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 purpose in mind for the stream—for viewers to flame him for his defeat.
Korea’s Gen.G triumphed over the hometown heroes on May 20, with BLG’s lower bracket run stopped at the final hurdle, and for this Elk blames himself and his performances so much he opened himself up to a ruthless community via his stream 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 stream, Elk was joking along with his chat and seemingly was taking the hate all in good stride, mentioning he was letting the trolls and haters make their comments this week as he and the team will be running a stream with sponsors next week. He also dispelled rumors that he threw up during the grand final but admitted he was ill throughout most of the event—much like several of the players.
League analyst and journalist Emily Rand pointed out Elk had also shouldered the burden of questioning by the press 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 took much of the responsibility for the 3-1 defeat to the MSI champs and hoped fans let off enough steam today so as not to impact a sponsorship stream next week.
Members of the community expressed their respect for Elk and his approach to the 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’s hard to say an MSI finalist should receive any hate, let alone one who was made to fight off Worlds champs T1 in a grueling five-game series just a day prior, but it’s clear the BLG frontman has gained a ton of new supporters after his stream today.
The LPL kicks off its Summer Split placements in a week on June 1.
