Darshan Upadhyaya, better known mononymously as Darshan and as ZionSpartan, is a Canadian-born American League of Legends player who played professionally from 2012–2023. He is most known for his four-and-a-half-year tenure as Counter Logic Gaming's top laner from November 2014 to May 2019, a time during which CLG and ZionSpartan made both the 2015 World Championship and the 2016 World Championship.[1][2] ZionSpartan and CLG also won the 2015 NALCS Summer Split as well as the 2016 NALCS Spring Split.[3] 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.[4][5]
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, and held that that position until 2022 or 2023.[6]
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."[10]
Upadhyaya announced on Twitter in November 2023 that he was retiring from eSports.[11]
