I Think You're Obsessed

"You guys are insane!!"

The moment the game ended, Su Zhe shouted excitedly.

After beating the Pro Players, he felt immensely satisfied. On top of that, he had been the MVP of the match!

Su Zhe admired his 1.51 Rating and did not rush into another game. He needed to rest for a while.

He had practically given it his all in that match and had stayed intensely focused the entire time.

Once he relaxed mentally, exhaustion washed over him. Smiling, he said to Fat Brother beside him, "These European Pro Players don't seem like much after all."

Es3tag and k0nfig had fairly average stats that match, with Ratings of 1.21 and 1.19 respectively.

Hearing Su Zhe's words, Fat Brother could not help shaking his head. "It's obvious you don't follow professional matches much. Some domestic pros who can stomp you easily on the Ladder are like chicks in front of them."

"You know LVG, the highest-ranked domestic team in the world right now, right? When they went to IEM Sydney last time, they didn't win a single match in the double-elimination bracket and got taken down with ease."

Su Zhe truly did not watch many matches. All his energy was focused on aim training and actual games, so where would he find the time to follow competitions?

The Demos he watched every day were only high-ranking Ladder match Demos, because he felt the tactics used by professional teams were of little use to him.

He was not playing in a fixed stack. His teammates changed every match, so all that coordination was rather useless to him.

He still had no clear understanding of the gap in strength between domestic and foreign teams.

Su Zhe said confidently, "That's only because I wasn't there. Once I go pro, I'll stomp them hard!"

Fat Brother merely smiled and did not explain further.

The ignorant truly fear nothing. Anyone who had seriously watched a few matches wouldn't say something so naive.

Still, he had no intention of mocking Su Zhe. If anything, he admired him a little.

He believed that it was precisely because Su Zhe had such a mindset that he could push himself so hard and reach S Division in just over a month.

During his break, Su Zhe went to the bathroom and opened the system to check his current attribute panel.

[Host: Su Zhe]

[Age: 18]

[Team: None]

[Positioning: 56-61]

[Movement: 47-52]

[Recoil Control: 55-60]

[Game Sense: 43-48]

[Reaction: 83-88]

[Rise Points: 665]

[Weapon Proficiency: AK-47 (LV5.9)

M4A1 Silenced (Lv4.1). (Expand)]

[Skill: Chosen One]

[Overall Level: C+]

[Evaluation: You have traveled further and further down the path of CSGO and gradually developed your own understanding of the game. However, as a Genius Youth, this rate of improvement is still far too slow! You are still some distance away from officially crossing the threshold into professional play. Keep working hard, Host, and become a Professional Player as soon as possible!]

[Mission One: Join a professional team and become a starting member within one year. Youth Training teams do not count. Countdown: 331 days]

[Reward: S-rank reward. Failure will automatically terminate the binding relationship with the Host.]

[Mission Two: Reach first place on the CSGO Ladder rankings of any platform.]

[Reward: Random A+ reward]

[Mission Three: Raise your Perfect World Platform score to Diamond S.]

[Reward: Random B+ reward]

Looking at his attribute panel, Su Zhe's face was full of delight.

Although the pressure of his Ladder matches had increased again after reaching S Division, as long as he maxed out his [Reaction] attribute and improved in other areas, reaching Diamond S would not be difficult.

Then he could ask Leon Kai to recommend him to a professional team.

Su Zhe felt that his future had gone from having no prospects to being full of promise.

However, he had no plans to slack off, because as his improvement slowed once more, the number of Rise Points he earned had begun to drop sharply again.

It was like playing an online game. Without grinding or spending money, you could easily obtain sixty or even seventy percent of the game's resources to grow stronger, but you could never become one of the server's top players.

Once you reached the later stages, it came down to either the balance in your bank account or how hard you could grind.

Although there were still more than three hundred days left on Mission One's Countdown, the slowing pace of his progress gave him a deep sense of urgency.

"Go play by yourself. Playing this Ladder is worse than going to Deathmatch to practice your aim. Why are you downloading the Demo?" Es3tag looked at k0nfig's actions in confusion.

"It's nothing. I just thought that player who got MVP was a little strange," K0nfig explained.

"You don't suspect him of cheating, do you?"

K0nfig laughed. "How could that be? Do I look that stupid?"

If someone was accused of cheating on the Ladder, then either he possessed Zai Wu's or ropz's wallhack-like "Game Sense," or he had the elite Map Understanding of Team Liquid at their peak, shooting through spots and spraying through smoke with no regard for reason.

The last time Su Zhe had been accused of cheating by online commenters, Leon Kai had specifically made a video to clarify things. Although there were still some keyboard warriors online who believed that anything outside their understanding had to be suspicious, and occasionally went under Su Zhe's post to make themselves noticed.

But in matches, as his rank increased, neither his teammates nor his opponents called him a cheater anymore.

A playstyle like Su Zhe's, where he liked taking direct fights as an entry fragger, was the easiest to judge.

All it took was replaying the Demo at a slower speed and watching his crosshair placement to tell.

K0nfig continued, "I just think this guy is kind of weird, so I want to replay it and confirm it."

"Do you think his Reaction is especially fast?"

K0nfig said in surprise, "You noticed too?"

Es3tag rolled his eyes at him. "I'm not blind. It was easy to feel during the match. But what's the point of confirming that?"

K0nfig answered seriously, "I don't know. I just have nothing better to do and want to take a look. I'm curious, that's all."

Es3tag said dismissively, "Then go ahead and watch. I think you're getting a little obsessed."

Hearing that, k0nfig sighed.

NIP was in a difficult situation right now. Not long ago, the club had benched Brollan, who they had spent 600,000 euros buying out from FNC.

Just as their general manager THREAT had said in an interview with HLTV, Bao Lan had played professionally for NIP for a year and a half, consistently failing to live up to his status as a star player throughout his time there.

So when they came to participate in CAC this time, they had temporarily brought up maxster from the Youth Training team to fill in.

But maxster's performances were hard to describe. In several recent matches, his stats had been at the bottom of the team.

So NIP was now desperately looking for people to patch up their roster.

CSGO Professional Players were somewhat different from pros in other games. Tournament Prize Money made up a major part of their income.

They all wanted good results, so in their spare time, they would help their clubs scout for talent.

But in es3tag's view, CNCS's own professional teams were already terrible.

If k0nfig was interested in someone from a Ladder where people played so absurdly, then what was that if not obsession?

To clarify in advance, I'm not writing CNCS.