In the history of MSI tournaments organized by Riot Games, RNG is the team that has won the most championships. Specifically, they have claimed the MSI title three times in 2018, 2021, and 2022. Notably, RNG defeated LCK representatives Kingzone DragonX, DK, and T1 to secure this prestigious championship.
However, those outstanding achievements are just the glorious past of RNG. In recent years, this team has often been left behind in the race for the LPL title as teams like BLG, JDG, and TES outshine them. Even at the most recent World Championship, RNG could not compete for a tiebreaker spot and had to watch the tournament from home. In the LPL Summer 2024 group stage, RNG even found themselves at the bottom of the table with a poor record of 1 win – 5 losses.
Just when it seemed like things would stop at dwindling performance, RNG recently became embroiled in very noteworthy drama. Specifically, according to revelations from former coach Hanyi, the two remaining “veterans” from their MSI 2022 championship, Ming and Wei, are being pressured to retire. The reason is that RNG wants to cut the salaries of these two players in the near future.
Not stopping there, RNG has also been accused of failing to pay their current roster for at least the past three months. Even new player ZDZ has fallen into this situation. Meanwhile, coach Xiaopeng could not endure the salary issues and left the team prior to these events.
More notably, as soon as this information was released, player Wei expressed agreement with the details revealed by former coach Hanyi. He was even found to have commented on social media, criticizing RNG’s management as “incompetent and useless” before deleting it shortly after. This further highlights the dire state of RNG’s internal situation.
Those closely following the LPL region would know that RNG has frequently faced salary issues in recent years. At the end of 2022, they received a warning from the LPL organizers about being expelled from the tournament if they did not resolve this issue. By late 2023, the manager of RNG’s VALORANT team also spoke out about not having received compensation for nine months.
These dramas indicate that RNG is facing significant financial troubles recently. Combined with the aforementioned information, it wouldn’t be surprising if RNG continues to receive warnings from the LPL organizers regarding salary debts. In fact, RNG could potentially be expelled from the LPL tournament (or at least face some penalties) if this situation continues in the near future.