What does 자강두천 (jagang-ducheon) mean? The fake idiom from League of Legends

In an afternoon meeting, two team leads spent 30 minutes arguing over a report's font size. 11 point or 12? When it ended, the intern closed the laptop and murmured, “Total 자강두천.” The manager at the next desk took it for a classical idiom. The people are made up; every fact in the conversation has a source.

• Manager Park (41)Sua, you said 자강두천 earlier, right? First intern I've met who quotes idioms. Which classic is it from?
• Sua (23)Haha, not a classic. It's short for a showdown between two proud geniuses. Kukmin Ilbo even wrote that it looks like an idiom but actually came from gaming.
• Manager Park (41)Two geniuses — so it's a compliment? You're saying our team leads are geniuses.
• Sua (23)Um… it used to be a compliment, but now it's used the opposite way. In Money Today's words, “a showdown of two geniuses” turned into “acorns comparing heights.” Two people who won't back down over something trivial.
• Manager Park (41)11 point versus 12 point… fair. So where did it come from?
• Sua (23)League of Legends. Around 2017, a YouTuber edited a video of Faker and the streamer Dopa facing off in solo queue and titled it “the final game of a dawn three-match solo-queue series between two proud geniuses.” News stories spell the YouTuber's name differently — 붐바야 or 봄바야.
• Manager Park (41)Even I know Faker. So it really was about geniuses. When did the meaning flip?
• Sua (23)According to Money Today, later, when Faker was in a slump, the LoL community started using it for games where both players were bad. That's when it got the ironic meaning of “a sloppy match” or “a fight between amateurs.”
• Manager Park (41)Do people use it outside work?
• Sua (23)All the time. Whenever two people on a variety show have a battle of wills, the entertainment news calls it 자강두천. Money Today says in 2022 a senior judge even wrote a column calling lawsuits where both sides fight endlessly over irrelevant points 자강두천.
• Manager Park (41)Even judges. What if three people fight?
• Sua (23)자강세천 — and four is 자강네천. There was an older internet word with a similar meaning, but it contained a slur against disabled people, so nobody uses it now. I think 자강두천 lasted partly because it doesn't have that problem.
• Manager Park (41)Great. So next meeting, should I propose 13 point?
• Sua (23)Sir, then it's 자강세천. Please don't.

• 글꼴 크기로 30분째 회의 중… 이게 바로 자강두천Thirty minutes of meeting about font size… this is 자강두천.Team messenger, from outside the meeting room
• 누가 설거지할지 가위바위보 7판째. 자강두천 그 자체Seventh round of rock-paper-scissors over who does the dishes. Peak 자강두천.Roommates
• 둘 다 헛스윙만 하는데 해설은 진지함ㅋㅋ 자강두천이다Both of them keep whiffing and the commentary is dead serious lol. 자강두천.Comments on a neighborhood baseball stream
• 그날 결승은 진짜 자강두천이었지. 둘 다 미쳤었어That final was a real 자강두천. Both of them were insane.The original meaning, remembering a great match

It sounds the part. Four syllables, some of them Sino-Korean, so if you don't know better it passes for a real classical idiom. Using that solemn sound for a trivial squabble is what makes it funny. Being ironic also makes it less aggressive: say “they're both bad” and you start a fight, say “a showdown of two geniuses” and even the two involved laugh it off. It began showing up in esports news around 2019 and now appears in entertainment, sports and even political coverage. Its senior from the same LoL scene, which also became a national phrase, is 중꺾마. If that one is a cheer, this one is how you laugh instead of getting 킹받네.

So 자강두천 is a phrase that once praised a duel of masters and flipped into a tease for a duel of amateurs. For the record, the team leads' font dispute ended at 11.5 point. In a true 자강두천, nobody wins. If you have a sharper definition, add it to the 자강두천 entry in the dictionary.