Chapter 43: Not a native player, but one of us

Because he "kicked" off four starters on his first day joining the team, Liang Yan became well-known among domestic netizens, earning titles such as "Foot God", "Professional Demolition Worker", and "Team-disbanding Kid"; purely in terms of current popularity, he can already rival some top streamers.

But his debut match didn't attract much attention.

Netizens just like gossip.

Watching LPL matches is far more fun and intense; who would enjoy watching Europe's weak teams peck at each other like chickens?

The first S championship was indeed won by Europe, but that was many years ago; in recent years, European teams haven't made a single S tournament finals—"decline is a fact"—while LPL reached the finals in S3 and S4 consecutively (both times with RNG's predecessor RYL), so many in LPL, including casters, inevitably look down on the Europe Region when discussing it.

Everyone suffers from selective amnesia, forgetting that last year's S tournament had only EDG make the quarterfinals, yet they were swept 4-0 by a European team.

Could it be a kind of collective trauma response?

In short, the G2 vs GIA match, although Liang Yan performed incredibly, didn't stir much domestic buzz—only 52PK's website posted a bland match report in the corner of its league special section.

——【G2 mid laner/jungler made a spectacular debut on stage, having once applied to LPL and been rejected.】

Moreover, it disappeared half a day after being posted, likely because the involved team saw the tail end of the title, feared it would affect their reputation, and contacted 52PK to delete the article.

But on European internet, this match sparked a heated discussion.

One reason is that Liang Yan is the first ever mid laner from the Europe Region, and his debut performance was explosive.

The second reason is that caster Quickshot misspoke on stream, calling Liang Yan a native player of the Europe Region.

No matter the region, viewers naturally prefer their region's strong players to be natives rather than imports—just as later LPL fans actively assigned fake nationalities to meat chickens and Doinb.

So, is Liang Yan, whose professional registration is in the Europe Region, actually a native player of that region?

Some detail-oriented European netizens dug up the latest player management regulations set by Riot Games, which clearly define player affiliation:

The first criterion for determining a player's identity is nationality/birthplace.

On top of that, if a player holds multiple nationalities, the second criterion applies: the region of their first registration.

Lastly, there is another way to earn "native player" certification: residing long enough in the region's location.

For example, LPL's rule is "residing in mainland China for at least 48 months out of the past 72 months"—worth noting: LMS Region native players don't occupy import slots in LPL, because LMS players hold Chinese nationality, and whether a son acknowledges his father doesn't change the objective fact that the father is one's father.

According to these rules, Liang Yan is certainly not a Europe Region native player.

Quickshot also posted a tweet after the match clarifying, admitting he misremembered.

But what you say is your business; netizens have their own opinions.

After a day passed, the heat of the debate over whether Liang Yan is a Europe Region native player not only didn't diminish, but actually exploded further with time.

Perhaps Riot Games also thought this was utterly absurd, so on the third day after the match they posted a tweet, pasting the player identity definition and adding a line:

【Firrrrrre occupies an import slot.】

Then it provoked many netizens to swarm, sparking a new round of debate over whether this rule is reasonable.

After another two days, the matter still had no conclusion everyone could accept, with both sides continuing to flame war fiercely; possibly also tired from arguing, the two sides eventually collided into a viewpoint everyone could barely accept—an "unwritten" consensus:

"Firrrrrre is not a native player, but he's one of us."

Liang Yan occasionally sees such comments online and finds them utterly amazing.

Can something like this even spark an argument?

But no matter what, this is a good thing for him.

Who says foreigners don't understand moderation?

Isn't he playing this smoothly?

Anyway, the ID "Firrrrrre" is now completely remembered in Europe.

Moreover, some people brought the nickname "Foot God" from the Chinese internet over to Europe; some European netizens found spelling out "Jiao Shen" too troublesome, so they shortened it to "Js".

Reality is truly fantastical.

Liang Yan merely played one match in the EU, yet inexplicably became a red-hot "big star" of the moment; although this popularity might be temporary, and such enormous discussion heat didn't bring many followers to his newly opened Twitter account.

Not until June 7 did Liang Yan's Twitter followers barely break ten thousand.

Not even comparable to those domestic welfare girls who rose from Weibo's cesspool to Twitter… and moreover, the welfare girls' comment sections are harmonious.

But Liang Yan's side has plenty of haters, and the comment section is inevitably filled with feces and urine.

……

As G2's next match approached, netizens' discussion of "Firrrrrre" gradually shifted from gossip to predictions of his performance.

Many Ou Mei big streamers came to ride the hype.

But perhaps for fear of being slapped in the face, their opinions are all rather conservative, or they use some endless roundabout talk to fool people:

"When a player achieves extraordinary results in their debut match—I mean 'Legendary (Super God)'—that is indeed an extraordinary accomplishment, showing their mental fortitude has passed the test, and a great heart—meaning our so-called strong psychological stress resistance—is a necessary condition to become a top-tier jungler……

"This merely means he has the potential to become a top-tier jungler; as for whether his actual performance can meet expectations, we still need to observe his future performance. Moreover, given that GIA is not a strong team, we need to examine Firrrrrre's actual performance when facing truly top-tier opponents……

"Even if a player shows potential, we must seriously consider another issue—their team's ability to nurture talent. Although G2 holds the EU Spring Season championship, it is well known that G2 is also a relatively newly formed team; their ability to nurture newcomers, at least as it appears now, is not particularly outstanding……

Remarks of this sort.

Regardless of whether Liang Yan ends up godlike or terrible, streamers can always Monday-morning quarterback.

If he fails, they can even avoid offending anyone by blaming G2—after all, G2 is already infamous, so adding more charges of "wasting talent" is no problem.

However, the streamers have one point that's actually correct: Ka Lao Si truly doesn't know how to nurture newcomers; his consistent approach to training new people is:

Extremely high training freedom.

Aside from practice matches, you can do whatever you like with the rest of your time; as long as you're present during work hours.

For certain exceptions……

Even practice matches can be skipped.