HLTV post-match forum overseas:
“Wait, he’s a rifler? A rifler saying he’s going to take TOP 1?”
“My God, is this guy from CN joking?”
“TOP 1 of the year? He hasn’t even played a single Legends Stage match yet!”
“Okay, I admit his performance in the Challengers Stage really was superhuman, but dude, can we be realistic?”
“Niko is going to cry when he sees this interview, I swear! The thing he’s spent his entire career trying and failing to do, this kid just says it so casually?”
“I like this kid’s confidence, I really do, but it sounds like the middle schooler next door who’s always saying he can make the NBA. Good luck, buddy. You’re going to need a lot, a lot of luck.”
“This guy is either a madman who doesn’t know the height of the heavens or the depth of the earth, or a genius about to change the game. There’s no middle option.”
“.”
It had to be said, Meng Lang’s line about “TOP 1 this year,” followed by that calm “I know,” was like dropping a depth charge into a tranquil lake. The chain reaction it triggered far exceeded anyone’s imagination.
Even the big Twitch streamer, the Brazilian old man gaules—who had once set a record of over 700,000 concurrent viewers watching a CS:GO event—burst into exaggerated laughter after watching the interview:
“Hahahahaha!”
“No—! He can’t say that! That’s insane! I mean, I admire his courage, but… oh my God… it’s like a little kitten saying to a lion, ‘I’m going to eat you.’ It’s adorable and terrifying!”
“Listen, if this kid called Dark really gets TOP 1 this year, I’ll immediately change the name of my stream to ‘Dark is world number one’ and keep it that way for an entire year! I swear! Hahaha!”
“.”
The chat in the livestream was also full of all kinds of laughing emotes.
So here came the question!
Why was the reaction overseas so exaggerated?
One had to know,
the HLTV annual TOP 20 players ranking, as the most-watched highlight of the CS:GO community every year, had long since become the authoritative yardstick for measuring a player’s yearly performance since its creation in 2010. It was a milestone countless professional players dreamed of achieving in their careers.
And the crown of TOP 1 symbolized the supreme throne of the global CS professional scene. It was the ultimate pursuit countless young geniuses and established veterans rushed toward one after another. Every year, the announcement of the ranking sparked widespread discussion across the global CS community, with fans arguing endlessly over the rankings of the players they supported.
However, it was precisely the selection mechanism of this ranking and the trends of recent years that made Meng Lang’s declaration seem so “terrifying”!
First of all, the selection of the annual TOP player was by no means based solely on an explosive performance in a single match or simple KD stats. It was a comprehensive and complicated evaluation system. Match statistics were the foundation, but honors won—especially the number of MVP and EVP awards—as well as the prestige of the events those honors came from, were the key among keys.
There were quite a few such events every year.
For the three super-elite events, never mind Katowice, which had already passed in the first half of the year.
In the second half, there were still IEM Cologne and the Rio Major. These events naturally carried the highest weight.
Others, such as EPL and the BLAST series finals, also carried no low weight and were important references in the selection.
That was why the host Banks had kindly reminded Meng Lang that if he wanted TOP 1, relying only on an outstanding performance at the Antwerp Major would be far from enough—he would have to maintain stable, high-level play across multiple top-tier events throughout the year and secure enough MVP honors.
But that was still not the main reason global viewers felt stunned, even amused.
What truly made Meng Lang’s words sound somewhat like “a fantasy from the Arabian Nights” was that Meng Lang, a rifler, said he wanted to take TOP 1!
One had to know, in the current era and version, the CS:GO professional scene was basically under the alternating rule of the Ukrainian genius s1mple and the French ultimate weapon ZywOo. The two great snipers had completely monopolized the TOP 1 spots over the past few years!
Up to now, no more and no less,
two each.
This also meant that whoever got this year’s TOP 1 would have one more than the other.
Then beneath this peerless duo, were the riflers next?
Not at all!
Beneath s1mple and ZywOo, at the limit of humanity!
Device of the Astralis dynasty, also known as Wanfu, was the third in line to inherit the TOP throne!
From this, it was not hard to see,
in recent years, let alone TOP 1, even the high-ranking TOP spots had always been monopolized by top-tier snipers like s1mple, ZywOo, and Device!
As for riflers, even NiKo, who was publicly recognized as one of the greatest riflers in history and known as “the longest river among riflers,” had only achieved a career-best HLTV annual ranking of TOP 2 in 2017.
And that was before the s1mple-ZywOo dynasty had fully risen.
Since then, let alone TOP 1, no pure rifler had ever been able to make it into the annual TOP 2 again.
There was no helping it. This was the influence of the big sniper.
Therefore, when a rookie rifler who had only just made a name for himself in the Major Challengers Stage, and who had not yet proven his sustained competitiveness in any S-tier tournament, said seriously in an interview that his goal was not the Major championship—though that alone would already have been bold enough—but directly aimed at the annual TOP 1, a title that had been almost “monopolized” by snipers in recent years!
The impact and dramatic effect it brought!
It was absolutely explosive!
It was like a young forward who had just debuted in the Champions League and played a few good matches calmly saying in an interview that his goal was this year’s Ballon d’Or—and doing so during the peak era when Messi and Ronaldo ruled football.
Domestically, in the 6657 livestream.
The chat in the stream had already completely split into several factions:
“Arrogant! Too arrogant! But I like it!”
“Oh no! He really got to flex! Why am I starting to look forward to it?”
“Look forward to what, my ass? He won an advancement match off Vitality’s four goddamn worms and now he doesn’t know who he is anymore?”
“Rifler TOP 1? Anything is possible in dreams.”
“Please, get a Major championship first before talking. TOP 1 is too far away.”
After a brief moment of stunned silence, Wanjiqi finally found his voice again. He spoke into the microphone, not knowing whether to laugh or cry:
“Brothers… this… what am I supposed to say? TOP 1! Dark really dares to dream, and he really dares to say it!”
“I’m not trying to throw cold water on it, okay? Let’s analyze this rationally. First, annual TOP 1 depends on performance across the whole year. It’s only May right now. The Antwerp Major is just one big exam in the first half of the year. After that there’s still IEM Cologne, EPL, and even the Rio Major in the second half of the year. Every single one is a hard fight!”
“Second, and this is the most crucial point… brothers, look at who the TOP 1 players have been these past few years. They’re all monsters holding AWPs and farming insane stats in super-elite events.”
“And honestly speaking, the main sniper position is also easier to survive in and easier to put up numbers in. But once a rifler plays entry, it’s way too easy to just die for nothing. So it’s very hard to put up better stats than a sniper. How are you supposed to compete with snipers for TOP 1 like that?”
At Jianghai University, Li Shan immediately sent a rocket gift, then typed a dissatisfied message in chat:
“No, is it really hard for a rifler to put up better numbers than a sniper? I was thinking Dark’s stats today were way higher than a certain sniper’s, weren’t they?”
“I don’t care! I think Dark can do it!”
“.”
Seeing this chat message questioning him, Wanjiqi could not help laughing as well.
“Thank you, Dark Lord Dark666, for the rocket. May the boss never die and always feel great! No, brother, actually, the logic here is very simple. Dark’s stats today were indeed better than ZywOo’s. The problem is, he can’t possibly keep killing like this forever.”
“Someone in chat says, what if he can?”
“No, you’re being a little argumentative here!”
“If he really can keep killing like this, I mean, look! If he’s a dragon every single match! If he can maintain this kind of form going into the later Legends Stage, from Legends to Champions, from the studio to the arena, if not only can he advance, but every day is like these matches in the Challengers Stage, every day he’s putting up Rating 1.76, 1.87, and then every now and then he suddenly explodes with a 2.45!”
“Right! If he plays like this every day.”
“Eh! Then I think he could fight for TOP 1 at the end of the year, okay.”
“But! Bro, I don’t think that possibility exists! This is a bit too ridiculous. There’s no way he keeps winning like this, okay? I think that’s way too absurd.”
“If something like that really happens, then all I can say is this world has gone crazy!”
“As for the reasons, I already said them earlier, so I won’t repeat them here, alright.”
“How does that saying go again…”
“Just look at Old Ni. Dark is nowhere near that yet! You’re all making too much noise over nothing!”
In the 6657 livestream, after saying that, Wanjiqi changed the subject and continued, “Of course, Dark himself can say something like that. Anyone who plays professionally, who hasn’t thought about TOP 1?”
“It’s just that some viewers, maybe new viewers who only just started watching this tournament, got drawn in by some of Dark’s performances. All I can say is, calm down, okay.”
“Dark only turns eighteen next month. He’s still a kid. He just said some exciting things during an exciting moment. That’s very normal.”
“So give him some time, instead of immediately putting him over the fire to roast. He only said his goal is Top 1, expressing a beautiful wish. But some people are directly helping him take out a loan on TOP 1 already. Do you believe your own words when you say that?”
“I think, before anything else, next he should first go to the Legends Stage and exchange blows with those apex predators, okay.”
“What if, damn it, he runs into a team like the galactic battleship FAZE in the very first round of the Legends Stage? Wouldn’t that be an immediate shutdown?”
“So I’m saying, CNCS has produced a genius young player. It’s fine for everyone to praise him, but you still have to restrain yourselves a little.”
“And the key thing is, this game isn’t a one-man affair either…”
“Holy shit, brothers! When did I bait Old Ni? I’m pretty sure I didn’t!!!”
By accident,
Wanjiqi was once again blasted by NiKo fans.
Fine,
perhaps it had not been by accident.