After amassing tens of millions of followers, Baize aspires to become a genuine "commander".

Text丨Guopu

On August 29, the finals of the 3rd Baize Cup officially concluded in Xi'an, Shaanxi. This is a non-professional tournament series for *Delta Action* hosted by Douyin streamer Baize. Esports players from multiple clubs and open public selections gathered here, fighting not only for the tournament prize pool as high as 1 million yuan, but also for the chance to become an overnight internet sensation.

It is hard to tell which of the two matters more to the players.

Scene of the Baize Cup

Six months ago, we compared people stepping into the derivative industry of *Delta Action* to "cyber gold diggers". As long as the game remains highly popular, this trend is still continuing at this very moment.

As a non-professional tournament, 1 million yuan is undoubtedly a very considerable prize pool. But if players can leverage the momentum during the competition, the potential long-term gains they can get after being seen and remembered by the public may be 10 times or even far more than 1 million yuan.

Besides, different from the previous two sessions, Baize chose to hold the final offline for the first time this time. He rented out the Qujiang WE Esports Center in Xi'an, the official competition venue of LPL, and invited three top streamers in the industry, Chen Ze, Lin Shu and Hao Tian, to the scene to co-host the commentary with him.

From left to right: Hao Tian, Chen Ze, Baize, Lin Shu

This sounds like a win-win business. For the tournament, they can build greater momentum offline, move the overall tone closer to official competitions, and improve professionalism and influence. For the audience, this is a great opportunity that combines Xi'an tourism and the chance to meet their favorite streamers.

But in the eyes of peers, Baize's decision to hold the Baize Cup offline is doomed to be a loss-making business.

To put it plainly, "streamers holding offline esports tournaments" is never a good option. The base of streamers is online. Offline events mean a large amount of costs are spent inside and outside the venue, while only a small number of audiences who get tickets can actually be served. Between 1,000 people offline and 10 million people online, the vast majority of people will probably only choose the latter.

Moreover, the promotion cost of the Baize Cup is even too "lavish".

On the opening day, they booked the lakeside performance at Tang Paradise in Xi'an, and one of the performance segments alone cost more than 100,000 yuan. After getting the sponsorship from OnePlus, because the atmosphere in the live stream was so hot, they additionally paid more than 500,000 yuan for extra purchases. The ticket price for this event is 80 yuan, and the mouse pad and T-shirt given with the ticket are already worth more than the ticket price, not to mention that it also includes the viewing and performance ticket of Tang Paradise with the original price of 200 yuan. According to the organizer Juxing Zhimei, this event is expected to lose more than one million yuan.

Scenic spot check-in sign set by Baize Cup in Xi'an

The day after the tournament, I met Baize in the live stream room he usually uses. Different from his state during live streaming, he looked quiet and tired in real life, like a candle that has been bent by burning.

Baize

Baize is one of the first streamers to enter the *Delta Action* track, and also the first content creator of this game with more than 10 million followers.

As early as during the game's closed beta test in 2024, he resigned from a state-owned enterprise, and brought his childhood friend Xiaoxiao Yan to create game content around *Delta Action*. His "Commander & Corporal" series and Laofeiyu's "Shushu Culture" together formed the early content ecosystem of the game, and laid the foundation for the subsequent series of UGC trends that focus on relaxed and joyful experience. To this day, many fans affectionately call him "Commander".

Baize's early content

This is not easy at all.

As a looting and extraction game, *Delta Action* is very likely to involve a large number of interest disputes and amplify the malicious side in everyone's heart. In order to maximize their own gains, cases of betrayal, deception and betrayal are everywhere in the game.

"For a little virtual currency, people don't even want to be human anymore." This is the most quoted sentence from Laofeiyu by *Delta Action* players.

This emotion is further amplified on the Internet. As a streamer of *Delta Action*, Baize has directly or indirectly received criticism and emotional venting from different dimensions. The most common evaluation is that he is not worthy of his reputation, and that he is just a "victor blown to the top of the trend".

In the initial content skits, the role Baize played was a teasing "Commander", but after he became popular, "Commander Baize" also became a crown of thorns. Whenever he makes an accidental operation mistake, or shows that he does not have the skills to crush the situation, some people will start to question that Baize is using gimmicks to amplify his own value.

There is no way, the Internet is keen to create gods with symbols. A complex, emotional real person can never be as straightforward as the title "Commander Baize".

Xiaoxiao Yan, Baize's childhood friend and partner

With the title of "Commander", Baize has to be more mature, more capable and more authoritative than everyone else — even in the whole team, Baize is only slightly older than Xiaoxiao Yan. People don't care whether you are acting in a skit or showing your true feelings. After all, they can only examine and even judge a person through the content that appears on the Internet.

However, Baize is more used to attributing all problems to himself, and often takes all the malice on himself entirely.

Baize said that when the official *Delta Action* team included his ID in the server launch promotional video, he felt flattered and made up his mind to do his best for the official in the future. Dongyao, a streamer in the same park, revealed that when Baize received abusive messages, attacks or dissatisfied essays in his account private messages, he would lie awake all night thinking about where he did not do well.

In Baize's cognitive framework, there is no unprovoked kindness or malice. The only measurement standard is "whether I have done well enough". If he can't accept all these contents and feels wronged because of that, "then don't be in the internet business."

This dislocation between identity and personality has been torturing Baize. Every day after the live stream ends and he finishes washing, he will lie on the bed and brush live streams repeatedly, watch his own playback, and review his performance over and over again.

In this time that should be used for relaxation, he will be anxious about what content to stream tomorrow, and what other tricks he has not tried. This is a process of burning himself out. Stage actors can at least perform the same play repeatedly on different stages, but Douyin streamers can only burn themselves repeatedly, squeezing out every idea and every possibility in their minds.

After all, there is no streamer who always has new ideas, but there are always streamers who can play new tricks. On the Internet, the unshaped horseshoe and the uncleaned carpet are the most valuable.

Performance in Baize's live stream

In his previous live streams, he has tried many different interesting contents. Sometimes he and Xiaoxiao Yan simply perform some skits to create program effects, and sometimes he does some live stream variety show gimmicks.

For example, a few days ago, he also helped He RunDong's "almost bankrupt" game account, but as a result, he successfully made the other party's not wealthy situation even worse. This kind of quirky and contrasting special linkage can often get good program effects — but there is only one "Western Chu Tyrant" He RunDong on the internet.

"Brother Dong, you will be worried after I take over your account"

What to stream tomorrow is a question Baize always needs to keep thinking about.

"Burning creative ideas" is undoubtedly an inevitable trend in the fast-paced era. Streamers in the current era are like footless birds, stopping flying means death, and even people are looking forward to the moment of "whale fall" at any time. Take the most basic live streaming duration as an example, "If you only stream for 3 hours, soon someone will start streaming for 6 hours. And when everyone streams for 6 hours, someone will definitely stream for 12 hours."

Fortunately, human beings are not footless birds after all. Falling does not mean death, but getting sick.

Starting from November 2025, Baize's live streaming state began to decline significantly. At that time, they got to know many small streamers of *Delta Action* through various competitions. Based on the idea of enriching live stream content, Baize cooperated with several streamers to establish the "Baize Park", and the form turned to group live stream which is easier to produce good effects.

They set up many competitive arena programs at that time, such as Dragon Flame vs Magic Pill.

Dragon Flame vs Magic Pill

At this stage, Baize felt that he was getting lost. At first, he was a complete outsider, who could only repeatedly commentate and host the competition performance of each team, and his love for the game and his self-awareness were gradually fading. Later, he communicated with the team, and finally decided to become one of the contestants, joining each team in a rotating way. At this time, the public's doubts about his skills and performance intensified.

Some fans said that Baize's performance in game ability is closer to a "non-professional master" rather than a "professional player". Most people watch Baize because they like his personal charm. For example, as a "Commander", he does not necessarily need to have the strongest skills, but should have the greatest appeal.

Baize's live streaming state

At the same time, there is another voice online: "Commander" should be a perfect existence. Especially after many professional players have switched to *Delta Action* one after another, the strong viewing experience of skill-oriented gameplay has gradually raised the audience's inner expectation threshold.

Whether for program effect or to respond to expectations, after the beginning of this year, Baize spent several extra hours every day training his game skills in addition to live streaming. Zhang Yong, CEO of Juxing, revealed that during that period, Baize never went out, only slept five or six hours a day, ate only one meal, and could hardly see the sun in the daytime.

This state lasted for more than a month. Until one day, Baize came to a desperate conclusion.

"I am not suitable for this line of work. I can never beat professional players in my life."

In March 2026, Baize stopped streaming due to illness. The doctor said that Baize's left ventricular blood flow was not smooth, which was mostly caused by high-intensity work. During the break, Baize went back to his hometown Henan to relax, and he also communicated with the team during that time to see if there could be a more relaxed live streaming plan that fits his current state.

Considering his physical condition, Baize and the team finally came to the conclusion that "we will not stream anymore". The most extreme choice in the end may be to completely quit the internet.

In the following month, no one knew what Baize