One of the better chinese dramas I've seen... But having never read the book, I don't know if it's the book that's the problem or the script/screenplay.

I love that it's set in the world of professional esports but, unlike most other reviewers, the bit I didn't like was the romance arc.... And I think it has something to do with the casting of Tong Nian and/or the screenplay/book/script as alluded to above especially when it comes to how they met and started dating.

There is already a 10 year age gap between our OTP but it really doesn't help that rather than looking 19, Yang Zi looks about 15 (and the way she dresses doesn't help) and then there's the fact that she essentially stalks our leading man into submission. I basically cringed throughout the majority of their romance because it became a little bit ickey (age gap, stalking and her made to look younger than she was). But, this may just be me being British as I've seen quite a few Asian dramas and stalking (especially when it's women fawning over men) seems to be a common theme that doesn't seemingly bother people. Not so when it's men stalking women as there will be police being called and the like.

Other issues with the drama included:
1. Too many flashbacks, especially of Team Solo when they were in their heyday. Could of kept it to Solo finding out about his daughter and break up with Appledog and then Han Shangyan leaving Team Solo. Series could of been reduced by 2/3 episodes because of this. Also we get the Han Shangyan held a grudge but I felt like that could and should have easily been resolved when he and Solo got drunk and hugged it out towards the end of the series.
2. The synopsis for this said is that Tong Nian is a brilliant 19 year old programmer... But there was no evidence of this. Personally, I think this could have been how they met and rather than the stalking, there were seemingly lots of computer-based reasons that they could have been associated. Including - by all accounts, she competed against Wu Bai at a tournament, where he came 1st and she came 2nd; Tong Nian could have been working on something at the internet cafe and he could have been interested in it; she was working on projects relating to cyber security using AI and facial recognition and I'm pretty sure she could have coded training programmes for the team... And finally, we found out later in the series that Han Shangyan had an association with her professor at the university. Again, why not use that to enable them to come together and highlight how good she at programming? A wasted opportunity.
3. Whilst the blossoming romance between Yaya and Mi Shaofei was sweet, Wu Bai should of been in it more. As the captain of an esports team, he should of been with the team more anyway but really should of had more than 2 instances whereby the series touched on his crush on Appledog.

It wasn't all bad as the production was good, albeit the story - mainly because of the use of flashbacks, was at some points difficult to follow. Could have been the product of poor editing but we'll never know.

My main problem with this show was the acting and/or characterisation but as mentioned above, I'm not sure who or what to blame for this.

Also, it's a chinese drama so it's longer than it needs to be and because to that, I wouldn't necessarily encourage a re-watch.