CS: I’m Only 16, and You Want Me to Stage an Old Veteran Comeback?

As soon as Jiang Yang landed the final kill, he froze for a second. Meanwhile, the Steel Helmets' voice chat exploded with celebration.

But instead of joining in, he yanked off his headset, ran straight to Ma Xixi, and shook his cousin’s shoulders excitedly.

“Cousin! I can play in a Major!!”

It was a great celebration—so much so that Ma Xixi’s head was spinning.

“You played amazingly, Yang Yang!!” Ma Xixi also pulled off his headset, grabbed Jiang Yang’s hands, and started jumping up and down with him, letting out unintelligible cries just to express his excitement.

The two of them looked like they had reverted to some primitive state, doing all sorts of chaotic movements in front of the camera.

But at this moment, their joy was completely genuine.

Jiang Yang had been playing CS:GO for quite some time now, and he knew exactly how prestigious a Major tournament was.

A Major was the highest-tier competition officially sponsored by Valve!

It was the one event directly backed by Valve and had the largest prize pool.

Winning a Major was the ultimate honor in CS:GO—no exceptions.

It was every player’s dream, just like how League of Legends pros would do anything to win Worlds.

But a Major title wasn’t easy to obtain. Teams had to battle through regional qualifiers, advance to the international stage, and defeat the strongest teams in the world to claim the trophy.

Even legends like NiKo and s1mple had come heartbreakingly close to a Major title multiple times—only to fall short.

And yet, they kept chasing it.

That’s how much a Major mattered.

Valve would even release team stickers for all teams that qualified, and a portion of the sales would go to the teams.

Every Major was a grand festival for CS:GO players worldwide.

And after years of online tournaments due to the pandemic, the return of the Stockholm Major had drawn the eyes of every CS:GO fan.

Now, Jiang Yang’s team had secured Asia’s only Major slot.

Soon, they would be playing in front of a global audience.

Just imagining the scene sent a rush of adrenaline through Jiang Yang.

“No one believed we could make it to a Major! But we did it!!” He turned to his cousin, sharing his excitement like he was venting his emotions.

At this moment, Ma Xixi felt less like a cousin and more like an older guardian. Jiang Yang rarely talked about his struggles, but when he did, it was always to Ma Xixi.

Ma Xixi was just as thrilled. “Good job! You made me so proud! You were incredible today! After the stream, I’m taking you out for a feast!”

“For now, don’t forget your teammates. Go celebrate with them.” Ma Xixi reminded him.

Jiang Yang quickly sat back down, and Ma Xixi did the same—only to see an explosion of gifts and a chat going completely insane on the side of the screen.

【I thought it was going to overtime, but Cousin’s 1v2 clutch was INSANE!!】

【WTF, these Old Veterans are actually going to Stockholm!】

【AE must be losing their minds—whoever didn’t play is gonna feel like sh*t.】

【Congrats! You picked your idol, and now not only is Tyloo getting disbanded, but VG too!】

【Today was a Yang Top Sky moment!!】

【Cousin, are you trying to destroy CNCS?! Are you??】

【Cousin: “If there is no torch to guide us, then I shall be the only light of CNCS!”】

【MO: “You know what I’m about to say.”】

Ignoring the barrage of gifts, Ma Xixi hopped into the Steel Helmets’ team voice chat.

“Well played, guys! We’re officially the face of CNCS now!”

Xiaosa Ge was blunt as always, “It’s all thanks to Cousin. I was totally lost on Nuke’s second half—I really thought we were going to OT.”

“That 1v2 clutch was insane!”

“DD was clutch too. He killed one and heavily damaged another—I wouldn’t have won that 2v4 without him.” Jiang Yang made sure to share the credit.

Everyone was still riding the high from the insane comeback.

MO asked curiously, “Did you really just decide to mag-dump them both?”

“Yeah. The moment I saw them lined up, I just let it rip.”

Everyone was eager to hear his thought process, and Jiang Yang answered honestly, “Actually, I only planned to take a few shots and fall back to waste time. The rest was just luck, haha.”

At that moment, Ma Xixi knew his cousin still had trouble phrasing things. He quickly interjected, “Luck played a part, sure. But it was also a matter of decision-making.

“They tried to push him together, but their positioning made them vulnerable to a double kill.”

“Yang Yang, don’t be too humble. Luck is always involved, but in a situation like this? That’s just winner’s luck.”

In esports, people rarely talked about luck.

But if the wrong crowd heard Jiang Yang say he got lucky, they might dismiss his entire achievement as pure chance.

Ma Xixi knew this, so he jumped in to smooth things over.

MO laughed. “Exactly! What luck? Who the hell has ‘luck’ good enough to beat both Tyloo and VG?”

He didn’t mean any disrespect to Tyloo and VG. If anything, he saw them as the top teams in China, which is why he used them as a comparison.

MO’s opinion of Jiang Yang had been changing constantly.

At first, he only knew about him through CSBOY’s community—some fresh talent with a lot of hype.

Then he heard the guy was handsome and insanely talented at CS:GO.

Later, he saw Jiang Yang climb to China’s highest rank in a ridiculously short time.

MO thought he’d eventually hit a wall in domestic pro play and come back down to earth.

Maybe after facing Tyloo, he’d finally calm down.

But instead, Jiang Yang just kept exceeding expectations.

The Steel Helmets had started as a joke team—just a bunch of washed-up veterans with barely any practice.

They had weak tactics, map pools, and aim.

Su Di was so bad he might as well have been a bot.

And yet, Jiang Yang carried them into the Major qualifiers.

That was insane.

Even back in 2018, when MO and the others were still with Tyloo, their best achievement was barely making it out of Major qualifiers.

And now, Jiang Yang was just one step away from surpassing that record.

Ma Xixi grinned. “Alright, two Treasure Maps each! Coach is covering your flights!”

“Boss Ma, you’re the best!”

“Damn, no way we’re giving this one to Ma Xixi… what a waste.”

Hearing that, Ma Xixi immediately panicked. “Wait, I’m giving you guys Treasure Maps, and you’re still trying to roast me?!”

MO chimed in, “Relax, man, it’s tradition! Didn’t we just optimize AE a few days ago?”

The chat erupted in laughter.

Just then, Ming Riqing spoke up, “The post-match stats for Nuke are out. Cousin, you hard-carried again. Carry me next time, okay?”

Ma Xixi rolled his eyes. “Yeah, how about you focus on last-hitting first?”

Meanwhile, Ma Xixi refreshed HLTV twice, watching the freshly updated match stats pop up.

ID: young

K/D/A: 40/6/22

ADR: 125.9

Survival Rate: 89.7%

Rating: 2.13

The chat exploded.

【VG: “We just lost to a streamer team… what the hell?”】

【Why does Cousin make stat-padding look so easy?】

【Every time I watch him play, I think, I could do this! Then I queue up for ranked and get obliterated.】

…

And then, Jiang Yang got a friend request from VG’s players.

Advent: “Damn, kid. You wrecked us. Good luck at Stockholm—show those Europeans what your AWP can do.”

A genuine compliment.

And then, another message.

Advent: “After this Major, wanna try out for VG?”

…