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

"Look closely, this man is called Xiao Shuai..."

The man who had just finished a scrimmage gradually broke into a radiant smile.

"GG!"

Jiang Yang took off his headphones and heard Ma Xixi shouting excitedly, "As the sniper rifle fired its last shot, the game ended! Let's congratulate Steel Helmets for securing the victory on Ancient Ruins!"

"This means that today, Steel Helmets crushed Too Standard with a decisive 3-0 sweep across three maps, achieving a flawless victory!"

As the coach of Steel Helmets, Ma Xixi's grin nearly reached his ears.

The team’s win was his glory too. Yangyang delivered big time!

【This cousin is something else—bullying newbies in matchmaking, now even stomping in professional scrims.】

【Before this, Steel Helmets and Too Standard were pretty evenly matched—it mostly depended on map pools. But Xiao Jiang is truly a carry!】

【So this is what 500 hours of a pro's worth looks like?】

【And he’s not even 18 yet—this is insane.】

【His sniping has that kennyS feel—fast and accurate.】

【Forget kennyS. Kenny himself has become just "fast and fast" now.】

In the livestream, fans were in awe. Meanwhile, in Steel Helmets’ team voice channel, the players were elated.

Though it was just a scrimmage, the CS scene in China was small. These streamer teams had been battling each other for a long time, and grudges had built up.

Today, they smashed the opponent with a 3-0, leaving them utterly stunned. The team felt a satisfying sense of catharsis.

The straightforward DD was the first to speak in the voice channel: “Kid, you played amazing! Your sniping is miles ahead of Liu Ke's!”

The channel burst into laughter.

In the third map, Ancient, MO had attempted a double-AWP strategy during one round. However, his sniper missed four consecutive shots in the clutch, much to everyone’s amusement.

Hearing this, MO’s face darkened. “Screw you guys! I’m not even a dedicated sniper—how is that a fair comparison?”

Normally, no one would make such a comparison. The problem was Jiang Yang's AWP accuracy was ridiculously high.

When his sniper rifle fired, it almost always meant a kill. Even in crucial moments, he rarely missed.

By the end of the match, whenever he had an AWP, the rest of the team would scramble to recover it for him.

That’s the sense of security Jiang Yang brought to them with his performance.

At that moment, Ma Xixi joined the TS voice channel and asked, “MO, how was today’s performance?”

MO replied instantly, “Amazing! Absolutely amazing!”

“Finally, I know what it feels like to win effortlessly.”

MO was increasingly fond of Jiang Yang. The young player was strong and also respected the in-game leader.

Whenever Jiang Yang made risky decisions, he would proactively seek MO’s input.

This was how the leader deserved to be treated!

MO had never seen such a beautiful opening to a game.

Usually, the other players in the team acted on their own whims. Even when instructions were given, it took multiple shouts to get them to listen.

Brother Xiao casually chimed in: “Before the game, I was preparing to comfort the young man in case he didn’t perform well. Who knew I’d just sit back and win?”

In today’s match, Jiang Yang’s sniper rifle essentially tipped the scales of victory.

The players on Too Standard had no answers for him at all.

To be fair, Too Standard wasn’t individually strong, but their European-style system-oriented play left little information for the opposing team to exploit. This approach still exerted a lot of pressure.

It was Jiang Yang’s first encounter with this style. Normally, he should have struggled at first and gradually adapted later in the game.

But it seemed Jiang Yang wasn’t affected at all.

He continued sniping decisively, still pulling off eco-clutch plays as needed.

It didn’t even feel like a scrimmage—it was as casual as a matchmaking game for him.

At this moment, Ming Riqing, the team’s innate Clip Saint, reminded in the channel, “The post-game stats are out. I’ve sent them to you.”

Ma Xixi raised his eyebrows and quickly pulled up the data chart from WeChat.

The first thing he saw was the total stats across all three maps.

“Whoa, Yangyang, you really racked up kills!”

At first glance, the ID at the top stood out boldly.

ID: Ma Xixi Wo Ding Si Ni (Ma Xixi, I Will Kill You)

Kills/Assists/Deaths: 79/9/38

ADR: 127.1

Rating: 1.46

【Oh boy, this cousin really came to destroy in this matchmaking game.】

【I thought he was just a nepotism hire, but turns out he’s the MVP.】

【1.46 rating—who hired this smurf?】

【Two of the maps were stomps, and he still managed these numbers. Truly impressive.】

【He even out-fragged DD by 20 kills.】

【This cousin’s got real talent.】

Jiang Yang saw the stats himself and smiled happily. “Not bad. The whole team was performing on Dust2, so we completely overwhelmed them. And Mirage is my signature map, so these numbers are pretty normal.”

It was his first official scrimmage, and Jiang Yang admitted he felt some pressure.

After all, if he performed poorly, it would reflect badly on his cousin.

So he had taken today’s match seriously, and fortunately, his form was on point, resulting in solid stats.

The veterans in Steel Helmets could only sense the confidence in Jiang Yang’s tone.

But that was to be expected. What’s youth without a bit of arrogance?

Ma Xixi continued to scroll through the individual map stats and saw Jiang Yang consistently topping the charts, delivering exceptional results.

When he reached the stats for the second map, he suddenly froze.

【QUQU, is this even human?】

【Who carried this 0.18 rating anchor?】

【Coming from QUQU’s side, he got completely dismantled by Xiao Jiang. Stuck to his "standard" playstyle and kept dying over and over.】

【He was so outplayed, he didn’t even know what hit him.】

【This is hilarious—seeing these stats makes me feel like I could do better myself.】

QUQU’s scrimmage performance was far from ideal.

Before the match, he had made bold claims about giving Ma Xixi’s cousin a “lesson.”

But after just a few rounds, it seemed QUQU couldn’t even remember his own name anymore.

“Is that kid really just a 500-hour player?” QUQU asked in disbelief. “No way Steel Helmets brought in a ringer. This doesn’t make any sense!”

“Let’s hop into their channel and find out what’s going on,” he suggested.

Hearing this, 18YM and the others followed him eagerly.

They figured QUQU might be rambling out of frustration—after all, his mind had been blown by the 0.18 rating from the second map.

Even though he performed slightly better on the third map, they still lost.

Given the circumstances, QUQU’s incoherence was understandable.

Moreover, after this BO3 ended, the members of Too Standard were genuinely curious about Ma Xixi’s cousin. They wanted to meet this powerhouse who had thoroughly dismantled them.

So, the entire Too Standard team flooded into Steel Helmets’ TS channel.

The moment they joined, QUQU blurted out, “Z—man! Your substitute was way too strong! He completely wrecked us.”

“It feels like this young guy’s sniping is on par with my peak level back in the day.”

Hearing this, the Steel Helmets players couldn’t hold back their reactions.

“Bro, are you seriously trying to hype yourself up?”

“Back in the day” referred to QUQU’s stint as a pro in CS Online (CSOL), where he did win a championship. However, in the realm of CS:GO, his skills were far from competitive.

Besides, if you scored a 0.18 rating today, shouldn’t you know your place?

18YM cut in: “Where’s your cousin, Ma Xixi? Is he really a 500-hour player?”

Jiang Yang responded, “Yeah, I just passed 500 hours recently.”

“This is just too demoralizing,” 18YM sighed.

Someone with only 500 hours of playtime had completely trounced their team of former pros, who had thousands of hours of experience.

They had always considered themselves talented players among the average population. But after today’s match, they realized how harsh the gap truly was.

After venting his frustration, 18YM found a silver lining: “Your cousin played exceptionally well. If he keeps improving, I think he could genuinely pursue a professional career. Ma Xixi, your family might just save CNCS…”

“On Mirage, I was so heated, but your cousin really impressed me. His gameplay was outstanding!”

For these veterans, losing wasn’t something they enjoyed.

However, losing to a talented young player felt somewhat comforting.

After all, seeing fresh blood rise in the scene meant there was hope for the future.

New players surpassing them was the key to China achieving success on the international stage.

That said, they had to admit one thing: Jiang Yang had completely dominated on Mirage.

During Steel Helmets’ offensive rounds, Jiang Yang was like a bulldozer, smashing through Too Standard’s defenses.

Whether it was being pre-aimed and picked, getting headshotted despite firing first, or being instantly killed by his sniper, the ways they died were countless.

18YM admitted defeat, acknowledging that Jiang Yang was simply unstoppable on that map.

After everyone in Too Standard had sung their praises and left the channel, MO muted his mic and spoke directly to Jiang Yang:

“Xiao Jiang, I’ve got to say—you were incredible today. Even we find it hard to play as well as you did.”

“You’ve got more talent for CS than we expected.”

Jiang Yang responded with a humble “Mm.”

He was confident in his performance today, as the stats clearly reflected it.

Thanks to the assistance from the Boss Dungeon system, Jiang Yang had already adapted to more complex environments. Playing in a scrimmage like this wasn’t a big challenge.

MO continued: “Let me just point out a few areas for improvement. First, your pistol rounds are a bit rushed. You often spray too much, which makes it hard to secure kills.”

“Second, your rifle play could use some work. One-on-one duels are fine, but you lack the ability to chain kills. Maybe ask DD for tips—he’s great with rifles.”

“And third, your tactical experience is limited. Watch more pro match replays—actually, start with Steel Helmets’ own games to get familiar with our strategies.”

Jiang Yang listened quietly, absorbing the advice.

After a moment of silence, Ma Xixi asked, “Anything else?”

“What else?” MO was confused.

“That’s it?”

“That’s it!” MO exclaimed, equally surprised. “You don’t realize just how ridiculously talented your cousin is, do you?”

“Most prodigies struggle with more fundamental issues. Jiang Yang’s only problems are technical and experiential—there’s not much we can even critique.”

Ma Xixi took a sharp breath. “It’s really that crazy?”

MO chuckled. “Otherwise, why do you think Too Standard got obliterated today?”

He was genuinely impressed by Jiang Yang’s precision and decision-making during the scrimmage.

Although Jiang Yang had some initial discomfort in the matchup, his adaptability was astonishing. His adjustments left MO in awe.

Too Standard’s formulaic strategies were simply ineffective against Jiang Yang.

“Speaking of which,” MO added after a pause, “Jiang Yang, you’ll need to come up with a player ID soon. I’m submitting the registration for the IEM tournament lineup.”

Hearing this, Jiang Yang frowned deeply.

Coming up with an ID was harder than he thought.