This is a result of the recent crackdown on minors who game by the Chinese Government.
A rising star in the Chinese CSGO scene, Lizhi “Starry” Ye, who is a rifler for Lynn Vision Gaming, may be facing early retirement due to recent Chinese government restriction for minors to game online. This is despite the Chinese’s dominance in online gaming.
He and his team showed the world what they are capable of when they went against G2 Esports in the recent BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown 2021. While they did not win the match, their performance was impressive enough to everyone who saw the match. He even made an incredible 1 v 5 pistol match against G2 in the tournament.
The win was however cut short when he posted on his social media that his appearance at BLAST Premier will be the last one for a while.
This is a direct result of the recent ruling by the Chinese government where Chinese children and teenagers are barred from online gaming on school days, and limited to one hour a day on weekend and holiday evenings.
The ruling is an expansion of an original restriction implemented in 2019 where under the old rules, players under the age of 18 were limited to no more than 90 minutes of gaming on weekdays and three hours a day on weekends and also limited the monthly amount that minors could spend on microtransactions, with the maximum amount ranging from $28 to $57, depending on age.
While the ruling is assumed to target normal children, the knock-back effects is being felt in the professional arena, where most of the teams have academy teams and some even have minors playing as part of professional teams, like Lynn Vision Gaming.
As for the team, they are reportedly looking for a way to stay in Europe to continue gaming to circumvent any other restrictions.
We hope that Starry will be able to find a solution to allow him to play and still live near his friends and family.
