Chapter 7: You Started It
There's a saying that has always circulated in the CS community: A talented young prodigy who hasn't been accused of cheating isn't a real prodigy.
Jake looked at the text in the public chat, feeling completely unphased. If anything, he wanted to laugh. He had dealt with this dozens of times lately. When he was in a good mood, he'd talk back, using his thirty years of accumulated "keyboard warrior" experience to shut people down. But honestly? It was getting boring.
It was like a cliché plot point in a bad novel. Repeating it once was fine; repeating it every game was exhausting. So, he had unlocked a new mental state: Selective Deletion.
[Enemy] Tutu: "Why aren't you guys reporting him? Look at his rating! 1.71! If he's not cheating, I'll eat my keyboard!" [Enemy] Steve: "Exactly. You guys are just riding a cheat-bus. Watch out, Faceit is gonna ban all of you for being boosted by a cheater!" [Enemy] Lakers_Fan: "Imagine knowing your teammate is a cheater and not leaving. You're the reason this game is dying!"
The opposing team called a tactical timeout just to spend two minutes "visiting" Jake's profile. Seeing the solid wall of green wins and god-like stats, they went into a blood rage, spewing toxic trash talk.
Jake's teammates just laughed it off. Having watched his POV while dead, they knew the truth: his movement was too fluid, his crosshair placement too perfect. He wasn't a cheater; he was a pro smurfing. And who wouldn't want a pro carrying them to a free win?
But once the insults started hitting the whole team, a total war broke out in the chat. One side screamed "Hacker!", the other side mocked them with "Get gud."
Jake stayed silent until the very last second of the timeout. He typed: "If you're bad, practice. If you can't handle losing, don't play."
Then, he opened the console, typed a string of commands to mute the enemy chat, and closed it. Out of sight, out of mind. The game continued.
"Lao Jiu, I thought you were going to ask him who he is? The match is halfway over!" Ju teased from the side. "I... I will," Lao Jiu (259) muttered, looking at his embarrassing 2-9 score. "I'll DM him after the game. No rush. If I ask him now and someone clips it, it'll look bad—a pro captain getting carried by a random in Rank S." "Hah, look at you being all 'socially savvy,'" Ju joked. "Of course. You still have much to learn, kid."
Lao Jiu chuckled to himself. Yeah, that's it. It's definitely not because I'm playing like a bot and I'm too embarrassed to speak. Definitely not.
The score reached 11-4. Sides swapped. Lao Jiu directed the team to rush B, while Jake went Mid to cut off rotations. Jake picked off one player rotating from A-Short, but then the kill feed exploded. In seconds, his four teammates were wiped out. No trades. Another 1v4.
"Uh... three B-site. One is low," Lao Jiu reported, his voice tinged with shame. Jake sighed and tapped 'Tab'. He was 28-7. Lao Jiu was bottom-fragging at 5-11. Man, what's the difference between this guy and the chickens on Inferno? Jake thought. Good thing he met a nice guy like me. A toxic teammate would've been screaming at him to 'cluck' by now.
Jake pushed Mid, caught a rotator with a clean headshot, and transitioned to B-door. Using his robotic pre-aim, he deleted the CT holding the car. Infinite confidence. He swung wide into the site. Two CTs tried to double-peek him from the back of the site—Pfft! Pfft! Two more headshots.
1v4 clutch. Easy. "Just lucky," Jake replied to his teammates' cheers.
Next round. The 15-second freeze time suddenly turned into a minute-long pause. The enemy top-fragger had disconnected. "What? Did he rage quit?" Jake wondered. "Oh no..." a teammate muttered in voice chat. "Are they really gonna do it?" "Do what?" Jake asked. "NiKo-bro, didn't you see the chat?" "Muted it ages ago. What did they say?" "...They said: 'You started it.'"
Jake froze. Oh, boy. Here we go. The infamous CNCS curse. When someone says "You started it," it means they've decided you're a cheater and they're about to toggle their own "Spin-Bot" or "Wall-hack" for a chaotic HvH battle.
Come on, guys. It's 12-4! Why now?! "Maybe they're joking," a teammate whispered. The pause ended. The enemy top-fragger reconnected just in time.
Jake had a good spawn for Long A. He told his team to throw flashes. The enemy was on an eco-round; at most, they had Scouts or SMGs. Long-range duels should be an easy win for Jake's AK. Everything went to plan. Jake pushed A-doors, killed a blind CT, and molly'd the car. He shoulder-peeked to clear the corner.
CRACK. A Scout bullet pierced his skull instantly. His body flew back into the wall. "Holy... he's serious!" Jake yelled. His teammates watched his body ragdoll in horror. "Maybe it was just a lucky flick? I'll check—" CRACK. Another teammate dropped.
The voice chat went dead silent. The three remaining Ts stood behind the blue box, staring at each other. Jake let out a sigh. "Well," he said to his stunned team. "Hurry up and go feed. This game is over."