What a view | The King’s Avatar: show on the Chinese e-sports scene is oddly addictive
- The show explores the world of live gaming tournaments, which are big business in China and South Korea
- Plus, HBO’s creepy anthology series Room 104 returns for a spine-tingling third series
Ye Xiu (Yang Yang) is a former e-sports professional and the greatest player in the history of the video game Glory, which attracts untold numbers of devoted amateur players as well as superstar teams in branded uniforms. A triple champion as captain of Team Excellent Era, Xiu has been forced out of the organisation for his noble refusal to join fan-exploiting marketing campaigns, and replaced by his nemesis, the sullen Sun Xiang (Liang Sen), who affects the look of a rock ’n’ roll rebel.
In the 3D motion-capture, computer-animated Glory world, Xiu was known as One Autumn Leaf, a battle god and slayer of all enemies; in the real world, working as a gofer at the Happy Internet Cafe, he’s a complete klutz, literally unable to change a light bulb without cutting off from their fix an angry army of Glory-obsessed gamers. This is not a po-faced show without humour.
At least one potential love interest fails to connect the latex-luminous features of One Autumn Leaf with the airbrushed face of the human Xiu, but he’s far too busy to worry about any romantic nonsense. Already back on medieval-flavoured Glory territory, with its monsters, maidens and meatheads, Xiu, now playing as Lord Grim, is plotting revenge against his former team and its usurper skipper. Supported by All-Piercing Lance and Sleeping Moon, and wielding a weapon of mass demolition of his own design – the snappily named Myriad Manifestation Umbrella (shades of Kingsman , conceivably) – how can he fail?