God's Left Hand

“Solo’s team was composed of the ‘ten inconceivables’ in the Chinese CS circle. The two star players, Solo and Gun, were ranked in the top ten in the world for two consecutive years. Certainly, there’s Gou Gou master of the quickscope and no scope……” The male commentator didn’t stop when the video was over. Influenced by the excitement of the audience, he began recounting glorious achievements of the number 1 team in China. “The 2nd most consistent player, the 4th best player to draw first-blood in a game, the 2nd best at map control, the 4th best player for pistol-only matches, and nominated three times for MVP.”

“And, all of these were world rankings.” The female commentator added with a smile.

The loud cheers seemed to bring some warmth to the CS world which was in a deep freeze.

The number one esport game, Warcraft, supported over thirty thousand professional and semi-professional players.

As for CS, there were only a handful players who could survive on their salary. Every major CS competition was made possible mostly by the love for the game by veteran CS players.

Because everyone believed that even though the winter was long, there would come a day when the snow melted.

The opening successfully roused the passions of the audience.

The matches for the quarterfinals showed up on the big screen. The first round of the final competition had officially begun.

Several people sat down next to Solo. After brief introductions, Ai Qing realized that these were the people from his current club. Among the din of intense firefights, he looked at his watch and said, “I’ll go get ready.”

Ai Qing nodded and watched him enter the competition area.

He wore, as usual, a white short sleeved polo shirt, jeans and the watch from the old times.

That’s the watch she gave him after she received her award money from a competition.

Ai Qing suddenly felt the sound of the gunshots were becoming unbearable; she took Solo’s VIP badge and walked out to the lobby. She stood in front of the vending machine and seriously pondered whether to have green tea or black tea.

Someone behind her put in a five dollar bill and made the decision for her.

Dt gave her a iced black tea.

She thanked him, pushed the straw in, and took a sip.

There weren’t many people out in the lobby since the competition was in full swing inside. There were only a few staff members who had nothing to do, chatting about esports. She gulped up half the can of iced tea. “Who do you think will win?”

Dt thought about it. “It should be Solo.”

Ai Qing amazedly looked at him. “If Grunt heard this, he would stop being your friend.”

“I always say so.” He said, “There’s still some distance between him and Solo.”

Ai Qing bit the straw and couldn’t help but agree. “I think so too. I couldn’t tell why but just a feeling. If it’s you and Solo……maybe there’d be some doubt.”

“I lost to Solo before.” He earnestly told her.

“I know.” Ai Qing mysteriously looked at him. “I know which game it was. I even remember the scores.” She glanced at him again after she spoke.

Unfortunately, Dt didn’t show any surprise. “You mean, that game on Battle.net?”

She responded with an ‘en’. She was going to tease him, too bad Dt didn’t have an ounce of humor in him…… f𝐫ee𝘄ℯ𝚋no𝐯𝐞l.c𝘰m

She had nothing to do but to listen to the chaotic firefights inside. She looked around and turned her eyes back on him and found that he was still looking at her as if he was waiting for her to continue the conversation.

Their eyes met for a few seconds and it reminded her of long ago.

The picture of the two of them awkwardly looking at each other amid the sound of ocean waves in Singapore……Dt saw her face had begun to turn red. “Your face is red. Are you hot?”

“A little bit.” With the straw in her mouth, she mumbled and pointed inside. “I’ll go in now.”