K0nfig, How Does That Familiar Feeling Taste?

With December here, temperatures had begun to drop across the country.

Su Zhe glanced at the chat and saw viewers in the Live Room arguing again over whether winter was colder in the north or the south. He shook his head helplessly, then queued up for another match.

One person said it was below freezing outdoors in the north, and even going to the bathroom left your balls frozen.

Another said the cold in the south was like magic damage, and no matter how many layers you wore, it did no good.

There was nothing he could do about it. After all, he'd never spent a winter in the south.

Luckily, the school had turned on the heating, so he no longer had to warm his hands in his lap every now and then like he'd been doing recently.

Su Zhe had now been playing on Faceit for nearly twenty days. Thanks to his relentless grind and absurd win rate, he'd made it to Faceit Level 10 a couple of days ago.

He'd gotten used to the game environment there. As for the roughly 100-millisecond ping, that was even easier to deal with: Igoudala.

Whether on the attacking or defending side, Su Zhe had grown used to aggressively pushing out to take fights.

Then he relied on his lightning-fast reactions and steadily improving aim to get kills. This approach actually worked even better in Faceit matches.

Otherwise, if he held an angle while the other side dumped a full set of utility on him, he might as well lower his head and play on his phone—he wouldn't even get a chance to shoot.

Seeing that matchmaking was taking a while, Su Zhe got up to use the bathroom and took a look at his current system panel on the way back.

[Host: Su Zhe]

[Age: 18]

[Team: None]

[Positioning: 74-79]

[Movement: 52-57]

[Spray Control: 64-69]

[Game Sense: 48-53]

[Reaction: 85-90]

[Rise Points: 743]

[Weapon Proficiency:

AK-47 (LV7.1)

AWP (LV1.8)

...(Expand)]

[Skills: Chosen One: Training efficiency +20%

Exclusive Weapon: The host can choose any weapon in CSGO. When using that weapon in a match, overall performance +5% (Bound weapon: AK-47)]

[Overall Level: B]

[Evaluation: This is what a true Genius Youth should look like. Your overall ability has reached the level of a pro player, but you have yet to realize your full potential. There are always geniuses above geniuses. You still need to keep improving and become the brightest star among CSGO pros.]

[Mission: Join a pro team as a starting player within one year (youth teams do not count). Countdown: 293 days]

[Reward: S-rank reward. Failure will automatically terminate the bond with the host.]

Looking at his system panel, Su Zhe couldn't help sighing.

Though the system said he was already at a pro player's level, getting into the pro scene took more than skill. Opportunity mattered just as much.

K0nfig had just finished a scrim with his teammates. A while ago, he'd gone with the team to Shanghai for CAC, and they hadn't gotten home much later than Tianlu.

They'd lost their Bo1 against Faze first. Then, though they'd beaten Huaxia's Wings Up 2-0 in the lower bracket to make the playoffs, they'd been sent home as soon as they faced ENCE.

Their NIP was probably one of the most relaxed teams in Europe right now. The main issue was that their standing was a little awkward.

On paper, they were still a First Tier Team, so they looked down on the small tournaments that some second- and third-tier teams were eager to enter.

But whenever they played in an S-rank tournament, they were eliminated early.

That left the players with little to do besides play scrims.

K0nfig turned to his teammate and asked, "REZ, want to play some Ladder? We can get es3tag and headtr1ck to join us for a four-man queue."

REZ thought about it. He had nothing else to do, so he happily agreed.

As for why there were only four of them, the player who'd come in for a trial, alex, had already gone home to wait for the team's decision.

Once the four-man party was ready, they naturally started talking about the scrim they'd just finished.

"Es3tag, do you think alex would help the team's results if he actually joined us?"

Es3tag shook his head at K0nfig's question. "Hard to say. He's already 28, and he doesn't have much experience at big events. But we don't have any other options, do we?"

It wasn't the off-season yet. If the club tried to buy someone from a First Tier Team, that team wouldn't let them go. They could only choose from second- and third-tier teams.

But the club wasn't willing to spend big, and naturally, other teams wouldn't readily sell their more promising players.

Ever since the club had lost a fortune buying Bao Lan's contract for 600,000 euros, management had kept a tight leash on the transfer budget, afraid of getting burned again.

K0nfig sighed. "Let's just enjoy playing Ladder. Management can worry about that stuff. I can't be bothered with it."

When Su Zhe returned to his computer after using the bathroom, he'd already found a match. They were in the map-veto stage.

Only players with a Faceit membership could veto maps. He hadn't wanted to spend the money, but he played every map now, so he didn't mind.

He checked the other team's IDs and felt like they looked familiar. He clicked through to their profiles. Weren't these the same K0nfig and es3tag he'd matched against on Perfect World a while back?

He opened the profiles of the other players and found that two of them had Pro Certification.

The chat in the Live Room instantly got lively when viewers saw this.

[Holy crap, it's NIP's four-man party! Xiao Zhe's points are gone this round.]

[Not necessarily. Xiao Zhe beat a NIP duo last time. A four-man party won't make much difference. Everyone knows how bad NIP is these days.]

[How is that the same? That was on the China server; this is Europe. They're still pros, and K0nfig used to be a Top 20 player, after all.]

[Good luck! If Xiao Zhe wins this one, I'll send him a Sports Car!]

Su Zhe ignored the chat and exchanged a glance with Fat Brother beside him.

Fat Brother and Xiao Guang now both knew he wanted to find an opportunity to go pro in Europe.

Whenever they talked about it, Fat Brother would scold him for being foolish to turn down NIP's Youth Training invitation last time.

Su Zhe had started to regret it too. He could only blame his younger self for being too naive.

But now he'd run into them again—and they were in a four-man party.

Su Zhe rubbed his hands together, ready to play at 200% of his ability.

The server and map were quickly decided.

Server: Sweden

Map: Mirage

After entering the game, Su Zhe checked his ping: 145.

"Good thing we didn't pick the United Kingdom server. The ping would've been even higher."

High ping wasn't so bad. What was truly disgusting was how, on Perfect World, a CT would sometimes hide the Pocket Watch his wife had given him inside his balaclava.

The ten players loaded into the server and gathered at A1 for the Knife Round. Su Zhe's team lost, so they had to start on the T side.

The Pistol Round began, and the team started discussing their strategy.

In the end, a guy who claimed to be the IGL of some unknown team seized the right to call the shots.

"Let's split A through Archway this round. Three of us go Mid. Blue, you and Yellow take A1 and A2 for a Solo Push and get ready to support."

He'd just finished explaining the Pistol Round strategy when the Countdown ended.

Su Zhe was first up Mid and bought a P250. As the three of them reached Mid, the guy who'd taken command was just about to tell his teammates to push out and trade. But Su Zhe, in the lead, charged out on his own.

He pre-aim peeked at Archway and saw no one there. Then he pre-aimed the VIP Window and crouch-peeked again.

Bang!

[Arrow killed headtr1ck with a P250 headshot]

As NIP's AWPer, headtr1ck was known for his fast reactions. But against Su Zhe's pre-aimed dry peek, he didn't even get a shot off before getting headshot.

After hearing his teammate's callout, K0nfig at Archway immediately tried to peek out for a trade. But Su Zhe had been watching both VIP and Archway.

As soon as he saw the CT at Archway show his head, he snapped his crosshair over.

Bang! Bang!

[Arrow killed K0nfig with a P250 headshot]

"Did I just lose that duel? Are young players' reactions really this fast now?" K0nfig muttered after dying.

When he'd peeked out, his opponent hadn't even been looking at Archway at first. And yet he'd still been the one to shoot first.

The numbers on the board were suddenly 5v3. With a teammate smoking Side Path, the three Ts in Mid quickly pushed up Archway.

The CTs had realized the Ts might split A and had rotated there in advance, but the numbers disadvantage still cost them the Pistol Round.

REZ laughed. "Was the pressure too much for you guys in Mid? You gave a random two kills right off the bat. Hey, K0nfig, do you know that Arrow? He's greeting you in chat."

K0nfig glanced at the Public Screen.

Arrow: K0nfig, how does that familiar feeling taste?