This Saturday,
JD Gaming recorded its first arrivals of the offseason. The team will field an entirely new coaching staff next year, composed of Wong "
Tabe" Pak-kan and Yang "
Xiaobai" Zhonghe as announced by the team on its social medias. The two coaches worked together last year with
Anyone’s Legends, where they oversaw a remarkable transformation that culminated in the organisation’s first-ever
LPL title.
The coaching staff of Anyone’s Legends is now joining JD Gaming. The organisation and its fans will undoubtedly place significant expectations on Tabe. Since the extraordinary 2023 season—during which JDG came close to completing the "Golden road"—the team has failed to qualify for
Worlds and has accumulated disappointments. This pattern continued last year, when despite an imperfect yet promising start, JDG suffered repeated setbacks throughout the season, ultimately
falling to reach Worlds after a defeat against Invictus Gaming in the LPL Regional Finals.
By contrast, Tabe and his assistant Xiaobai are coming off another impressive year, during which they achieved something close to magical with AL, turning the roster into one of China’s most dominant teams. They won the Split 2 in convincing fashion and reached the Worlds quarterfinals, where they were defeated in a memorable best-of-five against T1. This is far from their first collaboration: they also coached Royal Never Give Up together in 2022, claiming both the LPL Spring Split title and the MSI trophy.
Meanwhile, one survivor from last year’s JDG roster will remain with the team. After announcing the departures of Peng "
XUN" Lixun, Wang "
Zhuo" Xuzhuo, as well as Lee "
Scout" Ye-chan (
now with Nongshim RedForce) and Kim "
Peyz" Su-hwan (
now with T1), JDG has chosen to retain Xiaoxu. The Chinese toplaner, who joined ahead of Split 2 to replace Hu "
Ale" Jiale, was one of the few bright spots of the team’s summer split and now sees his efforts rewarded with another year at JDG. Further changes to the remainder of the roster are expected in the coming days.
