“The opponent is not important. What’s important is that you know what you’re good at.” As with most Chinese dramas that I watch, I skim through most of it stopping on the parts I like but in the end I get really attached to the characters. I like how the relationships evolved in this drama. The romance can be quite ambiguous. I guess it had the feel of young people not knowing the fickleness of attraction. Ruo Bai Yang Yang is such a romantic actor. I first saw him in Love O2O and that show didn’t really give him the chance to act the great range of emotions that he displays here so beautifully. Ruo Bai respect Bai Cao’s loyalty and her kindness and her calmness in the face of mean people. Also, because he’s a kind person, he wants to look out for her. His face is amazing. He’s the kind of actor that is hot when he’s frowning and adorable when he’s smiling. Also his voice. Anything he says is sexy. “Even if you lose, it doesn’t matter.” I love how Yang Yang can make such a stiff and emotionless character so compelling. I like that as a teacher he views Bao Cai quite analytically but because of that he falls in love with her because he likes what he sees. He knows about her because its his job to, but he ends up liking her. And the hair cutting incident. OMG. Ruo Bai’s reaction is priceless. I really like that Ruo Bai isn’t good at everything. But he is good at giving inspirational speeches. A few of them are just psychological jabs, but when he gets going he is so motivational haha. I found his relationship with Bai Cao fascinating. There are a lot of angsty heroes out there but Ruo Bai’s behaviour makes sense to me. His character is already the quiet type and the fact that all the things he would like to say to Bai Cao are always being witnessed by not one but two love rivals, there really is no room for him to speak. But he is very zen and calm and selfless and happy to quietly love Bai Cao without her knowing. “Here in this time...it’s as if I have the whole world already.” *be still my beating heart I like how his facial expressions started to have more warmth and he started smiling at her so sweetly. Ruo Bai’s BFF really brings it home for the viewers. BFF: Are you just generous or mentally unstable? Ruo Bai: It’s fine if she’s happy. At the end of the drama, Ruo Bai really goes for broke, it was just incredible. Yang Yang does an outstanding job. Bai Cao Bai Cao does a lot of crying and whinging. She’s a typical stand-up, righteous character. I like that she didn’t just take the sport at face value but really thought about what was going on in the game. I really like that she used her brains and strategy to defeat her opponents. Everyone consistently accuses Bao Cai of everything under the sun, her motives, her thought processes, her life. The girl can’t catch a break. I like how easily Bai Cao dismisses Ruo Bai’s hotness and kindness. She just sees him as a coach and totally takes him for granted. But later on she reveals that she knows she is like his family, so it was an interesting turn. I especially think that she is one brave chick to confess first to Ruo Bai because he wears his walls so stalwartly and comfortably I would never have dared. My favourite bits was when she was practicing with her serious face on and her movements were so fluid and she acted so naturally and kicked so nonchalantly. Ting Hao This character starts out really predictably, but the actor really owns the personality so I enjoyed this dude's screen time quite a lot towards the end. Random Notes I like that there was a twist to the fat-shaming. And obviously fat-shaming is never good but they rounded out the chubby characters a bit better than usual. It was also funny to see the girls fashion styles when they weren’t all geared up to fight. Chu Yuan is so passive and dense and slow I have no words. Guang Ya was my favourite secondary character. She’s so goth.