The King’s Avatar

So after reading the web novel, The King’s Avatar (also known as Quanzhi Gaoshou or 全职高手),  I knew I wanted to write about it.  The story is amazing as it follow the esports scene of a video game, something that is quite new to our world but still getting incredible popularity!

Starting from the animation released in April 7 of 2017, I quickly fell in love with the story and learned of the web novel of it.  However, like most people who watched anime, I had no interest in reading the novel.  For one, they advertised they were going to make a sequel soon so I figured I could wait for that.  However, after watching the OVA, I quickly downloaded the webnovel app and started watching it.  After the OVA, I just couldn’t wait anymore!  So here is what I love about the series.  Please note that there are potential spoilers like always from this point here.

The story starts of following Ye Xiu as he’s kicked out of his professional esports team, Excellent Era.  He has no where to go and despite being the so called number one player in the world, has no money.  The first thing he does is go into an internet cafe across the street and applies for a job simply because it offers food and shelter as well as a salary.  What’s more, it allows him to continue his passion for free… playing Glory, the most wide spread MMORPG that he became famous for.  Ye Xiu for some reason never showed himself to the public, so nobody recognizes him as he applies, but his skill for Glory could be seen.

Everything he does from the point that he leaves the internet cafe is done on an impulse with no plan at all.  Slowly he starts becoming he number one player in the newest server, getting a bunch of infamy from all the top guilds due to all the records he breaks with ease.  The pro players figure out that he’s simply playing the game after retirement as he slowly meets more and more people who, although new, have potential for higher heights.  It isn’t until here where he starts considering to make a new pro team from scratch.  He isn’t sure if his new friends will follow him however.  However, as soon as his boss figures out his real identity, she decides to help him in any way she can.

From this impulsive idea, they start making a pro team from scratch… a grass roots team that formed from an internet cafe that want to work their way up into the alliance of professional esports teams, Team Happy.

The story is simple, the fall and rise of a professional.  Although we know that he deserves more than simply working at a small time internet cafe, the story starts off with no clear goal as there are many uncertainties.  The lack of clear goal at the starts is simply because Ye Xiu isn’t sure of what to do, and is simply in deep thought as he was just kicked off of the team he created.  Although Ye Xiu is a “god” in this game, he still very much human.

What I find really amazing in this story in general is the characters.  All of them seemed fleshed out and alive.  Even many of the smaller characters in the beginning of the story have a bigger role later on.  There are just so many interesting characters within all the pro teams in the alliance.  From Blue Rain’s loud Huang Shaitain to Excellent Era’s arrogant Sun Xiang, to Samsara’s quiet Zekai Shou.  What’s more, any huge event also effects the fans of these teams as the story goes forth, yet through all this drama we still get a huge laugh every once in a while.

Honestly, there’s too many likeable characters here.  I’ve had ideas of maybe writing a mini series called “Why I like” where I write down why I like certain characters and go more in depth while also going deep into spoiler territory.  If I do this, I’d of course do this for other shows/manga/novels other than The King’s Avatar, but this is something I still have to put more thought into.

The King’s Avatar is currently the number one novel I’m reading right now which I can’t just seem to put down.  In a matter of 3 weeks, I’ve managed to make it to chapter 1088!  If you have any sort of interest in the esports scene, I highly suggest this novel as it’s a good read, and the official translation is free for at least 1000 chapters!  I do warn those who enter the novel that the story is very informational based, so maybe check out the animation first before diving into this.  Regardless, see you all on stage!