Game boosters helping gamers jump China’s Great Firewall anger players overseas as Beijing turns a blind eye

The limited launch of League of Legends: Wild Rift caused a surge of interest in game booster apps from NetEase, Tencent and others

Skirmishes between Chinese and overseas gamers have become a frequent occurrence as players seek out games unavailable in China

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PUBG Mobile was immensely popular in China before Tencent replaced it with a more patriotic version called Peacekeeper Elite. Some gamers still access the original game with the help of game booster apps. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:00am, 7 Dec 2020Updated: 8:37am, 7 Dec 2020

When Riot Games’ League of Legends: Wild Rift finally launched on October 29, Japanese gamers who had been eagerly awaiting the title for a year were quick to download the mobile game. But they did not expect the flood of antagonistic Chinese players they found when they started playing.

The result was clashes between players from the two countries as they exchanged insults in the game. Some Chinese players adopted crude nicknames for their accounts, such as Beat Little Japan to Death, to rally other nationalists to taunt Japanese players.

The Japanese players were not happy. People were not even supposed to be able to play the game in China, where it is still not officially available. But the phenomenon of Chinese players flooding overseas servers is not new. The habit of jumping the Great Firewall to play games has become even easier in recent years as a result of game boosters, VPN-like apps that help Chinese gamers access specific titles.

A number of Chinese tech companies, including gaming giants NetEase and Tencent Holdings, now make their own game boosters. Tencent declined to comment for this story and NetEase did not respond to a request for comment