After the manager of EDward Gaming revealed on stream about the “player loan act” recently approved by Riot China, numerous reputable news outlets in China have confirmed this information within the last 48 hours.
Accordingly, the 4 LPL teams participating in the 2021 World Championship will be allowed to loan players from teams outside the top 6 of LPL Summer 2021 to strengthen their roster, in case one or more registered players for their World Championship roster cannot travel to Iceland due to VISA or health issues. Detailed information can be referenced here.
This opens up a scenario where EDG, RNG, FPX, or LNG could potentially add top players like Knight, Bin, SofM, Kanavi… to their line-up. But only if their roster faces issues.
However, while positive news has yet to emerge, many distasteful behaviors related to this issue have started to appear on Chinese social media. Specifically, cases involving players like Cryin, LWX, or even Flandre – players who are currently under much controversy regarding their performances in the summer split, especially Cryin.
The mid-laner of RNG has seen a significant decline in performance during the latter half of the 2021 season and is considered a main reason for the team’s early elimination and inability to defend the LPL Summer Championship.
Previously, in the LPL Spring 2021 and MSI, Cryin was only rated as performing adequately and was seen as the weakest link in RNG’s line-up. Until the “player loan act” was revealed, many LPL fans, unclear whether joking or serious, suggested that Cryin “fake an illness” arguing “if you play poorly, just stay home and let someone else take your place.”
Some netizens fantasized about RNG using Knight from TES to replace Cryin, similar to how SofM could replace the jungle positions of EDG or FPX. Even when Chinese sources confirmed that the conditions for the player loan act are very strict, and there would be no possibility of “faking illness” or circumventing the laws to make room for someone else, a section of the audience was so malicious that they harassed Cryin wishing for him to “get a VISA and then fall ill” to legitimize the process of “replacing players.”
These opinions have faced strong backlash from the RNG fan community, and even Knight has been dragged into the controversy despite doing nothing. Clearly, the loaning of players should only occur in urgent and unforeseen situations, not used to circumvent regulations, and according to the thinking of a portion of culturally deficient netizens, it serves as a tool to strip away the rightful opportunity of a player like Cryin – which is to participate in the 2021 World Championship under the banner of RNG.
Some opinions even suggested that, due to the distasteful online harassment aimed at Cryin, Riot China should abolish this temporary act, as teams participating in the World Championship would rather take young players as replacements than borrow from other teams if that action causes their players psychological harm due to malicious comments.
Additionally, considering the 4 teams participating in the World Championship, RNG is the team least likely to loan players. Since they had already traveled to Iceland earlier this year for MSI, obtaining a VISA to return to this country would be much easier. Therefore, the chances of Knight joining RNG as a loan contract are very slim.