On the opening day of the teams participating in the Play-In Stage of the World Championship 2022 (Worlds 2022), Royal Never Give Up (RNG) suffered a defeat. Although their opponent was DRX – the fourth seed from the LCK, before the match, hardly anyone thought that the “Royal Legion” would lose. However, in reality, RNG lost “fair and square” to the “Blue Dragon”.
RNG’s defeat – a team that is the reigning MSI 2022 champion and a pride of the LPL with a 100% domestic player lineup – has become a hot topic in the League of Legends (LoL) community. Many arguments have been made alongside significant criticism directed at RNG. According to many opinions, since MSI 2022, Xiaohu and his teammates have somewhat lost their form compared to the previous Spring Split.
However, recently, according to RNG’s manager, one of the reasons why the “Royal Legion” could not perform at their best is due to the players being burdened with too many quarantine regulations. The manager of RNG shared the complete procedure for conducting health checks according to regulations on social media platform Weibo right after RNG’s match ended.
The manager of RNG stated: “We had to undergo two abnormal tests today (local time), as per regulations. But then they planned to have us compete with machines in the hotel. We conducted the tests and the results were fine. But then when it was time to compete, they required another health test to decide whether we could play at the arena or not. We couldn’t take it anymore. We had to test five times in one day.”
The manager’s remarks received a lot of support from the LoL community. In fact, Riot is facing criticism for not being adequately prepared. Notably, on the very opening day of the Play-In Stage, both the audience and players encountered multiple delays (match postponements) that lasted for a long time. Asian players were even more exhausted due to the effects of jet lag and had little time to rest.
In the remaining time of Worlds 2022, no one can be sure that similar situations won’t occur again. But for RNG, aside from the reasons, they themselves need to put in more effort. Coming to Worlds 2022, all teams aim for the highest goal of the championship, and those who do not put in enough effort will certainly face defeat.