Though Yang Yu’s rather eye-catching 1v3 clutch had only been a single round, it seemed to ignite the morale of the entire team.
In the rounds that followed, they came out and immediately slapped the other side with a 7:0.
It wasn’t until the eighth round that, because their team’s advantage was too great and everyone was thinking about coming out to grab kills, the attacking side finally found an opening instead.
After the attackers took their first point, their feel for the game also warmed back up somewhat. In the end, the first half score settled at 11:4.
After switching sides, however, they won the pistol round thanks to a beautiful triple kill breakthrough from their teammate Blue.
The other side lost the strength to resist after that and was steamrolled all the way through.
In the end, this Mirage match concluded with the score fixed at 16:4.
Yang Yu stretched. He had gone all out in this Mirage match; after twenty rounds, he had posted an excellent stat line of 31 kills, 7 assists, and 10 deaths.
“You really didn’t practice your aim for nothing.” After the match ended, Xu Kun was in a good mood and casually chatted with Yang Yu. “You were seriously a freak this game.”
At that moment, Xu Kun inexplicably had the feeling that his “little rat teammate had become the hard-carry entry fragger.”
But when he turned his head, he only saw Yang Yu frowning at the screen.
“What’s going on? The two of us were slaughtering them left and right, and you’re still not satisfied?” Xu Kun got up, propped himself against Yang Yu’s shoulder, and asked in some confusion.
“Aren’t these stats pretty good?”
Whether it was KD or rating, Yang Yu had performed like a big brother carry this game. No matter how you looked at it, it was solid.
“Damn!” Xu Kun’s eyes lit up as he looked at Yang Yu in disbelief. “Your headshot rate is already 64%. Did you really become a locksmith today or what?”
Xu Kun had played CSGO longer than Yang Yu. He had nearly five hundred hours in the game, and his average headshot rate was around 34%, which was about the average level.
For someone like him who relied on raw mechanics, only when his feel was especially good would his headshot rate occasionally break 50%.
Yet Yang Yu’s headshot rate was already close to 65%, and he still wasn’t satisfied.
He felt that Yang Yu was being a little Versailles about it.
Yang Yu replied, “My goal is to keep my headshot rate above 70%. Do you understand what it means to be a headshot master?”
After this ranked match ended, his aim felt good, and he could clearly sense the change in his touch. He had started paying more attention to the enemy’s head model, so naturally, his headshot rate had grown higher.
That feeling of clearly perceiving himself becoming stronger fascinated him.
However, he could also clearly sense that his fundamentals were not solid enough. He had no way to bring B1T’s headshot talent to its fullest.
One had to know that the “Small Test of Skill” mission required a 70% headshot rate over a hundred matches.
In other words, he had to land even more headshots in his matches.
“Considering you carried me last game, I won’t post you on Xiaohongshu.” Xu Kun sat back down in his seat. “Stop getting all sentimental. Your feel is burning hot right now. Hurry up and queue!”
Xu Kun’s voice pulled Yang Yu out of his thoughts. Yang Yu merely smiled and replied, “Then I’ll have to throw you into Sun Bar.”
After a few jokes, the two of them focused their attention back on the screen.
Matchmaking at night was quite fast.
It took less than ten seconds before the match-successful prompt appeared.
In the previous game, Yang Yu had taken MVP, and with the first-win bonus giving quite a few points, his score instantly reached 1397.
According to the Perfect World platform’s scoring system, 1400 points meant the B division.
In other words, as long as he won this next game, he would count as having escaped the sea of suffering known as the C+ rank.
“Promotion game, bro.” Yang Yu turned to look at Xu Kun. “Don’t throw me, brother!”
Having just carried a game, his hands were still burning hot.
So he was full of anticipation for the next match.
Without even turning his head, Xu Kun said, “All right, then it’s my turn to carry this one!”
That was what he said, but once they truly entered the game, it was another matter entirely.
Promotion games, however, always tended to become much more abstract.
In the second match, the map was Inferno, a map that relied quite heavily on utility and coordination.
And by bad luck, they ran into a one-trick specialist who only played this map.
The other side had clearly come prepared. All kinds of mid accelerations into connector, flying into apartments at the start, and coordinated utility to seize Banana completely left them unable to hold.
Though Yang Yu’s feel was good, his strength had not truly far surpassed this rank. Faced with a match where the other side’s utility was maxed out, it was like punching cotton; he barely even had any chances to take aim duels.
The score of this match settled at 7:16.
On the post-match results screen, Yang Yu also ended with a record of one green carrying four reds.
Xu Kun’s performance this game had actually been pretty good too. His final KD was even positive.
After the match ended, he complained speechlessly, “There was seriously something wrong with them this game, right? That utility was thrown straight into my face. I didn’t get any chances to take aim duels at all.”
Several times, he had just stood in CT spawn and wanted to peek Banana, only to eat a flash head-on. He never got a chance for a proper duel, and it made him feel a bit sick.
“The timing was still okay. It just felt like the other side didn’t belong at this rank.”
Yang Yu thought the other side’s play was still fairly normal. It was more that their understanding of utility had crushed them.
Inferno was already a map that relied on utility and coordination.
Although the opponent’s utility coordination was not as picturesque as a professional team’s, compared to theirs, it was overwhelming.
Rather than questioning his opponents, what he wanted to do more right now was watch the demo and learn some of their utility throws.
I just want to improve so badly.jpg
Failing to successfully promote to B, Yang Yu was not discouraged. He called Xu Kun and continued their passionate climb.
The following matches were much more normal.
In the next game, they matched with teammates who were decently skilled and liked communicating.
One guy from Tianjin chatted from beginning to end, his entire person sounding like he was performing crosstalk.
The other two teammates were also pretty good. The five of them steamrolled all the way through and happily won the match.
His outstanding performance even earned Yang Yu three friend requests after the match ended.
Yang Yu once again arrived before his promotion game.
He hoped this promotion game would be a little easier than the previous one.
However, every time it came to a promotion match, some kind of trouble always appeared.
This time, the map they matched was Dust II.
This time, the other side’s level was not that high, but the three teammates they matched with were slightly bad.
Yang Yu would often take his AK out and forcefully kill two, then painfully watch as they lost the clutch.
Yang Yu already felt some pressure from it being a promotion game, and this kind of close, grinding match made it even harder for him to endure.
Later, Yang Yu also grew smarter. He let his teammates break through the front and gather information, while he took the initiative to handle the clutches.
This change in thinking finally allowed them to win a few more points.
After winning the final clutch, Yang Yu let out a long breath and leaned back against his chair to rest.
“NICE!! You really turned it on today, didn’t you? You directly achieved enlightenment!”
Xu Kun turned his head excitedly and discovered that Yang Yu had indeed achieved enlightenment—Yang Yu had already burned into a sarira in his seat.
Yang Yu had indeed been smothered by the match. This game had really forced out his potential.
“I’m finally not a C+ scrub anymore!” Yang Yu let out a long howl. This promotion match had truly tortured him for a long time. Though there was still quite some distance between him and S, it still counted as a breakthrough.
“Holy crap, what’s going on? You guys really rushed up to B?”
The door of Dorm 302 opened, and Huang Zicheng and Mo Han, who had gone out on dates, came back.
Huang Zicheng impatiently came in front of Yang Yu’s computer and immediately saw the B division mark on Yang Yu’s post-match results screen.
“No way, bro.” Huang Zicheng shook Yang Yu’s shoulder. “I only went to watch a movie, and you already left our C+ squad?”
“Nooo, don’t do this~”
Mo Han carried two cups of Mixue Bingcheng and handed one each to Yang Yu and Xu Kun. “What’s going on? You climbed so smoothly today?”
The four people in Dorm 302 all played CS in their free time. When the guys happily five-stacked, their levels all hovered around C+.
The weekend before yesterday, they had five-stacked for two days and still failed to break past C+. Yet after going out for half an afternoon today, Yang Yu and Xu Kun had directly promoted to B. Who could stand that?
Xu Kun replied, “You have no idea. We were killing like crazy all night today. Our feel was burning hot!”
“Who was in charge of the crazy, and who was in charge of the killing?” Huang Zicheng asked.
“What are you saying? What are you saying?” Xu Kun shouted. “I was binding the team together. I was boosting morale, okay!”
“All right, so it was my Rain God who was slaughtering them.” Mo Han came to Yang Yu’s side. “What’s going on? Your feel was that good today?”
Before Yang Yu could answer, Xu Kun shouted, “You don’t know at all. Tudou was like he had achieved enlightenment today. If I hadn’t been sitting right next to him, I really would’ve thought he was aimlocking.”
“How so?”
“After playing all night, his headshot rate never dropped below 60%. I thought I had a headshot demon sitting beside me.”
“Damn, that exaggerated?” Huang Zicheng found it a little unbelievable. A 60% headshot rate in one game was not rare, but if every game was like that, then it was extremely exaggerated.
“If that’s the case, I’m turning on my computer!” Mo Han rubbed his hands together. “I’ll call one more. Passionate five-stack?”
Their professional course tomorrow was in the afternoon, so even if they played a little late, it would not matter.
“Sure, my hands are still burning hot!” Xu Kun quickly replied.
One good thing about their campus was that the power and internet were not cut off at night. When they were occasionally full of energy, they could battle until dawn.
Yang Yu, however, hurriedly said, “You guys three-stack. I’m not playing anymore. That last game really burned me out. I’m showering and resting.”
Xu Kun invited him again, but Yang Yu truly was a little tired.
This afternoon, he had practiced aim for the whole afternoon, then passionately fought matches all night. Now even the muscles in his forearms were aching.
Fortunately, he had finally promoted to the B division, which counted as completing a small goal.
Yang Yu did not hurry to wash up. Instead, he glanced at his post-match stats.
After these few games, his average headshot rate had reached 63.6%, still quite a distance away from 70%.
However, after playing ranked all night today, he had also understood many of his shortcomings during the process.
First was the issue of fundamentals.
Because he had not trained before, he did not do very well in terms of counter-strafing. Many times, he would place his crosshair or spray toward the enemy’s head, but because he had not counter-strafed properly, he would turn into a random-spread executioner.
That feeling was very nice, but Yang Yu understood very clearly that luck could only be relied on for a moment. In most situations, true strength was what mattered.
Then there was the Inferno match, which also made him feel the lack in his utility pool.
Many times, whether attacking or defending, if he was good at some utility for special positions, things would have been much easier.
The assistance of the advance system could let him master new abilities more quickly, but when it came to fundamentals, Yang Yu still had to take things slowly on his own.
For example, with the “B1T headshot talent” advanced today, Yang Yu could clearly feel that at his current level, there was no way for him to bring this talent to its fullest.
If his spray control were better, if his counter-strafing were better, and if his pre-aim were a little more outstanding, then his headshot rate could absolutely climb to another level.
So these fundamentals also had to be gradually put on his agenda.
Since he had the intention of trying to break into the professional scene, he could not slack off anymore.
The other three people in Dorm 302 were passionately three-stacking.
Meanwhile, Yang Yu lay on his bed, thinking back on everything that had happened that day. It still felt a little fantastical.
But his aching forearms told him this was not a dream.
Thinking of the scenes where he carried in the matches, thinking of those crisp headshot sounds, thinking of the change in his rank—
A sense of satisfaction unlike anything he had ever felt before rose in his heart.
That intense deathmatch training was rather dull and painful, but Yang Yu instead began looking forward to tomorrow’s training.
……