Dear fan of the future,

I am unsure who is dominating the Overwatch esports ecosystem when you read this, or who is quickly climbing the rungs of the competitive ladder, but I write to you today about a team, player, or organization that is long past your time. Something that is timeless in their story and their purpose. Something that dared you to challenge your perception of the current landscape of Overwatch. These are my letters from the past to help educate people on where the community has come from and to act as a Rolodex of info on just who these teams were so that their legacy might continue to live on through you, the reader.

Today’s entry is one of nostalgic ambivalence.

For those who don’t know, I’ve covered Chinese Overwatch, full time, for nearly a year now and have had the pleasure of following Xu "guxue" Qiulin’s career domestically. Overwatch Contenders 2018 Season 2 marked the first season for the official English broadcast for the Chinese region and I’ve loved how creative Overwatch seems there. It feels like the

truest

Overwatch out of all of the Contenders regions.

Seeing guxue receive the call-up to the Overwatch League was fantastic to hear. It was validation for the region’s strength, but in the back of my mind, I knew LGD and Overwatch Contenders China, as a region, would be weaker because of it. By no means should guxue even be concerned about this, it’s just my own selfish devices holding me back.

However, this happens in every team-based competition. Whether you’re scoring goals, shooting free-throws, or Primal Raging across Numbani, it’s always bittersweet when you see a player you respect move up a division and play under a new banner. It’s a lot like seeing a childhood friend move away to study at university. You wish the best for them and you know they’ll do well, but you know that things won’t ever be the same between the two of you.

While the twilight of guxue’s amateur career is long past us, it’s always important to know where a player came from as to add context to their future achievements, however big or small.

Guxue first broke onto the scene in February of 2017 with his career team, LGD Gaming, at the Nexus Cup 2017 qualifier. The promising main tank and his team would qualify for the online event with a 2-1 victory over JHG.Gold and would proceed into Group A alongside Lucky Future, Newbee, and Team Celestial.

Unfortunately for guxue, LGD Gaming would fall win-less to the rising Chinese talent and would only manage to eke out a single map win against Team Celestial. They would be seeded into the lower bracket and would defeat Black Ananas in their first round of competition, but would fall to the South Korean team, Mighty AOD, in the following round.

This middling performance would continue into the third season of the DouyuTV NGA Cup where guxue and LGD Gaming would face off against LW Red, Oh My God, and JHG.Red. However, their lackluster performance would net them valuable lessons that would take them to new heights. LGD Gaming managed to go 1-1 with the South Korean powerhouse, LW Red, but oddly enough they would drop a map to JHG.Red as well.

This solidified them as the clear second seed coming out of Group B, but due to unforeseen circumstances LW Red had to forfeit the event and gave LGD the first seed. This placed guxue and LGD Gaming against the second seed from Group A, NGA.Titan. LGD defeated their opponents with a decisive 0-2 scoreline before being dispatched by Park “Crusty” Dae-hee’s quiet all-star roster in wNv.KR. With a small burst of wind added to their sail after playing against two top South Korean teams, LGD Gaming approached the Overwatch Premier Series 2017 Spring Preseason with a new lease on life.

The Overwatch Premier Series, or OWPS, entered the Chinese landscape as a means to legitimize Overwatch esports for the region outside of the APAC Premier. It was sanctioned by Blizard Entertainment and had a Chinese entertainment company, Banana Culture, marked as the organizers. The top ten teams from the Spring preseason would move on to compete in the seven-week regular season culminating with the top eight teams fighting in a single elimination bracket for their stake in the 730,000 CNY (~105,850 USD) prize purse. With LGD Gaming being one of China’s most recognizable brands in competitive gaming and with the team just coming off of a respectable tournament in the DouyuTV NGA Cup, guxue, only having been with the team for a month now, looked like contenders for the entire event.

This sentiment gained evidence as LGD Gaming bolted off the line like a newly tuned car with guxue sat comfortably in the driver’s seat. Lucky Future, Solution Gaming, and GodLike all fell to LGD Gaming without even the consolation of scoring a single map win. Guxue and his teammates sat amoungst FTD Club, Black Ananas, and Miraculous Youngster as the four top seeds going into group play.

As LGD Gaming approached the Spring group stage, they added tank player Gao "YinDong" Hang from OMG to share the burden with guxue. This new found strength and bolstered roster carried over into the regular season for guxue and the team going undefeated and only dropping three maps to iG.Ice, Lucky Future, and 1246.

To start their playoff run strong, LGD Gaming took a convincing win over Black Ananas, 3-0. The following games did not mirror the same team who unequivocally won the regular season. They played a close 3-2 set against Lucky Future, only dropping Oasis and barely losing King’s Row. This victory cemented their grand final placing, but sitting opposite of them was 1246, the 7th seed from the regular season. 1246 was having a miracle run and it seemed like no one could stop them. They defeated FTD Club and OMG to reach the finals and as fate would have it LGD would take home silver. This loss would take guxue and LGD to a startling halt, one that they did not easily recover from.

Coming into the Summer split of the Overwatch Premier Series, LGD added another young flex player who shared time on main tank with guxue, Cheng "KaPkAn" Yu. However, this was the only thing to really change about the team. The Summer split also brought up the same issues that the Spring split did. LGD would dominate the regular season but floundered out during their semifinal match against Vici Gaming.

This apparent failure to rise to the occasion would plague LGD Gaming and guxue for the rest of their future together. A lethargic 5-8th place at the hands of Miracle Team One during the Overwatch Premier Series Grand Finals. An understandable 9-12th place loss to some of Korea’s top talent during the Nexus Cup 2017 Annual Finals. LGD managed to upset the South Korean fan favorites, RunAway, during the Overwatch Team Story Chapter 4 but would immediately fall to Meta Bellum in the semifinals and take home 4th place. LGD, and by proxy guxue, struggled when pressure was put on them. Much like in the Alec Baldwin’s legendary scene in Glenngarry Glen Ross, LGD Gaming simply were not

closers

. Stubborn as ever, guxue and LGD would persist forward onto their next venture, which would just happen to be the birth of Overwatch’s amateur division.

Overwatch Contenders was designed for a single purpose; give a spotlight to amateur talent so that one day they could grace the stage of the Overwatch League and guxue and LGD were prepared to make a claim for China’s number one team. There was just one setback; Lucky Future Zenith.

For the first two seasons of Overwatch Contenders China, the South Korean powerhouse team, Lucky Future Zenith, dominated the region. And each time, right below them, sat guxue and LGD Gaming. Overwatch Contenders Season 1 was a much more promising for LGD Gaming. They advanced as the top seed from Group B over teams like Team Skadi’s Gift, Legend Young Beyond, and Lucky Future. With a 5-0 record and only dropping 1 map to Team Skadi’s Gift, guxue and his team were looking like shoe-ins for the finals.

Everything played as planned, LGD Gaming took convincing wins over LinGan e-Sports and Team CC and met Lucky Future Zenith in the grand finals. Again, this is where they approach their summit and just barely falls short of breaking past this strange mental plateau.

LGD Gaming would fall to Lucky Future Zenith, 3-4.

Season 2 of Overwatch Contenders China was much less convincing on behalf of LGD Gaming. They advanced into the playoffs as the third seed from Group B, but generally had a strong performance during their quarterfinals match against LinGan e-Sports. After T1W Esports Club took Lucky Future Zenith to game five in the semifinals, it seemed like this was the time where LGD Gaming would finally break through. This was it. The metagame had changed. Sombra was now the Achilles Heel to the South Korean’s. This was LGD’s year!

Lucky Future Zenith won 4-1.

Guxue’s defeat during Overwatch Contenders Season 2 was understandably painful, but the esports machine continues forward. This time it was to represent all of China.

The Chinese national team dashed everyone’s expectations when it came time for the Overwatch World Cup 2018. Former Miraculous Youngster player Huang "leave" Xin paired very well with the guxue. On top of that, the team was just generally built to withstand any strange curveball that was thrown their way. In their qualifying stage, they looked to be one of the most flexible teams at the event. Couple that with their mechanical skill and you’ve got a force to be reckoned with.

And it was evident in their results.

Team China went

undefeated

in during the Bangkok Qualifiers going 5-0 and 16-7 in maps. All the while, guxue was putting up astronomical tank performances. As tracked the Overwatch statistics website WinstonsLab, guxue scored

the

highest individual performance on Winston that they’ve ever recorded. For example, the peak rating for in the whole of the Overwatch League Season 1, for Winston, was 1518 and was set by Hong "Gesture" Jae-hee.

Guxue surpassed that record twice. Once versus Team Thailand where he scored a rating of 1696 and a rating of 1632 when he played against Team Sweden.

While Team China’s record looked good, they didn’t look unbeatable. Teams like Thailand and Australia gave them a serious run for their money, but when it came to BlizzCon, the training weights came off.

First on the chopping block was Team Finland, who had a surprising amount of Overwatch League talent. Players like Timo "Taimou" Kettunen from the Dallas Fuel, Joona "Fragi" Laine from the Philidelphia Fusion, and Jonas "Shaz" Suovaara from the Los Angeles Gladiators made up just a few of the teams that were sent to represent Finland.

Team China decimated them 3-0.

Next up was Team Canada. Team China would win with a convincing 3-0.

Again, guxue would fall just short of winning a major event, not with LGD Gaming this time, but for Team China. In the grand final, they faced a South Korean national team that was a star-studded roster of world class players, all from the Overwatch League. This is where Team China’s run came to a halt, a 0-4 halt.

Once again, guxue would take home a silver medal.

What was terrifying about guxue, was how collected he looked at all times. To this day I think he was strategically positioned at the end of his team's lineup in the Overwatch Premier Series so that as the camera panned through the team it would end on his stoic and generally disinterested expression right before clobbering his opponents. Whether it was a tactic to unnerve or not, seldom did guxue show emotion. If you told me he was a young businessman who worked his nine to five and wasn’t thrilled about his direction in life, I might just believe you. Even when he walked on stage to an adoring section of Chinese supporters during the 2018 Overwatch World Cup, only a few half-smiles graced the handful of massive screens that encompassed the Anaheim Convention Center.

Guxue’s performance during the World Cup qualifier in Bangkok and his performance during Team China’s second place finish at BlizzCon solidified him as a top prospect leading into the second season of the Overwatch League.

And there was one team that took notice.

On November 16th guxue was signed to the Overwatch League franchize, the Hangzhou Spark.

Gone were the days of struggling in Overwatch Contenders hoping that one day he’d grace the main stage. He was finally in the Overwatch League. Joining him on the Spark are some of South Korea’s finest available talent. Players like Park “iDK” Ho-jin, Kim “GodsB” Kyeong-bo, and Park “Ria” Sung-uk to name a few. He and fellow countryman, Cai “Krystal” Shilong are the sole representatives on a full Korean team, which rarely happens in esports.

Guxue’s story reflects life in a way. There isn’t always a light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes you’re going to get second place, sometimes your playstyle doesn’t fit the metagame well and you drop games. It’s this disorderedness that is relatable to fans. It’s the reason why the underdogs tend to win the hearts and favor of the fans. It’s why upsets are so memorable. And it’s that same lack of order that has kept guxue hunting for his first tournament win.

While this letter is half joyful goodbye, it’s also a “welcome to the first day of the most important part of your career” for guxue. Now, he has as good a chance as any — but the stakes have multiplied by magnitudes greater than what he’s been accustomed to. Guxue will pair off against some of the best talents in Overwatch for the chance to win his first event and represent his country.

Joseph “Volamel” Franco has followed esports since the MLGs of 2006. He started out primarily following Starcraft 2, Halo 3, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. He has transitioned from viewer to journalist and writes freelance primarily about Overwatch and League of Legends. If you would like to know more or follow his thoughts on esports you can follow him at @Volamel .