You Know My Background, Challenge Me If You Dare (Double Hammer Skeleton Sea)

Chapter 47: You Know What I'm Made Of—If You've Got the Guts, Come Challenge Me (Dual Hammers + Skeleton Tide)

After securing the final kill, Jiang Yang himself froze for a second, then erupted into wild celebration in the Helmet voice chat.

He yanked off his headphones, ran straight up to Ma Xixi, and shook his shoulders excitedly: "Cousin, I can play at the Major!!"

A hell of a celebration—it sent Ma Xixi's head spinning.

"You played so well, Yangyang!!" Ma Xixi pulled off his headphones too, grabbed Jiang Yang, and started bouncing around, shouting pure emotional noise.

The two of them looked like they'd regressed to cavemen, pulling off these abstract moves right in front of the camera.

But in that moment, it was pure, heartfelt joy.

Jiang Yang had been playing CS:GO for a while now, and he knew exactly how much the Major was worth.

A tournament on the level of the Major—it was the highest-tier event officially sponsored by Valve!

In all of CS:GO's professional tournaments, not a single one carried more weight than this.

That's right—not a single one.

Because it was directly sponsored and hosted by CS:GO's own developers, and it boasted the biggest prize pool of any competition.

So the Major Champion was CS:GO's highest honor—bar none.

It was the ultimate dream of every player, just like how League of Legends pros forever chase the S Tournament championship.

But the Major Champion wasn't easy to claim. The qualification process was a global selection—you had to fight your way from the regional stage to the international level, defeating every strong team along the way to take the crown.

Even players as dominant as NIKO and S1mple had missed out on the Major Champion multiple times.

Yet they still kept chasing that title.

That was the weight of this tournament.

Valve also made team stickers for every squad that made it into the Major, selling them and splitting the revenue with the teams.

Every Major was a massive celebration for the entire CS:GO player base.

Add in the fact that the previous two years had been the online era for CS:GO, meaning no Major had been held—so the Stockholm Major's return had captured the attention of every CS:GO player out there.

Jiang Yang and his team had secured Asia's only Major ticket. Now they'd be stepping into the spotlight for audiences worldwide.

Just thinking about that scene made Jiang Yang's blood boil.

"Nobody believed we could make it into the Major! But we did it anyway!!" Jiang Yang shared excitedly with his cousin, almost like he was venting.

By Jiang Yang's side, Ma Xixi was more like a parent figure now. So a lot of the time, the things Jiang Yang kept bottled up, he only told Ma Xixi.

Ma Xixi was overjoyed too: "Good stuff! You really made me proud! You were insane today! Once the stream's over, I'm taking you out for a feast!"

"Don't forget your teammates now—go share it with them." Ma Xixi reminded him in time.

Watching Jiang Yang sit back down, Ma Xixi quickly returned to his own seat, and then he saw the flood of gifts and the absolutely insane barrage of comments on the right side.

[I thought it was going to overtime—Cousin's 1v2 clutch was ridiculous!!] [No way, these old timers are actually going to Stockholm] [AE must be numb right now—everyone who's not at the Major is the one who's awkward] [Well, you made your choice, idol. Now not only is Tyloo disbanding, VG is too] [Today was truly Yang Dingtian-level!!] [Cousin, are you going to destroy CNCS? Cousin, are you going to destroy CNCS?] [Cousin: If there's no torch after this, I'll be CNCS's only light!] [MO: You know what I'm about to say]

Ma Xixi ignored the gift frenzy in the stream and jumped straight into the Helmet voice chat.

"Great work, brothers—we're the true orthodox of CNCS now!"

Hearing Xixi's praise, xiaosage spoke honestly: "It was mostly Cousin doing the heavy lifting. I was getting crushed in the second half of Nuke, and on that last round, I really thought we were heading to overtime."

"That 1v2 was way too crucial!"

"DD was key too—he took one down and wounded another down below, that was huge. Otherwise, I couldn't have pulled off that 2v4."

Jiang Yang didn't take all the credit for himself.

The sudden turnaround, the instant resolution of their earlier predicament, had them clinching the match—it lit a fire in everyone. MO asked: "At that moment, were you thinking you'd just mow them all down with one spray?"

"Yeah, when I saw you take them all out, I literally stood up."

Driven by curiosity, everyone in the Helmet voice chat asked one after another.

Jiang Yang told the truth: "Honestly, I was just planning to fire three shots and then fall back to stall for time. That last wave had a lot of luck involved, haha."

At that point, Ma Xixi knew his cousin wasn't great with words, so he quickly cut in:

"Luck definitely played a part, but it was also a matter of choice. They thought they could just bulldoze you two-on-one, and that positioning was bound to leave them open for a 1v2."

"Yangyang, you don't need to be too modest. There was luck in that play, but in a situation like this, it's just the Fortune of the Strong!"

In esports, luck usually didn't mean much.

But if those netizens who don't like you hear that, they might just chalk up a lot of your achievements to luck.

Ma Xixi immediately stepped in to smooth things over.

MO also chimed in without a care, saying, "Exactly, where's the luck? Whose luck is so good they can chase down Tyloo and VG and beat them?"

He was mainly being carefree, with no intention of putting down Tyloo or VG at all. In fact, he thought VG and Tyloo were the strongest domestic teams, which is why he used them for comparison.

MO once again had his evaluation of Jiang Yang refreshed.

At first, he heard from CSBOY's viewers that Ma Xixi's place had a cousin with some serious skills.

Then he heard that this cousin was good-looking and had a pretty high talent in CS:GO.

Later, he found out that the cousin had reached the top domestic rank in an extremely short time.

MO thought he might try to get him into domestic pro play, maybe that could be a path for him.

Then, after getting shut down by a few domestic pro teams, he'd probably settle down.

After that, running into Tyloo would humble him.

And then, Jiang Yang's excellence made MO repeatedly reassess his expectations.

Keep in mind, Helmet was put together just for fun.

A few Old Timers, though experienced, barely trained, and fell short in tactical reserves, map pools, and aim.

Su Di was so bad he was like a bionic man.

Yet Jiang Yang single-handedly carried this team forward, and now they'd even made it into the Major Qualifier—that was insane.

Remember, back in 2018, when they were on Tyloo, their best result was just making it out of the Major Qualifier.

Now they were not far from the Major record.

Ma Xixi said happily, "Alright, one Treasure Map each for you guys, Coach is covering the plane tickets!"

"Ma Boss is awesome!"

"Damn, guess I can't donate to Xixi Palace now, too bad."

Hearing this, Ma Xixi immediately panicked: "What? I'm about to give you Treasure Maps, and you still want to 'palace' the Coach?"

MO comforted him in voice chat: "Don't worry, it's an old tradition, okay? Didn't we just optimize AE a few days ago?"

The show effect was maxed out, and the viewers in the stream were cracking up.

Then Mingri Qing said from the side, "Nuke's post-match stats are out. Cousin really carried as always. If you get a chance, Cousin, take me up the ranks."

Hearing this, Ma Xixi teased, "You'd better go back to last-hitting minions."

As an assistant, Mingri Qing's daily routine was playing games, and when she was streaming, she was often found last-hitting minions.

Ma Xixi, upon hearing this, refreshed HLTV twice and saw the post-match stats fresh off the press.

ID: Young

Kills/Assists/Deaths: 40/6/22

Average Damage: 125.9

Non-Waste Rate: 89.7%

Rating: 2.13

[VG: "Aren't they just a streamer team... what the hell, how did I get fish-blasted?"]

[How does Cousin make farming stats look so easy?]

[Every time I watch Cousin's match, I feel like I could do it too, then the ladder always beats me bloody.]

[Cousin: You know what I'm made of. If you've got the guts, come challenge me (Double Hammer + Skeleton Sea).]

[This wave is a real Double Hammer Skeleton Sea, absolutely insane.]

[Feels like Cousin is still a default skin bot.]

[Gotta say, it really fits. A few hundred hours of prodigy, leaving a bunch of pros dumbfounded, haha.]

[Can't believe we get to see MO and DD on the stage again. My youth is back.]

"Whew~" Ma Xixi smiled, looking proud, and said, "Yangyang, how come you're fish-blasting VG too?"

Jiang Yang shrugged: "I just took the kills I was supposed to take."

He didn't say the truth, because if he didn't rack up kills like that, they really would have lost.

His stats were indeed ridiculous, often absurdly high.

But that also had a lot to do with Helmet's playstyle.

After knowing that Jiang Yang was very good at ANTI-ECO rounds, MO would often let Jiang Yang actively farm kills in many ECO rounds, while the others held angles steadily behind him.

That way, even if Jiang Yang didn't trade for effective kills, there wouldn't be major issues later. But most of the time, Jiang Yang could secure the frags.

Plus, he was now Helmet's main AWPer, so he generally died less.

Fewer deaths meant a higher KD ratio, better stats, and naturally a higher rating.

Of course, within this team, the fact that he could really rack up kills was also the most important reason.

After all, spending every day in the Simulation Space sparring and grinding against those top-tier Wardens, his improvement rate was nothing short of absurd.

Add to that the two domestic teams' tendency to choke, which gave Jiang Yang plenty of opportunities to turn the tables. After those comebacks came the economy rounds, where he could go off again.

That was how he managed to put up such ridiculous numbers match after match.

Su Di chuckled and said, "This round, I was a pure carry."

Everyone looked at his stats: a brutal 3-21 kill-death ratio, with an average damage per round of just 25.9.

If they had lost this match, Su Di would definitely have been roasted by the netizens.

But now, it had become part of Jiang Yang's impressive resume.

If Jiang Yang could carry even a 25.9, what couldn't he do?

Meanwhile, Jiang Yang received friend requests from the VG squad.

He accepted them one by one.

The CNCS scene wasn't that big, and since they'd already faced each other once, they were basically acquainted.

No sooner had he accepted than messages came through.

Advent: "I was getting you those kills on a silver platter all match, kid. You played well. Keep it up at Stockholm—let those European guys see what your Sniper Rifle can do."

259 said sincerely.

It was a pity to lose to Jiang Yang. On one hand, he blamed his own team for not performing.

On the other hand, he was genuinely happy, because CNCS finally had fresh blood again.

And this new Prodigy was more outstanding than any they'd seen before—he really gave them a sense that the future was bright.

Jiang Yang typed back: "Thanks, I definitely will!"

Even though they'd just played a match, the two weren't all that familiar, so Jiang Yang didn't plan to chat much.

Then he saw advent send another message.

Advent: "So, after this Major is over, do you want to come try out for VG?"

More to come later. Don't worry—there's no way he's joining a domestic team at this point.