The 'Ninja must die' incident: China's LOL community is wound pretty tight

The influx of Korean players and coaches to China’s LPL has caused quite a stir in China’s League of Legends scene. Some fans are quite happy with the changes, and think that the new Korean talent will help Chinese teams achieve at a higher level in international tournaments. Others are upset with the addition of Korean players, which they feel makes these once-Chinese teams no longer truly Chinese.

(See: Korean players in Chinese League of Legends teams: management says yes, fans say no)

If you want an illustration of just how tense things have gotten, Edward Gaming midlaner U provided it over the weekend when he tweeted a very simple message: “Ninja must die.”

Fans of China’s Team WE, which is currently tied with EDG for second in the standings and which just added a Korean midlaner named Ninja to its roster, took the post as a slight, and began flaming U in the comments on his post. There are nearly 1,000 comments, and most of them are too profane to translate. “Your skills suck, and your personal character sucks even harder,” wrote one commenter in a message that was representative of the general mood.

U quickly followed his first tweet with another reading “It’s a game!” and then further clarified early this week that he was playing the game Ninja Must Die 2. But many WE fans aren’t buying it. “Why don’t you f***** go die?” reads an indicative comment on one of his clarification posts.

Whatever U actually meant by his initial tweet, it’s clear that tensions are high on both sides. This weekend’s results probably didn’t help much eac other; the two teams faced each other but came away with a 1-1 draw (you can watch the English VOD here).

(via QQ Games)