League of Legends commentator revels in his Asian Games adventure

Feng Zhuocheng isn't a competitor at the Hangzhou Asian Games. Yet as an on-site commentator for the esports events, he has a schedule no less intensive to that of an athlete.

He usually gets up at around 6 am, arrives at the competition venue, the China Hangzhou Esports Centre, at around 7:40 am for some intensive preparation work for the first match, which usually starts at 9 am.

This is OK with the 22-year-old, who has become used to an intense schedule since he became a professional esports commentator more than two years ago. Feng said he has lost a lot of sleep over the past few days, due to the excitement about the Asian Games, in which esports was officially included as a medal event for the first time.

"It is a big step forward," said Feng, who hails from Wuhan, the capital of central China's Hubei province, and has just graduated from Tsinghua University in Beijing as an English major.

The Games are set to make the public better acquainted with esports, both its charm as a sport and the joy it brings, which Feng has been passionate about since 2013.

"I remembered it was during the summer vacation and many of my classmates were playing League of Legends, so I started playing, too," Feng said, excitedly. "At first, I harbored dreams of becoming a professional player, but later I found that I was better at using the power of words, and finally became a commentator."

In 2020, the developer of League of Legends held a big audition event. Feng, then still a junior English major at Tsinghua, entered, and stood out to snag a spot as an official LoL commentator.

"My schedule during my college years was very challenging — I took five classes from Monday to Wednesday and spent the remaining four days traveling back and forth to Shanghai for the commentary work," recalled Feng. "I am very grateful for my parents' support. They said I could fulfill whatever dream I had, as long as I balanced it with my studies, and I did."

As a young commentator, Feng said that the Hangzhou Asiad has also provided him a platform to learn from many traditional sports commentators, who have joined the commentary team for esports live TV broadcasts.

"There is a lot to learn from them, their use of language and more of a popular science approach to introduce the facets of esports, so that the audience can understand," Feng said. "They think about what the audience wants and respond naturally. It's something I think about less when I'm commentating on games."

Compared with traditional sports, esports events generally have a faster pace, Feng continued.

"Even in some intense traditional sports events, the requirements for commentators' on-the-spot reaction are not particularly high," he said. "But in esports, the density of information is much greater. In one or two seconds, you need to process a lot of information and convey it to the audience clearly, so commenting on esports is relatively laborious."

At this Asian Games, Feng, joined by another official commentator for the LoL professional league, will commentate on a total of eight matches, starting from the group stage to the finals on Friday.

"From this Asian Games, I feel that there are more people who love esports than I'd initially realized. We are not just a small project, playing in a small world of our own, but accepted by the larger audience."