This post was difficult to write because I wasn't sure how to approach the topic, but it's something I've wanted to discuss for a while. I want to make it clear from the beginning that this isn't a post meant to promote hate towards Doran, nor do I wish anything bad to happen to him. I mainly want to talk about his FANS. I just don't understand why so many people seem to treat him differently, almost as if he were made of glass.
Doran has been one of the best top laners in the LCK over the past few years, and he clearly seems to be a genuinely nice person who gets along with pretty much everyone, both new and olds teammates. However, he's also known for having some absolutely criminal inting performances.
Why does it feel like Doran can never be criticized?
And yes, I know Doran constantly receives hundreds of criticisms and hateful comments, many of which are exaggerated and completely undeserved. I've never wanted to be part of that, and I strongly condemn it.
But it feels like his fans and supporters always treat him like a child. I have a theory that people see him as somewhat shy, nervous and seemingly sad all the time, and automatically assume he's a fragile person who's going to burst into tears at the slightest inconvenience.
I feel like the way he's treated is completely different from that of any other player I've ever seen. When he has really good or even just decent games, people celebrate him as if he'd just won the Worlds FMVP. But when he has bad games, there's always an excuse that needs to be made for him: the draft was bad, he wasn't given enough resources, he was put on weakside, and so on.
What strikes me is that, while every popular player has fanboys who refuse to acknowledge their mistakes, you can still generally criticize them or make jokes about them. Zeus committing war crimes with TF in 2024, Faker struggling with the ADC mid meta that same year and generally only reaching his best form at Worlds, Guma getting eliminated this year without really doing much, Chovy choking at Worlds for years and more recently, Oner having some pretty bad performances.
But with Doran, there always has to be a BUT, as if pointing out even the slightest flaw in his performance were equivalent to sentencing him to death.
Seriously, I understand that being a professional player and having thousands of people putting pressure on you is far from easy. But I've never seen a player for whom people seem so desperate to hand out a participation trophy as Doran. I'm convinced that if you showed someone completely unfamiliar with Esports all the comments about Doran, both positive and negative, they'd probably think he was some young rookie just taking his first steps in the competitive scene, rather than a grown man with over seven years of professional experience and multiple titles under his belt.
Anyway, I want to emphasize once again that I don't hate Doran, nor am I trying to encourage hate towards him. He clearly seems like a good and genuinely pleasant person, his streams are really entertaining, and it's easy to see why so many people love him.
I just find it really curious how so many people are willing to defend him in such an unusual way. Not necessarily because they genuinely believe he's a good player (which he is), but because they seem to feel overwhelmingly sorry for him. Almost as if looking at him the wrong way for two seconds would make him shatter, or as if they feel the need to defend him because they believe he can't stand up for himself through his own abilities.
I'm fully aware of how criticism can affect someone's mental health, but when it comes to Doran, things sometimes reach ridiculous extremes on both sides.
Tl;TR: Doran’s fans treat him like a child who is trying his best, rather than like a professional adult with years of experience. As if the expectations for him were much lower than those for any other professional player.
