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

Reviewing yesterday’s match took a lot of effort, and just thinking about it gave MO a headache.

Since Steel Helmets didn’t have a coach, MO had to play the role of the "bad cop" as the team captain, which often led to heated arguments.

A simple BO1 match ended up taking nearly two hours to review.

But that’s just how post-match reviews go—everyone has their own opinions, and only by constantly debating and adjusting can the team grow stronger.

After a quick wash-up, MO headed upstairs to the training room. As soon as he opened the door, he saw Jiang Yang sitting there, diligently practicing.

“You’re here, Captain?” Jiang Yang turned his head and gestured toward the table. “Did you have breakfast yet? I grabbed some bread from downstairs.”

MO raised an eyebrow. “You already ate? What time did you get up?”

Still groggy from waking up early, he made small talk without thinking much.

Jiang Yang stood up and stretched, his joints cracking as he moved. Then he replied, “I’ve been up for a while. Just finished my morning training. Taking a break now, waiting for the others to show up before we start practicing retakes.”

Jiang Yang understood the importance of balance—too much training could be counterproductive, so after finishing his routine, he took a break.

Hearing that, MO grabbed a piece of bread and left again—he was clearly off to "unseal" his teammates from their beds.

Jiang Yang didn’t mind. The guys in Steel Helmets were already putting in a lot of effort.

After all, they were all retired veterans, and their stamina couldn’t compare to his.

Jiang Yang trained for seven to eight hours every day, watched match VODs, and even maintained a physical fitness routine. That’s how he managed to stay at peak condition.

Expecting these old veterans to follow his schedule? Not happening.

Still, the Steel Helmets roster trained their aim for several hours daily, played official matches, and reviewed games—it was already impressive.

Jiang Yang actually felt that prioritizing their rest was more important.

While MO went downstairs to wake up the others, Jiang Yang scrolled through his phone out of boredom.

Every year, the CS:GO Major attracted massive attention from the player base.

After all, the Major included a pick’em challenge, and every viewer could participate.

Owning a Diamond Coin from that year’s Major was the ultimate flex—allowing someone to smugly tell their friends:

"Do you even understand CS:GO?"

Of course, every year, the most common discussion points were:

“Gold coins are a better investment than diamond ones.”

“Silver coins look better than gold ones.”

“Bronze… yeah, I got nothing to say about bronze.”

During the Major, CS:GO players weren’t just spectators—they were fully invested in the tournament.

Their emotions would rise and fall depending on how their pick’em teams performed.

The first day of matches had ended, and the forums were already on fire.

[This first day of the Challenger Stage was absolutely wild. So many unexpected eliminations—I’m still in shock.]

[Same! I can’t believe A-Team, Heroic, and Cowboys all got knocked out early.]

[Heroic losing was definitely a surprise, but you can’t say much—Yang God was just too cracked. That 1v5 clutch had me jumping out of my seat!]

[Yang God’s performance was insane! That round was straight-up terrifying.]

[He was at max power, and his luck was on point too. Stavn got backstabbed by “the Ogre” in a crucial round—who could’ve predicted that?]

[That match was pure drama. Idea Guy hyped up his team, woke Little Bro up, and that led to the 1v5 clutch to take the lead. Then Idea Guy made a comeback of his own, but just when they were about to turn things around, X-Team threw the game themselves.]

Seeing these comments, Jiang Yang recalled an interesting detail.

For Chinese fans, Stavn getting backstabbed was a hilarious highlight.

They loved seeing Steel Helmets' opponents fumble and throw rounds.

But for international viewers, Stavn’s misplay was unforgivable.

It was a cruel irony—Stavn was both the reason X-Team was ahead and the reason they lost.

If he hadn’t performed so well earlier, X-Team wouldn’t have gotten that many rounds.

But if he hadn’t messed up in that one round, X-Team might have won outright.

Because of this, Steel Helmets’ match became a huge talking point on Twitter.

Stavn was getting flamed non-stop, to the point where Idea Guy had to tweet:

"It was just a minor mistake. Nothing to make a big deal about."

Jiang Yang liked Idea Guy’s personality—

Fiery trash talk on stage, but a mature and composed leader off stage.

It reminded him of Ma Xixi—someone fiercely protective of his teammates.

Yesterday, Yang God’s Desert Eagle 1v5 clutch exploded across the entire CS:GO community.

A 1v5 clutch at a Major was a huge deal.

Some fans were already speculating whether Valve would create an in-game graffiti to commemorate the moment.

Jiang Yang was excited at first, but after checking Valve’s graffiti selection criteria, he realized it was highly unlikely.

Valve only awards graffiti for:

1. Plays that are truly one-of-a-kind.
2. Clutches that lead to a game-changing comeback.

It’s an insanely high bar—something you can’t force, only hope for.

Jiang Yang felt a little disappointed, but not too much.

After all, he was still young—there were many more chances ahead.

One day, he would have his own graffiti.

Just then, he stumbled upon another hilarious thread.

A-Team fans were losing their minds on the forums.

A-Team had been getting upset left and right, and now they were on the brink of elimination.

As one of the greatest teams in CS:GO history, Astralis was a legendary name.

Their five core players had built an era of dominance, and their fanbase was enormous.

Even CNCS commentator Wan Ji Qi was a hardcore A-Team fan.

But now, A-Team was one step away from being knocked out, and their fans were completely losing it.

[A-Team, what the hell are you guys doing?! First you lost to Firefly, then you lost to Green Shield—who else can you even lose to at this point?!]

[My pick’em is already in shambles. This is a disaster.]

[Come back, Device! I’m crying! My proudest memory—the perfect AWP angles—so vivid in my mind… my tears won’t stop flowing…]

[Is Lucky even a real player? Two BO1s, and he didn’t break double-digit kills in either. Meanwhile, Young has more kills in a single match than Lucky does across the whole Major!]

[Damn gold diggers ruined the Danish army!]

Jiang Yang checked the stats and winced.

As the player replacing Device, Lucky had only managed 8 and 9 kills in his two BO1 matches.

Even though playing from behind is tough, having such low numbers as an AWPer was still shocking.

It’s true what they say—

"Comparison is the thief of joy."

Just as Jiang Yang was shaking his head at Lucky’s poor performance, a commotion broke out outside the room.

DD stumbled in, hair messy, yawning as he walked. He turned to Ming Riqing, who was behind him, and asked,

"Who are we playing against today?"

DD was the type of guy who only focused on playing—he didn’t really care about things like match schedules.

Ming Riqing glanced at the schedule and replied, "Mouz."

Hearing this, Jiang Yang took a deep breath.

"Playing Mouz is going to be tough. Our map pool doesn’t match up well against them."

Steel Helmets was a team built on raw aim and aggression, so they performed well on maps that favored gunfights.

But when it came to tactical, structured maps, things got tricky.

It wasn’t that they hadn’t practiced them, but compared to structured teams, their experience was lacking, and their coordination wasn’t as refined.

MO sighed and rubbed his temple.

"Guess we’ll just take it one step at a time. Worst case, we play around Little Bro’s strong maps."

During yesterday’s review session, they had discussed their Major strategy—

They needed to build the game plan around Little Bro, giving him as much map control as possible so he could maximize his impact.

At this point, it was obvious to everyone—

If anyone on the team was the real carry, it was him.

The team groaned as they talked about their map pool issues.

Meanwhile, Ming Riqing pulled out a small camera and started recording.

“Alright, since the day just started, let me cheer you guys up with some good news.”

Everyone looked at him.

"Valve reached out to me. They need our design preferences for the Steel Helmets sticker."

"Wait, what?!" DD’s eyes widened in shock, his sleepiness instantly gone.

The others, who had been feeling a bit down, perked up immediately.

Ming Riqing had delivered the good news at the perfect time.

"Let’s gooo! Leonkai #1 stockpile!!" Brother Xiaosa yelled excitedly.

Jiang Yang joined in, hyping up the moment. "Let’s get fired up, boys!"

Laughter erupted in the room.

They all knew that qualifying for the Major meant getting a team sticker, but no one had really been paying attention to it.

Now that it was official, the whole thing felt different—it made them realize just how far they’d come.

"Shame we don’t get player stickers this time around," Su Di commented quietly.

Hearing that, Jiang Yang turned to him with a grin, "Hey, don’t lose hope, old man. We’re not done yet!"

MO nodded. "Exactly! Now stop slacking and get ready for practice."

With the team’s energy revitalized, they started warming up for the day’s training session.

Fast forward to the afternoon—match time.

One by one, the Steel Helmets members sat down and adjusted their equipment.

Jiang Yang placed his "Little Pony" figurine beside his gaming chair again.

After yesterday’s victory, he had already decided—this was now his lucky charm.

Today, Ming Riqing was standing behind them, following Ma Xixi’s advice.

He was there to act as an in-game coach, making sure that if they ever fell behind, he’d call a timeout before MO got too tilted.

As the team warmed up, MO glanced at Ming Riqing and asked, "How did it go?"

Ming Riqing had just finished handling the pre-match coin toss to determine map bans.

He shrugged. "Lost the coin toss. They get first ban."

Hearing this, DD immediately turned to Brother Xiaosa.

"See? Told you I called it. You owe me a drink."

Brother Xiaosa wasn’t convinced. "How did you even lose the coin toss?"

Ming Riqing deadpanned, "I used my left hand."

"Ah, that explains it."

Jiang Yang chuckled. The way people made excuses when things went wrong—it was the same everywhere.

MO sighed. "Next time, just flip a damn coin. Not like it’d help."

The team laughed as they entered the veto phase.

Map veto begins.

At first, losing the coin toss seemed like a disadvantage.

But in reality, it actually helped Steel Helmets.

Their map pool was narrow, so if Mouz banned first, it actually made their own choices easier.

Mouz immediately banned Vertigo and Overpass.

"Wait… they’re giving us an opening?" Jiang Yang smirked.

MO thought for a moment. "We need to ban three maps. Which two do we want to keep?"

Jiang Yang answered without hesitation. "Mirage and Dust2."

"Those are our best maps. We’re comfortable on both."

MO nodded. They had been worried about the map pool issue, but suddenly, things were working out in their favor.

Steel Helmets banned Nuke, Ancient, and Inferno, leaving Mirage and Dust2 as the final two options.

Mouz hesitated.

They hadn’t expected Steel Helmets to make such a decisive move.

It dawned on them—they had miscalculated their veto strategy.

The problem was, Steel Helmets didn’t have enough official match data.

There weren’t enough past games to analyze, so Mouz had no idea what their real weak spots were.

After some thought, Mouz finally locked in Mirage as the map choice.

They had picked Mirage because their star player, ropz, could thrive there.

It was a map where he had the most room to shine.

With the veto finalized, Steel Helmets members fist-bumped each other and loaded into the Mirage server.