Chen Xin spent two years battling it out at an internet cafe in the county town, reaching Radiant rank in both the Chinese and Hong Kong servers of Valorant, yet the whole internet lambasted him as an overrated fraud.
His aim was always his weak point. He scored just over 60,000 in Aimlab, 20,000 below the average of 80,000 for professional players. But Li Zhi, his fifty-two-year-old history teacher and homeroom advisor, saw something special in him: his aim was ordinary, but his battlefield instincts were astonishing. He could predict his opponents' positions, routes, and arrival times.
Li Zhi paid for the tickets out of his own pocket and rode with him for fourteen hours on a bus to the Yajia Youth Training Center in Shijiazhuang. His mother earned just 2,000 yuan a month at a textile factory. She took time off for this trip and lost her full-attendance bonus.
At the training base, Chen Xin ranked last in the Aimlab test, and the director, Su Yuan, immediately advised him to leave. Li Zhi asked only for one real match. If Chen Xin didn't perform, he would pay the travel costs himself and leave at once.
In the end, they won 13-12 by a narrow margin. Chen Xin relied not on his aim, but on his precise understanding of the match. Su Yuan summed it up in two words: "Rare talent."
Chen Xin was allowed to stay, with his fees waived, but only for six months. If he couldn't improve his aim, he would have to leave.
The 20,000-point gap in mechanics loomed before him. His mother's meager income weighed on him, and the team's prodigy, Tang Fu, bluntly told him his aim was too poor to deserve a place on the first team.
Like Xiao He chasing Han Xin beneath the moon, Li Zhi had seen his spirit and talent. But whether Han Xin would ever earn a noble title remained uncertain.
