League of Legends mid laner Xiaohu moves to Weibo after 8 years with Royal Never Give Up

Anna Bernardo
·Contributor
·3 min read
Xiaohu has been with Royal Never Give Up since the team was formed. (Photo: Riot Games)
Xiaohu has been with Royal Never Give Up since the team was formed. (Photo: Riot Games)
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Royal Never Give Up (RNG) is shaking up its League of Legends (LoL) roster, but not in the way everyone may have expected.

Mid laner Li "Xiaohu" Yuan-Hao has left the organisation after eight years of playing for the team to move to Weibo Gaming.

Xiaohu has been one of the RNG's first and original players since the team was formed in 2015.

Weibo Gaming made the announcement on their official social media app soon after RNG had posted their farewell to the mid laner.

RNG have said farewell to their former mid laner, Xiaohu. (Photo: RNG Weibo account)
RNG have said farewell to their former mid laner, Xiaohu. (Photo: RNG Weibo account)

“We are very happy to announce to everyone that after friendly communication between the team and the players, Li Yuanhao (ID: Xiaohu), the former middle laner of the RNG esports club, is free,” the announcement said.

“Xiaohu officially joined the League of Legends branch of the WBG esports club as an individual and will work hand in hand with us,” the statement continued.

Xiaohu has been one of RNG’s first and original players since the team was formed in 2015. During his stay, he helped the team snag six League of Legends Pro League (LPL) championships and obtain six other titles.

On top of this, Xiaohu and RNG are the first team in LoL history to win the Mid-Season Invitational Championships three times back-to-back.

RNG's productive year

The Chinese juggernauts also had a productive season this year, winning the LPL Spring Championship title.

Xiaohu (third from the right) has had a fruitful eight years with RNG, winning 3 back-to-back MSI titles, 6 LPL championships, and 6 other titles while with the organisation. (Photo: Riot Games)
Xiaohu (third from the right) has had a fruitful eight years with RNG, winning 3 back-to-back MSI titles, 6 LPL championships, and 6 other titles while with the organisation. (Photo: Riot Games)

Despite having to play all of their MSI matches remotely because of travel restrictions in China due to COVID-19 and then having to remake the first four matches due to a latency issue in Busan, Xiaohu still led his team to a 3-2 victory against League of Legends Korea Championship’s T1, who played in front of their home crowd.

After their dominant victory, RNG struggled throughout Summer, where they placed 6th in the Summer playoffs and barely made it to Worlds 2022 after the regional qualifiers as LPL’s fourth seed.

At Worlds 2022, the reigning MSI champions, led by Xiaohu proved to be a formidable opponent throughout the whole tournament.

After going 4-1 in the play-ins, they qualified for the Group Stage and advanced to the next round. Then, they annihilated everyone in Group D except Gen.G in a tiebreaker and had to settle for second place.

However, their victorious run was ended by T1, who were able to exact revenge against them with a 3-0 sweep in the quarterfinals. This makes it the 5th time that RNG finished in 5th-8thplace at Worlds.

Xiaohu will be Weibo Gaming’s mid laner in Season 2023.

Weibo Gaming hasn’t found success on the International stage since 2020, where the team reached finals at Worlds 2020 under the Suning banner, and has not won any regional championships as well. Notably, Weibo Gaming has yet to complete their 2023 roster.

With Xiaohu at Weibo Gaming’s helm, the team may be hoping to find more success in the coming season, depending on who the other players on the roster will be.

Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.

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