Tianlu, you're exploding too? (Thanks to the Banana-flavored Nutritional Express Alliance Leader)

Chapter 39: Tyloo, You're Getting Blown Up Too? (Thanks to Banana-Flavored Nutritional Express for the alliance-leader reward)

"Steel Helmet chose to throw a full set of utility into B on match point. DD and xiaosage made a furious entry into B and completely melted Tyloo."

"After that chaotic exchange, all that's left is Danking, facing a 1v4. He's got nowhere left to retreat."

In Wan Ji Qi's 6557 livestream, his voice rang with excitement and a hint of disbelief. "He can only take the initiative in a 1v4. Danking has a FAMAS, and MO takes him out in a split second!"

"But young isn't about to give him a chance. He swings out with the Big Sniper and instantly kills him! Tyloo can't play this anymore!"

As Danking fell on the map, Wan Ji Qi raised his voice and shouted excitedly, "Then let's congratulate Steel Helmet on taking the first win of this BO3!"

"The score is frozen right here. This is the first time this young player, young, has faced a team whose name we'd recognize. But we never imagined he'd be even better than anyone expected!"

He was still marveling at the result, and the livestream chat on the right was also going wild.

[My cousin absolutely went off today]

[My cousin really became the big brother. Steel Helmet's family tree is a little confusing]

[Little Sheep really did us proud!!]

[For real, my cousin played Mirage so well. He's so reassuring; as long as he's alive, I feel like we still have a chance at the round]

[That 1v4 clutch had me standing at attention]

[I don't even know what Tyloo is doing. They can actually lose to Steel Helmet now]

[They really have no shame. In this kind of form, why even go to the Major?]

[Steel Helmet's old timers are awesome!!]

"Cousin really played well today. I have to say, his Counter-Strike talent is way better than Ma Zong's." Even while commentating, Wan Ji Qi couldn't resist taking a dig at his rival.

On camera, Jiang Yang was turning his head and talking excitedly. He seemed to be sharing his feelings with Ma Xixi and his teammates. The young man was thrilled.

Wan Ji Qi teased him as he watched. "This guy's probably thinking, 'So playing against Tyloo is this easy? Why does it feel no different from playing regular matchmaking?'"

"Just kill them whenever, right?"

"This young kid, young, is overflowing with talent. His clutch was really good!"

Wan Ji Qi couldn't help praising him, then rewound the stream himself to the second-to-last round to watch Jiang Yang's performance again.

Back at that 1v4 clutch, even from God's perspective, Wan Ji Qi couldn't find a particularly good solution.

"Actually, look at this. Tyloo really messed up this clutch. It's a 4v1, and the bomb is still above A2 Floor. All they had to do was hold their angles and guard the bomb."

"But they insisted on going for the kill. Even if they'd succeeded, Steel Helmet would still have had enough money to buy next round."

"Instead, they pushed out and gave cousin the chance to pick them off one by one."

Wan Ji Qi sounded deeply pained as he said this.

Tyloo was a veteran Counter-Strike club in China, and they had once enjoyed no small amount of glory.

Everyone wanted Tyloo to rise to the top again.

But they could also see that Tyloo had the skill. They just kept making inexplicable blunders at the worst possible times.

It was enough to make people furious at their failure to live up to their potential.

By contrast, he had a much better impression of Steel Helmet's old timers.

After all, he was that fond of old-timer Counter-Strike.

"But the highlights in CS:GO are built on your opponents' mistakes. Tyloo made a mistake in that clutch, but cousin still deserves credit for seizing the chance!"

Wan Ji Qi took a breath. "I feel like that play could make HLTV's weekly highlights. That was so damn slick!"

The members of Tyloo had no idea that Wan Ji Qi was taking shots at them right then.

But they could probably imagine just how brutal the online reactions would be.

Year after year, they'd been forced to settle for results that were "a credit despite the loss." At least they'd lost to top-tier international teams, so they had an excuse.

But losing outright to Steel Helmet was on a completely different level.

They knew Steel Helmet's players well. Two of them had even been former teammates of somebody.

Little Ghost felt completely numb.

Two former teammates had retired years ago, put together a streamer team, and crushed them.

Just imagining DD and MO teasing him about this match the next time they met made Little Ghost want to die.

"Is that young guy on the other team really that ridiculous? I thought he only had around 500 hours. Is that for real?" SLOWLY complained from beside him, clearly baffled by Ma Xixi's cousin's ability.

Every one of them was a top-tier prodigy among active pros. With only around 500 hours, most of them had still been casual players.

Yet Ma Xixi's cousin had not only gone pro, he'd left them completely shell-shocked.

"With Ma Xixi right there, he picked up the game really quickly." Little Ghost did his best to come up with an excuse for his teammates.

If you figured everything out on your own in this game, you could spend a long time going down the wrong path.

But when they thought back carefully to that clutch, the turning point of the match, they hadn't actually made that many mistakes.

Baicai had been at the Bomb Site. After killing the two players in A2 Floor, he'd immediately started retreating behind Cover, but young still caught him.

They'd only wanted to throw a Flashbang to suppress the other side and stop them from pushing closer. Who could have expected the opponent to take the initiative in a 1v4?

Which side had the numbers advantage, anyway?!

SLOWLY had made some aiming mistakes later on, failing to kill young with two shots. But that guy's reaction speed was downright absurd. That one shot had SLOWLY questioning his whole existence.

There was no need to mention Danking. He'd been caught with his crosshair pointing skyward, and young had even landed a blind shot.

In the end, he'd missed the USP kill by just one shot.

So close, yet so far.

Clutches like that were infuriating!

At that moment, SLOWLY glanced at the scoreboard for Map One and couldn't help shouting, "Is this guy even human?!"

ID: young

Kills/Assists/Deaths: 40/6/16

Not Given Away for Free: 88.8%

Average Damage: 124.2

Rating: 2.08

"Huh?!" Wan Ji Qi suddenly shouted. "Holy crap, forty kills! That's just absurd!"

"He got more kills by himself than Tyloo's next three players combined. Does he really need to be that ridiculous?"

"He's seriously an RMR stand-in, huh? I'm starting to understand Tyloo. Across just 27 rounds, he racked up 40 kills. He's practically carrying the old timers on his team forward."

When you ran into a guy who was having a monster game like that, even if Tyloo's average skill was indeed higher than Steel Helmet's, it still seemed pretty hard for Tyloo to win.

Those stats made Wan Ji Qi laugh.

"But Tyloo still has a chance, all right? It's a BO3, after all. They can still fight back later."

"And think about it: cousin had to get 40 kills just to win. That's way too hard, haha."

Wan Ji Qi didn't even have to think about it. His cousin was definitely going to get a bit of attention tomorrow, and might even become somewhat known overseas.

After all, performances that ridiculous only happened a handful of times a year in CS:GO.

2.08!

That was just too insane.

If he could keep playing like this, then he really had a chance of crushing Tyloo.

Before long, the halftime break ended. With that thought in mind, Wan Ji Qi turned his attention back to commentating on Map Two.

Map Two was Dust II, Steel Helmet's pick.

They started on the T side.

Their Map One victory had given Steel Helmet's players a major boost. They opened the pistol round by speeding up into B, and xiaosage pulled off a Five Kill ACE, sending Steel Helmet's voice chat into another frenzy.

Although nobody said it out loud, everyone was thinking the same thing: Was there a chance they could actually turn things around and beat Tyloo today?

So they played with intense focus and discipline.

That let them take the first three rounds without trouble.

Once the Full Buy Round came around, Steel Helmet kept things a little simpler.

They went for a standard matchmaking-style default to take Map Control, then fought for control of A Main.

The two teams clashed fiercely in A Main, but Tyloo wasn't favored in that kind of fast-paced early fight, especially with Steel Helmet's players shooting so well.

But Tyloo got carried away. For several rounds in a row, xiaosage and DD's teamwork in A Main left them in shambles.

Steel Helmet went on a tear, pushing the score straight to 7:0.

It wasn't until the eighth round that Steel Helmet finally let their guard down a little, allowing Tyloo to seize the chance and turn the round around.

Tyloo finally got their first point and immediately called two timeouts in a row to steady themselves.

If they didn't make an adjustment, they really felt like they were about to get swept.

They were a professional team, after all. After using those two timeouts to regroup, Tyloo began playing more rationally, and Steel Helmet's attacks started to run into trouble.

Still, by the end of the first half, Steel Helmet had managed to get 10 rounds.

That gave the old timers on Steel Helmet even more confidence. They were already five rounds ahead. If they kept this pace up, they'd take the map!

But after the sides switched, Tyloo won the pistol round and gradually found their rhythm.

Steel Helmet tried hard to pick up rounds too, but the balance of victory kept tipping toward Tyloo.

Before anyone realized it, the score had reached 12:14.

Steel Helmet was also having some trouble with their economy, so they quickly called a timeout.

There's another chapter today. At a crucial moment like this, Coffee seems to have come down with a damn fever. What a pain.

And thanks to Banana-Flavored Nutritional Express for the alliance-leader reward. Thanks, boss.