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

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:chuappgame, by Xiao Yang

He's not fighting alone.

This night will remain in the history of e-sports in China and even the world forever.

On February 13, Li Peinan won the championship by beating South Korea's Maru in this year's Intel Ultimate Masters (IEM) Catowitz station StarCraft II project finals. This is the first world championship won by Chinese e-sports in the "StarCraft II" e-sports event. Contestants, hosts and Chinese commentators at the other end of the line burst into tears at the same time, which means different things to them.

For host Smix, it was a perfect story of the world's No. 21 dragon slayer beating one of the greatest players of all time.

For champion Li Peinan, the champion dissipated all the pain, pressure and suspicion that surrounded him, which may be his dream solution, proving himself on the ultimate stage after several strong eight defeats.

Behind the trophy, there is too much to explain Brother Bird, and Huang Xudong and Sun Yifeng, who failed to broadcast the commentary live because of copyright issues, this is the end of a game they have been waiting for for more than 20 years. Chinese players beat South Korean players openly on the highest stage, this is the fairy tale of spring.

But under the brightly lit stage, we also need to know that this is not a victory for a lone wolf. In addition to Li Peinan, there are contestants like him, and countless people who accompany StarCraft to today.

Imagine when you can fight Korea. If you were born in China in 2000, how likely would you be to be a StarCraft II professional? The decline of China's professional StarCraft is easy to understand. RTS games are more difficult to operate than other popular e-sports projects, which keeps the number of players and players at a relatively low level. Players get relatively low exposure and earn less money. According to Huang Xudong, "I don't earn as much as League of Legends does."

In 2016, South Korea's "Star" League SPL disintegrated. There are some historical reasons for the dissolution of the world's "interstellar" circle. The problem of fake matches has plagued the entire South Korean "StarCraft" circle, but friends who follow StarCraft II know that the game has gone a long way downhill.

On our side, the market for StarCraft II is mainly dominated by agent NetEase, and then there are anchors who continue to stick to it like StarCraft Old Boys. It's hard to believe how much impact an anchor will have on game operations, but in this deserted Kopruxing area, a group of old boys are doing their best to maintain a common dream.

In the 2010 WCG "StarCraft" project group stage, Sun Yifeng (F91) against the "tyrant" Jaedong is first to let China's "StarCraft" continue, and then on this basis, to resist South Korea.

If you have a friend who pays attention to StarCraft, he may tell you, "the history of China's StarCraft is a history of resistance to Korea." This is true, of course, it has little to do with national feelings towards another country, and the biggest reason for "anti-Korea" is that South Korean players have dominated the event for quite a long time.

Perhaps more people know more about the "League of Legends" strength of South Koreans, but the actual source of strength is their attention to the original "StarCraft". To this end, South Korea has established an advanced e-sports professional system, set up teams, trained young players, and done intensive training, which is almost industrialized. A lot of practice has made South Korean young players so strong that for a long time, even substitute trainees who cannot play in the South Korean team can kill all sides in overseas competitions.

The desire to defeat the strong is shrouded in a whole generation of Chinese StarCraft players. We have been ranked in the WCG and various places, and we have always maintained a dominant position for European and American players, but the fight against South Korea has always been an unavoidable problem. We rarely beat first-class South Korean players. In 2007, China's PJ beat South Korea's top Zerg IPXZerg 2-1 in the WCG, which is a rare highlight on China's "StarCraft" anti-Korean road. Most of the time, we can only watch Flash, Jaedong, Bisu and Stork win one championship after another.

This is still the case when it comes to StarCraft II. The rise of "League of Legends" and "knife Tower" has simultaneously diverted young players from China and South Korea, allowing the feud between the same generation of "StarCraft" people to continue into the next decade. Today, if you keep looking back, you will find that the players of China's StarCraft II have always been so many people. At first, it was the first generation of StarCraft veterans represented by F91, MacSed, XiGua and ToodMing, followed by Mesozoic players such as Jim, IA, Cyan and Jieshi, and finally the new generation of TIME (Li Peinan) and Coffee.

People place high hopes on Li Peinan, among them, Li Peinan is the one that attracts the most attention.

You can feel the expectation of him in China's "interstellar" circle-a 14-year-old suddenly hit the Korean master and beat the then domestic professional Cloudy in the competition with someone else's number. Li Peinan is a young genius, but we have no shortage of young geniuses. F91 was also a genius at that time. Jim was a genius until he retired-many people forget that he was born in 1995.

Li Peinan's success is based on accident and necessity. He met the right person at the right time and made a success in StarCraft II, which became the last hope of China's StarCraft. But even if he did not encounter StarCraft, I think Li Peinan on a certain timeline, relying on his will to practice more than 12 hours a day, can still find his own success.

At least on the timeline of our lives, in 2016, the Korean Star League collapsed because of a fake match scandal, and many South Korean players lost their direction. They joined the army, retired, changed careers, or went overseas to search for gold. " Huang Xudong and Sun Yifeng, old interstellar boys, launched China's "StarCraft 3-year Plan", which includes organizing competitions at home, subsidizing domestic players to compete abroad, organizing training camps to improve the level of players, and hiring South Korean foreign aid. try to learn from South Korean players and narrow the gap between the two players.

In those days, perhaps the most common competition watched by Chinese StarCraft fans was not the GSL in South Korea or many WCS races around the world, but the "No.1 Kung Fu Cup" and the "Kung Fu Cup". All these are held by the "Star Boys" at their own expense, with bonuses ranging from a few hundred dollars. "the first martial arts club in the world" invites a South Korean second-or third-tier player about once a week, in order to give national players more opportunities to face strong enemies. At this stage, Li Peinan gradually grew from an amateur "Xiao Qiang" to one of the most competitive Chinese semi-professionals.

In the middle of 2017, several young Chinese "StarCraft" contestants were found to have participated in fake matches or played on their behalf, and Li Peinan was not among them. Maybe at this time, maybe before, everyone began to understand that this child is the last bastion of China's "StarCraft". If he makes achievements, there may be a future, and if he fails and retires, the history of China's "StarCraft" will come to an end.

In the following days, Li Peinan began to play higher-level games, went to South Korea to play GSL, and also played some domestic stations of high-level competitions. he gradually became stronger until he finally defeated his "victim" iA and became the first in China.

Later, Li Peinan began to become a first-class player, and he began to get small points from the top players in the world, losing 1-3 to Dark and 2-3 to Serral. Although it was a failure, it still gave us hope.

Behind this, in addition to his own efforts, there are also the efforts of others. Half a year after the fake match storm, the owner of the OM team ran away with money, and the Chinese "Star" team was disbanded one by one, the league became less attractive, it was forced to be restructured, and a large number of Mesozoic players retired. But some people didn't give up. Sun Yifeng decided to "go crazy again." Huang Xudong said, "go crazy with you again," so there was the "SCBOY Youth training Program."

The following year, the NetEase Golden League was restructured, and the WTL World "StarCraft" League was established, becoming the only "StarCraft II" league in the world. This league almost saved China's "StarCraft" and allowed many Chinese players, including Li Peinan, to survive the impact of the epidemic and maintain their "active service" status in 2023 to compete for the final championship.

Spring fairy tale I did not expect Li Peinan to win a champion back, no one thought so, if you ask me again, I still do not think so.

This is IEM Katowitz. After the Blizzard Carnival and WCS were closed, IEM Katowicz became the ultimate stage in the "StarCraft" world, the arena of the world's top players, and no one can pat on the chest and say, I will definitely win a championship.

In 2019, IEM Katowicz, the "King of Ten Asia" soO finally ushered in their own redemption, they all said, I want to do what I can, do the best.

If you've watched enough Li Peinan's games, you'll probably be familiar with some kind of defeat-a good performance in the first two group games, followed by a sudden brake and a losing streak, but in the group qualifying, the final eight played against a South Korean player, 2-3 out.

This is probably when the situation is good, if the state is not good, then every link may become the fuse of elimination.

At the finals on February 13, I even thought the same script was going to be played again. The group stage first beat Clem 2-0, then lost 1-2 to Dark,2-0-Cure, and then lost successively to Neeb and RagnaroK to qualify by a narrow margin. 12 into 8 against German HeRoMaRinE,3 1, but 8 into 4 to play Italian Zerg Raynor, world champion, almost world number one ZvT (Zerg versus Terran), 0-2 behind in the first two sets-that's enough. In fact, most people think so. If he really lost to Raynor 3-0, he would still be the top 8 in the finals, a star in the history of China's "StarCraft".

Reynor is the IEM Catowitz champion in 2021, but Li Peinan doesn't think so. Behind some kind of failure that we are already familiar with, the only one who has not been tamed is himself.

Along the way, he was close to collapse. In 2018, 18-year-old Li Peinan was knocked out of the group in the domestic Golden Professional League and was sprayed to decide to "take a break" after the game. The initial two years of the epidemic were unusually poor, suffered several flight breakers, visas and race delays, and finally announced "retirement next year" in 2022.

Last year, at the IEM Atlanta station, Li Peinan went all the way to the United States. In the group stage, Li Peinan lost 0-2 to Poland's Zerg Elazer and then 0-2 to Korean Terran Ryung.

When he gets home, his father Li Xuewen will always tell him, in my heart, you will always be the best player.

Back from the United States, Li Peinan began to practice for Katowitz, exercising from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and practicing StarCraft from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m., with an accurate and simple schedule. In order to practice against the top players in South Korea and Europe, he needs to maintain this eccentric routine.

It has become a routine for Li Peinan to practice with top players. He no longer needs to give up his seat to Maru and invite INnoVation to dinner on the bus to get the chance to practice. Now, the "Star Boy" and NetEase's "Star" team League WTL brings together the world's top players. Li Peinan's top 8 opponent, Italy's Zerg Reynor, is his teammate at the club "KaiZi Gaming". According to Pinyin, the name of the team means "Kaizi", which means the wrong person to pay for it. Boss Zhang Haohan doesn't care about money. He hopes Li Peinan can type it and make China's "StarCraft" stand on the highest stage in the world. This is the dream of these "interstellar old boys".

Zhang Haohan and his "Celtics" team gave Li Peinan great support on the stage. All the other players were equipped with a "coach", while Li Peinan was always alone. In fact, the "coach" was usually a close friend, such as the Dutch Protoss Harstem who took the stage with Reynor, and Li Peinan also had friends Coffee and Nice, who also wanted to go on stage and talk to Li Peinan, all of whom were rejected by him.

From beginning to end, whether it is the trough or the peak, Li Peinan is never alone. Behind him are his teammates, even opponents, his father, and everyone in China's "StarCraft".

This is not only the victory of Li Peinan, not just the victory of the Chinese "StarCraft" players-- this victory also belongs to all the players who have persisted, whether they give up or not; belong to the organizers who have worked hard to hold competitions, big or small; belong to the investors who often run the team at a loss; belong to every sailor who buys the war chest of the team league; belongs to all the people who have ever cared about the industry. It belongs to those who cheered for this project in the sunset.

When Blizzard closed its business in China, we lost our servers. It is precisely at this moment that the most legendary champion in the history of the project was born. We do not know the future direction, whether there is a next agent, "StarCraft II" can be difficult to maintain their own breath of life. But I always hope this champion can change something. I don't know if anyone secretly changed their mind on that sleepless night. Just like the change that really happened to Li Peinan, when you hit something over and over with a small hammer, you always get something.

"I have no regrets." on the night when Li Peinan was fighting, the "StarCraft Old Boy", who did not have the right to broadcast, played "Goose and Duck Kill" for a while and played "Tower 2" for a while, but he was obviously not in his state, and then broadcast it hastily, saying that he was "going to sleep." When he won the championship, several people turned on the live broadcast again, but Sun Yifeng did not come. "I'm not coming," he said on Weibo. "leave me alone. At this moment, I want to remember what I used to do."

"20 years later, Li Peinan fulfilled my dream when I was a teenager. This moment has not been easy. Thanks to Li Peinan and StarCraft. I have no regrets."

As a player who really fought in the front line of the fight against South Korea at that time, I think, at that moment, he could finally let it go.

"I have no regrets."

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