Won the Title of Asia's No. 1 AWPer

Won the Title of Asia's No. 1 AWPer

Maybe he'd slept too long. His body no longer felt tired, but his head was still a little foggy.

Fortunately, the Asian RMR was already over, so the fogginess didn't matter much.

Jiang Yang climbed out of bed. Sunlight slipped through the gap in the window, letting him know what the weather was like in Magic City today.

As something came back to him, he picked up the phone charging beside his bed. The moment he unlocked it, he saw a system notification from the 5E app: <An old steed in the stable still dreams of galloping a thousand miles. Helmet defeats VG and advances...>

Jiang Yang didn't open it, but he felt himself relax.

It all felt so fantastical. Sometimes, it even made him feel like none of it was real.

He savored the memories of the past few days' matches. It was like he'd fallen into an unbelievably wonderful dream.

Two months ago, he'd been a carefree prospective college student, thinking only about what to eat and where to go for fun each day.

Now he was one of the most outstanding young talents in CS:GO, with a chance to show what he could do on the grandest stage.

His head still hurt a little. He'd been so happy yesterday that he'd had a couple of drinks with Ma Xixi, and the discomfort had stuck around ever since.

There was nothing he could do about it. It seemed to be hereditary. He was better off, at least—Ma Xixi turned into a Red Skin Duck as soon as he drank. It was ridiculous.

They'd already secured a spot at the Asian RMR, and there were no matches today, so they didn't need to rush into their daily training.

Jiang Yang unlocked his phone and slowly browsed some posts on the forums.

He wouldn't have known if he hadn't looked, but once he did, he was genuinely shocked.

After their victory over VG yesterday, Helmet's world ranking had been updated. They'd officially climbed to No. 88 in the world.

Their ranking was still low, but for Helmet, it was a huge step forward.

After all, Helmet had spent years ranked outside the top 300. Breaking into the world's top 100 in one go was quite an achievement.

Jiang Yang opened the post-match discussion thread for the Asian RMR final. The very first comment left him at a loss for words.

[From now on, I suggest every domestic team try playing Helmet first. If you can't beat them, don't bother going abroad.]

But some users replied:

[That's it, then. Helmet's the only team left. At this level, which domestic team can beat his cousin?]

[You think Helmet's Crown Prince is just there to make up the numbers?]

[Helmet really has become CNCS's quality control inspector.]

The comments below were pretty vicious, too.

[Tyloo and VG can't even beat Helmet now. They might as well disband.]

[Honestly, I'm still disappointed. They train and boot camp every year, only to get beaten by a bunch of old timers on Helmet.]

[MO looked pretty down on stream yesterday. He said he couldn't see any hope for CNCS.]

[Could be worse. At least his cousin's still here.]

[All I can say is Tyloo and VG remind me of the "they may have lost, but they were still glorious" routine from the past few years. His cousin makes me think of Tyloo in 2018.]

[Helmet is the true heir of Tyloo.]

Domestic fans were pretty disappointed. It wasn't that they disliked Tyloo and VG; they were just frustrated that the teams kept failing to live up to expectations.

All those jokes about "they may have lost, but they were still glorious" had been meant to spur them on—to get them to fight harder and make a name for themselves.

But the two domestic teams had let them down again and again.

They'd thought that Tyloo's 2018 run would be the starting point for CNCS.

They hadn't expected it to become CNCS's greatest achievement. The former members of Tyloo's 2018 roster were still the ones keeping CNCS moving forward.

For domestic CS:GO fans, that helplessness and heartache were truly difficult to accept.

Jiang Yang didn't know what to say about the state of CNCS in China.

After all, the domestic players all loved CS:GO deeply. They really wanted to achieve something.

But esports was cruel. If you weren't good enough, there was nothing you could do.

Besides, he'd thought about it carefully. CS:GO wasn't a one-man game. Even if Jiang Yang carried hard, they still needed DD to step up if they wanted to win the Asian RMR.

One person alone couldn't win a game.

Jiang Yang also planned to do as his cousin had suggested: after this Asian RMR, he'd go study with a European team for a while.

At the very least, he'd learn the things that the academy-trained players understood and make up for his weaknesses.

Then he'd do his best to explore the limits of his potential.

As for the problems CNCS was facing, Jiang Yang couldn't do anything about them, and it wasn't his place to decide what to do.

He was just about to get up when another notification popped up from Little Break Station, saying that someone had sent him a message.

Jiang Yang tapped it without thinking, then realized it wasn't just one message. His inbox was full.

Only then did he vaguely remember that Ma Xixi had been in a good mood while they were eating yesterday. He'd talked a lot with Jiang Yang and suggested that he create a personal account to interact with his fans.

Jiang Yang hadn't thought much of it, so he'd sent Ma Xixi his Little Break Station account.

Ma Xixi had posted a photo of the two of them eating together and tagged Jiang Yang to direct some traffic his way.

He hadn't expected to wake up and find his account approaching five thousand followers, with the number still climbing rapidly.

He'd never have guessed.

He casually read a few messages.

[Keep it up, cousin! Taking Helmet to the next stage was incredible!]

[Cousin, could I get an e-signature to commemorate this?]

[No time to explain—cousin, it's up to you today!]

But most of the messages tagged Jiang Yang and told him to watch a video.

Without hesitation, he followed the link.

At the other end, instead of the familiar "Got Scammed" tune, he found a CS:GO video.

<Foreign fans are buzzing: young is China's S1mple. If he joined Tyloo, they might finally break their record.>

Jiang Yang opened the video.

The first clip featured a foreign CS blogger listing the RMR stats from every region. Jiang Yang was way out in front, with an incredible 1.78 rating.

Next came NIKO's latest post. NIKO had clipped Jiang Yang's A1 pre-aim on Mirage and commented:

"Young's pre-aim is so satisfying to watch. If he can keep playing like this, I'll nominate him for this year's Rising Stars."

A random player joked, "When is Tyloo going to poach him?"

Someone replied beneath the post:

[He doesn't need to go to Tyloo. If young's English is decent, I'd even recommend him to an international team.]

[young is already Asia's No. 1 AWPer.]

Jiang Yang watched the video all the way through, feeling pretty satisfied. Domestic fans had watched him work his way up, and their opinions of him had gradually improved.

Most foreign fans, on the other hand, had simply seen an unfamiliar AWPer suddenly appear at the top of the RMR stats. When they read the reports, they were even more shocked.

Of course, not everyone liked Jiang Yang.

In a discussion thread about his stats, some people disagreed.

[You Asian fans really know how to hype people up. young has only played one RMR, and he did it against a bunch of Asian pushovers. This is ridiculous.]

[Exactly. I'm sick of it. You hype this young kid up like he can punch S1mple in the face and kick Zaiwu in the ass. He's only played one RMR.]

[And this Asian RMR was online, too. We don't even know if he was using some kind of cheats. He might show his true colors at a LAN.]

[If he runs into a few top teams, he might not even manage to go positive.]

Jiang Yang wasn't angry when he saw the comments doubting him.

He understood perfectly well that he wasn't money; he couldn't make everyone like him.

Besides, seeing those people talk like that only made him eager to prove them wrong.

They said he'd show his true colors once he reached a Major LAN.

They said he might not even go positive against top teams.

He planned to clear those hurdles one by one and turn every hater into a fan.

That would feel amazing!

As Jiang Yang thought about it, he decided he'd finish watching the video and then get up to train.

But at the end of the video, he spotted a familiar ID.

Pasha: "Congratulations to all the veterans on the Steel Helmet roster for making it back to the Major. And young is an absolute beast. He reminds me of myself when I was young, haha... He's just too skinny, though. If he could build some muscle, he'd have the makings of a star player!"

Jiang Yang just smiled at the esports star who was taking credit by comparing him to himself.

But the next second, those familiar little words appeared again.

[Beep!]

[Receiving sugg...zzzt...]

[At 30, you've earned another chance to compete at the Major, but more muscle can help prevent injuries.]

[Daily task: About one hour of strength training each day. Reward: Comeback Points.]

Jiang Yang raised an eyebrow. He'd noticed the beep at the start.

There was definitely something wrong with this system. It had glitched too many times.

It couldn't be that he'd broken it, could it?

And "receiving sugg..." had to mean "receiving a suggestion."

Had this originally been a suggestion system?

If so, how strong had the system's previous host been?

Jiang Yang's thoughts wandered all over the place for a while.

Still, he was pretty pleased to see this daily task.

In esports, injuries were hard to avoid.

When he'd looked back at classic matches, he'd noticed that a lot of once-outstanding players had eventually faded into obscurity because of injuries.

Having more muscle did seem like it could protect the joints.

There was also a rumor that regular strength training helped players maintain their aim and keep their performance more consistent.

FaZe and Peak Astralis had strength training built into their daily routines.

As top teams, they'd stuck with the habit for a reason.

Jiang Yang planned to ask his cousin to shell out for a fitness coach to teach him, then help him work out a sensible schedule.

With that thought, he went back into the system.

He took a look at the items in the System Mall today.

The usual physical items were still there, and the last one turned out to be something good.

[Snax's pistol skills.]

[Price: 5000 Comeback Points]