RNG breaks silence after losing LOL World Championship

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China's professional team Royal Never Give Up (RNG) for League of Legends (LOL) on Sunday posted a video outlining the team's failure in the 2018 LOL World Championship (S8). Posted to Chinese social media site Weibo, the team's captain Jian "Uzi" Zihao apologized for playing below par.

Before the beginning of S8, RNG was considered one of the title favorites, because they had already bagged all the other major video game championships including LOL 2018 Spring, LOL 2018 Summer and 2018 Mid-Season Invitational.

However, the team had a bumpy path to the quarter-finals, where they were beaten 2-3 by Europe's G2 Esports (G2). The last game was a mystery as Uzi's character was killed early on, putting the whole team in a disadvantageous position before their eventual loss.

Jian Zihao, nicknamed "Uzi" blames himself for RNG's failure. /Screenshot of RNG's video

RNG's apology came long after the team sent congratulations to China's Invictus Gaming (IG) for winning the final title on November 3. They had remained silent on what happened during the competition.

In the video, Uzi said that after the catastrophic loss (1-15) in Game 4, he was totally lost, did not know what to do next and surely did not know what to tell his teammates. "I didn't even trust myself enough to talk, not to mention to communicate with my teammates," said Uzi.

Uzi described being emotional, and admitted to not saying much in the last game, which is unusual because communication is necessary in eSports. Though the other four players still talked to each other like they always did, the team's offensive core, AD carry, remained silent, casting a shadow on RNG's play.

Liu Shiyu, nicknamed "Mlxg" denies conflict within the team. /Screenshot of RNG's video

Uzi also responded to the rumors in the past month about conflicts with in the team. He said that it's true he had argued with Liu "Mlxg" Shiyu from time to time on how to play, but they had never let the argument affect the team, especially not in competition. Mlxg also denied any conflict.

At last, Uzi again apologized for his problem during the quarter-finals and said he's okay with the criticism. The RNG video ended with a family photo of all the eight players together, an indication that the team will play in S9 in 2019.