Recently, there was a laughable incident in Taiwan's basketball circle, Jeremy Lin's teammate Lin Liren, who scored zero in a game, but won the support of a large number of fans and was unexpectedly elected as the player of the week. This is no joke, the P+ Alliance's voting system was broken, and the result was an uproar. What the hell is going on? I'll take you to find out.
It all started on April 6. Lin Liren played with the New Taipei Kings against the Fubon Warriors, although he played for nearly 10 minutes, the number on the scoring board was a cold "0". Normally, it is difficult to get any recognition for such a performance. Just after this competition, an unexpected thing happened.
It turns out that under the rules of the P+ League, the selection of the weekly MVP is largely in the hands of fans, who decide who is the best through online voting. It sounds like a very democratic thing, and the voice of the fans can directly affect the ownership of the MVP, who would have thought that this kind of system would be played by a group of naughty fans.
After the end of the game, a wave of "voting for Lin Liren" set off on the Internet. This is not an ordinary trend, but a strong, organized wave of "ticket farming". With a steady stream of fan voting, Lin racked up 4,043 votes overnight, a figure that dwarfed other players who had performed well, including Trevien Graham, who scored 24 points in that game on April 7.
This move by the fans can be said to be unexpected. After all, in sports, what we are used to seeing is a contest of strength, a mixture of sweat on the field, those shining goals and wonderful assists. This time, the fans seem to be telling us that there is another "power" at work in the game of basketball besides strength.
The subsequent development of this incident is even more remarkable. Lin Liren's 0-point MVP not only made him personally famous, but also brought the voting mechanism of the P+ Alliance into the public eye. The coalition is also apparently aware of the seriousness of the problem, announcing on April 10 that it would make changes to the voting mechanism to avoid such incidents from happening again.
In this turmoil, Lin Liren's social media dynamics have also become the focus of attention of many fans. He had previously confronted netizens on social media about his teammates' personal issues, and these behaviors undoubtedly added a lot of attention to him. In his war of words with netizens, Lin Liren showed his indomitable fighting spirit, and even some fans became his "protector" because of this, supporting him in the vote.
This 0-point MVP, driven by the fans, is becoming more and more interesting. Some people say it's a kind of irony, some people think it's an expression of fan emotion, no matter what, Lin Liren's miraculous honor has left a strong mark in the history of Taiwanese basketball.
In the process, we can see that the power of the fans is huge. They may vote for liking a player's style, attitude, or performance on social media. At the same time, it also exposes the contradiction between "performance" and "competitiveness" in current sports events. This contradiction is on full display in Lin Liren: how can a player who does not score in a game become the most valuable player?
Fans' support for Lin Liren continued unabated, and the announcement of the P+ League did not completely quell everyone's enthusiasm. After all, in this day and age, anything can happen on the web, and even a seemingly simple basketball game of the week voting can be so much easier.
Through this incident, we can see that sports events are no longer a single win-loss competition, it has become a comprehensive social platform, a stage to show personality, attitudes and social phenomena. This Lin Liren's "0 MVP" incident is the best proof of this phenomenon. So what do you guys think about this?