Written by: Gosickboy

On the 25th of August 2015, the world famous BBC broadcasted a documentary called Secrets of China with the description: Billie JD Porter reveals what it's really like to grow up in China, where respect for state and elders is being drilled into the next generation. In the second half of the documentary Billie J Porter goes to a Spring 2015 regular season LPL match between World Elite and Star Horn Royal Club, visits the Star Horn Royal Club gaming house and interviews Son Wang Sicong (owner of Invictus Gaming and by extension Young Glory).

Having watched the entire documentary I can say that it's overall a good and worthwhile watch, especially for any eSports fan. However, the documentary left me frustrated and ultimately disappointed and I couldn't really begin to articulate why. After doing some research and re-watching the eSports section I decided to write up my own analysis and commentary, at least as some kind of cathartic exercise.

A radio times article provided some insight into who Billie JD Porter was. 23 years old, Porter started out being a music journalist for NME and VICE and later made some documentaries for VICE on 'beauty pageants, prostitution and superfans'. Porter also DJs and appears in fashion magazines as either 'a model or style inspiration'. Getting her 'big TV break' in 2011, Porter presented Channel 4's 'Joy of Teen Sex'.

Secrets of China is something of a sequel to the BBC three part documentary series Secrets of South America which followed a very similar format. They also share presenters, so it's clear that Porter and the other production crew are both experienced in both this type of documentary and the act experiencing and immersing yourself in a new culture.

I fast-forwarded to 34:00 (where the eSports part starts). Having already established that not only is League of Legends the most popular game in China right now but the most popular game ever, Porter sets up the next section of the documentary with the line:

'It's a spectator sport too. I'm at a national League of Legends match'

As I said before, the match that Billie JD Porter attends is a 2015 spring LPL regular season match between Star Horn Royal Club and World Elite. The match took place on March 22nd, SHRC were finally able to fill the gap caused by star player Uzi's departure to OMG (another famous LPL team) at the start of 2015 with Namei, one of the most successful Chinese players ever. World Elite were coming off the back an IEM Worlds finals appearance after a big mid season roster change which saw them swap out Ninja and Styz for Xiye and Mystic respectively. Interestingly, this was a match between two extremely famous and successful teams who'd recently struggled to find good results.

While Porter doesn't even attempt to provide a backstory for the players or teams I can't really say I blame her simply because, judging by the type of documentary she's making, it doesn't seem high on a list of priorities for myself even. Porter sits with a 22 year old girl who she introduces as 'a huge fan of League of Legends'. This is where the first big issue becomes apparent, not only is Porter completely new to the idea of competitive gaming, but she's also inexperienced in any sport.

'You could say that online gaming is a bit like football, with player exchanges and huge salaries'

While this statement is technically correct it's also awash with ignorance. We've reached a point where it's difficult to find a game that's not online in some form or another, that the specification of 'online gaming' is almost redundant (like specifying flat screen TV, as if you can still buy non flat screen TVs). The irony here is that this match isn't actually being played online, it's being played on LAN (Local Area Network). A much more accurate and appropriate way to describe this match is either 'competitive gaming' or 'professional gaming'.

It's true that professional LoL in China is a bit like football for the reasons that Porter specifies but it's far more accurate and less insulting to just say that professional LoL in China follows a traditional sports model. Teams compete in a televised League to win money and titles, teams buy, recruit and develop players and pay them a salary and players have professional staff (coaches, managers, chefs) to assist them and help them perform. It's really just a standard sports league, no surprise that with all the enjoyment and money thrown around that the professional LoL scene in China would follow this model.

'I'm surprised that so many people want to watch something that's so repetitive'

As a statement this is both ludicrous and offensive and is testament to what I said earlier: That a big issue in this documentary is Porter's complete lack of interest and knowledge in professional sports, let alone professional eSports. First off every competitive sport in the entire world is repetitive. Two Premier League football matches will be almost impossible to differentiate if you only half watch both games. It's only when you start to understand the sport fully and can break down the subtle nuances of the game do you start to notice the differences between football matches. The first thing that most fans find enjoyable is the result, then it's the way they got to the result and then it's the game as a whole.

Watching anyone do anything they're extremely skilled at is enjoyable, at least on a base level. So I find it hard to believe that Porter can't grasp how millions of people would want to watch two teams extremely skilled and practised competitors compete in an incredibly complex and fast paced game. League of Legends has over 1000 different variables and even two games where all the controllable variables are practically the same can be completely different just due to how the game functions.

Porter then goes and meets with one of the principle professional Chinese LoL casters where she begins with the question:

'Do you think there is a dangerous element to how addictive these games are?'

Instead of questioning the commentator about how or why he became a commentator, Porter immediately goes in with a weighted moral question that tries to present gaming as an unhealthy and destructive activity. It's clear from this question that Billie JD Porter is trying to push her own narrative. First offm kids have always found distractions that hurt their academic performances. It’s not like kids relished doing homework when all they had were a bunch of wooden pegs to play with. Secondly, at least the act of playing video games requires an element of concentration and stimulation unlike television (something Porter not only makes her living off of, but claims to love). This idea that video games ruin lives is something that television's been pushing since video games first started to be commercially sold back in the 1970s. Not only is this narrative dull and overused but it's also completely lacking in evidence and therefore unsubstantiated.

Thirdly, there's still no attempt to separate the activity of playing the game and watching the game which makes it rather confusing as to what Porter's even attacking. As someone who hasn't played a video game for 2 months but watched 30+ hours of professional LoL last week alone, I can tell you that, shock horror, someone can enjoy video games as a spectator sport and not as an activity. This is actually fairly common in regular sports, at least judging by the physical appearance of the average fans at my local football game. The average professional Chinese LoL fan probably watches no more than 6 hours of matches a week, hardly the kind of activity that's going to destroy your life. Especially when you observe that pretty much every fan at the game was sitting and chatting with a friend.

Even if you assume that video games in China have some kind of dramatically unique fan culture or behaviours (which I can assure you it doesn't), it's bizarre that Billie JD Porter never even comments on the fact that League of Legends is ultimately an American game with professional Leagues and massive playerbases all over the world. North America, Europe, South Korea, Taiwan, South East Asia, Brazil, Turkey, CIS and Australia all also have professional League of Legends Leagues with similar fan culture. At this point Billie hasn't actually shown the audiences anything unique to Chinese eSports, especially since you can witness crazed fans and addicted gamers en mass all over the world.

'Do you think there's a reason why kids here are so attracted to these, you know, fantasy worlds that they live inside?'

Again, a really terrible question that tells you a lot more about Porter's line of thinking than video games in China. The way she uses the word 'kids' first off yet the fan that she just met was 22 years old (that makes you an adult in any country) is confusing. But let's give Porter the benefit of the doubt and say she was asking a professional eSports commentator specifically about the a section of the playerbase demographic (because that's his obvious field of expertise).

League of Legends is not a 'fantasy world' in the same way that Chess is not a 'fantasy world'. The escapism that League of Legends offers is the escapism that is offered in a pick up game of Basketball. Off the court I might be a kid from a broken home with a drug addict mother and a step father who beats me, but on the court, the only thing that separates me from the other kids is my ability to play Basketball. Your ethnicity, background, education and physical appearance don't matter on the court, all that matters is how you play ball.

Yes, there are video games that are fantasy worlds (these vary from World of Warcraft to GTA V) but League of Legends is not one of them. LoL has a grand total of three maps with over 80% of the games taking place on the same map. It can hardly be considered a fantasy world, especially in that it's a very controlled and limited competitive game. No one lives in League of Legends, people obsess about winning and playing the game but to say they live in LoL is just murdering the English language. I don't understand why, unless Porter was committed to portraying LoL in a negative light, she wouldn't just refer to LoL as a 'competitive video game'.

'Who knew that being a computer nerd could earn you cool points in China'

Use of the word nerd in 2015, really? The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word 'nerd' as

A foolish or contemptible person who lacks social skills or is boringly studious

A single-minded expert in a particular technical field

Hardly a fun thing to be called huh? I'm not sure why Porter believes it's acceptable to use the word nerd to describe the consumer base of a multi billion dollar industry (her own words) but the only conclusion I can draw is that she is again pushing the same narrative and agenda mentioned prior.

The remainder of the documentary covers Porter going to the Star Horn Royal Club gaming house, meeting Zero and Namei and discussing a few fairly dull points with them. While I would've enjoyed Porter asking Zero about his decision to move to another country to become a professional gamer or asking either of them about how it is on the team now they're not performing well and how it doesn't stop it being enjoyable. There's also a confusing part where she focuses on a boob soft toy she finds in the house for a solid minute (and makes a big deal of how the players are embarrassed by it) but at least there's no new points of contention. I will say that, however, it's almost as if the entire narrative pushed by the BBC and Porter is embodied by the decision to use the word 'nerd'.

Editor's Note: You can watch the BBC episode in question here. 

The author typically writes about Korean League of Legends.  You can follow the author for more content at @Gosickboy_.