LNG Esports, the team SofM was with for nearly 4 years before joining Suning, is a name that has left many memories for Vietnamese League of Legends fans.
Fairly speaking, LNG was the springboard that nurtured SofM’s talent, elevating him from a young player with many flaws to a top-tier jungler in the LPL.
SofM’s relationship with LNG officially ended at the start of the 2020 season when the Vietnamese player bid farewell to the team he had been with during his youth to join Suning – A team considered to have “greater ambitions” in the race for a Worlds spot.
After two seasons apart, SofM and LNG’s fates have diverged in opposite directions. While SofM is thriving in Suning’s colors, helping the team temporarily hold a tie for 4th place in the LPL Summer 2020 standings, LNG Esports, on the other hand, is sinking deep into crisis.
This team has only achieved 2 wins while suffering 9 losses, placing them near the bottom of the standings this season. Even when known as an unstable team during SofM’s time, LNG has never faced results as disastrous as this.
In fact, during their recent loss to Invictus Gaming, rumors circulated online that jungler Xx – the player who took over SofM’s position – had conflicts with the team’s head coach, while their brightest star – Flandre – has seen a severe drop in performance and often finds himself on the bench.
Looking at LNG’s operations and performance over the two seasons in 2020, many fans have frankly stated, albeit a bit harshly, that SofM’s departure was the right choice. The owners of this team seem to have lost interest in investing in League of Legends, and the current roster of LNG is weak both in quality and quantity.
Nevertheless, as fans who admire SofM, many supporters also express regret and cannot contain their heartbreak when witnessing LNG – a team they have supported, followed, and cheered for a long time alongside SofM – plummeting like this.