The rest of the week was pretty much the same, Ace toured different parts and attractions of the city every day, and then at night went to parties with his teammates. At the end of the week, on their last night, a huge party was thrown in their honour, and it was insane. Apparently, they had left a pretty big mark, and so it was decided that such festivity was necessary.
They were at the party until about 6 in the morning, and went to the hotel with an hour to spare for when the bus would come and collect them.
The flight back home was peaceful, every single one of them except Ace were placed on IV drips, and they slept the whole way there. It was a Monday morning, and they luckily did not have to go to school. This meant that they each went to their own house, where they spent the whole day sleeping and getting ready to go back to the grind.
Ace gave his mother a report, and then spent the rest of the day streaming normally. As of now, he was hitting at least 30 thousand concurrent viewers, and the numbers only grew. At this point, everyone knew him, even people from communities that were not English-speaking.
He had done various collabs with content creators that spoke other languages, it was easy to do, since he could speak them perfectly himself. It had also helped spread the word to more people, and had gained him quite a few followers.
***
"Yeah, so, you want to be placing your crosshair at head height, this will make it so that you have less distance to travel if you come across an enemy, than if you were just looking at the floor or at their feet. This is pretty much the best way to ensure you are getting more and more kills.", Ace said.
Currently, he was trying out a new idea, which was to coach viewers. He would happily coach them in any games he was actually proficient in for two hours, free of charge. It made for hilarious reactions, and people also loved to learn things they could use as well.
This was the second time he had done it. His plan was to do at least one every week, but today, he had decided to do it twice, since it would give people a good idea of how it would work out.
***
After finishing the fourth hour of coaching, Ace was excited to play himself, and so loaded into a new game of CS:GO. His first round was playing on the Terrorist side, which meant planting the bomb.
He went from the default fragger buy, and then made his way through the map. He was looking for an aggressive push he could punish, before making one of his own. But it seemed he was out of luck, he found no-one.
Regardless, he kept on going all the way, until he made it to the B bombsite. He was alone, since his teammates had made noise in A, and gotten the opening kill, which pretty much forced a rotation to the middle of the map, and A.
Nevertheless, Ace took things slow, checking his corners and walking without making a noise. He did not find anyone, but as soon as he picked through the connector of B and mid, he saw an enemy trying to peek middle, he died by headshots. Ace threw a smoke grenade at the entrance of A, and then ran toward the bomb site, under the cover of the smoke.
By this point, it was a three versus two, with both enemies on the bombsite, covering different angles.
"Ok, we all go in at the same time, three, two, one!", Ace said on his mike, and pushed through his entrance, while the other two did the same. Ace got his kill quickly, since he already had an inkling of where he was, and the other two did the same. Simply overwhelming the enemy with a multitude of shots.
"Good round, well played.", Ace said.
***
"Welcome back", his homeroom teacher said, greeting him with a friendly smile, "Congratulations for the win - not that we expected any other result."
'I am sure you didn't', Ace thought, while smiling back at her, then walking to his usual seat, accepting the congratulatory words from his classmates. 'I wonder where the girls are? They are usually here at the same time I am.'
The teacher waited until it was time to begin, and then began her announcements, "Due to his recent contributions to the school, one of your year mates from Homeroom 2 has been promoted to this Homeroom. Please treat him nicely.", she smiled, and motioned with her hand, and Igor came into the door, finding Ace's calm eyes, and grinning excitedly.
'Ooohhh, good for him, I guess the school really did take this Tournament seriously. Well, good for him, I guess, this will also make it easier to coordinate schedules or ask for leave from our teachers, since he is now one of the elites in the school.'
Soon, whispers began to sound around the classroom, as people began to notice that they had moved down in rank. It only stopped once the teacher stood up, and looked around at the class. "Indeed, a lot of you have been moved down a place or two, due to the importance of the event Igor took part in, I hope you use this to polish your own skills - whichever they may be, many opportunities such as this one will come your way, it is up to you to become eligible for them."
"Good stuff man, congrats.", Ace said, as Igor sat next to him, however, he could not say more, since the teacher began speaking again.
"I would also like to inform you, that the gap between you and the top of the class is only growing wider. Currently, Rank 2 and Rank 3 are partaking in a workshop to hone their various skills, in order to take part in the multiple competitions and events that will happen from here on to the end of the year. Not to mention, our Rank 1 has broken any past records of the number of points collected in one year. He is currently on the same level as the top of the sophomores, or in the middle of the pack for junior year. Furthermore, the year has not even ended. I recommend you take his example, and work your skin off, the rewards are worth it.", she finished her spiel, and as if timed, which Ace knew it for sure was, the bell rang, and she walked out of the classroom.