Every Winter, some new folks’d ask if those two are really together-together, because it&rsquo
Every Winter, some new folks’d ask if those two are really together-together, because it’s been a year since they barely got to say hello on the same stage. This year, helpful fandom veterans directed them to an event at the end of Nov 2021, and a quick search got you this detailed report of the hullabaloo. @accio-victuuri’s careful to point out which parts are speculation, but to an outsider looking in, what’s the big deal? So, xz used wyb’s podcast account to do research for his new role and have some thrills fun, got caught out by fans, then (in a panic) turned the history invisible while wyb was still off at work, and pretended nothing happened. So what?Why did at least a dozen solo fans from both actors’ camps publicly jump ship and go all aboard The BJYXSZD? Because it’s not the first time those two have used each other’s various accounts, and it’s not even the most outrageous stunt they’d pulled. …An innocent young fan asked why wyb couldn’t just set up a separate account for his “good buddy” xz, especially since he must be loaded with tokens and perks as befits being the brand ambassador. Well, one wouldn’t ask this question if one knew them to be an actual irl couple – because on a different platform, they do have separate accounts, yet shippers often kept mum about it in public, since it left no doubt as to the true nature of their relationship.The data points discussed below have been well-documented and widely known in closed circles for a few years now, but were publicly passed off as rumors or “fake stories” until 11/28, when some angry fans in denial demanded the shippers back their claims up with evidence. They asked, and so they shall receive. For those unaware of their history with the HoK moba (similar to LoL in many ways), this BTS video not only provides insight to how they viewed the characters they played in The Untamed, but also hints at xz’s gaming preference in real life.N.B.: The following were chronicled by fans who visited The Untamed production set in 2018 before they shot to fame. They’re aware of those fans following their gamer IDs; when BTS cameramen filmed them, sometimes you could see those IDs on their devices before the fansites blurred them out, so people who’d followed them back then can still see what they’re up to today, even after they’ve changed user IDs several times. Screenshots are watermarked to prevent out-of-context misuse. 1. xz prefers playing mid lane, mostly ranged champions like mages and archers who excel at long-range attacks. wyb usually goes top and jungle so prefers melee champions best for close combat.2. Sometime before 5/20/2020 (Chinese Valentine’s), the two went AFK simultaneously and got reported by their teammates during a 5on5. The penalty was a deducted rep point for each guy.3. Right after HoK updated in September 2020, a geolocation bug exposed the players’ physical whereabouts down to the district grid. A wyb solo fan found one of xz’s champions to be located right by the HBS TV network, where wyb was filming the TTXS episodes, in the Kaifu District in Changsha.One could try to argue that xz’d set up this Yun Zhong Jun while he was visiting wyb in Changsha a long time ago, but all available evidence pointed toward wyb signing in on xz’s behalf to level boost that account using his expertise with assassin champions.He did pretty well, too, ranking #34 in the district with a 100% win rate.4. As far as the fans could recall, the first champion they saw xz playing for a prolonged period was the archer Hou Yi in the Sagittarius Aiolos skin. Shipper fans were tickled by one of the champion’s voice lines which went, “Young man, are you someone I can depend on?”5. Later, when both actors moved on to film military-themed drama, xz had his profile background display Sun Shangxiang in the skin with a launcher over her shoulder. He’s known for killing it with this champion; her voice lines are said to be “feisty” – pretty funny, considering xz changed his in-game nickname to 洋芋本人 “Potato Himself” around 5/17. That’s right, “Potato” is what the cyberbully antis are calling him. 土豆 has derogatory connotations for “domestic idol” [as opposed to “imported” and therefore better] according to his haters, who somehow fail to realize this juvenile put-down exposes nothing but their own cultural cringe.6. Right before the Chinese Valentine’s on 5/20, his profile background became Zhuge Liang in the Valentine’s limited edition couple skin from 2/14/2018: a mage shrouded in pink by a flurry of peach blossoms.7. xz really enjoys tinkering with luxurious skins on his champions, which are often as colorful as can be. He’s collected quite a number of limited edition and out-of-print skins, and his penchant for archers and mages also ensured that he has a lot more female champions, such as Diao Chan (mage) and Qie Luo (archer), besides the mage he’s shown playing in one of the BTS videos, Bian Que.[Anecdotes have it that he watched Sailor Moon on TV in the evenings while his male classmates did “boy stuff” in lower school. But I keep feminism and gender discussions in the main blog, so here he does what he wants and good for him!] The contrast between their preferred champions is pretty steep: 8. wyb’s preferred close combat / melee champions are typically dimmer in hues, with lots of dark greys, and are predominantly male. However, that just made his profile background all the more eyebrow-raising: it’s a kitten & puppy diary theme for couples. His champion Sun Ce (warrior) is in the puppy skin, which gets you to wonder who’s playing the coupled champion in the kitten skin, Da Qiao (support).9. If you get someone else to boost your account, they’d need to pick a champion they’re good at playing with a high win rate. If they’re not physically in the same location as you, they’d have to sign in using your credentials on their own device. If wyb signed in with xz’s WeChat ID, xz would see an alert on his cellphone, and he’d need to approve the remote logon, so both parties are aware of the event.Around 5/16/2021, a wyb solo fan on douyin (where solo-shipper relations are much friendlier) found out xz’s gamertag signed on in Changsha again, and it was obvious that wyb was boosting his account. A bunch of solo fans made a big fuss about this for 2 days in a row, then immediately sustained collective amnesia; apparently, xz has since turned off sign-in history on that account.As a result, although xz’s champions typically attack long-range, he now has 2 melee champions with very high win rate in close combat.10. But they also do it the other way round. wyb had kept the number of skins in his possession at 84 for a long time, almost compulsively. However, on 5/20/2021 (Chinese Valentine’s, again!) he suddenly gained 6 new skins with a new champion for each skin. Every single one of these 6 is a long-ranged champion with a high win rate.One of those 6 is Sun Shangxiang in the skin with a launcher over her shoulder, and her win rate is 100% (see #5 above). Another is Xiao Qiao (younger sister to Da Qiao from #8), also a mage, in a colorful Rainbow Unicorn skin. Fandom statisticians who kept tabs on both accounts also noticed that xz didn’t play much this season, but lots of archer and mage activities were happening with wyb’s new champions instead. Does anyone still need things spelled out? 11. Although wyb usually goes for top laners to solo carry, some of the more skilled gamer fans have observed their duo queue and witnessed several occasions where wyb played tank and support such as Zhong Kui to protect xz’s more fragile mages and archers. They don’t really see him doing that with other players.On the other hand, they’ve also seen wyb playing top lane and jungle while xz played support as Yao – yep, that’s the female champion coupled with none other than assassin Yun Zhong Jun (see #3). 12. The couple skins below are the 2020 Valentine’s limited edition for the archer Hou Yi (see #4), which xz owns the male half of the pair, and his wife, Chang’E, a mage associated with the moon and the jade rabbit (featured in one of the better-known fake stories involving wyb and his staff, but I won’t go into it here).There are about 10 pairs of couple skins in HoK. xz and wyb each own half of several pairs of those couple skins in a precise, non-overlapping, dovetail manner. For example, xz owns the male skin in couple A and female skin in couple C, while wyb owns the male skin in couple B and female skin in couple D. They’ve managed to perfectly avoid every single complementary piece held by each other, it’s like they’re doing it on purpose, and yet –Some couple skins can only be sold as a pair, so if the missing half is not with either of their main accounts, fans speculate it’s got to be with the other’s side accounts. This isn’t a baseless conjecture, because the point of couple skins is to have your champions in a duo queue show up coordinated with each other. There was a group of fans who lost track of wyb’s game account, but kept following xz’s since his username evolution was kind of predictable, and they were able to nail down wyb’s user ID from xz’s duo queue stats, especially since both accounts had identical user pics to their WeChat profiles. It’s not a stretch to assume both actors have side accounts for gaming when they didn’t want to be scrutinized.In the 6/8/2018 screenshot above, wyb’s username YIBO was plain and simple, but xz chose 有钱 本人 “Rich Himself” where Rich 有钱 is a play on his name 肖战, autograph-wise. See a pattern there?Someone who’s been keeping track of both accounts reported that they’ve never used any couple-y gamer IDs, and they’d always pick very interesting usernames, but their user pics really tickled the shippers’ fancy. For a while there, wyb’s icon was a ray of green light; then it turned into a panther headshot. Later, when he replaced that with a motorcycle, xz’s icon had become a ray of red light.13. The VIP level of an account depends on how much the user has spent purchasing digital assets. Some fans checked out the history of their VIP levels and burst out laughing, because xz’s been a steady VIP8 despite owning a lot of expensive skins (a mismatch at that VIP level). Meanwhile, wyb used to be VIP7 for a long time, but then abruptly turned into a VIP10, along with coming into possession of some fancy, colorful, long-ranged champions and swanky skins.It takes RMB$2k (≈US$314) to get to VIP7, and about RMB$19k (≈US$2960) to hit VIP10, but the quantity and quality of skins in wyb’s account make it clear that he’s given a lot of his purchases away as gifts. To get to VIP10, you’d’ve probably bought every available skin in the store. If you’re new to this, you might think, “Oh, so wyb bought xz a bunch of skins as gifts?” To which the fandom olds say, “Nay, xz signed on using wyb’s account and bought themselves a bunch of skins, because once you hit VIP10, you’re allowed to share the skins you own with another player, and it’ll incentivize you both to make time to play together.” The married fans have pointed out that single youngsters are often limited in experience with pooling assets to maximize benefits, and couldn’t imagine why share an account when you can afford two. Those who’ve never been in a long-distance relationship might not realize this is a way to foster intimacy for couples who don’t get to stay together often – if they’re separated by insurmountable physical distance, you betcha they’ll make the effort for zero digital distance.So, it’s come full circle: couples financial resource entanglement. If they’re willing to drop thousands on skins, why couldn’t xz shell out $20 for a full year’s VIP membership on that podcast website? Can’t his studio (which he owns) even afford to write it off as a business related expense? If they’re such “great buddies”, wyb has more than a few means to set up an account at no cost to him. What’s stopping him from being his generous self? Having an extra account for free is fine but unnecessary when you already co-own one with your “best pal”.Getting an extra account for free when you and your spouse already share one might signal “I need some space” instead. -- source link
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