Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

The legend of e-sports on the treasure island.

Speaking of e-sports in South Korea, countless names may flash through our minds. Players all over the world have seen the "winding ability" of South Korean players and professional circles in different events. to some extent, while enjoying the competitive appreciation they bring, they have been suffering from South Korean e-sports for a long time.

If a lone hero from another country wins a strong South Korean event, even the harshest audience on the Internet, e-sports, will have to look down on him, such as Serral, the first non-Korean champion of StarCraft II.

Not long ago, on the treasure island of Taiwan, there was such a "strong man" who accomplished a similar feat. In the highest professional competition of "Crazy Racing Kart Rider" in early October, Taiwan's Neal won the individual championship for the first time three years after his retirement.

It was a great achievement, but unfortunately it was a "last song"-the game was about to disappear soon after he won the championship.

1 the dominance of e-sports in South Korea is not only reflected in the global popular projects such as "League of Legends" and "StarCraft", but also includes the national-level game that is still popular among Korean players-"Crazy Racing Kart Rider" from NEXON.

NEXON is not an unfamiliar name for domestic players. "Crazy Racing Kart Rider" was once popular in China more than a decade ago, and now it has 380 million registered users worldwide. In its birthplace, South Korea, running can be called a national-level game, there is an exaggeration that "half of the population of South Korea has played it", also continued here is the traditional spirit of e-sports of South Korea.

On the treasure island of Taiwan, games such as "Bubble House" and "Crazy Racing Kart Rider" by NEXON were also popular for a time. But times have changed, and NEXON games have gradually faded away. At least mainland netizens associate the above elements together, and the first thing that comes to mind is "Brother Jay, don't".

Ah Wei and brother Jie "met" in an Internet cafe, and the opportunity was that it was against this background that on October 1, Liu Yun-Heng, a Taiwanese player named "Neal Pao Brother", won the championship by killing the bleeding road from the Korean master in the S2 individual match of the 2022 "Crazy Racing Kart Rider" League in South Korea.

Behind this unpopular event, the winner, with a large number of BUFF--24-year-old "older" players, entered the Korean league alone, the first foreign player in the history of the Korean league, and just returned to the professional arena.

The legend of pop brother Neal began in 2007. It was the year when the runway suit started, the 9-year-old went to the Internet cafe with his children of the same generation. Instead of encountering "Brother Jie" here, he signed up for his first "Crazy Racing Kart Rider" account.

Two years later, when he was still young, he made his debut under the ID of "Brother 1911." as the youngest player in the game, he won the first league in Taiwan's amateur competition, thus opening the way to dominate Taiwan. Before the age of 15, he played all over the amateur arena, and after the age of 15, he rode in the professional arena with the name of "Neal", and he could hardly see his opponent.

However, before starting his own era, the environment of e-sports in Taiwan changed suddenly. In 2014, the Taiwan e-sports league announced the "de-professionalization" of games such as "Crazy Racing Kart Rider" and the cancellation of professional leagues. The certified identity of "professional players" has since become a thing of the past.

The initial standardization of Taiwan's e-sports is earlier than that of the mainland, and there is a strict distinction between amateur and professional e-sports projects. If you want to officially become a professional player, you need to participate in the Taiwan e-sports league draft competition, and the clubs under the league will choose to join the team, then you can participate in the professional league and carry out a series of league-led commercial operations.

De-professionalization, on the one hand, encourages the elimination of the distinction between amateurs and professionals, so that both sides can show their strength in front of the screen; on the other hand, it also marks the professionals who were once endorsed by the e-sports League of Taiwan. back to the old road of "living on bonuses."

For Brother Pao, the impact of this matter is big and big, small and small. In various competitions in Taiwan, he is still riding without suspense. But without the title of real "professional player", Brother Pao can only act under the banner of semi-professional player.

Seeing that a generation of genius may be buried for objective reasons, Brother Pao himself is in a good state of mind, returning to school while continuing to maintain his state and waiting for a good opportunity.

2 in the first few years of Crazy Racing Kart Rider's professionalization, the Youtube channel operated by Brother Pao became popular and opened a live broadcast on Twitch. In addition to being a game blogger, he continues to take care of the game.

Brother Pao joined Jay Chou's JTeam Club as a game anchor. In the former panda TV "Crazy Racing Kart Rider" match between China and South Korea, he was praised as the "top three suits" by players on both sides of the Taiwan Strait for his impressive level.

The pop elder brother in that period was very popular as an anchor, but he didn't want to run slowly into a game with "only viewers but no players".

Fortunately, the de-professionalization also brought a lot of room for private e-sports to play, so Pao used his influence to hold and organize many competitions, such as some online events and the 10th Anniversary team Invitational Race of Taiwan Service. It not only won more players' attention, but also successfully attracted more players to return to the running stage.

At the same time, Brother Pang's strength is still not masked by his semi-professional identity. In 2019, NEXON held the "Crazy Racing Kart Rider" World Championship, which is said to be an international event, but it can actually be called a "three-suit race", with only four places for each server team.

Compared with the active professional players who came from the South Korean real league, Brother Pao is a "grass-roots team", and there is no shortage of former professionals who have already changed careers among the three teammates. But the final result surprised the players of Sanfu. The Taiwan suit team won the runner-up and got unexpected good results, among which Brother Pao attracted the attention of all running players with his brilliant personal performance.

But at the end of a big game, Brother Pang seems to have slowed down again.

First, he announced that he would no longer take part in the mini-competition of Taiwan clothes-because this crushing game almost ruined the enthusiasm of other local players to win the championship. Later, he participated in hosting the RSLeague Dream Cup, but he took the position of a critic. During this period, he also rejected one invitation after another from the Korean club on the grounds of his studies, and all his actions seemed to point to "retiring with success."

At this time, Brother Pao's live broadcast is getting longer and longer, with thousands of people watching each live broadcast, but apart from learning skills, the most important purpose has become to watch the anchor live.

Last year, a video of "Curry mixed with Rice" on Douyin topped the list of ghosts and animals. Blogger @ Igarashi Fumihiko imitated the popular "Guo Yanguo" last summer, using pretentious exaggerated language and behavior to perform a taste of curry. As the protagonist of the video looks quite similar to Brother Pao, fans on both sides of the strait often tease him in the studio in an attempt to get the anchorman to learn.

Brother Pao was quite resistant at first and asked, "if you want to see me, find someone to come to industry and commerce." As a result, a takeout company really came to the door, and the image-conscious brother quickly gave in, dressed up like the protagonist of the video, held up curry by the throat, and complied with the wishes of fans.

The old fans are satisfied, but it has also attracted a lot of people to scoff, some people say that grandstanding in the live broadcast is tantamount to losing the spirit to fight, so it is "broken". For a moment, it seems that the classic drama in which the powerful faction has turned into a comedian has been staged on Brother Pao, and the ridicule of "Curry mixed Rice" has even become a satire among some people, and has often accompanied him ever since.

During the nearly three years of the epidemic, Brother Pao himself has hardly participated in any competition, and fans feel that retirement seems to be short of his own words.

However, it turns out that Brother Pang really doesn't think so. In June, Brother Pao suddenly told everyone in the video that he was going to take a break in the Korean league, which is of a higher level and famous for its intensity.

But his decision did not receive unanimous support from fans. Compared with his duty-bound to pursue his dream again after many years, fans will analyze the pros and cons for him more realistically.

No one is sure what result a veteran who has not played for a long time will get when he goes to South Korea. As mentioned earlier, Brother Pao is already an anchor with hundreds of thousands of fans, and he is still known as the best player in Baodao for three years. If he is not guaranteed for the evening festival in South Korea, it will also be a big blow to his anchor career, which now depends on him. But even so, he finally decided to hit the road.

Before leaving, Brother Pang said a famous remark similar to Deft, the champion of the "League of Legends" project next door: "the most successful thing I have done in my life is probably playing video games. It would be a pity if I don't go to Korea." in fact, Brother Pang's determination does not have the sense of loneliness and heroism of "the last bet". He just thinks that there is nothing wrong with his state.

Also in the live broadcast, someone asked such a question, "do you think you can make the Taiwan server hot again?" Brother Pao stumbled, "I'm not sure."

Facts have proved that Brother Pang is relaxed for a reason. Starting from the qualifying match, he successfully entered the Korean Professional League singles tournament, ranking first among 128 players. Before the start of the professional competition, his approval rating once reached 87%, much higher than other South Korean players in the same group.

Although he joined the Liiv SANDBOX Club in South Korea, due to the language barrier, Pao only played singles on behalf of the club, and there were not many opportunities for him to compete with other players on the field. For this exotic player squeezed in a crowd of South Korean ID, people know his story and recognize his high popularity, but they are not sure of his strength.

When people were still in doubt about the strength of Brother Pao, he responded with the first result in the race against several top players in South Korea. After going all the way to the final championship and Asia competition, in the face of the unfavorable situation of losing one game first, Brother Pao quickly adjusted his status in three sets and finally won the singles championship in the encirclement and suppression of many top South Korean players.

This solid excellent result seems to tell people that he did not stay away from e-sports because of his age and declining condition, but did not find enough competitive venues.

The authorities are also obviously aware of the appeal that Brother Pao and "Crazy Racing Kart Rider" once had in Taiwan Service. they soon launched a champion-shaped car, which players can get online in a limited time. For a while, the number of online players has soared, and almost everyone in Taiwan knows that they have a king in this field who is as dominant as Faker, and many people have rekindled their interest in antique games, as if the question asked by that fan got the best answer.

On the other hand, NEXON officials have also prepared a piece of bad news. A pop brother in South Korea learned the answer earlier-- the "Crazy Racing Kart Rider" Taiwan service will be closed in a few months. The rise of genius happens to be accompanied by the decline of "Crazy Racing Kart Rider" in Taiwan.

On April 1, just one month after Pao won the championship, Taiwan Services issued an announcement announcing that the operating contract with NEXON is about to expire and the game will be suspended on January 31 of the following year. The news came very suddenly, and the official reaction was so quick that the game could no longer register an account since 7: 00 p.m.

The next day, when Brother Bao turned on the live broadcast, fans rushed into the studio and asked him about the inside story. Brother Pao said he did know the news in advance and said he was "a little uncomfortable".

The suspension of Taiwan service itself is not difficult to understand. The NEXON sequel Crazy Racing Kart Rider: drift is just around the corner, and the old version, which is 18 years old and at the same time as World of Warcraft, can be called a "living fossil" for online travel. Over the past decade, servers running around the world have been shut down one after another, and the shutdown of Taiwan service will come sooner or later, in order to better usher in new works.

But for players who still cling to the game-brother Pao may be one of them-everything is still a little cruel, although there are accounts on both mainland and South Korean servers, Taiwan server is the place where the dream begins. And a few months ago, he just found the first account he had associated with the game when he was young.

As for the champion styling car that has not yet been warmed up, the "permanent acquisition" is now a three-month time limit. Some people teased me directly in the live broadcast that it was a permanent car or a "hearse".

Brother Pao himself had no choice but to joke about going back, "you won't go up and run a few times for three years."

Game iteration, for "Crazy Racing Kart Rider" already weak e-sports foundation is more or less a blow. Throughout its history, running is not a simple casual game, in fact, proficient in difficulty and competitive depth are quite high. No one knows whether the new work of running can replicate the splendor of that year, and it seems even more difficult for Taiwan to have such a complete career foundation of e-sports at that time. In other words, after a round of times, the "soil" is difficult to survive, and no one knows where to find the next "pop brother Neal".

But at least he can still enjoy the joy of winning the top league for the moment-someone in the live broadcast asked, "won't it be over if you run and fall?" Brother Pao, who is about to return to Taiwan for a short rest, joked, "actually, it's all right, just go back and run for takeout."

This article is from the official account of Wechat: game Research Society (ID:yysaag), author: platinum Isia

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