Y

Zhang "y" Yiping (born August 8, 1998) is a Chinese professional Dota 2 support player currently playing for Vici Gaming. Also known as WhyouSm1Le, Y is one of the most respected captains and drafters Chinese Dota 2 has ever produced—a TI6 champion, a PSG. LGD veteran who came within one series of winning TI again in 2021, and the last remaining active player from one of the most tactically brilliant rosters the game has ever seen.

Early Career

started his professional career with Speed Gaming.cn in 2014 at 16 years old, grinding through the Chinese regional scene before finding the team that would define his career. Wings Gaming was formed around 2015 with a roster of young, mostly unknown Chinese players—y being the youngest and least experienced of all of them at the time. Nobody saw what was coming.

Wings Gaming and TI6

Wings Gaming at TI6 in 2016 was one of those rare moments where a team genuinely changed how people thought about the game. In a Chinese scene that tended toward conservative, formulaic drafting built around safe picks and controlled variables, Wings did the opposite. They picked almost anything. Pudge. Timbersaw carries. Off-meta hero combinations that had no business working at The International. Three of the five players were teenagers. Y was the captain and drafter behind all of it.

They won the Manila Major earlier that year, which got attention. Then at TI6 they beat MVP Phoenix, defending champions Evil Geniuses, and Digital Chaos in the grand final—finishing 3-1 to take home over $9 million. I was 17 years old. It remains one of the most tactically surprising TI runs in the tournament's history, built on the foundation that any hero in the pool was a viable pick if the captain understood why.

The Aftermath and EHOME

What came after TI6 should have been straightforward glory. Instead, the Chinese esports federation essentially banned the Wings Gaming players due to a dispute over contracts and org obligations. EHOME was the only team willing to take them in, and even EHOME faced penalties for doing so—expelled from ACE, with limited access to tournaments and restricted training partners. You and Faith_bian navigated all of it together, spending three difficult years at EHOME before the situation cleared. Fortunately, Valve enforced a relaxed version of the punishment, which kept them competitive internationally during that period.

PSG.LGD and the Almost

In 2020, Y and Faith_bian joined PSG.LGD alongside Ame, XinQ, and NothingToSay—with legendary TI4 winner Xiao8 as coach. What followed was arguably the best sustained run of Ys post-Wings' career. Top 3 finishes across major events in 2021. A WePlay AniMajor title. And then TI10 — PSG. LGD reached the grand final and lost to Team Spirit in a reverse sweep. The image of Y' at that moment is one of the more painful in Chinese Dota history. He came that close to a second Aegis, a decade after the first.

He stayed at LGD through the PSG era's end in 2023, captained through TI12, and then moved to Tidebound in January 2025, finishing 3rd at FISSURE Universe Episode 4, making the TI 2025 playoffs, and winning DreamLeague Division 2 Season 2. When Tidebound disbanded in December 2025, I `joined Vici Gaming as part of their rebuilt roster alongside Faith_bian.

Playstyle and Reputation

Y plays position 5, but his real value has always been in the draft. The Wings Gaming era established his identity: he is a captain who trusts his players to execute unusual heroes and exploits opponents who over-prepare for the obvious. At PSG.LGD this evolved into something more structured—coordinating Ame's farm patterns with Faith_bian's frontline aggression and Elder Titan's teamfight abilities. He holds the all-time record for professional matches played on Elder Titan—105 matches and 73 wins. That's not just a signature hero; that's a system.

In the Chinese community, the phrase "Captain China" gets thrown around for Xiao8, but Y is in that conversation on the basis of his drafting track record alone. XinQ once said during an LGD interview, "Captain China? He's perfect in every aspect." That was about Xiao8, but every player who has captained alongside Y has said similar things about him.

Fun Facts

Wings had a literal fist fight before TI6 because they couldn't beat Digital Chaos in scrims. They then proceeded to beat Digital Chaos in the TI6 grand final. Saksa confirmed the story in 2023.

Y is the only member of the Wings Gaming TI6 roster who has remained continuously active in professional Dota 2 since the title. bLink retired. Shadow disappeared. Ice took years off. Faith_bian retired after TI11. You just kept going.

At TI10, PSG.LGD was widely considered the best team in the world heading into the tournament. They were up 2-0 in the grand final against Team Spirit. Team Spirit reversed the sweep 3-2. That result is still one of the most discussed collapses in TI history, and y ` was the captain who had to live it.

Over a decade of professional Dota 2. A TI title at 17. A near-miss at 23.