Look at People No. 37
Text | ZHANG Lin
Respondents | Li Xiaofeng
He was the first WCG to win the Chinese title
Is the world's first person to defend the WCG
The media called him "the first person in China's e-sports"
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There are definitely more people who know the name sky than people who know the three words of Li Xiaofeng. More than a decade ago, in The Chinese and even world e-sports circles, the name sky was a mythical existence.
Sky is his id when he competes in esports; and Li Xiaofeng is his real name. In 2005 and 2006, Li Xiaofeng won two consecutive wcg (e-sports world finals, equivalent to the Olympic Games in the e-sports world) Warcraft championship.
14 years ago, Li Xiaofeng came to Wuhan Optics Valley as the captain of the Chinese e-sports national team for training, and the reporter interviewed him, when he was only 22 years old, holding two WCG championship trophies in his hand.
In April this year, Li Xiaofeng came to Wuhan again to attend the annual ceremony of "E-sports China" in Optics Valley, and was inducted into the China E-sports Hall of Fame.
More than ten years have condensed the development history of China's e-sports from chaotic wild to orderly and standardized. Video games, once accused of being "unprofessional," are now officially contested at the Asian Games and have a good chance of making it to the Olympics.
Looking back, Li Xiaofeng said: "In the past, we could not imagine that an e-sports competition could be held in a huge stadium, and tens of thousands of people watched it. I can only say that I feel very fortunate to thank the times for giving us a particularly good opportunity to transform e-sports from an after-dinner pastime to a highly professional sports competition. ”
Rely on the instant noodles to eat the stomach, there are up and down meals;
For a few bowls of free noodle soup, pretending to ignore the disdainful gaze of the boss;
Ride the green-skinned train all night to compete in the field;
Fighting the heat and practicing technology in an unin-air-conditioned room;
Parents do not understand and do not support, the belt can not move to smoke ...
The "standard" of these successful people, Li Xiaofeng, did not pull down.
Li Xiaofeng is a native of Ruzhou, Henan. Like many young people who loved e-sports in that era, he often sneaked to an Internet café at midnight after his parents had fallen asleep. As a result, when the junior high school graduation exam was held, none of the courses could pass the passing line. For this indisputable son, Li Xiaofeng's father was angry and pulled out his belt to teach his son a harsh lesson.
After the fight, the gas is out, and I have to think about it. The father carried gifts and took his son around to ask for people, and finally sent Li Xiaofeng to a medical college in Luoyang, hoping that he would inherit his father's business after graduation. Seeing his father who whispered for help, Li Xiaofeng secretly decided: "Never play games again, concentrate on studying, strive to learn a model, and get back the respect that his father has lost!" ”
At first, Li Xiaofeng did try to focus on the classroom, but the reality was cruel, and he couldn't understand what the teacher said in the classroom. Whenever the teacher ordered him to get up to answer the question, he was speechless, always feeling that his classmates were laughing at him, and finally he could only choose to escape.
Re-entering the Internet café, he quickly regained his confidence in front of the computer.
It was in the years of studying in the medical college that Li Xiaofeng's e-sports technology improved rapidly. On the Internet, he took the initiative to challenge all the masters he could meet to "find abuse". As long as there are prize competitions in the surrounding cities, he participates in them all.
There are people outside the world of e-sports, but these did not scare him, but aroused his inner desire to win. In order to become stronger, he trained hard and did not sleep. The people around him were amazed by his fanaticism and persistence.
Every time he lost, he wrote down the reason in his notebook. "At what point in time, what tactics should be used; under what circumstances to defend, under what circumstances to attack..." That book finally became his "Yi Jian Jing".
After studying in the medical college for two years, Li Xiaofeng failed to get his diploma as his father wished, but he has grown into a skilled and ambitious e-sports master.
Stepping out of the school, an era that belongs to him is about to begin.
The pre-dawn darkness is the most desperate. The harsh reality once again gave Li Xiaofeng a blow - in the 2002 wcg Xi'an selection competition, he was eliminated in the first round. "My head was all confused, and when I walked out of the arena, I really wanted to close my eyes and jump from the third floor. Thankfully, my friend pulled me in. ”
At that time, he was already a first-class master in Henan, dreaming of becoming a professional e-sports player. "In order to convince my father, I promised him that if he didn't get a good ranking within a year, he would never play games again."
Soon, he played well in the Wuhan Division. Li Xiaofeng recalls:
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Wuhan is the closest competition area to my home. Between 2001 and 2002, I often took the green-skinned train to Wuhan to participate in the competition. In 2002, I finally finished third in Wuhan and received a prize money.
This ranking and prize money were crucial to me at the time, and it saved my esports dreams. Without that one, there probably would be no world championship behind.
”
In 2003, e-sports was listed as the 99th official competition by the State General Administration of Sport. Domestic e-sports clubs have sprung up. Struggling in the desert of life, Li Xiaofeng seemed to suddenly see an oasis. The following year, Li Xiaofeng was favored by an e-sports club in Beijing and paid a thousand yuan a month.
Li Xiaofeng did not hesitate and went to Beijing with the 500 yuan of road fare given by his father. In Beijing, where the top elites of e-sports in the country are concentrated, Li Xiaofeng saw what is really professional operation. The conditions at that time were naturally incomparable with today's, but at least a high level of team training was guaranteed. Li Xiaofeng greedily absorbs nutrients, sleeping only a few hours a day, and soaking in front of the computer at other times.
Hand speed, which is the number of times a finger hits the keyboard per unit of time. The faster the hand speed, the more instructions the player gives to the computer, which is the basic skill of the e-sports player. At the beginning, Li Xiaofeng's hand speed was about 150 beats per minute, and after hard training, it was finally increased to 350 beats per minute.
When esports becomes a profession, the dry and painful side behind it is not something that everyone can afford. Li Xiaofeng is recognized as the hardest working player in the club. In this way, in the cycle of training and competition, his skills have once again improved by leaps and bounds.
In May 2005, Li Xiaofeng's club was sponsored by the American ieg company and renamed we team, and ige also recruited Korea's top masters to form a world-class e-sports dream team. At the WCG annual finals held in Singapore that year, Li Xiaofeng stood out and defeated several of the world's top masters in a row to win the championship in one fell swoop.
From 1998 to 2005, after one failure after another, through a long and dark tunnel, Li Xiaofeng's life finally ushered in the light.
In 2007, in Seattle, USA, Li Xiaofeng once again reached the WCG annual finals, just when people thought that they would witness the birth of an unprecedented triple crown, he accidentally lost the game. When the words "admit defeat" popped up on the screen, two lines of hot tears flowed across Li Xiaofeng's cheeks, because he understood that he might never return to his former height.
Although he lost the battle for the pinnacle of his career, li Xiaofeng and the efforts of Chinese professional e-sports players have begun to be recognized by all sectors of society. In 2008, Li Xiaofeng's name appeared on the list of the Olympic Torch Relay. On May 5 of that year, he and eight or nine other e-sports players participated in the Olympic torch event held in Qionghai (Wuzhishan) in Hainan.
From the Beijing Olympic torchbearer to today's Titanium Technology CEO
When Li Xiaofeng, wearing the No. 029 relay suit, ran through the street with the Xiangyun torch in his hand, it not only completely let e-sports enter the eyes of the Chinese people, but also truly brought dawn to China's e-sports.
In 2015, Li Xiaofeng, who turned 30 years old, officially retired from the army, became the co-founder of an e-sports club, and also founded his own game equipment company, Titanium Technology, which specializes in game equipment.
He turned around and turned a new page in his life.
This transformation is no accident. Li Xiaofeng has used countless mouse and keyboards, he knows what kind of products a top player needs, and what a good piece of equipment can bring to the player.
In terms of Sky's fame, selling e-sports products can make the products sell well by just casually posting a brand. But Li Xiaofeng did not do this, the first product from research and development to sale took nearly a year, the combination of science and technology from the perspective of e-sports highlights his dedication to the product.
If we put up a brand and find a factory OEM to sell mice, we don't have to develop for eight months
Today's Li Xiaofeng will occasionally personally play a few sets, but more time is invested in management. "In tech companies, my job is more about hardware and sales; in the We team, I will grasp the training and results of the players, and do things related to the commercialization of e-sports. Many times, you can give the things you have to do to the partners. ”
From a small famous professional player to a wcg world champion twice, from the Beijing Olympic torchbearer to the current titanium technology CEO, Li Xiaofeng's 36-year-old life is full of legends.
He once posted a photo on his blog of an old, crooked wooden door in his hometown of Ruzhou, Henan Province. With his faith and the strength to refuse to lose, Li Xiaofeng finally pushed open the door and soared in the sky of infinite possibilities.
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Copywriter ▌ Zhang Lin
Poster ▌ Zhang Yinyao
Edited ▌ Wang Shuang
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