Leveling Up Your Chinese Through Video Game Phrases
wǒ yuán yǐ wéi shì gè qīng tóng , méi xiǎng dào shì gè wáng zhě
我原以为是个青铜，没想到是个王者
“I thought it was a bronzer, but I didn’t expect a challenger”
The Bronze and the Challenger are the lowest and highest levels in MOBA games (Multiplayer online battle arena) such as League of Legends, Arena of Alor, etc. When making a comparison between two thins, the phrase is meant to demonstrate the significant difference between what happened before and after, meaning a positive unexpected result.
Using this phrase we can examine 2 grammatical points.
The first being: “以为（yǐ wéi ）think，consider”
Example phrases using “以为（yǐ wéi ）”:
yǐqián wǒ yǐwéi dúshū méiyòng，xiànzài fāxiàn hěn yǒuyòng。
以前我以为读书没用，现在发现很有用。
Before I thought going to school was useless; now I realize it’s very useful.
bié yǐwéi nǐ bǐ wǒ dà，wǒ jiù pà nǐ。
别以为你比我大，我就怕你。
Don’t mistakenly think that because you’re bigger than me, I’m afraid of you.
tā yǐwéi nǐ hái zài shēngqì，suǒyǐ bùgǎn lái。
他以为你还在生气，所以不敢来。
He thought you were still mad, so didn’t dare come.
There are also statements “I thought it was a challenger, but I didn’t expect a bronzer”, which is used to describe the negative unexpected results while contrasting between a first impression and the real situation performed.
In different discussions, more usages have been derived. There are not only situations that have the opposite meaning, but also to highlight a situation. For example, “I thought it was a bonzer, but didn’t expect an Ironer” 我原以为是个青铜，没想到是个黑铁 (wǒ yuán yǐ wéi shì gè qīng tóng, méi xiǎng dào shì gè hēi tiě). It means we have prepared for the opposite, however, there is a reverse on the former reverse, which means there is no way to prevent something completely.
The second grammatical point is “没想到 (méi xiǎngdào) have not expected or thought of”.
méi xiǎngdào
wǒ yǐwéi huáxuě hěn róngyì，méixiǎngdào zhème nán。
我以为滑雪很容易，没想到这么难。
I thought skiing was easy. I never realized it was so difficult.
wǒ yǐwéi shì jiǎ de，méixiǎngdào shì zhēn de。
我以为是假的，没想到是真的。
I thought it was fake. I didn’t realize it was real.
méixiǎngdào tā shì ge xiǎorén，wèile zìjǐ de lìyì kěyǐ chūmài péngyou。
没想到他是个小人，为了自己的利益可以出卖朋友。
I never imagined he was a bad person. For his own gain he could betray a friend.
But what separates a challenger player from a bronze player? Turns out a lot. To give the first statement some perspective, when it comes to playing these online games it really depends if you’re Bronze with 15 games or Bronze with 1000+ games. If you’ve been playing for years you might find that your level hasn’t become much higher. How high you can get depends on how much work you put in and how much natural talent you have.
So knowing this gives the statement “我原以为是个青铜，没想到是个王者 (wǒ yuán yǐ wéi shì gè qīng tóng , méi xiǎng dào shì gè wáng zhě) a lot more gravity, don’t you think?
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