Chapter 109: The Successor of the Pajama Ninja

"Sigh, I'm a bit overwhelmed."

After uploading the team-building VLOG, An Wenxin slumped over her office desk and sighed.

Every day at VG was interesting; whether it was participating in tournament preparations as a Coach or recording and promoting the team as an operations staffer, it all brought her a different experience and helped her understand what esports was really like.

But even though she had poured twelve times the energy into it, there was still so much to do.

Rather than lamenting that the road is hard to travel, it is better to set off immediately.

"Let's go! Let's go!" Shaking her head, An Wenxin sat back up and opened her to-do list.

Item one, the FLAG Jiaoyang set at the Disney Major in May—the game tutorial that everyone was supposed to participate in; there was no time for that for now, as Dota 2 was currently playing the Epicenter qualifiers and CS: GO was playing the EPL Asia Qualifier, so it would have to be pushed to June.

Item two, producing an introduction video for Jiaoyang, including highlights from his two Dota 2 Majors and previous CS matches to help promote the VG CS Division; this was already done and uploaded to domestic platforms, and she would upload it to YouTube once the English-subtitled version finished rendering, to piggyback on the popularity of the Dota 2 division.

Item three, checking for collaboration content in the official inbox.

This item was very simple, just a glance would do, as they were usually just spam.

"Hmm? Why is it Jiaoyang again?"

In the VG practice room, the computer screen showed a 16-7 score for Map 2, with MVP as the opponent; it looked like some time had passed, and An Wenxin was not present.

The remaining guys showed absolutely no excitement about winning the match, only the exhaustion of overexertion; clearly, the lactic acid buildup from yesterday's exercise was too severe.

Jiaoyang was also aching all over, but thanks to the recovery from the System Dream, he was still full of energy: "I told you that getting a suitable haircut helps improve your aim, didn't I?"

The effect of the 【Hair Stylist's Clippers】 had indeed manifested, with aumaN being the most prominent example.

The coolness of his afro had greatly improved his ability to aim at heads, and combined with the AUG and SG553—those two "wheelchair guns"—aumaN's Headshot rate in this match reached second place overall.

After finally reaching a rating greater than 1 in the match against Tyloo, advent had fallen back to 0.8, becoming the bottom performer.

"For real?" advent was the only one among them who hadn't cut his hair, but he did indeed feel that his teammates' level had improved today, especially aumaN, that noob, whose improvement was the most obvious.

——

"Fake! I was already this strong!" Only when his skill was questioned would aumaN get excited.

advent was already prepared to change his hairstyle.

"Speaking of which, MVP seems to have already lost two tournament qualifications at our hands." Having played for so many days, the most troublesome enemy for JamYoung was MVP, and it was the same today; even giving it his all, he could only manage a 1.03 rating, and in the Entry Fragger position, one could only say he did neither good nor bad.

"You're concluding that before the match is even over?" zhokiNg looked at the rookie on his left and reminded him.

The EPL Asia Qualifier was only in its first round; after finishing with MVP, there were still two Southeast Asian teams, and finally, one qualification for the EPL Season 9 would be decided based on the ranking of the four teams.

"Having confidence is a good thing." Jiaoyang held the opposite view of zhokiNg; rookies should be a bit more confident.

Right now, JamYoung was searching for his own ceiling, and naturally, the higher the goal, the better.

Once he said that, zhokiNg could only remain silent; after all, Jiaoyang was the strongest on the team.

Jiaoyang didn't blindly push for growth either: "But Xiaojue, you'd better prepare yourself mentally; you're going to have a miserable time when we play NiP."

Their group for the DH Dallas Masters had already been announced.

They were in the lower half of Group A, with NiP, WG, and FaZe Clan as opponents.

The first one they had to face was NiP; if they won, they would play the winner of the other two, and if they lost, they would enter the lower bracket.

"How strong is NiP?" JamYoung asked what seemed like a very naive question.

Yet in reality, this was indeed a major issue for the new generation of CN players.

They had not been in contact with European teams and had no clear concept of them.

They only knew roughly, and couldn't imagine why, despite both being five people, the opponent could execute tactics so well.

This was the disadvantage of the environment; in the past, this Asian fish pond could only raise fish meant to be slaughtered. Tyloo did better in 2018, but they hadn't truly broken through the shackles.

"To be honest, I've only played them at the Disney Major." Jiaoyang smiled; he was also a novice in the CS field.

"The last time we faced NiP was in Shanghai, at the StarSeries Season 7 in early April; we were finished off." advent didn't look at the data and answered directly.

Mentioning early April, Jiaoyang immediately had an impression; that was the match where VG beat NaVi and then left after three consecutive losses.

And after NaVi lost to VG, they ended up winning the championship with a six-game winning streak.

Perhaps that failure was what prompted the old VG to move toward its end faster; at the time, Freeman and kaze performed very well, while the two "A-Gods" happened to be in a slump, which was how Tyloo seized the opportunity to poach them.

"They are very strong; they play tactics, but their aim is not bad at all." As the Entry Fragger at the time, zhokiNg had a deep impression.

"That young man named REZ is too fierce; he could actually carry GeT—RiGhT and fOrest."

fOrest was already 30 years old at this time, and GeT—RiGhT was nearly 29; they were deservedly living fossils of CS, and even more so, legends of a generation.

The NiP they led was the earliest powerhouse in CS: GO history; from the first Major in 2013 all the way to the fifth Major in 2015, NiP never left the stage of the finals.

This, along with the initial 87-game winning streak, became an epic in CS history that would be hard to break.

However, after that initial experience that was like shooting fish in a barrel ended, CS entered an era where a hundred flowers bloomed; after 2015, NiP's form fluctuated, and they never entered a Major final again.

But with the debut of the 18-year-old Swedish genius REZ, everything changed again.

It took him only 5 months to lead NiP to a 3:2 victory over FaZe to win the S-tier tournament IEM Oakland, and he became the MVP.

Unfortunately, although his performance was stable, this aging NiP was so legendary that the club was unwilling to replace these aging veterans, and until 2019, NiP's best results still hadn't been updated.

"At least it's the coach, pita, who's playing." JamYoung opened the materials An Wenxin gave him, flipped through them, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Don't underestimate the coach, especially in a region with such a strong esports atmosphere." advent reprimanded: "They all came up through professional play; their aim might not be bad at all. On the contrary, after becoming a coach, their thinking becomes more expansive, specifically to catch greenhorns like you."

Although JamYoung's rating was decent, it was built on the foundation of Jiaoyang covering for him.

Once the water temperature rose and Jiaoyang was unable to look after himself, JamYoung's aggressive playstyle would become a vulnerability for VG.

He had to correct the blind confidence JamYoung currently had because his results had improved.

"Lao Liang, teaching like that is useless; he'll know when he suffers for it later."

aumaN also understood the mindset of just starting a professional career; it was nothing more than jumping back and forth between being ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth and being timid.

Don't look at aumaN's tough talk on the surface; in reality, he was very clear about his own level.

As for how he understood it?

He was beaten into understanding!

Just as Jiao Yang was about to retort, the door to the battle room was pushed open————