Xiang Liu and You (Yes, You)

 atmospheres:

It's possible. Weibo Night King and Queen are based on fan voting and he is a rising star with some well-known traffic shows recently like TTEOTM and LYF. There was drama last year over Weibo Night King and Queen because Xiao Zhan and Yang Zi got the most votes (for the 4th year in a row) but the awards were given to Liu Yifei and Hu Ge because it was decided by the organizers not to give it to XZ and YZ again, angering their respective fandoms XFX and 紫米.  I would be a bit surprised if Deng Wei won this year, although he is popular I don't think he's popular enough to win (also, XZ and his monolithic XFX exist...so), but who knows what kind of effort his fandom will put in.

Oh I see. Thanks!

 HeadInTheClouds:

If he wins then I would say that he has powerful backing. His popularity is rising and LFY is his biggest breakout so far. However, even then, I would argue that XL and TJC by association are the standouts in breaking out from the success of LYF. So if he wins based on LYF alone, it's not very convincing, IMO. But who knows what's going on behind the scenes? If I'm a fan of his, I wouldn't want him to win this because it would draw a lot of negative feedback to him. 

Yeah.  Not what I would want for Tan Jian Ci and his fans.  A fan war with the XZ megalithic fan army.

 Kokuto:

Good night!  Remain fascinated with Tan, not wondering what the heck is going on here.  lol

I know!  I don't want to even ask what that cartoon character ....NOPE.  Not going there.

:) ;) :0)

 HeadInTheClouds:

If he wins then I would say that he has powerful backing. His popularity is rising and LFY is his biggest breakout so far. However, even then, I would argue that XL and TJC by association are the standouts in breaking out from the success of LYF

I would say the chances of either of them winning are pretty slim, maybe TJC has a slightly better chance (with two big hits back to back in UtS and LYF) but that would be arguing like whether one person has a 2% shot compared to a 1% shot up against a XZ and his fandom (he has won it every year since The Untamed aired). If I were to guess who would get Weibo Night King this year, provided the organizers do the same as last year and give it to someone else because they feel like they can't give it to XZ again (I think he will again win in votes due to his fandom), maybe Cheng Yi? Imo, it's not that important, it's just for fandom bragging rights. You see who the industry power players are as judged by the industry itself (and yes, XZ is one of them) by who gets seated in the front row at Weibo Night and other big awards shows. IIRC at last year's Weibo Night, TJC's seat was two rows behind his LYF co-star Yang Zi, lol I would be interested to see if his seat assignment moves up this year.

As for Deng Wei having powerful backing, I think that's obvious even without a Weibo Night King win. You don't go from a virtual nobody (ok socmed model/influencer, but still small potato) to having pretty substantial roles in major projects to your first leading male role (upcoming Love of the Divine Tree) in the span of about 2-3 years with just sheer luck and hard work (and I absolutely do not discount Deng Wei's work ethic -- he has a strong one). It took TJC almost a decade of toil to get to his first leading male role, by comparison, but that's like comparing apples and oranges to be honest. Deng Wei is still kind of considered in China 小鮮肉, and TJC isn't and I don't think he ever had that image or persona even when he first came on the cdrama scene -- different trajectories, different time frames, and different resources at the outset of their careers.

One of my English-speaking friends recommended MDL to me as English language site similar  to Douban -- similar rating system. I've visited the site for a while (pre-LYF), reading forums for various shows to try and gauge international cdrama fans' opinions vs. domestic fans, but MDL is not as active as Douban, but I found the LYF forum pretty active for MDL, especially for a single show. :)

And I'm very pleased to see that TJC has such supportive international fans. I used to feel like I was fangirling into a void for years when it came to following his career, but things have changed a lot in the past couple of years.

 atmospheres:

One of my English-speaking friends recommended MDL to me as English language site similar  to Douban -- similar rating system. I've visited the site for a while (pre-LYF), reading forums for various shows to try and gauge international cdrama fans' opinions vs. domestic fans, but MDL is not as active as Douban, but I found the LYF forum pretty active for MDL, especially for a single show. :)

And I'm very pleased to see that TJC has such supportive international fans. I used to feel like I was fangirling into a void for years when it came to following his career, but things have changed a lot in the past couple of years.

Yes :) 

But I’ll never stop feeling like I’m too late. I am though. Ugh. 

 atmospheres:

With VPNs we can see pretty much everything lol ;)

Like TJC said, it's never too late to find out about him, everyone has their own time. 

Oh golly. This gif will never stop to be relevant.

Yes, but it would have been fun to create a forum for each of his older dramas as they were airing :)

And I missed the M.I.C. days. I would really have loved it back in 2010.