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Esports Club FPX Bought A Whole Hog To Training Center During Shanghai’s Pandemic Lockdown

By Cecil Gao
May. 20, 2022 updated 04:16

The pandemic lockdown in Shanghai this March has certainly brought many industries to an instant standstill. As the largest city of ACG culture in China, esports clubs in Shanghai have also been seriously affected. In early May, FPX's COD Mobile players solved their food woes by bringing a whole hog back to the training center.

Due to the severe pandemic in Shanghai, CODM officially announced a delay of the incoming matches on March 14 and eventually changed to online matches. At that time, all the teams were still competing for a good ranking in the spring playoffs, but also, like most Shanghai citizens, were trapped in the training center. Among the many esports club members who were trapped at the training center because of the lockdown, everyone at FPXM was especially lucky. Their chef used to run a restaurant and had contacts with many food suppliers, so she was able to get an entire hog for FPXM during the lockdown. When the pig first arrived, the whole of FPXM was shocked. Players who were already planning to eat fast noodles to get through the lockdown all got excited, and even their coach, who had always been calm and serious, joined the celebration.

FPXM had made it to the finals in the first two seasons with outstanding performance, but they did not do well this season. When FPXM’s coach was interviewed, he stated that as lockdown began, he could clearly sense that the players were getting impatient and starting to make a lot of very elementary mistakes because they couldn't go out and relax. The FPX club previously had a psychologist to help players solve their problems, but he left right before the pandemic in Shanghai, so the coach took the responsibility of bolstering the spirits of the players himself. In fact, it is not important that the matches are in-person or remote. As FPXM’s coach stated in the interview, how you adjust yourself during unexpected situations is what matters.

With the coach’s help and the delicious food, FPXM players recovered considerably from their recent failures. “Thanks to that pig,” the coach joked in the interview, “I believe that just like the pandemic, all of us at FPXM will get better and better every day.”