Recently, the Chinese League of Legends community was stirred up by the shocking slip of the tongue from LPL commentator Vincent Lee (Li Ba Yan), known by his stage name ChangMao (Zhang Mao), who unexpectedly lashed out at fans on his personal stream, saying: “All LPL fans are Sb” (Sb: Shabi – fools).
The incident reportedly arose because ChangMao felt frustrated after some fans criticized his expertise in the chat. They believed that ChangMao’s streams analyzing matches were filled with rambling, irrelevant comments, lacking professional knowledge. Some even remarked that ChangMao wasn’t talented enough to be a commentator.
Immediately, a wave of outrage emerged, with the League of Legends fan community in China harshly criticizing both ChangMao and the LPL organizers for allowing this embarrassing incident to occur. As for Riot Games China and the LPL, a punishment was quickly announced. However, the penalty for ChangMao only fueled online outrage further, as many felt it was merely a token punishment and far too lenient for his disgraceful remarks.
Specifically, ChangMao was punished for violating Article 3, Clause 10 of the professional League of Legends regulations: Commentators represent the face of a professional League of Legends tournament, and their words and actions have a significant impact on the community and society, thus they need to have a sense of responsibility in building a standard image to establish credibility with the media and fans.
ChangMao was banned from commenting for one week, from June 19 to June 25. Additionally, the LPL organizers affirmed that if similar violations occur again, this commentator may face removal from the honor list, recognition, or even termination and revocation of his professional license.
However, the Chinese League of Legends community pointed out that this punishment is too light for insulting an entire audience community. Even on social media platform Weibo, many people have called for ChangMao’s expulsion from the LPL tournament, citing his disdainful and derogatory attitude towards Chinese fans.
ChangMao later posted an apology letter to LPL fans on his personal page, expressing regret for losing control of his emotions and making statements that hurt his viewers. However, it seems that this commentator still struggles to earn forgiveness from LPL fans, even if he escapes severe penalties from the tournament organizers.