China doesn't have a team playing this year, and its internet users aren't shy about mocking themselves.
Chinese interest in the World Cup is high, even though the country's team didn't make the cut.
China's soccer team didn't make it to the 2018 World Cup, but that's not stopping Chinese fans from weighing in on the event.
Hours ahead of Thursday's opening, Weibo's official sports channel began a campaign encouraging people to post comments roasting the 2018 World Cup, with prizes for the comments that accumulate the highest volume of interactions each day.
Matches hadn't begun yet, so comments were limited at first. But some potential winners had already emerged, mostly mocking China's soccer team for failing to make it to the event.
Perhaps the translations don't quite capture the spirit of the original.
The official Sina NBA channel offered an unusual way of explaining the World Cup. It categorised countries according to how well they typically perform and matched them to lipsticks.
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