When it came to choosing an ID, Jiang Yang had spent several nights racking his brains.
At last, he had come up with one.
young.
It meant "young person."
It also sounded like a homophone of the "Yang" in his name.
The system had once told him that the 30-year-old Old Timer Jiang Yang would waste away his years in the competitive scene before finally leaving it with no choice.
This time, Jiang Yang wanted to make a name for himself in the competitive scene while he was still young.
This ID would help him seize his chance, so he wouldn't end up retiring and scraping by for a living.
Jiang Yang took out his phone and called MO. "Captain, I've settled on my ID. I'm going with young."
As he spoke, he sent the ID to MO on WeChat.
MO nodded. "Sure you don't want to change it? If not, I'll go register it with the organizers. Get ready, too. The IEM Autumn qualifiers start in a couple of days."
"But we usually don't have much trouble getting through to the closed qualifier."
Every year, a ridiculous number of teams signed up for the Major qualifiers in China, but many of them were just playing for fun.
Helmet might have been a semi-pro team, but they were also known as "professional quality inspectors." Making it to the closed qualifier was a piece of cake for them.
"How many spots does Asia get this year?" Jiang Yang asked.
He knew quite a bit about CS:GO tournaments.
The next event was the most prestigious one in CS:GO: the Major.
If he could, he certainly wanted to make it as far as possible.
MO sighed. "The entire Asia-Pacific region only gets one spot this year. Let's hope Tyloo has a smooth run."
But then Jiang Yang asked, "Why can't it be us?"
MO paused, then laughed. "I like the ambition. I like that youthful confidence."
"Helmet's a semi-pro team. There's still a gap between us and the pros. They practice set plays every day, while we just rely on instinct. There's bound to be a difference."
As one of Asia's top three CS teams, Helmet had played against Tyloo and VG plenty of times. They had barely ever won.
So MO didn't think they could come out on top in the upcoming matches.
"How do we know if we can beat them if we haven't played them?" Jiang Yang was still eager to give it a shot.
His recent performances in matchmaking and scrims had greatly boosted his confidence.
He didn't think he was any worse than the pro players on Tyloo.
Besides, the appeal of CS:GO was that anything could happen until the match was over.
The match hadn't even started yet. There was no way Jiang Yang was going to assume he'd lose.
"Fine. I'll look forward to your performance, then," MO replied with a laugh. "I'm going to register you now. See you."
Jiang Yang could hear the dismissiveness in MO's voice. He wasn't someone who liked to talk. He preferred to let his actions speak for him.
Still, he didn't like how MO seemed to think they had already lost before the match had even started.
He understood that there really was a big gap between pro and semi-pro teams.
But they still had to try their best and fight for it!
Neither of them was wrong. It was simply a difference in mindset between a young player and a retired old timer.
Jiang Yang kept those feelings to himself and threw himself into his daily aim training.
MO didn't seem to take the matter to heart. He still made time to proactively teach Jiang Yang the maps.
Jiang Yang hadn't been playing CS for long. A lot of his strategies came from matchmaking, so he still needed to make quite a few adjustments.
Jiang Yang worked hard at learning every day, but he didn't blindly accept everything MO said. When he believed he was right, he stuck to his own opinion.
He learned and adapted to the game incredibly quickly.
He now understood that game sense was a lot like the small differences in perspective between him and MO.
They both wanted to win.
But MO had more experience and understood the gap between Helmet and the pro teams. Naturally, he prepared for the worst. That way, even if they lost, the disappointment wouldn't hit as hard.
But Jiang Yang was young and full of confidence. He couldn't accept deciding they'd lost before the match even began. He wanted to give it everything he had, so that even if they lost, he could accept the result.
Neither approach was right or wrong. They were simply different choices.
It was the same with their understanding of the game.
MO's game sense was more team-oriented, steady, and practical.
But ever since Jiang Yang first started playing matchmaking, he had taken on the role of a star player. He was bound to break some "rules" and make plays that ordinary people couldn't understand.
So he learned from MO's understanding of the game, but didn't simply adopt it wholesale.
Then, just as the map lesson ended, Jiang Yang suddenly saw familiar little words appear.
[Join a team and return to the professional scene.]
[Quest: Complete]
[Issuing rewards...]
[Congratulations, Old Timer, you've received the Twistzz Gift Pack!]
[Congratulations, Old Timer, you've received Hex: Advanced Transformer!]
Jiang Yang raised an eyebrow. The quest's sudden completion caught him off guard.
He'd wondered whether joining Helmet counted, or if he had to join a full-fledged pro team.
But now, it had suddenly completed.
Just then, MO said, "Your ID's been registered. I grabbed a photo from your Moments for your profile picture."
Well, now Jiang Yang understood.
By the system's standards, Helmet counted as a professional team.
It was just that he hadn't settled on his ID before, so technically speaking, he hadn't joined the team yet.
After all, Jiang Yang couldn't enter a professional match with "Ma Xixi I'll Top Kill You" as his ID.
Imagine the Major broadcast showing this in the upper-right corner:
[Ma Xixi I'll Top Kill You killed ZywOo with the AWP]
The chat wouldn't be praising his play. Everyone would be spamming [Ma Xixi I'll Top Kill You] in the CSBOY stream chat, some even adding exclamation marks.
It would be so ridiculous that Jiang Yang couldn't help laughing.
Coming back to himself, Jiang Yang opened his inventory.
[Open "Twistzz Gift Pack"?]
"Yes!"
With a thought, the Twistzz Gift Pack opened.
[Congratulations, Old Timer, you've received Twistzz's Short Burst rifle technique!]
[Congratulations, Old Timer, you've received the skill: Start From Scratch!]
[Congratulations, Old Timer, you've received 2,233 Comeback Points...]
Jiang Yang knew Twistzz. He was a world-famous headshot king.
The headshot maestro whose headshot rate was directly proportional to his bowl cut, he was one of the best Riflemen around.
Jiang Yang's rifle skills weren't particularly good. He relied more on game sense and pre-aiming, which left his abilities rather lopsided.
But he learned quickly. Given enough time, he could catch up in no time.
The Major was fast approaching, though, and if he wanted to shine, time was exactly what he lacked.
With a thought, he immersed himself in [Twistzz's Short Burst technique].
His fundamentals were gradually taking shape. He no longer blindly copied other players' styles and abilities.
Still, other players' techniques could inspire him and help him avoid plenty of detours.
The techniques and insights provided by the system were like watching countless clips of the same player in specific situations, greatly shortening the time he needed to learn.
He sank into the system's Simulation Space and watched Twistzz's rifle sprays over and over.
Twistzz had a fascinating playstyle.
Unlike NIKO, who liked to tap heads and chase the thrill of a one-shot kill,
and unlike traditional Riflemen, who would hold down the trigger and empty a whole magazine as soon as they saw an enemy to maximize their damage,
Twistzz used a beautiful yet practical four-shot burst.
He would line up his aim and fire a three-round burst, then immediately reposition if he had the chance before firing another short three-round burst.
With a high enough headshot rate, three shots were usually plenty.
Director's rifle style could be summed up in two words: fluid and elegant. It was a beautiful sight.
Thanks to his unique talent for pre-aiming, Jiang Yang's headshot rate wasn't low either. But when he faced multiple opponents, he usually preferred to spray and transfer between targets.
His recoil control wasn't great, though, so his target transfers weren't very efficient.
For instance, where a top-tier pro might spray-transfer and kill three enemies, Jiang Yang might only kill two and leave one wounded.
His weapon control still needed work.
But learning this three-round burst style for now seemed like a good idea.
Jiang Yang was tempted.
Then he looked at the second reward.
[Skill: Start From Scratch]
[Description: Every new story has to start somewhere. Whenever you get a new hairstyle and show off a fresh look, your confidence will increase slightly.]
Jiang Yang: "..."
As expected of the Director Gift Pack. It even came with something like this.
But Jiang Yang really had been thinking about getting a new hairstyle.
He didn't like his current one. His previous barber had messed it up, and with the hot weather, he'd been thinking of shaving it all off and growing it out again.
Just then, he noticed that this reward had also given him a new Hex.
[Hex: Advanced Transformer]
[Description: This Hex can transform one of your existing Hexes into a higher-quality Hex. PS: Transformation takes 168 hours. You can still use the original Hex while it's transforming.]
[Existing Hex: Dungeon BOSS. Transform?]
Jiang Yang drew a breath.
He had to admit, this was incredibly tempting.
Wasn't this basically a Hextech Transformer?
The Dungeon BOSS Hex had already given Jiang Yang a huge boost.
Now it could even be transformed into a higher-tier Hex.
He was really looking forward to it.
In the end, Jiang Yang gritted his teeth and decided to take the gamble!
"Yes!"
[Transformation started. Time remaining: 167.9 hours...]
I'm a little stuck on this chapter. Sob...
Before you continue