It’s hard for football fans to imagine a future where Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo no longer dance on the green carpet. But that experience has come for League of Legends fans around the world, as today, a monument among them has said goodbye to the battlefield. That is Uzi – an immortal symbol of the East.
The cannon that never rusts
Uzi’s real name is Jian Zihao, born into a middle-class family, where his parents forbade him from playing games from a young age. The lofty aspirations of his parents can be seen clearly through the name they gave this boy. At a time when the definition of “professional gamer” was still a vague notion, clearly no parents would be pleased to see their child glued to a computer screen all day.
In a talk show on Chinese national television, Uzi once shared about being punished by his father for skipping school to play video games. Uzi’s parents wanted him to focus on his studies while he was engrossed in pointless games.
Interestingly, the young Jian Zihao at that time never thought that he could earn money from playing games. In his childlike mind, he only knew that he was very good at gaming, and it seemed like he was born to play games.
As time went by, Jian’s parents grew tired of their “unruly son”; they became less strict about his gaming passion, allowing him to find his own path.
Perhaps placing trust in their son, even if just once in their lives, did not make Mr. and Mrs. Jian regret it. If Uzi had listened to his parents and studied diligently, the name Jian Zihao might have been a regular intellectual today, or achieved some success in academics. To be honest, Uzi’s academic performance was quite good, but not outstanding.
And now, after 8 years of looking back, the mischievous boy has just completed a legendary journey filled with passion for his dreams. Uzi has become a name that intrigues the world. Although not a sports star or a movie star, he was one of the 30 under 30 most influential young people in Asia in 2018, becoming China’s number one esports star, with a presence on Weibo surpassing even top showbiz names, and above all, becoming one of the first names in esports to wear the national team jersey of China at a major sporting event – the 2018 Asian Games.
At 24 years old, for an ordinary person, this is the age of “blooming youth”, full of passion, but for Uzi in particular, and esports athletes in general, this age is considered “old” in the profession. The careers of League of Legends stars often start very early. For Uzi, he became a professional player at the age of 16 and competed in the LPL for the first time when he turned 17.
Not many professional players can maintain peak performance for many consecutive years. Faker is a rare example, and alongside Faker, only Uzi matches that stature.
AD Carry – A role with the highest activity frequency in League of Legends, from last hitting minions, exchanging skills, to kiting opponents… always requires players to have not only quick reflexes but also endurance, not just a hot heart but also a cool head, and above all, must never make mistakes.
Uzi possesses all the qualities needed to be a top marksman. His ability to assess matchups ensures he is never at a disadvantage even when behind in champion quality, his aggressive yet calm mentality makes Uzi always ready to go all-in against opponents and deliver unexpectedly brilliant plays.
The last representative of a failed yet… great generation
A small fact for LPL fans is that with Uzi announcing his retirement, we will also witness a historic milestone, as all players who participated in the first season of the LPL – LPL Spring 2013, are no longer present on the professional stage.
Names like Mysaya, PDD, Lovelin, Gogoing, WeXiao… have all said goodbye to their careers as players, while a few rare cases like NaMeI, Zzitai… are also currently “unemployed”. A generation that simply mentioning their names evokes countless memories.
But at the same time, these names also witnessed a shameful period of the LPL. Two second-place finishes at the World Championships in 2013 and 2014 are the best achievements of the Chinese at the top League of Legends tournament, before Invictus Gaming broke that bitter curse at the Season 8 World Championship.
It’s hard to believe, but for more than half a decade before that, the region with the highest number of League of Legends players, leading in spending and investment for professional League of Legends tournaments, had never achieved a world championship title.
Before 2018, the LPL was considered the second strongest region after the LCK. But in reality, that “second” was a very long gap. Names like NaMeI and WeiXiao – two legendary marksmen of the LPL at that time, had to leave in shame to make way for the star players from Korea. Under the wave of mass immigration of foreign players from the LCK in 2014, the Chinese, intentionally or unintentionally, accepted their defeat in the Summoner’s Rift by purchasing numerous Korean imports to bolster their ranks in the quest for the World Cup. A bitter acknowledgment that local stars were merely second-tier players compared to the “foreign” talent.
But only Uzi remained, still shouldering the role of a top star in China. The funniest thing is, not only fighting for his own glory, Uzi also bore a great responsibility to affirm the caliber of Chinese players against Korean players, right on their home turf.
In every regard, Uzi has somewhat succeeded. The period of 2017 – 2018 was the peak of this player’s performance, as with Royal Never Give Up – a team that said no to Korean imports, continuously reaped achievement after achievement, from winning the LPL to MSI, and even becoming the core of the Chinese national League of Legends team that won the gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games.
But the painful truth is, even when Uzi was at his peak, success continued to elude him. The MSI championship or the demonstration gold medal at the Asian Games cannot be compared to the ultimate glory at the World Championship – the tournament of legends.
In 2017, RNG was shut out of hope by Faker’s Galio in one of the most thrilling Bo5 matches in history. In 2018, with no SKT, the strongest representative from Korea – KT Rolster had just been defeated by RNG’s previous conqueror – Invictus Gaming. The conditions were perfect, only to be let down by the human factor.
It was Uzi and his teammates who squandered the opportunity to reach the throne after a surprising defeat against G2 Esports. A match where, sadly, Uzi was the one who made the most mistakes.
Speaking of the “peak performance rule”, one could say that for Uzi and RNG, “if 2018 cannot win the championship, then there will be no better opportunity to win the World Championship again.” But they failed to do so, and subsequent reality confirmed the accuracy of this rule.
Almost 10 months after the 2018 World Championship ended, fans were shocked when Uzi’s girlfriend announced that he had been suffering from shoulder and wrist injuries for nearly two years. The intense training and competition had significantly aged Uzi’s wrist, and his shoulder and disc were also affected. In fact, Uzi competed throughout the 2018 season with an arm that could be described as “far from healthy”.
However, he never spoke about it. Uzi is proud, which might be true, but if one were to say this guy has a pride that deserves respect, it would seem more fitting. He would never use his injuries as an excuse for failures, and that is what everyone must admit about the qualities of a “gentleman of League of Legends”.
With a damaged arm, Uzi still led RNG to the 2019 World Championship. But his shoulders were weary, his strength depleted, and merely having the passion to fight was not enough for RNG to create a miracle. They accepted to be eliminated in the death group featuring SKT and Fnatic.
Mlxg retired, Uzi succumbed to injuries, Ming’s performance declined, Karsa left the team… Royal Never Give Up, once mighty, is now just a hollow shell. Uzi is called the greatest second-place finisher, as he has lost twice at the World Championship finals, and countless times in LPL second places. Two domestic championships and one MSI trophy are far too little compared to the talent of the only player who can stand alongside Faker.
Caps has also lost two consecutive World Championship finals, but the career of this mid-laner is still wide open, and he surely will not yet have to experience the seemingly hopeless string of failures like Uzi has.
Today, that “great second-place finisher” concludes his journey. A path filled with tears, but if possible, he would surely continue walking. On Weibo, a fan poured out their heart to send the best wishes to Uzi, with every word seemingly reflecting the heartfelt sentiments of millions of Chinese League of Legends fans toward their legend:
“I hope your future journey will be filled with more laughter than tears. Whatever your choice may be, I wish you smooth sailing to make up for the years that have not been without sadness. But no matter how many past failures there are, please never discard them. I just hope you always have the best things in the future, but when remembering the past, always be proud that you once carried the name Uzi.”