In the subreddit of League of Legends, players are celebrating a cosplayer who plays the song Popstars by K/DA in Beat Saber while riding a unicycle. I chatted with her a bit and asked, “Why?”
The K-Pop band K/DA, consisting of LoL characters, was originally meant to just promote new skins. However, the first video with the song “Popstars” had such huge success, that Riot decided to release a whole album immediately.
Even though I have relatively few touchpoints with LoL, I have liked the songs of K/DA from the beginning and have been following the band closely since then.
When I checked the LoL subreddit a few days ago, a video with over 30,000 upvotes immediately caught my eye (currently 36,394 upvotes, as of 31.10.2020, 16:00). It had literally exploded.
This is the video: In the video, you see a montage of a cosplayer known as sigmagicpi on reddit playing the popular VR game Beat Saber, but not just casually.
She is playing it on Expert+ difficulty while wearing a K/DA-Akali cosplay and riding a unicycle. Because anything else would obviously be too boring.
My first thought was the same as the top comment in the massive reddit thread:
I read the title and just thought “…What?”
Then I watched the video and just thought “…What?”
reddit user RaisinMuffins
As someone who has fallen on their face a couple of times trying to ride a unicycle in the past, I was more than impressed. But see for yourself:
The cosplayer plays “Popstars” by K/DA, the first song that the K-Pop group released. I then messaged her on reddit and asked if she would tell me who she is and how the hell she came up with such a crazy idea.
Combination of 3 Favorite Hobbies
The idea to do the little stunt with the unicycle and Beat Saber had been in sigmagicpi’s mind for a while. She was later encouraged by some of her friends and acquaintances and subsequently posted it on reddit.
It’s a combination of 3 of her hobbies, which she told me about in our conversation.
Hobby Number 1: Unicycle
As can easily be seen, this is not her “first rodeo.” sigmagicpi told me that she started riding a unicycle in third grade:
My elementary school had a unicycle club that I joined in third grade. I became one of the best at my school, even though I started quite late compared to the others.
I just recently started doing it [riding the unicycle] again because it’s a fun hobby that can be practiced during COVID-19.
The unicycle part is definitely the hardest part of the whole trick in the video. sigmagicpi said that she can’t yet play the song in Beat Saber perfectly, mainly because it is very exhausting to ride at one point.
The limited space is also a problem, and she needed about 10 attempts to get the video to a point where she was satisfied.
I can’t stay on the unicycle for the entire duration of the song, but I can hold on for about a minute. […] It’s really difficult to stay in one place on a unicycle for a long time because my legs get tired after about 30 seconds. It’s basically a battle against exhaustion.
Hobby Number 2: Gaming
sigmagicpi has also been involved with LoL for a long time. This hobby is shared with her older brother, with whom she used to play games when he visited. He introduced her to most of the games she currently plays or has played in the past.
Even though she originally didn’t play much LoL, it changed significantly in high school:
[…] When I was in 11th grade, my mom wanted me to join a club. The only club that I initially felt I would fit into was the gaming club. It was probably the best experience I had in high school.
I started playing more LoL again so that I could be part of the League team. […] Since then, I’ve played a lot of League of Legends and also watch a lot of LoL esports.
She also got into Beat Saber through school. She volunteered for an event in the summer where she worked with other students at a VR station. There she also played Beat Saber for the first time and fell in love with the game.
She bought her own VR headset, the Oculus Quest, and completed all levels of the soundtrack and the DLCs on Expert+ (except Ghost, but she’s very close on that one).
Hobby Number 3: Cosplay
Cosplay is the third hobby that sigmagicpi employed in her video. Due to her fondness for League of Legends, she has cosplayed other LoL characters in the past, such as Miss Fortune or Spellthief Lux.
I actually wanted to go to ComicCon dressed as Freljord, but because of COVID-19 everything was canceled just a week before the convention was supposed to take place.
She wore the Akali cosplay in the video because it matched well with the K/DA song and because Halloween is coming soon.
I enjoyed talking to sigmagicpi, and I wish her success in mastering the last Beat Saber song on Expert+.
Another reddit user I spoke with has forged armor from For Honor that cost him 6,000 €.
