Your Guide to LPL Player Names

With frequent name changes, long sponsor tags, and language differences, western fans have an extra barrier of entry for digesting information in LPL. Some players, like LGD Gaming’s Wei “We1less” Lian, have in game names obviously based on their given names. Others, like Edward Gaming’s Feng “Fzzf” Zhuojun, use acronyms from the pinyin form of a Chinese phrase, leaving western fans confused as to how to pronounce a string of consonants. To complicate matters, players like Lin “Drug” Ye even change their game tags between splits, making it more difficult for the casual viewer to keep up. To take out some of the work, we’re bringing you some context to go with some of these LPL names - and even a few pictures to help you match faces to players.

THE ACRONYMS

The first stumbling block one encounters from a casual glance at a Chinese roster is an apparent lack of vowels. World Elite Academy’s rising star AD carry, Han “Smlz” Jin’s, name is an acronym for “Si-Ma Lao Zei,” which is reference to an “old, crafty” character named “Si-Ma.” Fzzf’s name isn’t a commentary on whether or not to play Fizz (Fizzif?), but an acronym for a phrase that’s a play on his given name. “Feng zhong zhui feng” means “chase the wind in a windy day.” Many fans, however, prefer to refer to him as “Curly” for his luscious locks, or “KDA Curly” given the fact that he dies infrequently relative to the rest of his team. Despite his nickname, Fzzf’s hair isn’t that curly these days. In the same vein, Fzzf’s teammate, Ceng “U” Long, has done away with consonants entirely. U is short for “Unstoppable,” though he sometimes requests that the casters call him Xiao U, meaning “Little U.” Jian “Uzi” Zhihao’s a special case. Though his name is Uzi, which he adopted for the submachine gun, he often requests casters call him by the letters as if his name were an acronym. As a result, you will sometimes hear casters refer to him as “U-Z-I,” but not with a reliable frequency.

NICKNAMES

Within Chinese League of Legends, fans are just as likely to call players by their chosen in game names as they are by their fan-given nicknames. Being given a nickname by fans is a sign that a player has become an accepted part of the fanbase, and it was a small hurdle to conquer for the new Korean favorites on Team World Elite. Yeon “Sin” Hyeongmo and Noh “Ninja” Geonwoo have been welcomed into the fold as “Bear” and “Usavich”—after a series of Japanese short films revolving around a pink rabbit. They were given stuffed bears and rabbits by fans until their managers had to politely request that the gifts stop coming in, as they had no more room in the WE house. Left to right: Ninja, Sin, and Conan from Team WE. Despite the extreme popularity of Team World Elite, one of its long standing-stars, Gao “WeXiao” Xuecheng, has only one commonly used nickname. Fans will sometimes refer to him as “facial paralysis,” despite the translation of his name being “little smile,” since he has a reputation for seriousness. Some say WE’s support, Ke “Conan” Yi, new to the team this season, has had a lightening influence on WeiXiao's demeanor. WeiXiao is now known to occasionally fool around on stream, and he has personally given WeiXiao the nickname, "double-u-cha," referring to his LPL tag, “Wx.” When fans asked WeiXiao if he preferred Kitties (Invictus Gaming’s support player, with whom he frequently duos), Conan, or his girlfriend, he jokingly confessed he preferred Conan.

NAME CH-CH-CHANGES

Even with nicknames and acronyms, the hardest players to follow are the ones who change their names. It’s difficult to follow your favorite players and track down their histories if you don’t know the in game names they used to go by. Some fans may be surprised to know that LMQ iBuyPower’s Li “Vasilii” Weijun has international experience outside his team’s transfer from LPL to the LCS. At IEM Season VI World Championships group stage, an AD carry player who went by TS played for Team EHOME alongside Liu “PDD” Mou. Both TS and PDD were unceremoniously conquered by the then nearly unstoppable Moscow 5. TS later changed his name to Vasilii. Two other name changers who might be familiar to western fans are Ming “Clearlove” Kai and Yin “Drug” Le. Clearlove first joined World Elite’s roster a little before the Season 2 World Championships as Troll. He later changed his name to Clearlove, then to Mann for a short period, before returning to the name Clearlove again. As a result, many fans have known him best by a long list of nicknames. One of Clearlove’s most popular nicknames is “pig-raiser,” a moniker he previously told lolesports that fans gave him when he climbed the solo queue ladder, and all his opponents were “helpless pigs for the slaughter.” Other accounts suggest that fans adopted the name for him when he once told We1less in solo queue that he should “go home and raise pigs” because he was so “noob.” Perhaps one of the most puzzling nicknames is the nickname his fans have given themselves. Some of his most devoted followers call themselves “piggies.” Edward Gaming’s jungler, Ming “Clearlove” Kai OMG’s Lin “Drug” Ye has been at the past two Riot-sponsored international events: 2014 All Stars and the Season 3 World Championship. Both times, however, he has appeared with a different name and playing a different role. He was known as Lovelin, the level three tower diving jungler, at S3WC, but decided to change his nickname to “Allen” after breaking up with his girlfriend, Lin (we here at lolesports believe the opportunity to rebrand himself as “Lovedlin” was sorely missed). His new name, Allen, confused fans and wiki sites alike, as they mistook him for World Elite Academy’s substitute support player, Tang “Allen” Xin. Though of no relation, the name change sparked a change back to the support role he had joined the team playing. When Lin Ye then switched back to the jungle role this summer, he chose to adopt a familiar name. Drug is close to his Chinese server name, “Lingyal,” meaning medicine, and it, like Fzzf’s and We1less’ monickers, is a play on his given name. Whatever name he goes by, Lin Ye is an inarguably gifted player. Two other supports for OMG have an affinity for name changing. Frequent OMG sub, Dada7, has played for the team as comA, Trickyboy, and Neymar. Cloud, OMG’s current starting support, recently played a game against World Elite Academy with the tag “pomelo,” referring to OMG’s previous support and jungler. OMG lost that game, and pomelo got the last laugh.

SPONSORSHIP GALORE

As any professional player will tell you, sponsors are important, but LCS fans might not be used to the lengths of the sponsor tags for some of the players in LPL. Understanding where the player name begins and the tag ends requires a double-take, and during a chaotic fight, new fans might not want to think about it. Most teams in LPL have sponsorship from the streaming website, DouyuTV (not coincidentally, this is where you can find most of your favorite Chinese players streaming). Only half of the teams use the sponsor in their tournament client tags. These teams are OMG, StarHorn Royal Club, Young Glory, and World Elite Academy. LGD Gaming is currently the only team in LPL sponsored by a competitor of DouyuTV, 1006TV. World Elite’s main sponsor is GIGABYTE, a company familiar to westerners for computer peripherals. Edward Gaming and Invictus Gaming do not have title sponsors outside their team names, and so they use backslashes and ellipses as if to fill the space. We guarantee that the sponsor tags aren’t nearly as difficult to get used to as you might think. LPL is full of flashy plays and minutes packed with 5-on-5 fights. It’s rewarding to watch edge-of-your seat action every weekend, but getting to know the players themselves can be just as exciting if you’re a fan of storylines. Understanding some of the details behind their names is a great place to start. Thank you to Felon Lee for providing valuable insight.

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