DISCLAIMER: Beware for those with sensitive eyes: these names largely do not come from G-rated origins As everyone is busy glued to their monitor screens watching The International 2018 Regional qualifiers, we thought this piece might just be the thing that you needed. So sit back, relax and have some fun going through the nicknames the Chinese community has given players and their reasons to do so.

Feichi "Ferrari_430" Luo

Big Momma: During an IG vs DK match back in 2011, rOtk’s expressive shouting during the match attracted much ridicule from the community. zhou compared rOtk’s shouting to a peasant farmer working. 430 added that rOtk is just like a hawker in markets screaming to attract the customer’s attention. But due to the high amount of DK fans back then, 430 was christened the name: Big Momma. As it was mostly mothers that would shop at markets. (To Westerners, if you never seen an Asian market, it’s a very chaotic and tight place, it’s as if it is a ground for competitive screaming amongst hawkers.)

: There was a rumour saying that after TI4, where 430 suffered a massive drop in form, he gave himself an 85/100 after being eliminated. Hence, the name 485. But in reality, this nicknamed was crafted by a 430 fan in the SG forums, in his article “The YYF in my perspective” he gave 430’s TI4 performance 85/100, and therefore, the nickname 485 was born.: 430’s full ID is Ferrari.430, and whenever he gets destroyed, fans would say that “even his wheels went flying”, and with time, he received the nickname “Wheelz”. Another version says that 430’s fall from grace after his showing in TI4 was so bad that he went from Ferrari.430 to Toyota.430, then to Tricycle.430 and finally, just his wheels left.

Cen "YYF" Jiang

: He has a big head. Also, his ID, YYF, is an abbreviation of Yu Yu Feng, literally translated as “Fish Fish Wind”.: YYF at TI2 had consistently strong performances, reminding people of Tim Duncan, who also had the name Stone Buddha for how stable he is.: As the top Dota2 streamer at Douyu, he is very popular. So for anyone that wants to make it big in streaming, they always look to YYF, just like Bulldog (kappa). In Chinese we call this “Giving Rice”, and YYF seems to have an endless stock of rice!: Self-explanatory, he’s good at juking.

Fan "rOtk" Bai

: rOtk at Dota 1 shouts really loudly during games, and so his biggest weakness is the Soundproof Booth.: The most feared one out of the four horsemen. Back when rOtk was still called XB, he picked his signature Batrider, and then, with maximum smug, taunted: “YEAH WHO DO I PULL? SPEAK! WHO DO I PULL?” And in the end……he pulled a creep, shocking the world. And from that game on no one dared to question his Batrider skills, christening his Batrider as “XB Rider”. Some say that the applause by the audience from that play has yet to cease to this day.

Zhaohui "SanSheng" Wang

: Before playing competitively, the top players in Dota have a great relationship, so they playfully call each variants of names with the word dog, like B-Dog (Burning), 8-Dog (xiao8). But soon all the “dogs” of Dota became gods, like B-God, 8-God, not SanSheng though, he’s still called a dog from the old days. That changed after TI4.: Back then pro players can barely earn a living, so there was a saying that Brother Doggo can only afford cigarettes (SanSheng is known to be a heavy smoker) that people throw on the ground. Sister Dog: During WPC, iG invited SanSheng to be a stand-in for a sick team member. Since the opponents look weak, SanSheng proudly proclaimed: “I’ll cut off my penis if we lose.” And later, they lost.: DD likes using the phrase “Play with your mom’s tits instead” to flame his teammates, which caused quite some drama. Eventually, he got the name “Tits D”, which evolved into Daddy Tits.

Zhilei "BurNIng" Xu

: The Legendary EHOME team from 2010 was undoubtedly the best of its time, going undefeated during ESWC, winning 10 tournaments despite competition with other very strong teams like LGD and Nirvana. And the carry player, BurNing was credited with showcasing perfect farming abilities, destroying any discussions against his abilities. And so, even the foreigners in ESWC began to shout “B-GOD!” And thus, the name was born.: If there is a Mirana in the enemy team, the chances of him getting hit by an arrow is a steady 100%. So he is said to be a magnet. Chaos Knight Xu: A play on his actual name. Some say that it is an ironic name since he gets the worst luck playing CK, some say it is because he is so effective at pushing with CK.: Due to his extreme map awareness, he seems to avoid getting ganked, so it is said that he is a radar himself that can detect enemies nearby.: BurNing is known for his farming abilities. But during TI2’s team fight meta, his style of playing got weakened, despite being top net worth all the time, his team will still lose. So Sgamer users would say “Whats the point of being top net worth if you lose?” Another Sgamer user replied “because this deters his enemies from attacking, like owning a nuclear bomb would deter attacks.”: At DK, BurNing once drafted Naga Siren. But even with a 30k Net Worth lead, they refused to go highground, and they lost in the end. BurNing’s performance was said to be “too soft”, but since the word they used for soft is also pronounced as “B”, this derogatory name was born.

Yao "Somnus/Maybe" Lu

: A journalist defined the phrase Evil Geniuses as: “Someone that makes people angry and frustrated, that is what makes an Evil Genius”. At the end of 2016, Maybe skipped a tournament to go to the US with his girlfriend, and his form after that dipped. Forum users then gave him the name Teddy, a name for horny people in China, and also said: “Someone that makes people angry and frustrated, that is what makes an Evil Teddy, Maybe!” As he gradually went back to good form, the name also gradually became a Positive nickname instead of a derogatory nickname.: He’s a talented and one of the best mid players, and anyone remotely good at the pro level is called a king.

Chunyu "Ame" Wang

ATMe: When LGD was playing terribly, Ame was always the one to blame, and he was flamed for feeding and giving away gold so easily, like an ATM.

: While LGD suffered another dip in form, forum users taunted that “Ame cannot restrain himself after getting Blink Dagger”, which Ame angrily replied with “I can kill your mom with blink” or something along those lines. Since that is such an anime thing to say, he is called Blink-sama.

Zhihao "Hao" Chen

: Actually could be a Chinese pun. I’ll try my best to explain. At least in Malaysian Chinese, when we’re trying to tell a guy that they’re very feminine, we’ll tell them that: 你好娘, pronounced as Ni Hao Niang, in this case, Lady Hao is translated from豪娘, pronounced as Hao Niang. As for why he’s called that way, Hao in his early days has long flowing yellow hair with red-framed glasses, like a lady.: In his early days, Lady Hao as a hot-headed newbie insists on picking Spectre whenever he faces a hard opponent. He would always proclaim “If we lose, I will chop off my own hand!”: There are multiple Chinese memes that were made due to Hao’s play, there’s one called the “3 second Rapier” and another called the “30k AM instant death”, both due to Hao’s weird plays when he began. So everyone called him a retard.: After a match where they beat DK, Hao went on Weibo stating that he forgot to prefix his ID with “CN”, so BurNing fans took the chance to flame Hao, and now he will never forget to put the CN prefix in his name ever again.: “I’m the one with the highest placing in my family.”- Hao. “Oh are we drafting? I’ll go wipe the floor for a bit ok?” – Also Hao. Due to Chinese culture not being fully on board with the gender equality thing yet, Hao as a self-proclaimed man the house is taunted for doing housework, the two sentences above gave him the nickname “Guangzhou’s Housekeeping King”. At another the TI7 Open Qualifiers, Hao played Faceless Void against DD, who claimed that Hao once told him that he was the “Guangzhou Faceless Void King”. After Hao’s team lost the game, the Guangzhou “literally anything” King meme is cemented.

Pan "Mu" Zhang

: Mu looks like a Japanese man called Tony Ooki. Tony Ooki is also a pornstar.: For his TI4 performance.: Due to his very inconsistent performances, Mu is said to have a cool down. When he is on cool down, he plays like total shit, when he is off cool down, he ascends god status. TI4 Mu is clearly off cool down. Point to be noted: This is Part I of the article that depict the nicknames and their origins only for the Chinese players. Stay tuned for Part II that'll include players from different nationalities. Source: uuu9 Feature image credit: bwcc110.deviantart.com Image Credits: Valve, liquipedia, epicenter, Sgamer, esports.vn Die-hard Dota 2 lover at heart. Reading and writing are not just hobbies; they're my life. Family man, ardent esports follower and a boring personality. If you would like to know more about my work, you can follow me at KarY