The Youth Training Coach: He Didn't Know What a Great Opportunity He Had Given Up

The hot streak combined with insights from Niko, plus solid support from his teammates, let Su Zhe wrap up his stream with a three-win streak after a few Ladder matches.

Because it was grub time.

Fat Brother stood up, taking off his "s1mple" jersey, and asked curiously, "How come it feels like you changed your playstyle completely after coming out of the bathroom earlier?"

"Huh? That obvious?"

Fat Brother shot Su Zhe a glare: "No shit. Before, you played for maximum profit—either you'd Give Away or tear through the Bomb Site, always ignoring the risks. Just now, you were clearly playing much more cautiously."

Su Zhe thought back and realized it was true. He'd deliberately used Niko's approach during those rounds.

Though his dueling success rate had gone up, his lack of movement skill slowed his pushes, giving the enemy time to rotate.

Fat Brother asked again, "Did you go watch some Pro Player's Highlight Reel again?"

Su Zhe: ?

How'd he guess so accurately? Even though the insight was similar to watching a Highlight Reel, with the system's help, it felt like Niko was guiding his hand through every move, feeding him the decision-making behind each play in real time.

That kind of insight couldn't be gained from watching demos or compilations.

So he nodded and said, "I saw a Niko clip while scrolling on my phone in the bathroom, so I wanted to try it out."

Fat Brother thought for a moment and said, "Even though my rank isn't as high as yours right now, I still want to give you a heads-up: if you're still thinking about going pro later, don't deliberately copy someone else's playstyle. That'll only limit your own ceiling."

Su Zhe was puzzled: "Is that really a thing? Can't even learn from Niko? I remember he's been a Top 3 player."

Fat Brother shook his head: "That's his own most comfortable style. If you deliberately mimic it, it'll just feel awkward. Today you learn from this hotshot, tomorrow you learn from that one—how's that supposed to work?"

"Haven't you noticed? Every star player has their own unique playstyle. Just because Niko's strong, does that mean anyone who copies him can become Niko? In the end, you'll just be a half-assed mess that's neither here nor there."

"Besides, a pro's playstyle has to fit their team. You think Kuang Ge could go to VP and try that? See if Jame kicks him or not."

Su Zhe listened thoughtfully. He really had felt uncomfortable using Niko's style completely, and had assumed it was just due to unfamiliarity and poor fundamentals.

Now it seemed there were other reasons.

Like making Xiao Guang, that "cowardly lizard," play entry fragger—he'd probably be scared before the round even started. No way he'd do well at entry.

After a hearty meal on the food street outside the school, the three had nothing else to do and headed back to the dorm.

Xiao Guang grabbed Su Zhe, who was about to start streaming again: "Bro! Please! Take a break! I don't know if you can handle it, but I'm about to crack. Can we start streaming in half an hour?"

Fat Brother overheard and gave Xiao Guang a thumbs-up. Those words hit the nail on the head for him too.

"...Fine, half an hour. I'll lie down too." With that, he climbed into bed and called up the system panel.

code
[Host: Su Zhe]
[Age: 18]
[Team: None]
[Positioning: 64-69]
[Movement: 51-56]
[Recoil Control: 60-65]
[Game Sense: 46-51]
[Reaction: 85-90]
[Rise Points: 1158]
[Weapon Proficiency:
AK-47 (LV6.3)
AWP (LV1.7)
...(expand)]
[Skill: Chosen One]
[Overall Level: C+]
[Evaluation: The host has finally stopped squandering his talent. His growth in such a short time is astonishing. This is what a Genius Youth should look like! Keep it up—the threshold of a professional is no longer far from you.]

"Oh, over 1000 Rise Points again." Su Zhe didn't hesitate to buy an Attribute Point from the shop and added it to [Reaction].

[Ding~ Insufficient permissions~]

[Attributes above 85-90 require Overall Level A or higher to unlock.]

[Ding~ Attributes above 85-90 require 10 free Attribute Points to allocate.]

Su Zhe: ...

Wasn't this a scam? He wanted to see what maxed-out Reaction felt like, but it was locked behind Overall Level A?

He'd worked so hard and was still only C+, and his improvement speed was slowing down. Who knew when he'd even reach B.

Su Zhe felt like even with the system, he couldn't escape being a C+ scrub.

And 10 free attribute points to exchange for one point is just too uneconomical.

"It seems the system wants me to develop morally, intellectually, physically, aesthetically, and labor-wise."

After considering it for a moment, Su Zhe directly added the one point he had purchased to Positioning.

His attribute also changed from [64-69] to [65-70].

"Time to go from a One-sided Warrior to a Two-sided Warrior."

He closed the system panel, turned his head, and shouted, "You guys rested enough yet? I want to keep playing Ladder."

Fat Brother & Xiao Guang: ...

This money was really hard-earned!

The revenue from their streams was split with Su Zhe taking 50% alone, and the remaining two splitting the other half.

Now, relying on the three of them for Show Effect, each stream could pull in around 1,000 viewers, and gift revenue wasn't bad either. But this high-intensity streaming reminded them of the days working summer jobs at a factory.

Fat Brother complained, "Are you just too hardworking or do you have an internet addiction? You've got like 500 hours of CSGO playtime in the past month, right? Don't you get bored?"

"It's fine. Mainly, I want to get to number one on the Ladder quickly."

The ranking on the Perfect World Platform was determined by score. He was currently around 3,000 points, ranked just over 1,100.

Although it sounded like a long way from first place, it really was a long way.

He would need at least 40 consecutive wins to reach the top.

But after obtaining Niko's skill insights, he felt he had made small improvements in Single Shot, Position Control, and Map Understanding, in addition to Pre-aim.

In the short term, he could definitely push his ranking higher.

The CAC tournament started on November 8th in Shanghai, and Tianlu returned to Hangcheng on November 9th.

They could have actually gone back that same afternoon, but they spent half a day playing around in Shanghai.

After returning to the club, 259 took a rare trip to the Youth Training department.

When he saw the Youth Training coach, he casually asked, "What about that kid who was popular online a while back? Didn't pass the trial?"

The coach shook his head. "The trial results were pretty good, but he wasn't willing to stay."

259 asked, puzzled, "What happened? Did he go to LVG?"

The coach said, "I know those guys pretty well. I heard no new people have joined recently."

259: "Then why wasn't he willing to stay?"

The coach found it funny just thinking about it. "He said he wanted to move up to the Main Team within a year. When he heard there was no hope, he just left on his own."

259 laughed when he heard that. "He really thinks we're that bad, huh? Wants to make the Main Team in one year."

He knew about the online comments regarding Tianlu, but he didn't care about them at all.

Why bother caring about what a bunch of noobs said? Anyone who could actually understand CSGO wouldn't think that way.

Sure, they couldn't beat others on the international stage, but compared to Ladder players, the skill gap between the two sides wasn't even on the same level.

The Youth Training coach chimed in, "Exactly. When he wants to go pro later and has no connections, he'll know what a great opportunity he threw away."