VCT fans left stumped by bizarre pro player name no one knows how to pronounce

VCT fans are stumped by Valorant pro Zhang “hfmi0dzjc9z7” Juncheng’s in-game name from Attacking Soul Esports, a team that just qualified for Masters Tokyo, with many questioning how casters will even pronounce his name. 

In-game names of pro players can often be quite unique. Some can be fairly easy to remember and pronounce, like 100 Thieves’ Derrek “Derrek” Ha, while others can be as complicated as RRQ’s Saibani “flipzjder” Rahmad. 

But arguably none is more complex as hfmi0dzjc9z7’s in-game name from Attacking Souls Esports, a pro Valorant squad that just qualified for Masters Tokyo. 

It was announced that since both Attacking Soul Esports and Edward Gaming made it to the Grand Finals of the FGC Valorant Invitational 2023: Act 1, they will both be securing a spot for Masters Tokyo.

But as many VCT fans have pointed out, ASE has a player with a very peculiar name, which is leaving viewers questioning how casters and commentators will even being to pronounce it. 

Mimi “aEvilcat” Wermcrantz, a VCT caster and commentator, jokingly tweeted, “AND ITS hfmi0dzjc9z7 TO SAVE ATTACKINGSOULESPORTS111 WITH THE RED BULL CLUTCH!!!!” Making fun of VCT caster’s one-liners right after a clutch. 

And Bo “BoDork” Hoogland, a Valorant team manager and self-described s***poster said, “petition to just call hfmi0dzjc9z7 “Ben”. Would be funny”.

However, there is a proper pronunciation to hfmi0dzjc9z7’s name without saying every single letter. As hasketh2, a Wiki manager for Liquipedia pointed out, Chinese commentators and the org itself call him Zìmǔ gē in Mandarin. Translating to “Alphabet Brother”.

Questions around how to pronounce players’ names have been floating around ever since EDG qualified for Champions 2022. Zheng “ZmjjKK” Yongkang in particular had Western fans asking how commentators would pronounce his name. 

But of course, there is a shortened version of it as commentators now call him KangKang after multiple appearances on the international stage. So we will have to wait and see how the casters will pronounce hfmi0dzjc9z7’s name in Tokyo.