Currently, the attention of the League of Legends community has almost entirely shifted to MSI 2023. However, renowned players who are absent from this tournament also receive a certain amount of attention. Especially if they are players considered icons of the LPL, their appeal is even higher than usual. A prime example is Rookie and Duke, the duo who won the World Championship in 2018.
Accordingly, Rookie cannot attend MSI 2023 this year, so he decided to stay home and rank up. Recently, while playing with Duke, the two ran into some trouble. Rookie expressed his frustration to Duke, prompting the former SKT T1 star to mention a very sensitive 18+ matter live on stream. Rookie seemed to dodge but ultimately relaxed and “let loose” with his former teammate by agreeing with Duke’s idea. The two former Invictus Gaming players even joked about the incident for a while before changing the subject.
However, the incident morphed on social media into “Rookie and Duke inviting each other to go ‘on a paid date'”. Immediately, the keyword Rookie became a hot search on Weibo throughout the evening of April 28. Unfortunately for Rookie, Hilda was also pulled into the story. Some internet users tagged Hilda’s account directly and demanded she break up with Rookie. Many even criticized Rookie and Duke for having the audacity to discuss such matters live in front of a large audience.
However, the excessive actions of a portion of netizens have made many Rookie fans “boil with anger”. Many opinions have accused the behavior of ‘misquoting’ by some netizens. The most agreed-upon opinion is: “Rookie and Duke were just joking, and the person they referred to was each other (Duke wanted to do 18+ things with Rookie). That’s something guys joke about when chatting with a close friend. They did not mention anything inappropriate that anti-fans are fabricating.”
It is clear that the power of LPL fans is immense. Every action of players will be scrutinized and discussed. This also serves as a lesson for Rookie and Duke, showing that not even veteran or legendary players can escape the judgment and assumptions of netizens.