The LOL Pioneer Tournament group stage will wrap up after four additional BO5 games. After BLG secured a semifinal berth, GEN and LYON in Group B will battle for a place in the elimination rounds. This BO5 result is completely certain, with GEN overpowering in all areas. LYON would consider it an achievement if they manage to win a single round or simply glimpse GEN's high ground, particularly given that our second seed recently broke a historical record.

Before GEN's qualification match began, their mid-lane player Chovy stirred up a major controversy. The trigger was after defeating JDG, during an interview, Chovy was face-to-face mocked by a Brazilian streamer who claimed to be "the biggest fan of T1 and Faker." This streamer named Baiaon, who collaborates with the official Brazilian league as a secondary commentator, was granted the opportunity to interview players at this year's Pioneer Tournament held in his home country.

When Chovy went for the interview, this live-streaming host had a bucket of popcorn with GEN's team logo on his desk. In our view, having popcorn seems harmless, but in Brazil, the English word "Pipoca" for popcorn has a derived slang term "Pipoquei," meaning popcorn seller. In gaming and sports circles, "Pipoquei" is a derogatory term used to mock someone as a weak player who fails under pressure.

Because Chovy's performance has often been underwhelming in world tournaments each year, he has long been teased by viewers as a "big-stage weak player." This Brazilian streamer used local jargon to imply this, thinking others wouldn't notice, but local players and audiences understood the meaning. After being exposed, the controversy escalated instantly, with global viewers accusing Baiaon of disrespect and demanding his interview privileges be revoked.

Subtly mocking once might be tolerable, but the most outrageous part was after the interview, this streamer posted a photo with Chovy on social media, captioning it: "Unforgettable moment folks, I can only thank Chovy (popcorn emoji), thank you for personally presenting three championship trophies to Faker." This implies that the championships veteran Lee won in the past three years were all handed by Chovy (the tweet has now been deleted).

Twice subtly taunting Chovy as a weak player, eventually even dropping pretenses and directly thanking Chovy for giving championships to veteran Lee—such behavior under the guise of being a T1 and Lee fan is truly distasteful. As an officially partnered streamer, showing no basic respect for players is baffling. How the Brazilian league official found such a clown is questionable, especially for a face-to-face offline interview—it's genuinely absurd.

After learning about this, GEN's owner also responded publicly: "The team only approved which streamers could conduct interviews, but other matters were not mentioned beforehand." Shortly afterward, media revealed follow-up developments: Baiaon did not anticipate the incident would cause such a huge impact. He claimed it wasn't intentional and promptly contacted GEN's owner afterward to apologize to the club and Chovy.

Such an apology attitude clearly indicates he isn't truly remorseful but realizes that without apologizing, his streaming career would end. Honestly, this behavior is truly vile. Many people call Chovy a weak player; after each world tournament, folks joke online, but nobody has ever mocked him face-to-face offline. Crucially, he was leveraging Chovy's popularity while mocking him simultaneously.

Conclusion:

The championships veteran Lee won in the past three years weren't handed by Chovy either. During T1's championship runs these three years, GEN only encountered T1 once in the S14 season quarterfinals. The other two years, they lost to BLG and KT respectively, never reaching the finals—hardly considered "handing over." Perhaps this streamer meant that everyone expected Chovy to excel, but he underperformed in world tournaments, indirectly contributing to Lee's three championships.

What is your opinion on this streamer's behavior?

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!