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An elderly woman mistakes a League of Legends statue for that of a Chinese war hero, accidentally praying to Garen the champion instead of an immortalized general.
Thanks to games like League of Legends , channels like ESPN have been hopping onto the eSports trainand joining the masses in cheering on their favorite players. Few could doubt the popularity and widespread growththat League of Legends has achieved, but, even so, something peculiar happened outside of an Chinese internet cafe in the last week that left fans of the game scratching their heads.
An elderly woman passing by an internet cafe stopped and looked at a giant figure of Garen, a popular champion from the game. Things got more confusing for passersby when the elderly woman stooped to her knees and starting praying to the statue, perhaps hoping to attain a higher level of actions per minute. In any event, photographs from a security camera positioned outside the cafe quickly spread through Chinese social media platform Weibo, causing much bewilderment tofans worldwide.
The photos left many scratching their head at the bizarre scene, but there is a likely explanation in regards to the praying: many local gamers speculated that the elderly woman simply mistook the giant Garen figure as a statue of Guan Yu, a famous Chinese general who was immortalized in one of China’s most famous books and is revered by some as a God. It’s likely she was legitimately praying and simply failed to recognize that the statue she chose to pray to happened to be from a video game, as opposed to the Yuncheng hero Lord Guan.
To be fair, Garen is a fighter, and photographs of Guan Yu certainly make him look like a man who would don a similar suit of armor and get things done. While Guan Yu is idolized as the epitome of loyalty and righteousness, Garen’s most notable quote is “The most effective way to kill an opponent is to slice through the man next to him.” We assume someone would only intentionally pray to Garen while having a pretty bad day.
Plenty of posts on Weibo show concern for the elderly woman, who many believe was praying to Guan Yu for guidance. It’s unlikely anyone will get to ask her in person, lest she returns to the statue again to make another prayer.
On the other side of the globe, Shaquille O’neal became one of the latest investors in the League of Legends community earlier this month. The popular and retired basketball player is now sponsoring a League of Legends teamin tandem with New York Yankees player Alex Rodriguez. No news yet on if a statue of Shaq would get the same attention in China.
At the very least, at least she wasn’t praying to a statue Vel’Koz, which would have defied any explanation.
What do you think about the lady’s case of mistaken identity, Ranters?
Source: Sina(via Shanghaiist)