Everything about Hafu, her fiance David and relationship with 5up

Hafu (real name Rumay Wang) is an American streamer who shot to fame as a teenager due to her prowess in World of Warcraft. She won national and international World of Warcraft competitions, thereby cementing her status as one of the best. Following her success, Hafu started streaming on Twitch.

She gained acclaim on the platform for playing Hearthstone, but as time went by, she moved on to other games. Hafu’s following on Twitch currently stands at 1.2 million, and her self-titled YouTube page has attracted over 250K subscribers. The gamer has cashed in on the Among Us craze, as in October 2020, she was the second most-viewed female Twitch streamer.

This piece will look at Hafu’s career, her experience with online trolls, and her love life.

Hafu was born on 18th April 1991 in Newton, Massachusetts, to Chinese immigrant parents. She didn’t grow up wealthy as her mom singlehandedly supported the family as Hafu’s dad pursued his Ph.D. His studying paid off as he would later start a successful technology security company.

At age 14, Hafu started gaming on a Gameboy Color. She wasn’t very good at gaming, but she enjoyed it and found that she improved with practice. Her best friend and her then-boyfriend introduced her to World of Warcraft. Within three years, she was one of the best World of Warcraft players in the region. Against the wishes of her parents, she dropped out of high school to participate in tournaments. She told NBC News:

“My parents were really strict. I grew up to be everything they didn’t want. They wanted me to study really hard because that’s how they found success. Instead of studying, I just played games all day.”

Hafu eventually went back to high school to complete her studies. Motivated by Hafu’s success, Hafu’s parents began to warm up to the idea of their daughter being a gamer. However, they still insisted that education was the main priority. After high school, Hafu headed to Bentley University to study finance. In her head, she was destined for a lucrative finance career.

However, the gaming bug couldn’t leave her system. Skipping classes to livestream became the norm, and by the third year, she couldn’t keep up with her studies. Hafu’s mom cried when she informed her that she’d dropped out of college to pursue gaming. Hafu said in a G2 Esports YouTube video titled The Story of Hafu:

“Oh my God. My mom cried when I told her that I would drop out of college to try and stream full time on Twitch. It’s much easier when they just yell at you, but when they are just disappointed, it’s like – it feels so bad.”

Hafu promised her parents that she would go back in a year if gaming failed to work out. She never went back. “They are very happy for me now, and they are very proud of me now, but it was a process,” she added.

Despite showing considerable skill as a young gamer, Hafu faced one hurdle that she could do little about: The fact that she was a girl. Hafu’s emergence as a dominant force in a traditionally male-dominated arena didn’t go down well with fans and, at times, other players.

At one of the tournaments she attended at the age of 17, a rival team named themselves ‘Gonna Rape Hafu at Regionals.’ To make matters worse, the organizers at the event allowed the team to compete with that name. “This is a long time ago, so I don’t think it was normal to take action on such things at the time,” she told Dan Gheesling.

It was risky for Hafu to keep gaming, but she drew strength from the competitors and fans who respected her achievements. “My competitors were always very cordial to me and in my experience, people who’ve played personally against me, have spoken very highly of me,” she added. “It’s a lot of random people who seem to be very salty.”

The hate and belittling of her achievements made Hafu made her very defensive. It helped for a while, but she eventually opted to ignore the comments entirely and focus on earning more accolades. She told Dan Gheesling that she understood that she couldn’t change everyone’s mind:

“You really can’t change everyone’s mind about you no matter what you do. The more achievements I get, the harder it is for people to explain away why I have done so well… I still think it does happen quite a bit. I see it all the time. Like I said, I don’t think there is anything I can do about it, so I just have to not react. I think that is the best thing I can do.

Hafu and professional gamer David Caero got engaged on New Year’s Eve 2020. She posted a photo of the ring on Twitter alongside the caption: “Couldn’t ask for a better ending to this year! Engaged to the love of my life.”

David, a Fort Worth native, made a name for himself as a professional Hearthstone player for Team Liquid. He became known as Liquid Dog and steadily started accumulating his over 600K-strong Twitch following.

Contrary to some reports, Hafu and fellow gamer 5up are just friends. “5up is exactly the person you’d expect him to be,” Hafu tweeted on 22nd November 2020.