simplified Chinese: 全职高手; pinyin: Quánzhí Gāoshǒu

The King’s Avatar

The King’s Avatar (全职高手, Quánzhí Gāoshǒu) is a web novel authored by Butterfly Blue (蝴蝶蓝) in 2011 and ending 2014 with official English translations beginning in 2015 and ending in 2019. The novel has since been adapted into a donghua in 2017 with a second season in 2020 and a live-action TV series in 2019.

Ye Xiu is a professional player for Excellent Era in the MMORPG named Glory. His records over the course of a decade on his character named One Autumn Leaf have earned him the title of Battle God, competent and dominating in fighting both monsters and players. Despite Ye Xiu’s legendary status, the veteran was kicked out of the Excellent Era team with both his position and character transferred to a younger new member. Loitering through the city as a now jobless man, he encounters a certain internet cafe and decides to apply as a manager there. Glory’s tenth server also coincidentally opened that day, and so Ye Xiu started anew with a brand new character he named Lord Grim. The story continues from then on as Ye Xiu relives through the Glory experience as Lord Grim all the while cafe customers and players remain unaware of the former Battle God’s presence among them. A movie, The King’s Avatar: For the Glory, was released in 2019 and detailed Ye Xiu’s beginnings when Glory was still relatively new.

The King’s Avatar gained mass popularity in China and moderate success overseas. The web novel has finished with 1,776 chapters with over 20 million readers on Qidian, ranked in the top ten in the All-time Total Power Ranking on Qidian International, and ranked 4th on the 2016 China Internet Fiction Rankings. The donghua series itself had two seasons and won the 14th China Animation Golden Dragon Award while also being highly rated on overseas websites such as MyAnimeList. Furthermore, the live-action series amassed over one billion views on Tencent Video and over ten million on overseas websites. The King’s Avatar’s success could be partly attributed to the rise of esports in China as esports became increasingly popular over the years with teams getting sponsored by powerhouse companies, Tencent buying stakes of the League of Legends company Riot games, and international tournaments gaining millions of viewers. Overall, Ye Xiu’s zero-to-hero story had widespread appeal among the esports audience, and its creation during the rise of esports in Chinese culture had a non-trivial impact on its popularity.

Húdié Lán. “Quánzhí Gāoshǒu.” Qidian, 28 Feb. 2011, https://book.qidian.com/info/1887208/.

Kalro, Nikhil. “Why Is China so Dominant in Esports?” Hotspawn, 27 Oct. 2022, https://www.hotspawn.com/league-of-legends/news/china-dominant-esports.

“Power Ranking in Novels Rankings.” Webnovel, https://www.webnovel.com/ranking/novel/all_time/power_rank?rankName=Power&timeType=1&sourceType=0&sex=1&signStatus=0.

Qi, Vikki. “‘The King’s Avatar’ Sets Record for Views in Overseas Markets with Fresh Story and Cutting-Edge Tech.” Business Wire, 8 Aug. 2019, https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190808005483/en/%E2%80%9CThe-King%E2%80%99s-Avatar%E2%80%9D-Sets-Record-Views-Overseas.

“Quanzhi Gaoshou.” MyAnimeList.net, https://myanimelist.net/anime/33926/Quanzhi_Gaoshou.

“2016 Nián zhōngguó wǎngluò xiǎoshuō páiháng bǎng bànnián bǎng jiēxiǎo.” Zhōngguó Zuòjiā wǎng, 13 Sept. 2016, http://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2016/0913/c404023-28712895.html.

“Zhōngguó dòngmàn jīnlóng jiǎng chìzī qiān wàn yuán fúchí zhèng néngliàng dòngmàn chuàngzuò.” Xīnhuá wǎng, 30 Sept. 2017, http://m.xinhuanet.com/gd/2017-09/30/c_1121750242.htm.