Romance that starts amidst competition can either thrive in the chaos or fall apart under the pressure.
Thee and Soh thrive.
Adapted from Brave2Y’s novel Gamer Lae Nong Doe Khong Khao, the Thai BL Be My Player Two stars Maxky Ratchata Pichetshote as Thee and Bas Hatsanat Piniwat as Soh, alongside Gunner Natsakan Chairote as Jack, Newton Waiyakorn Wongkhakaew as Ten, Jeng Chotipat Suthadsanasoung as Cher, Mean Wichayaporn Jiravechsoontornkul as Praew, and Jack Chaleumpol Tikumpornteerawong as TubTab.
At the center of it all is Thee, a sharp-tongued top streamer whose pride takes a hit when he’s defeated by Soh, a mysterious rookie gamer. Determined to track down the player who beat him, Thee sets off looking for a rival and unexpectedly finds himself discovering something else entirely. Love.
But what begins as a competition between gamers and esports teams eventually becomes something much bigger.
Be My Player Two was such a fun watch and surprisingly endearing. I’m not sure what I expected when I pushed play outside of a series about romance and esports, but what I got was a love story that helped its main leads feel more confident in themselves while healing old friendships and making new ones.
What started out as competition between esports teams turned into a series that explored the relationships between the team members and how those relationships affected the entire team. I’ll be honest, there isn’t much to say about the plot itself without simply breaking down everything that happens. The series bounces back and forth between esports and the team itself before moving through the developing relationship between Thee and Soh, Thee’s relationship with his family, the team’s relationships with each other, and an even more complicated relationship between Jack and Ten.
And yet, it’s all of those relationships that made the series work so well for me.
I love that these characters were there for each other, even through all of the misunderstandings and hardships. The competition may be what brings much of the story together, but somewhere along the way, the team becomes much more than a group of people trying to win.
They become the kind of family each of them needs.
All in all, the actors did a beautiful job, and I absolutely love Maxky and Bas on screen together, which was my main reason for watching at first.
But I’ve got to admit, the real winners in this series for me are Jack and Ten.
I have a soft spot for rivals-to-lovers plots.
Add in the fact that this is also an ex-best-friends-to-lovers plot, and I was all over this complicated but intriguing duo.
Their chemistry was spot-on, and while there were times I didn’t fully understand their past and other times when I wanted to shake some sense into Ten, I like that Jack is the kind of anchor a person like Ten needs.
Ten’s insecurities and his fight with depression are obvious, and seeing that Jack understands him even when he’s angry with him made their relationship that much more interesting to me. There’s history between them. There’s hurt. There’s anger. But underneath all of it, there’s also an understanding of each other that never really disappeared.
Jack and Ten may not have had quite as much screen time as some of the other characters, but they owned my heart.
I look forward to anything these two actors do together from here.
And that’s really where Be My Player Two surprised me.
It took an esports team fighting for first place and turned it into a found family story about how being a team can also mean becoming the kind of family each person needs. All while these characters fall in love, strive for their individual dreams, heal old relationships, build new ones, and, in TubTab’s case, even start a family of his own.
The esports brought them together.
But the relationships are what made me want to stay. I’m going to miss this series.
For a fun esports romance that grows into a story about love, friendship, second chances, and finding family in the people fighting beside you, check out Be My Player Two, now streaming on Tencent Video/WeTV.
Rating- 4 out of 5
