In China, there is an exciting story from E-Sports regarding League of Legends. The 21-year-old Chinese player, Yang “Heng” Cui-Heng, was seriously ill with the flu. He dragged himself onto the stage for a decisive game against one of the best junglers in the world, and there he experienced a match in LoL that he will probably never forget.
This was the situation:
- The 21-year-old Heng is a jungler for the “Team WE”. Heng made his debut in the professional LPL league only in December 2022. At 21, the jungler is relatively old for a rookie. He spent 2 years stuck in the lower leagues: Team WE is almost his last chance to make it as a LoL professional.
- Last week, the regular LoL season ended in China, and his Team WE was at 7-7, close to missing the playoffs: In China, 17 teams are vying for 10 spots.
- On March 21, a decisive game against “Weibo Gaming” was about to take place, which is excellently staffed with top players like TheShy, Xiaohu, and Karsa, and ranks among the top 4 teams in China. The world-class jungler Karsa is likely the toughest opponent Heng will ever face.
The problem: As was later revealed, Heng was seriously ill with a flu that was circulating in China before the start of the game – but substitute players are not actually planned in LoL. He somehow dragged himself onto the stage.
Player takes a break after catastrophic start – opponent laughs
How did the match go for him? During the match, it turned out that Heng was suffering even more severely from the flu than previously assumed. The game turned into a catastrophe.
Heng seemed completely out of sorts at the start of Game 1. At about 3:50 minutes into the match, he made a technical error that caused both himself and his midlaner to fall behind early in the match:
- Heng came onto Vi in the mid lane, wanted to attack 2 opponents too aggressively, and ended up dying in a pretty embarrassing manner.
Immediately after the action, Heng even had to call for a break, which elicited a victorious grin from his opponent Karsa.
But it turned out that Heng was completely exhausted: As seen in the video, his hands were trembling. He was apparently physically at the end of his rope due to the flu.
At about 4:52 minutes, the segment starts:
Rookie must play very ill against one of the best junglers in the world
How did it go from there? Game 1 clearly went lost for Heng. The team had no chance and lost 5-15 in 33 minutes:
- His opponent, jungler Karsa, played 5-0-7 on Lee Sin.
- Heng went 2-4-2 on Vi.
Trembling and shivering, the rookie can hold his own against the superstar
But for Match 2, Heng returned with a fever-reducing patch on his forehead. According to Dexerto, one could see him trembling in his chair.
But suddenly it went well for the 21-year-old:
- With Lee Sin, he delivered outstanding performances in Games 2 and 3 and was able to stand up to Karsa.
- Heng and his team were even able to win Game 2: Heng played dominantly with 7-2-11 on the blind monk.
- But in Game 3, he then ran out of steam in the middle of the 38-minute match, and the favorites barely prevailed with 23-18.
Does it have a happy ending? Yes, at least a little bit. Even though Heng lost the game against Weibo Gaming and Karsa, Team WE still had one last chance against “Rare Atom” on March 26. Here, Heng and his team were able to prevail.
Team WE finished with 8-8, just landing in 10th place, and qualified for the playoffs. In the first round, on March 31, they face Top Esports, a heavyweight in a “Best of 5 – The loser is out” series. Hopefully, the jungler will feel better by then.
How tough the life of a LoL professional can be is shown time and again by stories from China:
