Chapter 27: Bro, Are You Mordekaiser or What...
In front of RA’s new base.
“Lao Jiu, the food at your new base is pretty good, huh? Feels like you’ve gotten a whole size fatter after just a few months.” Danking laughed as he patted 259 on the shoulder.
259’s mouth was just as unforgiving. “If you’re that jealous, come to RA. I’ll have KAZE go home and retire right now.”
“Sure. Let me come to RA as the caller, and I’ll have you castrated on the spot,” Danking teased.
259 waved him off, and immediately after, his gaze met Yang Yu’s.
“Liang Zhuo. You can also call me Lao Jiu.” 259 reached out a hand toward Yang Yu. “What should I call you?”
“Yang Yu. You can also call me Tudou.” Yang Yu reached out and shook 259’s hand.
259 sized Yang Yu up. He looked like a standard male college student—rather delicate and sunny in appearance, the kind of person with a strong sense of approachability.
At a glance, 259 felt that this kid was someone he could keep working with.
“Then I’ll call you Tudou.” 259 led Yang Yu and Danking into the base.
As he unlocked the keypad door, he was still muttering quietly, “7355608...”
“Good lord, you planted a C4 on the door?” Yang Yu was amused by the very first CSGO element at the RA base.
“If they don’t train well, maybe it really will explode,” RA’s manager Air said with a laugh.
The group quickly walked into the RA base.
The entire RA base wasn’t especially large. It was a three-story little villa.
As soon as they stepped through the entrance, they saw all the current members of RA. RA’s training room was in the first-floor hall of the base, and Yang Yu felt the place was quite spacious.
The moment Yang Yu and Danking walked in, they instantly drew everyone’s attention in the room.
Several RA players turned their gazes over.
259 gave a simple introduction. “This is a genius kid I recently dug up from the ladder. He’s here for a tryout today.”
When RA’s aimers heard that, curiosity appeared in their eyes.
They weren’t surprised that 259 liked discovering genius youngsters.
In fact, quite a few of them had been dug out of the ladder by 259 as well. Now, watching Yang Yu look slightly uneasy, there was even a hint of nostalgia in their eyes.
Back then, they too had come for tryouts just like Yang Yu, carrying that same nervousness with them.
A boy wearing glasses took the initiative to give Yang Yu a thumbs-up. “Good luck!”
Yang Yu recognized him as RA’s lurker Jamyoung, nicknamed Xiao Ju.
The others started chatting with Danking. They were all from the same circle, and everyone knew one another. Before long, they were exchanging pleasantries and talking about the situation in their recent matches.
Danking was bragging at the side, but he didn’t forget to help Yang Yu get things settled. “Right, what’s the tryout process today? Have Tudou play a match against the youth team?”
“Normally, we would indeed have him play three maps with the youth team.”
“What about today?” Yang Yu asked.
259 smiled. “In an hour, we have a scrim against Mongolia’s number one team. KAZE went home, so we were originally planning to have our manager play in this scrim. Looks like there’s no need now.”
“You’re throwing him straight into this kind of intensity?” Danking sucked in a breath. “That’s not very decent of you.”
Mongolia’s number one team referred to IHC. This Mongolian team was led by the Mongolian genius caller bLitz, and their current world ranking was 28.
Although their strength was at the tail end of tier one, no matter what, they were still a proper tier-one team.
Even if their recent form had been a little poor, this level of intensity was somewhat exaggerated for a ladder kid who had never played professionally before.
RA had been in quite good form these past few months, but when they played IHC, they still lost more often than they won.
259 pointed at a computer slightly to the right of the center of the hall. “That computer is KAZE’s. Why don’t you warm up and get used to it first?”
Yang Yu didn’t stand on ceremony. Feel was still extremely important in CSGO. If he warmed up in advance and got his hands hot, he wouldn’t end up cosplaying NiKo the moment he saw someone’s back.
Yang Yu turned on the computer, logged into Steam, and slowly adjusted his settings. Then he entered deathmatch and began adapting.
Xiao Ju beside him watched curiously, only to find that Yang Yu was completely unused to deathmatch at first, his movements a little stiff.
“What’s wrong? The equipment no good?” Jamyoung asked from the side. “If the mouse and keyboard feel off, you can have the manager grab some for you. There’s still a lot of sponsor-provided equipment in storage.”
“It is an equipment issue.” Yang Yu smiled. “But it’s not that the equipment isn’t good. It’s that it’s too good. The refresh rate on this monitor is too high. I need to get used to it.”
He had to admit, the equipment at RA’s base was far better than his own.
Yang Yu’s computer was a desktop worth around 7,000 yuan. In a dorm full of laptops, it already counted as high-end. But after using the equipment in RA’s training room, he finally realized what kind of hard days he had been living before.
“What refresh rate was your previous setup?” Jamyoung asked curiously.
“60 Hz.”
“You can play on 60 Hz?” Jamyoung was somewhat surprised.
For ordinary players, the difference in equipment didn’t actually affect things that much.
But for top-ranked players, a higher refresh rate meant they could see opponents faster, making it more likely for them to win head-on aim duels.
“I played fine on 60 Hz...” Yang Yu was a little embarrassed. He also knew that better equipment felt more comfortable to play on, but he simply hadn’t had the conditions.
“Insane!” Jamyoung had run into Yang Yu on the Perfect World ladder before and knew how sharp this guy’s POV was, but he hadn’t expected him to be using such relatively poor equipment.
He immediately became even more interested in Yang Yu.
After playing for two minutes, Yang Yu gradually adapted to the high-refresh-rate display and began to slowly ramp up in deathmatch.
Danking, 259, and the others also came over to watch.
When Yang Yu sat down in front of this computer, they had actually still been somewhat worried about the possibility of cheats.
But now, watching Yang Yu’s smooth POV in deathmatch, the concerns in their hearts immediately vanished.
Although deathmatch only consisted of direct engagements, it was still enough to reveal a person’s fundamental skill level.
Yang Yu had no major issues in terms of headshot line, initial crosshair placement, secondary corrections, recoil control, or movement positioning.
Yang Yu’s POV in deathmatch might not have been as eye-catching as those ultra-high-DPI players, with those ridiculous wild flicks.
But they were all active professionals, and this group could still see some of the finer details.
259 could no longer suppress the corners of his mouth.
“His damn talent is way too high,” 259 said to Danking. “His initial crosshair placement isn’t that good, but his follow-up aim correction and recoil control are ridiculous. This kid’s attention is completely on the opponent’s head.”
Judging from this deathmatch, Yang Yu’s aim-dueling habits were excellent.
Even if his first bullet didn’t land on the opponent’s head, the next few shots would quickly stick onto it. His micro-adjustments were terrifying.
Most genius youngsters didn’t have especially good aim-dueling habits. 259 had coached quite a few people in the youth team before, and for most genius youngsters, the first thing they had to do after coming to the youth team was correct their aiming habits. They had to develop the habit of immediately chasing the head after opening fire, instead of spraying wildly at the body like some old-school players.
One had to know, this habit was something that had gradually been refined by the competitive scene over the many years of CSGO’s development. Most rookie players only fixed these habits during their semi-pro period.
But Yang Yu had never even come into contact with the professional scene, yet he already possessed such good habits.
What else was there to say?
At the side, RA’s rifler Mo Siyu watched Yang Yu’s smooth POV with unconcealed envy.
Bro, are you Mordekaiser or what? Your stats are already this ridiculous the moment you enter the field—how are the other champions supposed to play!
However, because of that, they were actually somewhat looking forward to Yang Yu.
259 had always had thoughts of retiring, but unfortunately, it was hard to find a good caller domestically. Recently, he had even started rotating them in and training them to become callers, testing whether any of them had the talent for it.
If 259 really retired, then RA would have to bring someone else up. Since this person would become their teammate, naturally, the stronger he was, the better.
Ideally, he would be able to transform into a “Magical Cat” and, after the match ended, shout excitedly, “The five of us are really too strong!”
Yang Yu played for quite a while, then took the initiative to review some commonly used utility on a practice server. The rest of RA also sat down at their own seats. The scrim was about to begin.
259 was on Yang Yu’s left, while Xiao Ju was on his right.
While communicating with IHC, 259 asked, “What position do you usually play?”
Since it was a tryout, they naturally had to prioritize Yang Yu and let him operate in a position he was comfortable with.
It was like how you couldn’t make UZI play jungle, because that wouldn’t bring out UZI’s full strength.
“I don’t have any especially fixed position. It mainly depends on spawn and tactical needs,” Yang Yu replied.
“We’ll be playing two maps against IHC later. The first is Inferno, the second is Nuke. What positions do you hold on these two maps?”
“On Inferno, I play A apartments. On Nuke, I hold ramp.”
The moment he said that, the eyes of everyone in RA lit up.
One had to know, both of these positions were damn anchor positions!
In the world of CSGO, anchor defenders didn’t have that much room for exaggerated plays.
Either the opponents charged in like zombies with no regard for their lives, or it was as quiet and terrifying as some top-secret space program, leaving the anchor defender alone to wage a battle of wits against the air.
For CSGO, anchor defenders were like weak-side top laners in League. They took pressure to the max. Who wouldn’t like having this kind of player as a teammate?
“Then for these two maps, you’ll play A apartments and ramp respectively. Jamyoung, you cosplay Kaze for now and pick up the AWP.”
“I’m playing AWP?” Jamyoung glanced at the yellow-haired goblin behind him. “Asia’s number one AWPer is standing right here. That’s a lot of pressure on me.”
“No, no, no!” Danking waved his hand, but the smile at the corners of his mouth could no longer be suppressed.
Soon, Yang Yu was invited into the match server.
Both sides greeted each other and confirmed today’s maps once again. Then the scrim officially began.
Map: Inferno
T: Blitz, ANNIHILATION, Techno4K, sk0R, Bartak
CT: advant, Jamyoung, mercry, Meseyuh, Calm Down
The match officially began!
...
These two chapters feel a little stiff. What a headache, what a headache. I need to find a way to make them more interesting...