Emo

Zhou "Emo" Yi (born February 19, 2001) is a Chinese professional Dota 2 midlaner currently playing for GLYPH. At 25 years old, Emo is one of the most individually gifted mids China has produced—a TI4 participant at 20, the first Chinese player to hit 13,000 MMR, and someone who builds heroes in ways that make analysts rub their eyes and then watch them work. He is also, famously, the one Chinese player who will absolutely talk in all the chats. That alone makes him an anomaly.

Early Career

Emo started with Source Code in October 2017 at 16, grinding through the Chinese domestic circuit before getting noticed by Invictus Gaming. He joined iG in 2018 and never really left—spending over five years there across multiple roster iterations, building one of the most sustained relationships between a player and an organization in Chinese Dota 2. The early iG years were about development. The 2021 season was about arrival.

Invictus Gaming and the Singapore Major

At TI10 in 2021, Emo posted the highest average KDA of any player in the tournament — 11.97. That number is not a typo. He also had the highest average kills per game during Tour 3 of the 2021/22 DPC CN Second Division (9.00) and Tour 2 of the 2023 DPC CN Upper Division (9.55). The pattern is clear: this is a mid who farms, fights, and dies less than almost everyone else doing it at his level.

But the moment that defined his public reputation came earlier — at the ONE Esports Singapore Major 2021. iG was down 2-0 against Evil Geniuses in the grand final. The series looked over. Emo typed "?" in all chat. Then iG reverse swept EG 3-2 to win the major. The "?" became one of the most memorable all-chat moments in Chinese Dota 2 history precisely because no Chinese player does that. They don't talk. They play. Emo does both.

He has 26 kills in a single professional match to his name—Outworld Devourer against For The Dream at the Chongqing Major China qualifiers. He beat Nisha in a 1v1 tiebreaker at BetBoom Dacha 2024. He was the first Chinese player to hit 13,000 MMR, doing so on May 3, 2024.

After Invictus Gaming

IG released Emo in late 2023 after over five years together. He had a two-month stint at LGD Gaming in late 2023 that ended abruptly in January 2024 without much explanation. Then Yakult Brothers, then a period of working out his next move before landing at GLYPH when the team formed in March 2026.

GLYPH immediately started winning. Thirteen consecutive wins from the debut. Two EPL World Series SEA titles. The BLAST Slam VII group stage appearance where JaCkky and Emo announced themselves to an international audience. The team is ranked 35th globally as of late May 2026, which, for a brand-new SEA outfit built around one Chinese mid and four SEA players, is a genuinely strong start.

Playstyle and Reputation

The builds are real. Emo plays mid with a creative streak that regularly produces item combinations and hero adaptations that look wrong on paper and work in practice. He doesn't care about what's conventional — he cares about what wins the game he's in right now, with the heroes he has, against these specific enemies. The statistics back up the instinct: he consistently leads tournaments in kills per game and KDA not because he plays safe but because his decision-making is fast enough to make aggression profitable.

The all-chat thing is genuine personality, not performance. Chinese players in general maintain a studied silence in-game. Emo talks. He taunts. He says things when he's up and apparently also when he's down 2-0 in a major final. Whether you find it entertaining or annoying probably depends on which side of it you're on.

Fun Facts

The "?" in all-chat at 0-2 in the Singapore Major grand final, followed by a 3-2 reverse sweep, is one of those moments that gets remembered forever. EG never let it go. The community never let it go. Emo has never apologized for it and probably never will.

He beat Nisha in a 1v1 mid tiebreaker at BetBoom Dacha 2024. Nisha is widely considered one of the best midlaners in the Western scene. Emo beat him in a format that strips away everything except individual lane mechanics.