On Thursday, Weibo Gaming announced the arrival of two new players for the 2026 season: toplaner Tang "Zika" Hua-Yu and jungler Zhao "Jiejie" Li-Jie. Zika is leaving LNG Esports after three years, during which he played two Worlds at a time when the team was at its peak.

Jiejie started the year with Invictus Gaming and was one of the team’s best players, but he was still replaced in the Summer after a third-place finish in Split 2 by Yan "Wei" Yang-Wei. He then found refuge at FunPlus Phoenix, though with much less success.

On the coaching staff side, changes are also happening. Shin "Shine" Dong-wook is leaving South Korea, where he spent the year with Hanwha Life Esports, and will become head coach at Weibo. Another major addition is Kim "KIM" Jeong-soo, head coach of Gen.G over the past two years, who is returning to China; he was previously a coach at Bilibili Gaming in 2021.

An exit route for Zika

At only 22 years old, Zika is about to begin his fifth year in the LPL, a long career that started with Invictus Gaming in 2022 before he joined LNG’s roster alongside Lee "Tarzan" Seung-yong, Lee "Scout" Ye-chan, Chen "GALA" Wei, and Fu "Hang" Ming-Hang. This talented and highly anticipated lineup had a strong year, reaching the LPL final and exiting in the Worlds quarterfinals against T1.

In 2024, they performed even better with a perfect 3-0 Swiss Stage but still exited in the quarterfinals. This year, the team was unable to retain its star players, and Zika was the only remaining piece from their golden days. The year was really tough, with no split where they managed to advance past the group stage.

The respect that Jiejie deserves

2025 was a rather unfair year for Jiejie. The 2021 World Champion had hit rock bottom in the LPL with EDward Gaming in the years following their victory but seemed to find a new lease on life at IG, where he was the keystone player. Jiejie was the best Chinese jungler in the league.

In the Summer, the team decided to bench him in favor of Wei, which didn’t completely fail since they still made Worlds, exiting in the Play-In against T1. The decision seemed somewhat unfair to Jiejie, who was able to bounce back in Split 3 with FPX. The team immediately played better with him, but not enough to finish higher than 9th–12th place.