Darshan Upadhyaya, better known mononymously as Darshan, (formerly ZionSpartan), is a Canadian-born American professional ''

League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for War ...

'' player. He is most known for his four and a half year long tenure as

Counter Logic Gaming Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) is an American esports organization headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in April 2010 by George "HotshotGG" Georgallidis and Alexander "Vodoo" Beutel as a ''League of Legends'' team, and has sin ...

's top laner from November 2014–May 2019, a time during which CLG and ZionSpartan made both the 2015 World Championship and the 2016 World Championship. ZionSpartan and CLG also won the 2015 NALCS Summer Split as well as the 2016 NALCS Spring Split. From the start of his career to November 2015, Upadhyaya played under the screenname ZionSpartan; from November 2015–2019, he played under the screenname Darshan; in 2020 he resumed playing as ZionSpartan; and in 2021 he has returned to Darshan. Darshan was elected the inaugural president of the LCS Players Association in 2018, a loose union-like advocacy organization that represents the interests of contracted players in the

LCS LCS may refer to: Schools and organizations * Laboratory for Computer Science, research institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology * Lake County Schools school district of Lake County, Florida * Lakefield College School an independe ...

, and continues to hold that position as of 2022. As of 2021, Darshan is currently the top laner for Cloud9 Academy in the NA LCS Academy League.

Early life

Upadhyaya was born on November 12, 1994. He resided in

Poway Poway () is a city in San Diego County, California, United States. The unincorporated community became a city on December 1, 1980. Poway's rural roots influenced its motto "The City in the Country". The city has a population of 49,701 as of 2 ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

before joining professional esports. While growing up, Upadhyaya was often called by his peers his in-game name, ZionSpartan. This was branded by the NALCS in a video titled "Even his teacher called him ZionSpartan."

Tournament results

Counter Logic Gaming

* 1st – 2015 Summer NA LCS * 12–13th –

2015 League of Legends World Championship The 2015 ''League of Legends'' World Championship was an esports tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena video game ''League of Legends''. It was the fifth iteration of the ''League of Legends'' World Championship, an annual internati ...

* 2nd –

IEM X San Jose IEM can refer to: * ''I.E.M.'' (album) * Inborn error of metabolism * In-ear monitors, devices used by musicians, audio engineers and audiophiles to listen to music * Incredible Expanding Mindfuck (Music) * Information Engineering Methodology ...

* 1st – 2016 Spring NA LCS * 2nd – 2016 Mid-Season Invitational * 4th –

2016 NA LCS Summer The 2016 NA LCS season was the fourth year of the North American ''League of Legends'' Championship Series. It was divided into spring and summer splits, each consisting of a regular season and playoff stage. Regular season games were played in ...

regular season * 4th –

playoffs

References

{{Reflist League of Legends top lane players Counter Logic Gaming players Dignitas (esports) players Golden Guardians players Team Curse players American esports players Canadian expatriates in the United States People from Poway, California Living people 1994 births