Legendary RNG centerpiece Xiaohu finds new home for 2023 LPL season

After nearly eight years together, Royal Never Give Up is parting ways with its franchise League of Legends player Xiaohu. The decorated multi-position talent helped usher in an era of both domestic and international dominance for the team, turning RNG into a constant threat at global events during his extensive tenure with the organization. 

Together, Xiaohu and RNG won League’s Mid-Season Invitational on three separate occasions, becoming the only team in history to win the event three times. This year, RNG reached the top eight at Worlds, marking the fifth time the team has done so since Xiaohu’s arrival in 2015. 

Xiaohu will join Weibo Gaming for the 2023 professional League season, the organization announced via Chinese social media app and namesake Weibo earlier today. 

Weibo Gaming found its most prominent success as an organization in 2020, when the team reached the finals of the League World Championship while competing under the Suning banner. Since then, Weibo has failed to qualify for an international event, despite keeping a majority of the 2020 Worlds runners-up roster intact. This season, Weibo was knocked out of the LPL Summer Playoffs in the second round, finishing eighth overall in the league. 

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Heading into next season, the team will look exceptionally different than it has in the past, with jungler SofM confirmed to be taking time off from the competitive scene and bottom lane pair Huanfeng and ON departing the team. 

The 2023 LPL Spring Split has not been given an official start date at this time. Sometime during the second week of January would be reasonable, if history is any indicator. Until then, the 2022 Demacia Cup, an all-Chinese preseason tournament organized outside of the LPL season, should tide fans over until the regular season begins next month.