Nirvana Top Laner, Reborn Tokyo Girl

Chapter 200, Section 197: Viral on the International Internet! The World's Number One Top Laner!

[The world's best top laner has attracted a lot of criticism, but he was definitely the best performing top laner in this World Championship.]

[If the best performing top laner isn't the world's number one top laner, then who is? Is it Bin, Faker's successor?]

[No, if you want to claim to be the world's best top laner, show some results first. How can you call yourself the best top laner without any results?]

Does winning the Pioneer Tournament not count as winning the championship?

【So, I'd like to ask, where did the rest of the Pioneer Tournament players go?】

While Shimamura Yuna is very popular in China, there is still considerable controversy surrounding whether she is the world's best top laner.

For nothing else.

Simply put, it refers to the Chinese region, or more broadly, the entire Asian region.
This is the place where the "championship supremacy" mentality is most pronounced in League of Legends.

Although Riot intentionally fostered a champion-centric mentality, it is actually a common problem among League of Legends tournament champions worldwide and a shared choice among the League of Legends community.

This is a public opinion trend that Riot determined after research, as the most likely to generate hype and make the most money.

However, within the entire League of Legends community, East Asia, particularly China and South Korea, the two major player markets for League of Legends, shows a particular affinity for this product.

It's not even about winning the championship anymore.

That's the only S-class theory.

You say you performed well, then let me ask you what kind of champion you are.

You say you have a league championship, then let me ask you if you have a world championship.

You say you have a world championship title, then let me ask you if you're an S-series champion.

There are S-series champions too?

That's all right now, you're awesome.

However, even winning the S-series championship doesn't mean they are completely invincible.

Because it depends on what you're comparing.

If you compare yourself to all those nobodies, you'll be unbeatable.

For example, if you want to use it to suppress Chovy or Bin, an S-series championship is enough.

But if it's the T1 championship five-man team, or Faker, then we'll have to ask you again.

How many World Championship titles do you have?

That's right, our League of Legends competitions are indeed very hierarchical.

This results in any player, no matter how well they perform, facing an awkward public opinion situation if they don't win the S-series championship.

Even if you perform better on the field and the audience cheers louder, it will be more embarrassing if you don't win the championship.

The CJB theory, invented by the legendary professional player Cool, continues to influence every professional League of Legends player to this day.

It's hard to say whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, but the pressure on players like Chovy in terms of public opinion is immense.

This kind of pressure is much greater than the pressure faced by Niko's team, who have failed to win a Major and struggled in major tournaments.

The viewership of League of Legends is one of the most pragmatic and demanding among all esports in the world, if not the most discerning.

However, this so-called strictness is actually quite dynamic.

For example, in East Asia, popular players are usually associated with honors.

So, how do you prove that your favorite contestant is a valuable player?
Of course, the goal is to uphold the highest honor he has achieved, so that he can criticize those players he doesn't like.

Furthermore, the competitive and gritty nature of East Asian culture further intensifies this atmosphere.

But
Is it really necessary for these people in Europe and America to do this?

Do our own people have any achievements?
No.

Has anyone in our family ever won a championship?

No.

Aside from the legendary S1 championship, the best result for Europe and North America is the MSI championship.

At a time like this, is it worth it for them to follow the lead of the two East Asian countries in playing the game of comparing their records and claiming that their championships are greater than the other's?

What benefit would it bring them?

If you promote this ideology, the result will be that your own people will be trampled on and you will never be able to turn the tide in public opinion.

It's fair to say that Western viewers who truly care about this kind of thing have already stopped watching the games.

This is why, in the past two years, the number of viewers for League of Legends esports events in Europe and America, especially North America, has plummeted, and North America has become the region where the bubble burst first.

After most of the champion fans and those who were fans of achievements were filtered out, the remaining viewers in Europe and America were relatively indifferent.

Watching matches and supporting athletes is ideal if they achieve good results.

Players like Faker, who have achievements, a good image, and are hardworking and positive, are naturally the first choice to be fans.

But even players who don't achieve results can still become fans.

They don't necessarily need a championship to convince themselves to praise or like a player.

Winning a championship is just an extra bonus for a player.

In this context, while China and South Korea are still arguing about whether Shimamura Yuna is a CJB player and whether she can be considered the world's best top laner since she hasn't won a championship yet.
In Europe and America, champagne is already popping.

If you search for "shimamura" on Twitter now, you'll find nothing but rave reviews.

On Reddit, a popular forum in Europe and America, some people have even started discussing it seriously.

To be fair, aside from the fact that she's a female player, could Shimamura Yuna from Japan be considered a great player?

The original poster provided a detailed analysis of the current online discussions surrounding Yuna Shimamura.

Moreover, unlike forums like Anti-Pressure Bar, which simply vent emotions, this post sounds much more rational, perhaps because people are not as invested in the performance of Asian teams.

"I'm sure everyone's been paying attention to CFO and Shimamura lately. She's undoubtedly the most talked-about player in this tournament, even surpassing veteran popular professional players like Faker, Chovy, and Bin."

Because of her status as a female professional player, coupled with her appearance and personality that are truly adorable as if she stepped out of a Japanese anime, she quickly gained a large following.

However, upon rational discussion, do these discussions about her appearance and her status as a female professional player overshadow her brilliance to a large extent?
Even if you completely disregard all of that, she's still an extremely talented professional player, isn't she?

Think about it, how many people can enter the World Championship in just their first season and then defeat strong opponents with a dominant performance to become the champion? Although I know many people say that FS is just a less rigorous, less interesting, and less competitive tournament.
However, considering that Shimamura Yuna is a complete newcomer, her performance against professional players like Zeus and 369 was in no way inferior, and even a complete domination. Think about it, could 369 and Zeus have performed the same way as Shimamura Yuna in their first season as professional players?

If Zeus can be considered a genius, an unprecedented figure, then why can't Shimamura Yuna be?

But now everyone seems to be focusing on the fact that she's a female player, and a rare Japanese player. Have you ever considered that she doesn't actually need these special titles? Shimamura Yuna is a truly legendary player.

Users on the League of Legends Reddit forum were clearly very interested in his discussion.

The post quickly garnered a large number of replies.

"Without a doubt, you're right. Her identity is indeed too special, to the point that everyone is caught up in a fanatical fantasy of ACG coming to life, ignoring her as a professional gamer."

Actually, her performance in the first stage was already impressive enough, but so far in the second stage, she has left an even deeper impression on me.

In the seven matches played so far, she has been able to maintain an advantage in almost every single one.

Imagine you're a professional esports team, and you have a top laner who almost never falls behind. When resources are allocated to her, she's guaranteed to carry, and even when resources are scarce, she manages to deliver her best performance.

She adapts to almost any tactical arrangement the team makes.

She doesn't play tanks or warriors, which seems like a terrible hero pool because these two types of heroes are quite common. But even so, she can make everyone else afraid to use these types of heroes without ever using them herself.

Because everyone knows that if you don't pick a hero that can put more pressure on the lane, it will be easy for Shimamura Yuna to farm up to the late game without any pressure and then turn the game around.

Her performance has been phenomenal for a top laner, but many people don't even realize it, taking it all for granted.

"To be honest, the current Shimamura Yuna is quite impactful to me. She's like TheShy who used his model to destroy G2 in the river back then, or like Nuguri and Zeus later on. Shimamura has this kind of temperament."

While exceptional top laners are rare, they do exist; however, powerful female players and Japanese players are unprecedented. Therefore, the focus naturally shifts to the unprecedented nature of the phenomenon rather than to what has already happened.

'I think everyone needs to correct their mindset now.'

Stop obsessing over the fact that she is a female athlete or a Japanese athlete.

She's a top-tier female top laner from Japan.
Similar discussions are common on Reddit.

Each post expresses a different opinion.

Some people say that "Shimamura Yuna is actually the world's best top laner in terms of performance".

Some people say that "Shimamura Yuna's female identity makes people overlook the fact that she is the world's best top laner."

But anyway, it all boils down to the same thing.

'Shimamura-san is the world's best top laner!!!'

This praise of her as the world's best top laner is unique to Europe and America, and comes from a perspective that focuses solely on enjoying the game, rather than the narrative of China and South Korea's obsession with the World Championship.

Of course, it cannot be said that the pursuit of championships is absent in Europe and America.

For example, if you say, "CHOVY is the best mid laner in the world, and in terms of performance, he is no worse than Faker," then someone will come out and argue with you.

Now I'll ask you, "How many championships does Chovy have, and how many championships does Faker have?"

Ultimately, the "champion-only" mentality is often just a tool used to protect one's favorite, high-achieving athletes, and it will be used when necessary.

It's just that Europeans and Americans have lost too many times, and there's not much for them to defend, so they don't really advocate the "championship-only" mentality.

Moreover, in the top lane position, there is no player with such exaggerated popularity as Faker.

Yuna Shimamura is the most popular contestant.

At this point, the "champion-only" mentality naturally becomes ineffective.

In order to elevate Shimamura Yuna's status and increase the persuasiveness of her abilities, audiences in Europe and America are now almost dynamically choosing to ignore the fact that Shimamura Yuna doesn't have any respectable major tournament results.

They all started praising Shimamura Yuna's brilliance before she even achieved anything.

Even after the match against AL ended, several prominent figures in the European and American League of Legends scene directly praised it on Twitter.

A famous English-language commentator, after Shimamura Yuna's 3-0 victory over AL, even knelt down on the spot and kept repeating in a trance-like manner, "MY GOAT MY GOATOY MY GOAT".

Afterwards, he posted a photo of Yuna Shimamura looking triumphant on Twitter, with the caption: "Maybe the best top laner in the world."

The official response was also straightforward and effusive.

The official League of Legends esports account immediately started posting clips, highlight reels, and post-match interviews featuring Yuna Shimamura after the game.

They just post anything and everything.

We need to issue some polls.

In your opinion, is Shimamura the best top laner in the world?

From player communities to influential streamers and official sources.

It can be said that the entire Western world is now uniformly in an atmosphere of deifying Yuna Shimamura.

This atmosphere also gives many of Yuna Shimamura's fans a strong sense of pride and identification.

Although Shimamura Yuna is Japanese.

Although she is not actually Chinese.

However, Shimamura Yuna's original fans were mostly Chinese fans, and Shimamura Yuna herself mainly focused on the Chinese market.

This gave Shimamura Yuna's many Chinese fans the feeling that their initial investment in shares had suddenly skyrocketed.

I just felt that way.
Holy crap, my daughter's really something!
Soon, the reactions, comments, and explanations from these foreign online broadcasters were all brought back to Bilibili, translated, and made into videos.

[Foreign internet celebrity Cxxxx kneels down on the spot after watching Yuna Shimamura defeat AL 3-0: She is my GOAT!]

[Discussion on Reddit: Is Yuna Shimamura the world's best top laner? Does her status as a female player overshadow her brilliance?]

[Foreign Twitter comment: Is Yuna Shimamura the world's strongest professional player?]

Videos like these were uploaded to Bilibili one by one, providing entertainment for Shimamura Yuna's fans.

Even some of Yuna Shimamura's fans were moved by what they saw.

While everyone in China was still cautiously praising Shimamura Yuna, fearing she might be blacklisted and labeled a "CJB" (a derogatory term for someone who is considered a top laner), viewers in Europe and America were already openly declaring her the world's best top laner.

While people in China are still hesitant to express their opinions too much for fear of being attacked by fans of other groups, people abroad have already begun to worship Yuna Shimamura like a deity.

This feeling is really great.

For Shimamura Yuna's fans, who have to be careful what they say in China, the foreign websites where they can freely praise how amazing Shimamura Yuna is seem like a utopian paradise.

(End of this chapter)