In a series of videos, we learned about each member of SN, their origin stories. This one is about SN’s mid laner, Angel.
(original video link:https://v.qq.com/x/cover/mzc0020085wxasb/j0034v1dnm0.html)
Angel was a quiet kid at school, he wasn’t the loud one, doesn’t talk to people as much. He likes gaming since he was little, but there’s only so many people you can talk about gaming to, so he became a quiet kid.
Angel’s teacher describe him as a “tamed kid”, he was never late for school, he always submits his homework on time.
In his fellow classmates’ eyes, Angel wasn’t the most outstanding one, but when he talks about league of legends, he just lights up.
Angel’s dad describes him as a resilient boy, he’s very quick in picking up games, all kinds of games. He used to play Chinese chess with his dad, but Angel can’t beat him, he’d cry after losing, but he always came back to challenge his dad in the next day, day after day.
Angel got challenger when he was freshman in junior high, it was at that time he realized he could do something in this field, he’s better than most people at league. In 2016, during his summer vacation, Angel took a trip to Shanghai, he watched one LPL game in the audience, it was LGD vs VG, GodV vs Easyhoon. GodV just came back from a long stage absence, watching that game, Angel who was still just a nobody, thought to himself, one day, I will be playing on the stage, I won’t be just watching from the audience.
But the road to pro wasn’t always smooth, in fact, in Angel’s case, it was full of obstacles.
“esports is the 99th sport recognized by national sports association“
His parents were skeptical of esports, “how can you make any money from playing games” , his dad questioned him.
“I’m not just playing games, I’m a pro esports player. You can search it on the internet.“
Angel would send every piece of positive news to his parents, when the national sports association recognize esports as the 99th category of sports, he’d send the news to him mom. But in early years, when esports was still in wild west age in China, you can read about players need to save money from food to play tournaments, team owners disappears before paying players etc. These were all his parents’ concerns, to stop Angel from going pro.
Angel’s mom shared the darkness before the dawn moment, the story of how Angel went pro:
“Several teams were offering him positions, he wants to go, but I won't let him. I wanted him to finish high school education, so I kept putting him down, putting him down. We were in constant conflict, fighting each other to wit's end. We were in bad shape. He wasn't good, I wasn't good. We were both in bad situations, very bad. Thinking back to that period of time, it was very sad. I was thinking if we kept fighting at each other in this way, I'm losing my son. So I thought just let it be. I was thinking, you can go, college can be attended later, there are so many education institutions, if you failed the first year, you can always come back the next. But in the gaming industry, the age limitation is very strict, 23 is considered to be old. The time it helped settle my mind is when he was in high school after he was in high school, he was determined to go, and it happens there was a team offering him a position, it pains me to talk about that time. Dongyang is a place with so little population, so little cars, in the night you can see a lot of houses, but no light. But when we went there, his expression shows great excitement. Because in his mind, he's pursuing his dream. But I'm very conflicted, it's like there's a knife (in my heart), my heart was bleeding blood. I was in great pain. But I don't want to show it. I thought to myself, he's just here, let him experience it, let him try it, I thought he'd come back. Little did I know, they won the championship. It's something I'm still amazed at to this day. These five people really have chemistry with each other.”
“it’s like I have lost my son“
After Tyloo won the LDL championship, Angel’s parents’ concerns were gone. His dad was very proud of him, to tout him in front of their friends: my son won the champion!
“our face look very good in front of friends“
Then Angel transferred to SN, in his dad’s companion.
Parents’ concerns won’t stop there, they worry about him when he’s losing, they worry about if he under-peforms what will happen. But they also grow to like watching league of legends more because of their son.
Angel’s mom talking about lpl viewing experience:
Once you get to know it, it’s even more exciting than soccer. Starting from drafts, each game is different than the other, you need to take out different champions in different games, it requires a lot of mind work and intelligence. Very exciting.
“Sometimes when I watch their game my blood pressure goes up to 180.”
