DD secured the final kill, and the match screen froze.
Jiang Yang and his teammates erupted in cheers, releasing all the pent-up emotions in their hearts.
Maybe it was because they had lost the BO3 to Firefly yesterday—Steel Helts had been feeling the pressure, and their overall state was noticeably tense, not as relaxed as before.
On top of that, Jiang Yang’s teammates weren’t in peak form either, so this match wasn’t exactly a smooth ride.
But now, in this crucial qualification match, Jiang Yang’s outstanding performance had helped his team secure the first map. That ant the pressure was now on their opponents.
If MR faltered on the next map, Steel Helts would advance straight to the Major, making it from the Major qualifiers to the main event.
At that point, Steel Helts would officially rank among the world’s top 16 teams, and Jiang Yang would be leading this squad of lovable Old Veterans to match CNCS’s best historical achievent.
He’d even get his own player sticker!
And that wasn’t even ntioning how insane his performance had been on this map—absolutely godlike. If there were a live audience, Jiang Yang could already imagine the deafening cheers in the arena.
Even though the Challenger Stage had no crowd, he could still picture the sheer hype exploding in his cousin’s livestream chat.
“Yang was unstoppable on Map 1… Do you guys rember those plays? The other team was literally laughing in disbelief. MR’s ga plan was like an open book to him today.”
Ma Xixi was showering his cousin with praise.
Coming into this Stockholm Major, his biggest expectation had been to watch S1mple, NIKO, and Elige—those veterans still chasing unfinished dreams.
But what he hadn’t expected was that the biggest surprise would co from his own cousin.
Jiang Yang was shining too brightly, suddenly bursting into the spotlight of every CS player’s vision.
For Ma Xixi, an old dog in the Chinese CS scene, this was happiness beyond words. He had thought CNCS wouldn’t have much to look forward to in the coming years and had been preparing to shift his focus to international CS.
But then, out of nowhere, a prodigy had appeared. And that prodigy just happened to be his own cousin. He couldn’t be happier.
Ma Xixi was beyond thrilled, and the viewers in his livestream were just as emotional.
【“Cousin returned to Mirage like he was coming ho.”】
【“Yang was on another level today—absolutely insane!”】
【“He was straight-up hunting them down, just like Sen.”】
【“Are we about to witness the rise of the Steel Helts dynasty?”】
【“A Steel Helts dynasty? LMAO, that’s way too wild.”】
【“Yang was a literal god this match.”】
【“One more map and they’re in the Legends Stage! I’m buying all of Yang’s stickers!!”】
【“Forget the stickers, his Wildfire skin’s price is already going crazy!!”】
In his dorm, Li Hua saw the chat flood with ssages and quickly pulled up BUFF to check.
“Holy sh*t! This thing’s gone up 200 yuan in just half an hour?!”
Li Hua groaned. “Is this the power of CNCS?”
Watching Jiang Yang tear through Mirage with the AWP was getting Li Hua hyped. Maybe the reason he wasn’t playing well… was his skin?
If he equipped the sa sniper skin as his good buddy, maybe he could channel that sa energy.
"I suck at sniping. It has to be my skin’s fault!"
Then he glanced at the skyrocketing prices on BUFF and reconsidered. Maybe a cat or dog-thed skin would do just fine.
Wait a second!
Once Yang finished his match, why not just borrow his sniper skin and try it out himself?
Li Hua felt like a genius.
Just then, Ma Xixi’s voice ca through his phone:
“Alright, let’s take a look at Cousin’s stats from Map 1.”
On his screen, HLTV displayed the detailed match stats for Steel Helts vs. MR, Map 1.
ID: young
Kills/Assists/Deaths: 39/3/10
Average Damage Per Round: 182.5
Rating: 2.89
Li Hua’s eyes widened instantly.
anwhile, CSBOY’s livestream chat was going wild.
【“Excuse ??”】
【“This is ridiculous.”】
【“Cousin laughs in the face of balance: ‘Even if my teammates don’t get kills, we’ll still keep winning.’”】
【“It’s not just 39 kills. It’s 39 kills in 21 rounds.”】
【“Bruh, is he hacking?”】
【“His damage is higher than Ma Xixi’s height, wtf. Yang God is transcending.”】
Li Hua stared at the absurd numbers, montarily speechless.
Even as just an amateur CS:GO player, he understood exactly what these stats ant.
The comparison was easy.
After all, the top fragger on the opposing team, SunPayus, had only managed 15 kills.
Jiang Yang was ahead by 24 frags.
That was absolutely insane.
Watching Jiang Yang’s radiant smile on the match screen, a wild thought suddenly popped into Li Hua’s head.
"You are Li Hua. Your friend Jiang Yang (Yang Jiang) has just delivered an unbelievable performance at the Stockholm Major. Write an 80-word essay expressing your thoughts. The opening and closing sentences have been provided."
Dear Yang Jiang:
"Bro, what the hell?! You’re playing against real people, not bots! This is a Major, not C ranked smurfing!"
Li Hua could not comprehend his deskmate’s sheer CS talent.
And now, with the BO3 series standing at 1-0, if Jiang Yang kept up this level of play…
Could it be that his buddy was actually about to get his own player sticker?
The thought refused to leave Li Hua’s mind.
While fans marveled at Jiang Yang’s performance, SunPayus had already closed his eyes, focusing on adjusting his mindset.
He wasn’t overly upset.
After all, it was the opponent’s map pick—losing it wasn’t out of the ordinary.
As a seasoned veteran, he had learned to take wins and losses in stride.
The only thing that had truly caught them off guard was young’s insane performance.
39 frags. It felt like they were playing against multiple versions of him.
Closing his eyes now, all SunPayus could see were images of young popping up in every position, landing insane shots.
They had already lost Map 1.
The real question was—how were they going to co back in Map 2?
SunPayus focused on centering himself. It was the best he could do.
anwhile, MR’s in-ga leader, alex, reassured the team:
"Young’s explosive performance in Map 1… was definitely not sothing we expected."
"But I think you all know—this kind of explosive performance doesn’t last forever. Once we break his rhythm, it’ll be much easier to handle him."
"Besides, you guys should’ve noticed—Steel Helts' other players aren’t in great form. Now that we’re heading into our map pick, Inferno, AWPing won’t be as dominant here."
After reassuring his teammates, alex laid out their ga plan: "As for how to deal with him, we’ll simply prioritize young as the top threat."
"From now on, in rifle rounds, the mont we spot young in one area, we’ll imdiately rotate to hit the other side."
From the early days of CS:GO, superstar fraggers had always been a staple of the pro scene.
Different teams had different ways of dealing with these players.
Back in 2019, Astralis had once faced NAVI with S1mple and used a highly effective counter-strategy—they simply avoided him.
By steering clear of the enemy’s star player, denying them chances to make impact plays, and instead targeting their weaker teammates, they could still find ways to win.
Seeing the eager determination in his teammates’ eyes, alex grinned. "That’s the spirit. Losing Map 1 isn’t the end of the world. A reverse sweep is one of the best parts of CS:GO."
After a brief celebration, the intermission ended, and both teams entered the Inferno server.
Since MR had picked the map, Steel Helts started on the CT side.
MO rubbed his hands together and asked, "Cousin, want to run dualies? If you do, we can try a small coordinated play."
Jiang Yang nodded. "Sure, this map is perfect for it."
Unlike Mirage, Inferno had tighter angles, making dual pistols much more effective.
MO tossed him a pair of Dualies along with two flashbangs, then turned to Su Di.
"Su Di, you and Cousin will both hold sandbags. Don’t hide too deep—step out and take the fight when needed."
"Your job is to actively take duels, do as much as you can."
"Cousin, no need to rush for trades. If they actually push B, let Su Di take the fall. Once he dies, I’ll flash for you to swing."
They were using Su Di purely as bait.
But he didn’t mind.
At this level of competition, Su Di wasn’t quite up to par, so he had to rely on structured plays and support roles to contribute.
Being useful in any way to the team actually put him at ease.
As the countdown hit zero, they followed the plan, moving straight to Banana and tucking in behind sandbags.
"If CTs take control early, they’ll likely flash for a re-clear. If they see anyone, they’ll push aggressively—that’s a classic pistol-round setup." Ma Xixi analyzed.
"But MR isn’t rushing. They’re waiting to counter that exact play. If the CTs go for a Banana retake, MR will pop-flash them from windows imdiately."
At the Major level, even the tiniest details were a battle of wits.
"Since they didn’t see a re-clear in the second wave, MR is grouping up for a full execute with four or five players."
MR’s approach was ticulous—they were inching forward but hadn’t thrown their utility yet.
Instead, they planned to take initial duels first and only use their flashes afterward to blind any close CTs, ensuring they could capitalize on the kills.
Su Di soon engaged in a gunfight.
The mont shots were fired, the Ts dropped their utility—a close-range coffin flash and a Molotov right at B-tunnel’s entrance.
They were dead set on eliminating close angles first, securing a numbers advantage, and then leveraging that lead in straight-up fights.
Su Di only managed to fire two shots before he was fully blinded and eliminated instantly.
Fortunately, he rembered MO’s advice—even in death, don’t expose Cousin’s position.
So, he died out in the open, leaving Jiang Yang’s position completely unknown.
MO imdiately responded, "Cousin, flashing—GO!"
As his first flash popped, he threw a second one behind Jiang Yang—not a perfect flash, but at least it wouldn’t blind him.
Jiang Yang patiently waited against the wall.
The mont MO called out, he swung wide!
But what he saw shocked him—three Ts were side-peeking his direction, and none of them were blinded!
The only silver lining was that since Su Di had died early, they hadn’t expected another player behind sandbags.
Jiang Yang had no ti to think—he imdiately unleashed his Dualies.
"DADADADADADADA!!"
At that mont, he beca a gunslinger, unleashing a barrage of bullets straight into the Ts.
His teammates’ positioning had even triggered the "isolated target" chanic, giving him an advantage in the duels.
"MO’s flash was a bit too far forward—only one of the back-line Ts got blinded…" Ma Xixi started to worry.
Just as it seed like the pistol round was about to collapse, Jiang Yang’s bullets started shredding through MR.
The enemy team vanished like snowflakes in the sun.
"But even a tiny timing window was enough for Cousin to capitalize!"
"One down! Two down! Is there a third?!"
Jiang Yang played off the sandbags, peeking and repositioning constantly.
The last remaining T was stuck behind barrels, giving Jiang Yang all the space he needed to clean up.
And Dualies had one huge perk Jiang Yang loved—an absurd magazine size.
He could keep firing non-stop while using movent to dodge shots.
In SunPayus’ vision, Jiang Yang was constantly weaving and ducking around the sandbags.
He tried to land a headshot, but Jiang Yang’s movent made it impossible.
Backup finally started arriving from MR’s backline, but before SunPayus could even wait for them—
he was already dead.
"SunPayus is down! The last two Ts are pushing, but Cousin’s Dualies have way too many bullets!!"
"He’s still firing—he never stops firing!"
"Now facing MR’s reinforcents, Cousin isn’t just spraying wildly—he’s landing clean taps! They can’t win this fight at all!"
Ma Xixi exclaid, **"You were right, MO’s flash wasn’t perfect… but this is Cousin! 100 HP, half armor, Dualies—one magazine, five kills!"
"Map 2 kicks off with a personal highlight reel from Cousin!"
"He’s standing right where Tyloo’s legend once stood, opening the ga with an ace!"
He wrapped up his analysis:
"Sure, his teammates helped pull attention and threw flashes, but let’s be real—MO’s flash didn’t even do much."
"The real key was the 1v1 bait setup. This is exactly how a team should use their star player!"
With the kill feed in the top right going crazy, MO grinned.
"Cousin, how was my setup? They never even saw you, right?"
"Yeah, they had no idea! Perfectly tid execution." Jiang Yang didn’t forget to acknowledge Su Di’s role, either. "Su Di’s bait was critical. I swung out, and they were all side-on—just had to go 'du-du-du-du-du!'"
As they joked around, a familiar feeling washed over them.
They used to be like this all the ti—laughing, celebrating big plays, sharing the mont.
Back then, their star player had stood at this very spot and landed an ace.
And now, was it finally their turn to fight their way back into the Legends Stage?
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