On the night of April 6th to the early morning of April 7th, pro player Pham “Zeros” Minh Loc received a lifetime ban from all activities within the VCS framework. This means that Zeros’ professional gaming career has come to an end, just after one disastrous slip of the tongue.
While condemning Zeros’ actions or lamenting the early rise and fall of one of the most talented yet controversial players in League of Legends Vietnam, people have also dug up Zeros’ previous statuses. Surprisingly, many of these comments seem to reflect the very trajectory of the player’s career.
Firstly, Zeros was one of the top laners known for his “preference” for using individual skills to solo kill opponents. His performance in the colors of Phong Vu Buffalo back in the day astonished and impressed the world.
However, ever since he was nicknamed “Headless Demon King” (Zeros once had the nickname “Demon King” and during a trash talk, he declared that if he didn’t win by the correct score, he would “chop off his head” – and indeed, after that, Zeros… could not do it), Zeros’ career began to decline.
A series of statuses and comments that netizens have “unearthed” also seem to foreshadow this player’s fate. Firstly, there was Zeros’ “sure as nails” statement: if he didn’t become champion, he would quit gaming. At that time, Zeros had just joined EVOS Esports.
Back in September 2020, Zeros seemed to have really “said goodbye” to the VCS with a status on his personal page after EVOS was eliminated from the highest level tournament in Vietnam.
Or at the beginning of this year, during the time when the former SE player was embroiled in a salary debt drama with his old team GAM Esports, Zeros also posted a status stating that those who do bad things would face “karma”.
Then when player Petland left the SE team to return to his streaming career, Zeros also posted a playful status saying that at the end of the season he would do a “farewell to brother Huy Bien” (farewell means to say goodbye/send off).
At this moment, Zeros’ situation is still widely discussed, but many people also jokingly suggest that once his career as a player is over, he could turn to… fortune-telling as nearly everything Zeros posts seems to apply to this talented yet controversial player.