League of Legends Worlds 2024: LNG Esports, No Rest for the Weary (10/20)

The League of Legends 2024 World Championship kicks off in Berlin on September 25th. A total of 20 teams will compete to succeed T1 at the top of the Riot Games MOBA world hierarchy. On this occasion, Sheep Esports brings you a daily feature on one of the participating teams. On September 14th, the tenth episode of our series focuses on LNG Esports, the LPL’s third seed.

From their impressive Worlds 2023 Quarterfinals appearance to a challenging Spring 2024 and a triumphant Summer resurgence, LNG Esports’ journey to the World Championship has been anything but straightforward. The team now seeks to ignite the flame of a fiery resurgence following a rough return from South Korea. Despite a high-profile jungler swap with Worlds finalists Weibo Gaming—acquiring Wei "Weiwei" Bo-Han while trading their former jungler, Lee "Tarzan" Seung-yong—the Spring split was far from smooth.

Chinese fans quickly realized that the supposedly improved squad was nothing but a damp squib as LNG started the split with a rocky 2-6 record, earning a disappointing 15th place by Week 4. While the team faced multiple issues during this period, one major factor behind LNG's slow start was their decision to trial Ling "Mark" Xu as a new support. Mark was quickly benched after just six best-of-three series in the LPL, with the team reverting to their previous support, Fu "Hang" Ming-Hang. This change significantly helped Chen "GALA" Wei later to return to top form.

Despite these challenges, LNG eventually made a late surge to qualify for the Spring playoffs, though they were ultimately defeated by Weiwei's former team in their first playoff match. While it would have been easy to dismiss LNG after a tough time in the Summer Placement matches, it was at this very moment that the squad’s dragon-like tenacity reawakened. From that point onwards, LNG surpassed all expectations, convincingly taking down the behemoths of Bilibili Gaming and Top Esports, and losing only one match to FunPlus Phoenix.

For a time, as unlikely as it may seem, LNG Esports appeared to be a team contending for the title of best in the LPL. Unfortunately, they were quickly jolted back to reality, being eliminated from the Summer playoffs by both Top Esports and Weibo Gaming, losing 0-3 and 2-3 respectively, despite monstrous performances from GALA. Thankfully, LNG rebounded quickly in the Regional Finals, demolishing Weibo Gaming and Tarzan with a 3-0 score and qualifying for Worlds, notably through an impeccable series from Lee "Scout" Ye-chan. However, a shadow now looms on the horizon for the battle-worn dragons.

While the next chapter of LNG's story was meant to be the pinnacle of their achievements and a grand acknowledgment of their tireless efforts, their fate seems to have been written differently, as though the gods themselves have turned their backs on the organization.

As first reported by Yong Woo "Kenzi" Kim on Naver, the 26-year-old midlaner Scout will be unable to travel to Europe for the 2024 World Championship due to an ongoing court case involving his previous organization, EDward Gaming, with whom he won Worlds in 2021. Following this news, both teams and several other members of the scene have provided additional context and information, explaining the circumstances surrounding the ongoing dispute.

The situation is still evolving, and so far, only EDG's perspective has been made public, as the team has been vocal to avoid being painted as evildoers. To summarize the dispute: After winning Worlds in 2021, Scout sought to return to South Korea and reportedly negotiated with teams like KT Rolster while still under contract with EDG, without properly informing them. Despite this, Scout eventually continued with EDG in 2022 without issues, but during the following off-season, he attempted to rejoin the LCK again. Reports then indicated that Scout was still under a secondary commercial contract with EDG, which was not recognized by Riot Games or listed in the Global Contract Database. After Scout joined LNG, EDG filed a lawsuit in July 2023 over the alleged contract, leading to Scout's travel ban in April 2024.

According to EDG's manager, LNG was unaware of the travel ban until just a few days ago. On the other hand, Scout's agency, Supergent, recently defended themselves and their client by stating that EDG had lied about several points regarding the situation, notably claiming that both Scout and LNG only recently learned about the travel ban. In contrast, further comments from EDG's manager reinforced that he sees Scout's agency as the main party at fault in this situation. Overall, with the ongoing stalemate between both parties, the upcoming Chinese holidays, and the usual administrative delays, there seems to be little chance that the travel ban will be lifted before Worlds, as Scout will most likely not find a guarantor to deposit the required amount of money to lift the travel ban.

With only two weeks until the start of Worlds 2024, LNG Esports face a critical challenge, as Scout's situation seems unlikely to resolve in time for the tournament. Although the rest of the team remains a force to be reckoned with, LNG's prospects are grim if they cannot secure a strong midlaner to replace Scout. According to ChinaGAP, LNG is currently working with Riot Games to find an emergency replacement, as they do not currently have a suitable substitute on their roster. While a loan from another team might be possible, reports indicate that LNG cannot sign a player from any team that finished in the top 6 of the latest split, ruling out options like Rookie or Shanks.

There is still an option in which LNG could be entirely disqualified from Worlds under rule 2.2.2.2 and 3.2.1 of the Worlds Rulebook, which states that team rosters must be finalized prior to August 16th. As argued by insiders, allowing LNG to sign a completely new player and potentially upgrade their roster by picking players from other teams could set a very bad precedent and harm the competitive integrity of the tournament. This is further reinforced by the fact that no rules currently exist for this specific situation, and LNG would have to go beyond the rulebook and be granted an exception to enact this loan. At this time, no official communications regarding the issue have been made by Riot Games, and the situation continues to unfold internally. If LNG is allowed to sign a new player, most fans currently speculate that JDG's Yagao could be a good fit and would be the best player to give LNG a fighting chance at Worlds.

While the saying "third time’s the charm" might apply to many other teams, LNG’s probability of a deep Worlds run this time around appears slim. The team’s internal issues could unfortunately lead to a rapid downfall and a sour return to China, if it is even allowed to compete. For the squad, anything less than a quarterfinals appearance would be considered a failure, as the organization aims to overcome its humiliating 0-3 loss to T1 in 2023 and its dismal performance in 2021, when the team failed to advance past the Worlds group stage after losing to the MAD Lions in tiebreaker matches.

With a bit of luck, GALA, who retains his world-caliber status, might be able to pull off a miracle and help his teammates achieve a surprising run. However, the rapidly shifting meta, a potential resurgence of bot lane AP picks, and a decrease in bot lane agency through multiple nerfs seem to make such an outcome increasingly unlikely.