Out with a Bang (2022)

A Building of An E-Sport Team, Plus Romance & Bro-Ship

Out of all of the E-sport dramas I've seen, this is probably my favorite by far. Story plot was pretty good, enjoyed the action scenes from the e-sport, loved the actors, loved the silly but cute romance between the leads, and the amount of bro-ship between the group of guys. Let me break it down what I experienced when watching this.

E-Sport
* The E-sport part of this drama is a little different than the other E-sport dramas. This drama showed lesser number of tournaments, I believe 2 in all, first one when they compete as a new team and the second one towards the end of the drama when they understood & learned how to work with each other. This E-sport is more focus on their team building, getting along with each other, learning each other's weaknesses and improving on it. It also shows the struggles & strengths of building a new team.
* Instead of showing multiple tournaments, there are a lot more e-sport training in this drama. There were a lot of in person game scenes from the actors and I appreciated this a lot because seeing the behind the scenes, this was a lot of work to do. Their work paid off though because I enjoyed those game scenes. They were action packed!

Romance
* It's the typical bickering of the ML & FL who eventually finds out they were each other's crush. Even a little misunderstanding in the beginning but you don't have to wait too long for the misunderstanding to get clear out.
* A funny but cute chemistry between our main leads: Lots of disruptions when it comes to kissing and the numerous times ML's character Yi Chuan fail on being romantic. Like, seriously, I just love watching their scenes. It makes me so happy and I laughed so much.
* A love triangle: SML likes the FL, who you do feel bad for. He does move on from it and becomes close bros with the ML afterwards. There's also this one girl announcer who likes the ML as well but her role, while annoying, is very minor. She doesn't play a big role so not much of an annoyance from her thank goodness.
* Secondary couple (Dong Shi & Girl Chu Tian): Not the best secondary couple I've seen but not the worst either. I just couldn't sense the chemistry as much compared to Yi Chuan & Jiu Jiu.

Other things I enjoyed:
* Best bro-ship: I love Bo Yu. He is so funny, the goofball of a friend but also a very caring bro to Yi Chuan. We also see the building relationship of the bros between Yi Chuan and boy Chu Tian.
* The reality aspects of building a new e-sports team: Some members don't get along, new players, pressures, struggles, & not much support in the beginning but then you see how things turn around with not giving up, dedication, and hard work.

What's missing for me:
* FL's character Jiu Jiu didn't really have much of a story. Focus seems to revolve more around the ML's character Yi Chuan.
* As part of the secondary couple, I expected a bit more about girl Chu Tian but the way she was presented, it seemed like she wasn't important at all.
* The ending was good but with all the focus on the Yi Chuan's injury in so many episodes, I felt like they miss details on this towards the end. Like there wasn't really a good conclusion on Yi Chuan's issue.

Overall, I enjoyed this E-sport drama. It was a different approach from the ones I've seen. The ending was not what I expected or preferred, but it was enough to leave me satisfied with it. The lead's chemistry, the bro-ships, & the in game battle scenes are why I enjoyed this drama the most. Definitely will re-watch again in the future.

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All the gaming dramas mashed into one

If you've seen other chinese drama's on e-sports, it's basically a mash-up of most of them (particularly rom-com gaming dramas). So don't expect anything new...but it's still a good drama.
I've written out more specifics in a spoiler comment on this page so I won't write it out again. But expect to see bits of a range starting from the OG Love O2O to the most recently released Falling Into Your Smile.
This drama is really light: many funny moments, good bromance, cute flirting. Romance is a bit slow...takes over half of the eps for ML and FL *officially* get together (ngl I thought they were already together before it was official). Definitely not the slowest burn but with context it is a bit slow. No break ups or unreasonable misunderstandings in the relationship (other than a single one...I won't say spoilers, but guarantee no angst from it).
Overall, a solid mid-range drama.

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Finally, a drama that’s well named!

‘Out with a Bang’ is exactly what you get. A professional e-sport player is facing the end of his career, but he’s going out with a bang (referring to the type of game he’s playing). This drama brought to my attention how short of a career these e-sport guys/gals have. Unlike other sports, where an athlete can play for several years, the repetitive nature of e-sports and the harm done to hands/wrists can cause these guys/gals to retire while still in their 20s. The plot revolves around his journey to retirement, which includes reconnecting with his lost first love and learning how to be a part of a team. He also discovers a new purpose in life - that of mentoring new players to be their best.

I preferred this drama about e-sports better than the popular ‘Falling into Your Smile’ for the following reasons:

1) FL was much more likeable. She didn’t go around for most of the drama with a snobby look on her face. She was a nice, likeable girl who responded maturely to disappointments and obstacles. She did allow that wannabe love rival, Shi Ya, influence her too much, but ML quickly set her straight. Really, it’s ML’s decision what team he wants to play for, nobody else’s. Besides, he knew his career was nearing its end with his wrist issue so Shi Ya’s ‘help’ was a mote point. I also loved how he told mom point blank that FL was his girlfriend, not the nanny. Thumbs up to ML!

2) I liked ML’s character better than the ML on ‘Falling’. He was narcissistic, somewhat childish and prickly, but he was cute at the same time. I loved his ‘sisters’ and who gifts their girlfriend with a life-size picture of himself? LOL That’s not saying that Xu Kai didn’t do a good job with the role he had in ‘Falling’. I just think his acting talent was underused with the tsundere personality type. He was much, much better in ‘Arsenal Military Academy’ where he could display a wider range of emotion.

3) Gaming action was kept to a minimum until the final few episodes, but unlike 'Falling', the gaming action is easily understood by non-gamers. You knew what the objective of their game was - shoot the other players until your team is the last one standing. Simple concept. In 'Falling', you have to be a person who's played the game, otherwise, the terminology makes no sense. Mid-laners? Jugglers? Castles? A non-gamer, or someone who's never played this particular game, is lost. In 'Out with a Bang', that's not the case, which makes the gaming action more exciting since you know what the objective is. It's a great scene when Tian uses a Chaun's maneuver to move their team into qualifying position. Brought tears to my eyes.

4) And most importantly, there was much, much less focus on fans and internet netizens. I found that aspect of ‘Falling’ to be the worst. It just went on and on and on, and I think the reaction to unhappy fans and their comments was grossly exaggerated. How can you run a business, be it e-sports or whatever, if you going to totally overact to netizen comments? Everyone in your country isn't paying attention to these scandals, and the vast majority who do are silent so why overact like the company in ‘Falling’ (or any company in C-dramas, for that matter)? Also, these scandals don't last. A new scandal erupts and the old one is forgotten. These so-called financial losses to the company will not last, and it's ridiculous for the management to overact as they do in C-dramas. I was glad to see that the internet and its trolls were less of an issue in this drama.

Now, in many ways, this drama isn’t much different plot-wise than most C-dramas. Instead of competing corporations trying to underhandedly defeat the other, the e-sports managers/directors are attempting to put the other team out of business by influencing sponsors, etc. Is this really how things run in China? Is this how they view Capitalism? This kind of behavior went out of practice in the 1800s in the US as anti-trust laws went into effect. To compete, businesses need to have a better product, not undermine the other company with fake scandals and underhanded deals with suppliers. Besides, competition is good for the consumer so trying to create a monopoly as their companies do is detrimental to society.

I think it's fair to say that all Captain Qin’s troubles would have been solved if he'd just gotten rid of that fiancée and her harpy mother. She didn’t care what he was going through or what pressure she and her mom were placing on him; all she wanted was the house. This boy seriously needed to get rid of her, but at the end of the drama, he’s still with her! Do you honestly want to live with her and that mom forever, buddy? No wonder a lot of these dramas portray dad as henpecked. What an idiot!

I’ve also noticed a trend in C-dramas. We see the second couples getting married or engaged at the end while the MC’s relationship is either ambiguous or still just in the dating phase. Tell me – why am I watching this drama? It’s to see the MC get married at the end since I'm of the generation that still equates marriage as a happy ending. I could care less what happens with the 2nd or 3rd couples, ok? Same with this drama. I could care less about FL’s boss and her best friend, and I would have rather heard that MC was getting married/engaged, not these two. So, the ending for me was slightly disappointing.

But, overall, it's a solid drama with a plot that's going somewhere. It touches on your heart-strings as you watch the ML go from professional player to mentor/coach. You don't get that in 'Falling'.

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Good intro to those new to esports but will be disappointing to veteran watchers

Completed: 9/16/2022 - 7.75 rating

“Out With a Bang” is the latest esports drama that is a shorter, lighter-hearted production with a smaller budget and a not as well-known cast. It’s hard to follow the footsteps of other popular dramas such as “Love O2O” (the OG), “The King’s Avatar”, “Gank Your Heart”, “Cross Fire” (my favorite) and “Falling Into Your Smile”.

The plot is simple without too many unpredictable twists. It’s an easy watch with OK acting and no annoying characters. We follow the journey of male lead, Xiao Yi Chuan, a once top player of the industry. Due to a hand injury, he disappears from the esports world but comes back for another chance of success. Along the way, he finds love and camaraderie with his team members, and also finds his former self.

The gameplay of “Out with a Bang” reminds me of that in “Cross Fire”. Instead of relying only on animation, we have actors playing their characters and doing different stunts and shooting. This is my preferred gameplay, as I like to see the effort actors put in, instead of them just staring at a monitor and doing finger exercises on their keyboards and mice. Animation could be prettier, but this is more fun to watch as a viewer who is not familiar with the games. However, this is a lower budget production and it would be unfair to compare it to the gameplay in “Cross Fire”. I do appreciate the actors' effort and think they did a pretty good job with the shooting scenes. Unfortunately, there is a lack of exciting gameplay throughout the drama. The exciting scenes are all concentrated in the last few episodes. I would have liked to see some more during friendly competitions with other teams or during their livestream practices.

The romance storyline is OK. It’s not the strongest but it’s an easy watch. The leads are more fun before they become a couple. I am a fan of bickering couples and the enemies-to-lovers trope, so I quite enjoy the first half of the drama when it comes to romance. But once they confess their feelings, the romance becomes boring. The romance is reduced to two kids getting cute and jealous. There aren’t enough heart-fluttering scenes and the kisses are lacking. We got a decent kiss out of them.

The best part of the drama is the bromance. The bromance between Xiao Yi Chuan and his best friend, Wang Bo Yu, is funny and cute. It’s nice to see how much Wang Bo Yu cares for XYC despite not being in the same team but has been friends since they were amateur gamers. The bromance between XYC and Chu Tian is also done well. I enjoy the development from love rivals, to teammates, to mentor/mentee relationships. However, compared to other esports drama, the rest of the teammate camaraderie is a little lacking and hasn’t been the focus of the drama. Usually, team chemistry is the biggest selling point in this genre, but at least we have two pretty good bromances.

If you are a fan of the actors and want a simple and easy-to-understand esports drama, this could be a good introduction to the genre. But if you have seen the other more famous esports dramas as the ones I listed, then you might be disappointed. Personally I am going to rate this a 7.75 and not fault the drama for the not-so-great gameplay due to the budget. However, the writing and acting could have been better, and I don't like the dubbing at all.

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Fun and inspiring, a little bittersweet

This was actually so great.

I really loved the relationship between the leads. The backstory added a lot and wasn't overdone, and even though they butted heads it was playful and they never crossed that line. I really loved the little will they-won't they dynamic (of course knew they would) but it's this little period of carefulness and tension before a couple gets together that I always love the most and this drama showcased that really well.

Overall, the romance was just so mature. Despite their silliness, when it really came down to it, they communicated and supported each other through tough times, and I just absolutely love a drama without any unnecessary misunderstandings or breakups. The relationship was just so healthy. With gaming dramas like Go Go Squid where the FL isn't a gamer, one of my key complaints was that the drama always sidelines the story of the FL's professional growth. I definitely felt like the female lead's role in this wasn't as important as the male leads, but the way they handled her arc and gave her character agency to be someone outside of the gaming world and outside of the team was actually a pleasant surprise and probably one that I hadn't really seen in a drama like this before.

The second lead couple was less serious but I still also really liked watching them. Individually they were great characters and together they were entertaining.

Another great part of gaming dramas is probably the friendships and that absolutely shined in this show. I really loved seeing how all the side characters had their own roles in the story and grew as characters, even the ones I expected would just be comic relief. It was just so fun to see the team come together and become friends and see how the underdog story came together, without swerving too extremely into subplots, but still giving side characters their time to shine.

The friendships in the backstory was wonderful too; it really showed the e-sports industry as a whole and helped with the depth of characters' histories in flashbacks.

I always really love the theme of following your dreams, of taking risks vs. playing it safe, of humility and learning, etc. in these sports dramas and this was no different. At its core this feels like an underdog story — the male lead is trying to make his comeback in a rookie team that no one believes in — and I was worried it would be too cheesy if they won everything. But the drama showed this really well too, and I loved seeing different issues that the team had to overcome, and how even then it wasn't all sunshine and roses at the end but they had each other. There's some bittersweetness in there, but overall I just found this to be a really fun and yet inspiring and comforting drama. Would highly recommend, especially to those who liked Falling Into Your Smile.

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Worth watching

This is one of the most underrated drama i have ever seen. And this male lead made me fall in love with him. I have never saw him in a drama before. But his acting, visuals all really kept me going through the drama. I really loved the male lead's best friend's character. I loved his personality. It has comedy and also romance but more than that the friendship or bromance is more here which i really liked tho. E-sports drama always makes me see things in a different view. E-sports is not playing games. This is what all should know. It not only emphasised on the main couple but also on the struggles of the other characters. At first it does have some childish typical chinese drama things but later on the plot gets better.

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Cute Esports Drama

This is the first battle royale esports drama that I've seen.

I tried Fortnite for 10 secs so I don't really understand the game and can't vouch for its accuracy. However, it shows that this drama can appeal to non-gamer fans. I think one thing that the drama does well is actually showing the battles - with live action. It makes it fun to see the gamers pick up weapons (lol the cooking pan was really funny). It keeps the viewers engaged. It's not high budget but that doesn't stop it from being fun.

Another thing that felt different for me was the protagonist at the start of the drama, is on a decline. In the previous esports drama that I've seen, the protagonist is just on a break for some reason, but this protagonist is actually on a decline.

There's a bit of bromance and cute fluffy romance. I think for me the draw is the ML. His smirk, arrogance and insecurities were fun to watch. He is arrogant but he's not mean.

There are things that I found really unrealistic - uh the two black holes in the team. lol. How can there be a professional team with such lack of experience/talent? I don't think a team can function when they have to only rely on 2/4 members to fight against pros, no matter how good the other two are...

The drama lagged a bit for me between ep. 12-19. The ending tied all loose ends, a bit too neatly (lol I felt that the time skip should be 5 years, not 1 at the pace of the change).

All in all, it was fun, but I don't think it was too memorable, but it wasn't a waste of time - I actually finished this drama.

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Esports drama, bromance, romance

With a more complex script, this Chinese e-sports drama could have been amazing. The actors are fantastic for their age, and they all had good chemistry with each other. I especially loved the team members looking out for each other, and the "brother" of the female lead eventually befriending the boyfriend (male lead).
The storyline was mostly typical of a Chinese e-sports drama: China needs to win the championship in whatever game they are competing in. In this drama, the videogame was a type of shooter game a la Call of Duty. I liked that the game was easy to follow without having complex strategies; this can otherwise be off-putting for people who never played the game. The scenes of the in-game part was done realistically (the team members running around with in-game guns and "shooting" the enemies). instead of CGI, and I am grateful for that. They used a bit of CGI to show where someone got shot, and instead of blood, they used a red outline around the body parts that got hurt.
Another thing I enjoyed is that the team members were all important. It is not the male lead who pulls the entire team, but it is actual team work with members who have their own strengths. I dislike it when an e-sports drama talks about teamplay a lot, but then they all rely on this one genius player. I am glad this was not the case here.
Then the less good stuff: Some of the editing was choppy, making the conversations less natural than they could've been. Sometimes, some of the actors would speak too slowly and clearly, which makes me wonder if there was a lot of background noise during recording, and perhaps they had to rerecord some of the dialogue. The story unfortunately also lost steam quickly, so after the initial thrill of the main leads meeting and finding out the male lead's "secret", you just shrug your way through the next ten episodes, and then it would pick up again around episode 18 or so.
Overall, an okay watch if you are into e-sports dramas, but I would skip it if you are not and go straight to the actor listing to pick out the main actors and go find other dramas they are in.

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To watch as pure entertainment and the emergence of young talented actors!

Plot: Birth and development of a team of gamers (fight).

Cute series, nice characters, CL cute, but series not to be taken seriously because the story is badly written with a lot of coincidences, comic clichés, shortcuts, etc.
- friend who becomes awesome player in 3 days,
- director who is also a hidden player,
- budget that appears and disappears overnight,
- various unrealistic procedures,
- competitors who cheat (also foreign teams, who are villains :)

To watch as pure entertainment and the emergence of young talented actors!
The 2nd part is a little more consistent around the injury, the team's difficulties,...
The OSTs are very adapted to the competition :)

=> Drama overall very enjoyable but not memorable.
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Naissance et développement d'1 équipe de gamers (fight).
Mignon, personnages sympa, CL cute, mais série à ne pas prendre au sérieux car la story est mal écrite avec beaucoup de coïncidences, de clichés comiques, de raccourcis, etc.
- ami qui devient joueur génial en 3 jours,
- directeur qui est aussi joueur caché,
- budget qui apparait et disparait du jour au lendemain,
- procédures diverses irréalistes,
- compétiteurs qui trichent (également les équipes étrangères, qui sont des villains :)
Divertissement pur !
2eme partie un peu plus consistante autour de la blessure, des difficultés de l'équipe,...
Globalement très agréable mais pas mémorable.

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I ignored this drama when it release, just because of its. Trailer of this drama is popped up, makes me curious. Of course it's an amazing drama. I can't believe this Wonderful drama has such poor rating.
Just because they didn't cast so much popular faces on this rating became poor.
Gaming drama needs so much effort. I don't feel it has less. The brotherhood makes my heart flatter. In whole drama shooting games executes very nicely makes feel I am also playing.
Light romance and no misunderstanding, supporting each other.
Of course this drama needs more and more attention..

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