UK League of Legends semi-professional player Charlotte ‘Charlotte’ Yeung has made an appearance on the ITV game show The Genius Game.
The show, adapted from the South Korean programme of the same name (The Genius / 더 지니어스), debuted for UK audiences on Wednesday, 30 April this year.
Described as “the ultimate TV challenge” that brings together some of the country’s finest minds, and with League of Legends (LoL) players ranked among the smartest gamers, it should come as no surprise to see one of them appear on the show.
Hosted by beloved Scottish star David Tennant, contestants participate in a variety of challenges to test their intellectual and manipulation skills against fellow competitors.
Among the list of Britain’s top minds are poker players, a forensic scientist, negotiation experts, doctors, and now, a Master-rank League of Legends support player.
Who is ‘The Chemist’?
Known to viewers of the show as ‘The Chemist’, Charlotte is also known in LoL esports as the semi-pro support player for WLG Female Stars and Arrakis XLNC.
The London-based support has also played for LDN UTD Ice, Fourth Wall Academy, and Lionscreed Lionesses.
Charlotte is also an accomplished academic, with an undergraduate degree in Chemistry from UCL, where she made the Dean’s List in 2021.
She later pursued a postgraduate degree in Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge.
After completing her postgraduate studies, she returned to competitive play as a substitute for Fourth Wall Esports, alongside her full-time role as a consultant at KPMG.
Unsatisfied with mediocrity, she left her job and competed at Miss Hong Kong, later applying to this year’s Miss England and is currently a semi-finalist.
In the interim before starting her PhD, she also applied to be on the show after seeing an advert on social media.
After a surprise call from the show’s casting, she would eventually be selected as one of eleven contestants to compete on ITV’s The Genius Game.
I do think my experience playing league helped me with the show. Using that dynamic decision making while under pressure like you do in solo queue, which I think some of the others weern’t used to.
The Queen’s Gambit
Charlotte proved to be a strong candidate to win the show by using her academic knowledge, social skills, and game theory from playing LoL professionally.
Delving into the first episode, the contestants met for the first time to complete their inaugural game.
In this game, they had to perform a heist, stealing as much as they could without getting caught.
Presented with three vaults of varying levels of risk, contestants made their choices after discussions with the other contestants.
The highest-value item was a crown, which only one player could steal, making it the highest-risk move with the possibility of being left empty-handed.
To add an extra layer, players also had the option to inform on other contestants, getting them caught if they attempted the heist.
In a true demonstration of the show’s format, one group, which included Charlotte, banded together to ensure none of them were in last place at the end of the game.
In response, a less organised group formed from those left behind.
Video made by Jump Design for the show
With a plan drawn out by mastermind Scott, the match began, and it was time to see what a room full of geniuses would do.
Charlotte went straight for the crown as part of her group’s plan, either to secure a strong lead or to deny the prize to the opposing group.
Successful in her heist and now in the lead, Scott encouraged Charlotte to steal the crown again in a later round.
Extending her lead and potentially protecting himself from elimination.
In the third round, the initially detained Paul was released, and Charlotte was a potential target and so chose to abstain from stealing for that round.
During the final round, India was chosen to take the crown within their original group, securing their own safety from elimination and gaining an extra garnet.
But Charlotte’s competitive spirit couldn’t accept anything less than first place. Thus, she went for the crown anyway, knowing that she and India would be caught.
Afterwards, I felt bad that I ruined India’s chances of getting a garnet so I gave her a garnet to make up for it which allowed her to do what she wanted.
You do have to work together and be honest most of the time.
But if you’re a completely honest player, it showed me that they didn’t have the attitude to win the entire show. To do anything needed to make sure you never came last and placed in the deathmatch.
The right mindset to succeed
The first game showed Charlotte’s approach to the show and her individual plan to win.
Aiming to go under the radar and work together with the other contestants, and only against them when necessary.
However, this has sparked criticism from viewers of the show due to the manipulative behaviour, with the most recent episode igniting a fire.
Charlotte, with the help of the other contestants, changed the game in her favour by eliminating an extremely strong contestant.
I was never going to come last here, but I knew it’d decide which of two people would go home.
It could’ve easily been RNG (at random) if we refused to play it or if we tried to play it fairly, but I didn’t want to do that.
I had a chance at eliminating a very strong player and I took it.
The other contestants could’ve refused to go along, and that would’ve been enough to give them a chance, but they didn’t
Where is The Chemist now?
As of now, Charlotte is preparing for the Equal Esports Cup with WLG Female Stars, set to kick off on July 1st.
She’ll also be competing at the Miss England semi-finals, which will take place on Friday, October 3rd, 2025, at the Grand Station in Wolverhampton.
But there’s no stopping her with just that, as she’ll also be heading abroad to conduct experiments as part of her PhD.
In the meantime, she and the other contestants are still in contact with each other and hold the occasional puzzle night.
Charlotte has been posting updates about herself and the show on her social media.
The Genius Game airs every Wednesday on ITV1 at 09:00 BST, with tonight’s episode set to feature a safari-themed race.
I don’t regret being on the show, and if anything, I’m really happy that I did.
However, I do regret not playing the games more aggressively. I think at the end of the day, I was given the opportunity to play some exciting games I hadn’t seen before.
Instead of playing them to win I was playing them to optimise my chances at not losing.
Having written for Esports News UK since 2022, I’ve cultivated an extensive knowledge of all things esports.
Covering a wide variety of topics during my time as an esports journalist, it’s safe to say I’m a jack of all trades, if you’ll pardon the pun.
