The ESL ONE tournament had just ended, and although Fnatic lost 0-2 to Ence and were eliminated, it wasn't enough reason for them to invite him for a tryout, was it?

Even the once incredibly brilliant Zywoo played for the French third-tier team aAa for two years.

Despite some hesitation, Qin Feng still didn't want to give up this opportunity.

After all, the 2022 Antwerp European RMR qualifiers were about to begin. If he missed this invitation, he would probably have to become a commentator for a few months like Sccc.

"I'm willing, but my English might not be very good," Qin Feng quickly replied to the Steam friend.

On the other side, Fnatic's coach Samuelsson looked at the chatbox with a helpless wry smile.

Even though the team roster hadn't been submitted to the tournament organizers yet, with the RMR match approaching, there were only a little over ten days left.

Unfortunately, Peppzor was just too bad.

"Aether, you must be the player who 1v5'd in the Asian Major qualifiers before, right?"

"You've come to Europe?"

Samuelsson's eyes lit up as he read Qin Feng's reply.

In fact, before contacting Qin Feng, he had watched recordings of over a hundred players, and Qin Feng's recordings were the most peculiar.

The first one he watched was Qin Feng's performance during the Asian Major qualifiers.

Samuelsson's first reaction at the time was disbelief.

If he hadn't been active, he would have been a prodigy comparable to the former Zywoo and s1mple.

Then he quickly discovered that Faceit had gained a sniper named Aether.

His record was one of complete domination, climbing from FPL-C all the way to FPL.

After reviewing the footage from his recent matches, Samuelsson was even certain that Faceit's Aether was the same Aether who had been dominating the Asian Major.

"Yes, I've come to Europe."

"China's CS environment isn't good. I came to Europe hoping for a better development environment," Qin Feng said truthfully.

After all, if he continued to be unwanted by teams, he might as well go fry fries at McDonald's with Smooya.

"There's no major problem with language communication."

"As long as your aim is accurate enough, none of that matters."

"Back in the day, Zywoo only knew how to say 'I don't know,' and he still dominated FPL, didn't he?"

"Moreover, mezii met you in FPL before and said your English level was sufficient for normal communication."

"However, the main sniper in the team is still poizon. You can only be the secondary sniper."

"And the highest contract we can offer you right now is a weekly salary of 250 Euros."

"After the Major qualifiers are over, we'll sign a new contract based on your performance."

"What do you say?"

At the Fnatic base, Samuelsson said hesitantly.

To be honest, for an established team like Fnatic, a weekly salary of 250 Euros was practically begging.

But the RMR qualifiers were just around the corner. If Qin Feng didn't perform well, the team owner would likely kick him out directly.

In fact, the team had already set their sights on several players from Xiao Huojian.

If it weren't for the approaching Major and Xiao Huojian's insistence on selling the players as a package, how could Fnatic have found Qin Feng, who had virtually no major tournament experience?

Samuelsson wanted to take a gamble.

There were simply too many dazzling young prodigies on the international stage recently.

What if he won the gamble?

With that thought, he saw Qin Feng's reply.

"No problem, I can do it."

"When can I come to the Fnatic training base?"

Samuelsson's heart was also full of conflict.

With the addition of the "Medicine God" poizon, the current lineup, even with Peppzor, might be able to make it to the Major.

Was changing the roster really a good choice?

However, since he had already contacted Qin Feng, Samuelsson naturally had no intention of going back on his word.

"Alright, what size clothes do you wear? We'll make you a Fnatic jersey."

"As for the Major qualifiers in a few days, just wear a team jersey from the team for now."

"We have two Englishmen on our team, and the current base is in England. You'd best come to the base for a tryout as soon as possible."

"And for utility usage, we'll need to practice that again once you get here."

After saying all that, Samuelsson felt a headache coming on.

Ten days of synergy time was simply too short.

Although CSGO tournaments had a tradition of substitutes winning championships, that still required the players and the team to have solid skills.

As Samuelsson was pondering, he saw his Steam chat flash again.

"No problem, I'm in England right now."

"I can head over to the base this afternoon."

Time flew by to the afternoon.

"Aether?" Samuelsson asked, looking at the clean-cut young man before him with some curiosity.

"Yes, it's me," Qin Feng replied in his not-so-fluent English.

Samuelsson gave Qin Feng a warm hug.

"The team members are all here this afternoon, so I can introduce you to them."

"Then we have a practice match at 5 PM. If everything goes well after that, we'll sign the contract directly."

"You brought your own mouse and keyboard, right?"

"If that's all good, let's start by familiarizing ourselves with the Fnatic training room environment?"

"Okay."

Qin Feng looked at the Fnatic base before him, feeling a surge of excitement, and took a deep breath.

He then stepped through the club's main entrance with a determined expression.

Normally, 3 PM should be the team's map practice time.

However, the club's training room was unusually quiet today.

They were all waiting for the arrival of the team's new recruit.

Soon, they saw Samuelsson introducing the team's training room to a Chinese teenager in English.

Seeing that mezii, poizon, ALEX, and KRIMZ were all in the training room, he immediately pulled Qin Feng into the room with a smile.

"I've always believed that a club can only become better by going international."

"Peppzor's departure doesn't signify the team's downfall; instead, it marks a new beginning."

"This is Aether, the one I mentioned to you all before."

"mezii, you must have encountered him in FPL before, right?"

"Aether's recent five-kill play was made into a highlight reel; it's probably one of the most-watched videos in the CSGO section of YouTube lately."

Scattered applause broke out.

While most people saw China's CS scene represented by skins and valiant efforts despite losses, mezii and the others were aware of Qin Feng's capabilities.

They had watched Qin Feng's Major and recent FPL VODs and felt that the young man before them was more than just a little bit stronger than Peppzor.

Samuelsson continued to enthusiastically introduce each player to Qin Feng.

"This is poizon, the team's sniper."

"This is ALEX, the team's in-game leader."

"This is mezii, ALEX's fellow countryman."

"And this is KRIMZ, also a veteran of the team."

Qin Feng nodded slightly, "Understood, Coach."

Although Fnatic's current players weren't exactly superstar material, they were all seasoned veterans who had seen plenty of battles.

Qin Feng wasn't so unfamiliar as to not recognize them.

Afterward, led by Samuelsson, Qin Feng settled all his affairs.

The time had now reached 4:45 PM.

Fifteen minutes remained until the team's practice match.

"Feng, we have fifteen minutes until our practice match."

"Our opponents are ITB (Into the Breach)."

"They aren't a top team, but they're good enough for us to gel together."

"As long as you perform decently in the practice match, you'll join us for the upcoming Major," ALEX explained with a smile.

Qin Feng nodded and looked at the opposing team's logo on the platform, which resembled a steel helmet.

The fry-and-chip sniper god, Smooya, was currently serving as ITB's sniper.

Before long, all five members of ITB had joined the room.

Qin Feng looked at the opposing IDs.

ITB.smooya

ITB.Thomas

ITB.Adam9130

ITB.Cypher

ITB.dobbo

The match map was Inferno.

[Ding! First participation in an international team practice match, received Dream Points: 100 points.]

[Perseverance and Effort 2.0 System upgraded to Perseverance and Effort 3.0]

[New function: Point Lottery (10-pulls 20% OFF)]

[New function: Point Unlock Attribute Cap]

PS: Regarding which team to join, I've scoured the player rosters of all HLTV top 100 teams before the Major.

Among European teams that communicate in English as an international squad, Fnatic seems to be the most likely destination for the protagonist.

However, this is merely the starting point for playing in a Major (lol).

The protagonist will likely leave the team after the Major.

That's all!