Originally published in China Youth Magazine, No. 2, 2022
@Text/Special Correspondent of this magazine Zhao Yongqiang
New Year, the foreshadowing of the recruitment season. Whether you are a "post-00s" who are about to officially enter the workplace, or a "post-80s" and "post-90s" who have been "rolling" in a big city for several years, when you buy a ticket home, will you flash the idea of working and living in a small city? What does a small town mean to young people?
In this issue of the life topic "Small Town Settlement Guide", we invited young people from different small cities across the country, some of them were "forced" by their parents to return to the small city, some were "rolled" back to the small city from the big city, some people took the initiative to choose the small city, and some people found the rest of the heart in the small town after traveling around the world... We look forward to providing a settlement guide for young people who are choosing between big or small cities through their stories.
On November 10, 2021, Li Pengyu, who worked in Ulanqab, has been working for 100 days. During breaks, he occasionally gets together with his colleagues to play "Glory of kings." Colleagues know he plays well, but few know that he had the strength and opportunity to be a professional esports player.
In 2018, Li Pengyu had just entered college, and a game called "Glory of kings" was popular among his classmates. With the mentality of trying, Li Pengyu "accidentally" hit the "king" position in only one week, and it took at least more than a month for the small partners around him to hit this position.
The reason why "Easy" has embarked on the high stage of the game is that Li Pengyu does not like to take the usual path, "The game is full of people, I just like to try new tactical play." "In the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020, the school was postponed, and Li Pengyu signed up for the online trial of professional players of "Glory of the King", training from 10:00 to 12:00, 13:00 to 18:00, and 19:00 to 24:00 every day, with a training time of up to 12 hours a day.
The trial was attended by amateur players who played well across the country, "but very few people can actually stick to 12 hours of high-intensity training, because the spine doesn't agree in the first place." Li Pengyu introduced, "Spinal misalignment is an occupational disease in the e-sports industry. But Li Pengyu became the top 3 percent of the people who passed the trial, and the organizers of the event gave him a chance to work as a professional player in a first-tier city, and he was about to graduate from school in Baotou at that time.
In the eyes of Li Pengyu's parents, it is okay to play amateur games, but it is a deviant thing to treat playing games as a profession. Under the "strong pressure" of his parents, Li Pengyu, who originally had a "dream of e-sports", also had to put down his boiling enthusiasm and calmly analyze the pros and cons.
According to Li Pengyu's understanding, from ordinary players to professional players, it is necessary to clarify three points: First, the degree of adaptation to e-sports means that you have to adapt to the future life will only be e-sports, which is not sure whether it can be successful, and has a high probability of unsuccessful career, in Li Pengyu's words - "Taking this road is that everyone wholeheartedly let go, but most people are defeated." ”
The second is to adapt to high-intensity training, whether physically or mentally. E-sports occupational diseases are almost inevitable, for example, @UziQAQ, a well-known e-sports player who was only 23 years old last year, chose to retire, and he mentioned on Weibo that he was in an unhealthy situation such as stress, obesity, irregular diet, and staying up late, and his body was examined for type II diabetes, and the glycosylated hemoglobin index had reached 11%.
The third is to adapt to the low income before entering the league. The league is the "income watershed" of professional players, and the team that has not entered the league generally has a salary of between 4,000 and 6,000 yuan; and the team that enters the league, each person's salary income can be doubled, reaching 8,000 to 10,000 yuan. But very few teams can enter the leagues with prize money, and the big teams can easily enter the final, while the mediocre teams must pass absolutely excellent performances to enter the finals and play a high price.
And 4000 ~ 6000 yuan is only the income of ordinary professional players in popular games such as "League of Legends", "Glory of Kings", "Peace Elite" and other games, and unpopular games such as "Call of Duty", etc., the wages of players are lower, and the minimum monthly salary is even only 1500 yuan.
In addition, age is also a problem that must be considered. Although Li Pengyu was only 21 years old at the time, he was already "advanced age" for professional e-sports, because the golden age of professional e-sports players was 18 to 23 years old.
At that time, Li Pengyu, who was facing graduation, would never have the opportunity to enter the railway system of his professional counterpart if he missed the time for e-sports. Back in the hometown of Ulanqab, the railway salary is still good in the small city, and you can also take care of your parents who have worked hard all their lives. In the end, he chose to let go of the "esports dream".
There are many fans in the game who come to ask Li Pengyu, do you not regret giving up being a professional player and returning to the small city to do a hard job? Li Pengyu admitted that regret is inevitable, "but the extremely successful e-sports players are after all a minority, I am not a gambler, and I do not want to gamble the second half of my failed life for a few years of youth dreams." It's not just dreams that can be called careers, as long as the work they do is valuable to themselves and society, I think they can be called careers. I think young people should fight, but fight in the right place, for most people, the right place may be a more simple road. ”
Producer: Pi Jun
Final Judgement: Lin Yuhong
Reviewer: Chen Min, Liu Xiao, Liu Bowen
Editor: Shanshan Cao, Shenxi