Liooon

In this Chinese name, the family name is Li.
Liooon
Current team
TeamVictory Key
GameHearthstone
Personal information
Name李晓萌
(Li Xiaomeng)
NationalityChinese
Team history
2019–presentVictory Key
Career highlights and awards
  • Hearthstone World Champion (2019)

Li Xiaomeng (Chinese: 李晓萌), better known by her in-game name Liooon, is a Chinese professional Hearthstone player. She is the first woman to win the Hearthstone Grandmasters Global Finals and to win a BlizzCon Esports tournament.

On November 2, 2019, representing China[1][2] in Hearthstone Global Finals, she defeated Bloodyface (Luna Eason, representing United States) to become the Hearthstone Global champion,[3] claiming a prize of $200,000 (USD). She was the first woman to win a BlizzCon Global Championship,[4] and the first Hearthstone Global Champion from mainland China since the start of tournaments in 2014.

In an interview[5] after winning the championship, she shared a story that more than two years ago, she went to her first Hearthstone tournament as a backup for the game. While waiting in line, she was mocked by a male player, who said that: "If you are a girl, you should not wait in line here. It's not for you."[5] She then gave a sentimental speech[5] for women in Esports: "I want to say for all the girls out there who have a dream for Esports competition, for glory, if you want to do it and you believe in yourself, you should just forget your gender and go for it."[6]

Her Battle.net name "VKLiooon" is composed of the name of her team, "VK", and a deliberately misspelling of Lion.

  1. ^ Hearthstone Global Finals - Player Spotlights: VKliooon, archived from the original on 2020-01-31, retrieved 2019-11-04
  2. ^ "Sina Visitor System". passport.weibo.com. Archived from the original on 2020-10-05. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  3. ^ Esports, Hearthstone (2019-11-02). "A CLEAN SWEEP!! VKLIOOON HAS WON THE HEARTHSTONE GLOBAL FINALS!!!pic.twitter.com/3PwNX0qcBq". @HSesports. Archived from the original on 2019-11-02. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  4. ^ "VKLiooon Becomes First Woman to win a BlizzCon Championship". dbltap.com. 3 November 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-11-04. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  5. ^ a b c Hearthstone Global Finals - Finals - VKLiooon vs bloodyface, archived from the original on 2019-11-04, retrieved 2019-11-04
  6. ^ Esports, Hearthstone (2019-11-02). ""This is the best way to strike back at those people who doubted me only because I am a girl. It proves that girls can be strong pro players, just as guys do." - Xiaomeng "VKLiooon" Lipic.twitter.com/1PQczUHwim". @HSesports. Archived from the original on 2019-11-04. Retrieved 2019-11-04.