Hello, donk

"Congratulations to Nip! They've taken this Bo3 2–0 and become one of the first teams to qualify for the Katowice Main Tournament!" As the final kill of the match came in, Ma Xixi congratulated Nip on their victory. "Before the match started, I never would've expected this result."

Mo picked up the conversation. "I really didn't expect it either. Ever since Nip brought in a new player, it's like the team has come back to life. Nip's performance over the past few months was just... hard to watch!"

As the two spoke, the broadcast director put up the stats from both maps.

Ma Xixi only needed a quick glance before he blurted out, "This rookie is way too ridiculous! He's just farming stats, isn't he?"

Su Zhe's KDA on Mirage, Map One, was 21-7-10, with a 1.71 Rating!

Map Two, Inferno, was even more outrageous: a 30-5-13 KAD and a 2.01 Rating!

His Rating across this Bo3 was higher than the height of 99% of professional players in CSGO!

The Live Room audience was stunned. Was this really the kind of performance a rookie could put up?

[51 kills in two maps? Did he really just farm GL for kills?]

[That's ridiculous! I didn't even notice it while watching, but these stats are insane!]

[GL really are pretty bad now. Ever since their two core players left, they've gone to pieces.]

[Even if they're bad, they shouldn't be this bad. Let Tianlu play them and see—GL would've had their heads smashed in by now.]

[Let's be reasonable. Xiao Zhe's playstyle is fine for now, but once teams figure him out, he'll be giving away kills left and right.]

[Quit talking about figuring him out. At least he's had his moment of glory.]

The outrageous stats had the Live Room audience buzzing. They hadn't seen numbers like these in a long time—not since CS2 came out.

Even Zai Wu, who had just been named 2023's Top 1, hadn't put together any noteworthy results since the Paris Major.

"Nice! We played so well!" As the match ended, Su Zhe had only just taken off his headset when he heard his teammates cheering.

Coach djL came over and gave Su Zhe a big hug. "You played incredibly well! Your performance today was almost too good to believe!"

He was genuinely thrilled. The club had set goals for Su Zhe, the rookie, for this tournament, and he had goals of his own as the coach.

On the flight to Poland, the team manager, THREAT, had made it clear: if they failed to qualify for the Katowice Main Tournament, he could start looking for a new job too.

"I thought it was okay. GL didn't seem very good individually," Su Zhe said modestly, voicing his honest opinion.

The Nip players: "..."

They hurriedly turned to look at GL's side of the stage. When they realized the other team couldn't hear him, they breathed a sigh of relief—but then it struck them that they felt like they'd been insulted.

Aside from Su Zhe's standout performance, everyone else had played about as expected. The team's in-game leader, es3tag, and entry fragger, k0nfig, had both even finished with negative KDs.

Still, with stats like Su Zhe's, he had every right to say that.

But now that they'd won, nobody was going to sweat the little things.

So what if he was cocky? As long as he could carry them to victory, that was all that mattered!

DjL laughed when he heard that. "They really weren't very strong. Keep it up in the Main Tournament!"

Then he turned to the others. "All right, let's go shake hands. We've got two rare days off coming up. I'll treat everyone to a big meal later!"

"Oh! Sounds great!"

Su Zhe followed his teammates over to GL's side and shook hands with each of them.

The GL players were silently packing up their peripherals, preparing to head back to the lounge and wait for their next Bo3. They'd lost, but after dropping into the lower bracket, they still had another chance to fight for a spot in the Main Tournament.

When k0nfig reached snax, he couldn't help finding his expressionless face amusing. "You played well today!"

Looking at k0nfig's smug grin, snax felt even more frustrated. "If it weren't for your rookie, would you have won so easily?"

The two had often faced each other on the professional circuit, and they got along well offstage. They were both joking around.

K0nfig wasn't bothered at all. He just kept grinning. "I'm only now realizing how great it feels to win while doing nothing."

Snax rolled his eyes and didn't reply.

When Su Zhe came over, snax gave him a teasing look. "Nice performance. I'm looking forward to seeing how those teams in the Main Tournament will deal with you."

He could already imagine what it would look like when the established professional teams came up against this rookie who played by no rules.

The thought even eased some of the disappointment he felt over losing.

Su Zhe looked up at the two-meter-tall bear of a man. His height didn't intimidate him; if anything, snax seemed like a really nice guy.

Su Zhe smiled and nodded. "Thanks. I'll do my best."

After everyone finished the handshake line, they returned to their seats and started packing up their peripherals.

"How far do you think we can get in the Katowice Main Tournament?" Headtr1ck asked, unable to hide his anticipation. It was his first time playing in such a major event since joining Nip.

Es3tag pursed his lips. "Who knows? It depends on how they set up the Main Tournament bracket. If we get a tough team like Team Vitality or Faze right away, there's not much we can do."

One team had won last year's Major, while the other had taken home three S-rank tournament titles in a row recently. Both were in terrifying form.

Headtr1ck grinned. "Then let's hope we get lucky! I'm counting on the prize money to buy myself some skins."

The Katowice Main Tournament had a prize pool of a full million dollars. The higher a team placed, the more prize money it would take home, and the champions would claim $400,000 all to themselves.

K0nfig shook his head with a sigh. "You young guys really love all this flashy stuff. When you're my age, you'll lose interest in skins."

Es3tag seemed to hear the setup to a joke and burst out laughing. "I seem to remember someone trying to borrow skins from a CN trader before the tournament, only to get turned down."

K0nfig fell silent, looking a little wounded.

Es3tag turned to Su Zhe. "You'd probably be able to borrow some if you asked. I remember when we played CAC last year, all the teams from your country had really expensive skins. I doubt they could afford them on their salaries, right?"

Su Zhe had been listening to them and wondering how borrowing skins worked. He didn't know how to answer es3tag's question.

So he answered honestly. "I'm not sure. They probably can't afford them, right? I heard some Youth Training players back home say that even the starting players on their teams don't make much."

High-end CSGO skins could easily cost tens of thousands—or even hundreds of thousands—of RMB. He was interested in them, but he knew his pockets weren't deep enough.

The only thing in his inventory was an AK Redline that had kept him company for more than half a year.

K0nfig had packed his peripherals into his bag. He leaned toward Su Zhe with a grin. "Want to use some skins? A Butterfly Knife looks really cool when you spin it! It even gives you a boost in-game!"

Su Zhe nodded. "I do. Are you going to lend me one?"

K0nfig: "..."

"I've only got a beat-up vanilla skin. Why would you borrow from me? I meant you should ask people back home. I'm sure they'd lend you something!"

Su Zhe shook his head. "I don't know any of them."

Es3tag lightly kicked k0nfig. "If you want to borrow something, go ask yourself. Don't put Arrow on the spot! Come on, let's go eat. I'm starving."

They'd only eaten breakfast, and it was already one in the afternoon.

Su Zhe slung his peripherals over his shoulder and followed the team out of the venue. Just then, another team emerged from the players' tunnel on the other side.

As the two teams drew near, es3tag greeted them first. "Hello, chopper!"

Chopper replied, "Hey, es3tag!"

"Just finish a match?"

"Yeah. Our rookie played well, so we just won."

"What a coincidence. So did we."

As he spoke, es3tag waved Su Zhe over. "Let me introduce you. This is chopper, Green Dragon's in-game leader. Get to know him—you'll run into each other a lot in future matches."

Su Zhe nodded and stepped up to shake chopper's hand. "Hello! I'm Nip's rookie."

Chopper looked Su Zhe over. "I watched your match yesterday. You played well."

Then he beckoned to someone behind him and called out in Russian, "Donk! Come say hello!"

He turned back to Su Zhe. "You're both rookies. You should meet."

Donk?!

Su Zhe immediately perked up and peered behind the Green Dragon players.

A long-haired boy, short in stature and with his hands in his pockets, emerged from the group.

Su Zhe held out his hand. "Hello, donk!"