Bilibili Gaming ADC Zhao “Elk” Jia-Hao returned to streaming League of Legends today for the first time since he and his squad were defeated at Chengdu’s Mid-Season Invitational last week. He had one goal in mind for the stream: for viewers to mock him for his setback.
Korea’s Gen.G defeated the hometown heroes on May 20, with BLG’s lower bracket run ending at the final hurdle, and Elk hates himself and his performances so much that he exposed himself up to a ruthless community through his broadcast on May 24. “I started the stream today so you guys can directly flame me all you want,” he said according to Chinese esports site HUPU Esports, adding that he “deserved to get criticized” for the defeat.
Throughout the live, Elk was laughing with his chat and appeared to be taking the hate in stride, noting that he was letting the trolls and haters make their remarks this week because he and the team will be having a sponsored stream next week. He also denied allegations that he vomited during the grand final, but admitted
Emily Rand, a league analyst and writer, reminded out that Elk had also faced press questions at MSI. “Press noticed Elk fielding nearly all of the unaddressed tough questions so his teammates could process things/wouldn’t have to answer them,” she said on X/Twitter today. The BLG bot laner accepted much of the blame for the 3-1 loss against the MSI champions and hoped supporters vented enough today to not disrupt a sponsorship broadcast next week.
Members of the community expressed admiration for Elk and his approach to hate. “[The] poor guy was sick during most of the tournament and is still taking accountability for play that’s below his standard, pretty commendable even if this is kinda a weird way to do it,” one fan said in the League subreddit, while others said he was “mentally untouchable” for welcoming the hate “with open arms.”
It is difficult to believe that an MSI finalist, let alone one who was forced to face Worlds champions T1 in a grueling five-game series just the day before, should face such hostility, but it is evident that the BLG frontman has acquired a slew of new fans following his stream today.
The LPL starts its Summer Split placements in a week on June 1.