Recently, Xiaohu – the mid-laner of Royal Never Give Up faced off against SofM in Korean ranked. It’s unclear if he recognized a “familiar face,” but our SofM seemed to take very good care of Uzi’s teammate.
Even though he was using a tank-oriented champion, Poppy in the jungle, the number of times SofM roamed to gank mid in the early game was countless, putting immense pressure on Xiaohu’s Akali, who, despite having kills advantage, often found himself fleeing from the lane.
Faced with SofM’s quite annoying playstyle, Xiaohu exclaimed on stream how much he wished he could be SofM’s teammate.
“Lately, I’ve been a bit out of it; I really want to play more games, but to focus on that, I have to exercise. I go to the gym every day, and it really helps me stay more alert.
This jungle guy keeps lurking around here, does he hate me that much? Oh right, he’s the jungler, and that’s SofM. Only SofM plays this way. He loves stealing the jungle from others. Facing this kind of gameplay really drives me crazy; it’s stressful, and it’s a wonder I don’t lose my mind.
Ah, honestly, I wish I could be on the same team as him; we’d be teammates for life. Only then would I feel satisfied watching the enemy mid lane go through what I’m currently suffering, to know what it feels like to be completely helpless and driven mad by it.”
In this match, Xiaohu’s team won overwhelmingly, while SofM’s team, despite having many “stars” like Viper and Lehends or Thal and Showmaker, still ended up “feeding like it’s harvest season.”
However, even in a match where his team faced disadvantages from the early game, SofM still showcased a relatively proactive playstyle, continuously applying pressure on Xiaohu’s mid lane, setting the stage for Showmaker’s Syndra to reclaim lane dominance. Unfortunately, SofM’s teammates couldn’t capitalize on that advantage, leading to a rather… disastrous outcome.
It’s clear that SofM’s unique playstyle is not only acknowledged by professionals and media in China but also highly favored by players in the LPL. While jungle players have sought to learn and distill the essence of jungle stealing, even Xiaohu – a veteran and renowned mid-laner in China, has affirmed the effectiveness of SofM’s gameplay style, leaving no doubt about his status in the LPL.
Xiaohu is the veteran mid-laner of Royal Never Give Up, and a key figure of the “golden generation” of League of Legends in China, having won 2 LPL championships and notably 1 MSI championship in 2018 with RNG.
Throughout his career, he has played alongside world-renowned junglers like Mlxg and Karsa, yet even when they were his teammates, Xiaohu rarely praised them as much as he does SofM.
Currently, RNG boasts a promising young talent in the jungle position, XLB, combined with a policy of not using foreign players, making Xiaohu’s dream of playing alongside SofM seem quite difficult to realize unless he parts ways with RNG.