Chapter 111: Me playing against NiKo? For real?

May 26, 2019. A beautiful, sunny day in Texas.

A fried chicken shop in Dallas was bustling with customers of all skin colors, all enjoying the highly cost-effective fried chicken burgers.

In a foreign country, not knowing the language can sometimes be an advantage.

Just like now, Jiao Yang, who understood everything, had to struggle to listen to advent and the others while simultaneously receiving an information dump from the foreigners at the next table—

"Hey, who do you think is going to win this time?"

"I think Vitality has a good chance. ZywOo is a genius."

"Doesn't feel as good as FaZe. Isn't NiKo's firepower as a top 3 player of the year stronger than his?"

"If you're going to hype him up like that, s1mple would have won a Major long ago. Top 1 plus Top 4, carrying two old guys, isn't it still useless?"

"It's fine, I heard NaVi recently changed to a new Commander, a fat guy."

"That works. Once Edward and Zeus both roll out, NaVi will be able to win."

Before those few European guys could finish, a social butterfly American at another table chimed in: "Buddy, you really think s1mple is that amazing? If he doesn't curb that stinking temper of his, he'll never win a championship in his life."

"Only talking about Vitality and FaZe, while ignoring Team Liquid who just took IEM Sydney? You Europeans are really arrogant!"

"Haha, I guess you forgot Boston in '18. Just a reminder, Stewie2K is on Liquid now."

Hearing "2K," Jiao Yang's beautiful day came to an end.

He finished his cola and clicked his tongue.

"Hm? What's wrong?" An Wenxin noticed Jiao Yang's movement and asked.

Jiao Yang pointed to the side, where the European and American teams were in a shouting match.

They were near the hotel where the tournament was being held; these people were likely fans of the respective teams.

"What are they doing? Are they performing freestyle?" aumaN looked over, but his cultural background left him completely clueless.

advent, JamYoung, and zhokiNg were equally confused; their nine-year compulsory education English wasn't enough to handle triple-speed English listening.

An Wenxin had at least passed the CET-6, so she barely understood the gist: "Seems like they're arguing about whether American CS or European CS is better lately."

"I think I heard 'c9'." JamYoung hadn't been out of school for long and could still understand a few simple words, like "Cloud Nine."

"Now they're talking about how amazing Stewie2K is, saying he's much stronger than s1mple who has no Major championship." An Wenxin switched to translation mode.

"Damn, that's really unlucky." aumaN cursed as soon as he heard the name Stewie2K.

"What's wrong?" An Wenxin only studied data and didn't really understand these things.

"This guy was playing in a domestic tournament, found his luggage missing at the airport, and directly went on a map-wide rant against CN, but it turned out he lost the luggage himself." aumaN was furious.

The reason he remembered this so clearly was that WESG felt more like a football World Cup than a regular tournament, so teams were divided by nationality. He hadn't been selected, which meant he could only hunker down at the base and watch the games.

Seeing this ofcitschina 2K, aumaN vented his anger over his own lack of strength along with it.

"That is indeed a bit disgusting." An Wenxin also didn't like such thoughtless behavior.

"Alright, let's go back. I feel like it's not very safe here." Seeing those two groups about to get physical, advent immediately suggested leaving.

They were here to play in a tournament; if they got caught up in this kind of dispute, it would be an unprovoked disaster.

Jiao Yang nodded. He noticed that the values above the Americans' heads were indeed significantly higher than those of the Europeans; he didn't know if that included real-life CS.

The group packed up and immediately retreated from the fried chicken shop.

They hadn't walked long when Jiao Yang suddenly stopped, staring at a shop entrance.

"Hey, hey, Jiao Yang, you don't want to go in there, do you?" aumaN looked at the dazzling neon lights on the sign paired with passionate dance music; even without reading the words, he could guess it was a nightclub. His tone was less of a question and more of a "let's try it."

"Hm?" An Wenxin looked over.

Jiao Yang immediately looked away and said calmly, "I think I saw a professional player."

The value was 95, the second highest he had seen so far, only behind ZywOo.

"Oh? The match is the day after tomorrow, and he's going to a nightclub now?" aumaN questioned, "How could a player have such poor professional ethics? You just want to go to the nightclub!"

"I think it's you who wants to go to the nightclub."

As he said this, advent took off aumaN's hat. If nothing else, the afro was indeed very unique and eye-catching. Many foreign girls in the nightclub looked over, pointing at aumaN and laughing, and some even took the initiative to blow kisses and say hello.

aumaN had never seen anything like this; he ran away alone, blushing.

Everyone laughed.

On the other side, NiP was not only relaxed in their daily lives, but they were also not nervous at all about their next opponent, VG.

Because they simply ignored them—

"FaZe's NiKo isn't in very good form right now, we have a chance!" Coach and temporary player pita, after briefly mentioning VG's style, shifted the focus to FaZe, whom they would likely face after beating VG.

"I heard he goes to nightclubs often lately. No wonder he's slipped so much." GeT-RiGhT laughed.

fOrest spoke earnestly to REZ: "CS is just like traditional sports; physical fitness is equally important. You must never slack off."

As the most promising young Swedish player, REZ was not only recognized by NiP veteran friberg before his retirement, but fOrest, a fellow Swedish legend, treated him like his own and taught him many insights.

Hearing the elder's earnest teachings, REZ nodded vigorously, indicating he understood.

"Actually, FaZe and we are facing the same problem. olofmeister, GuardiaN, and NEO are all 28, 29."

pita analyzed.

"Yes, so REZ, don't worry. Those old guys on the other side are our old rivals. Pat (fOrest) and I can handle them." GeT-RiGhT and olofmeister were both famous genius Free Agents. The debate about the two had continued to this day. They occupied different eras of CS, so there was still no conclusion as to who played better in terms of both honors and game level.

"You just need to focus on dealing with NiKo." fOrest nodded and said.

"Me playing against NiKo?"

For real?

REZ couldn't help but feel a bit intimidated. NiKo was the Top 3 player selected by HLTV in 2018—

He was just a nobody who couldn't even make the list. Could he really do it?

"You can't always fear the masters. You have to go further." fOrest sighed. His direct disciple was good at everything, except he lacked confidence.

This was also because NiP was all old guys like him and GeT-RiGhT, unable to consistently produce good results, which meant they couldn't give the young people more confidence.

It was a pity that Sweden really had no successors! If they were like Denmark, producing talent after talent, he would have suggested moving behind the scenes to management long ago.

Thinking of NiP's management, fOrest had an even bigger headache.

When did this club become so bloated and chaotic?

Maybe it was when he and his brothers were getting good results! Those shareholders who joined—

"Sigh."

REZ heard the senior's sigh, and his heart became even less confident—sure enough, someone as bad as me couldn't play against strong players like s1mple and NiKo, right?

I disappointed the senior again.

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