Chinese powerhouse Royal Never Giveup (RNG) has forfeited its second game against PSG.LGD in the International 2022 (TI11) group stages. RNG is suffering from a medical issue and hence has been forced into forfeiting its second game, handing a 2-0 victory to PSG.LGD in this series. More details about the nature of the issue is yet to be revealed.
PSG.LGD had already secured a victory in Game 1 of the series, so this 2-0 victory pushes them to the second place in Group A right behind RNG. The two Chinese teams look primed to secure upper bracket spots in the playoffs.
RNG forfeit Game 2 after LGD secures win in first game
Both teams competing in this series had multiple issues of their own. PSG.LGD was forced to contend with a loss of selection priority (Radiant or Dire) since its manager Pan Fei tested positive for COVID-19 and did not report this to the tournament organizers, in time.
However, that did not prove to be too much of a hindrance for PSG.LGD who destroyed RNG right from the get-go. Wang "Ame" Chunyu, in particular, had a stellar game as he snowballed off a fantastic laning start and used that momentum to find multiple kills all over the map through the mid-game.
Ame terrorized the opposing Nyx Assassin and Snapfire throughout the game, allowing PSG.LGD to build an overwhelming advantage and secured the win for his team in just over 27-minutes.
This was the most one-sided game that RNG had lost in this tournament. However, it appears that medical issues might have contributed to the team’s poor performances.
The League of Legends World Championships and Valorant Champions 2022 are some of the tournaments that have been affected by COVID-19 outbreaks. However, both Riot Games’ premier tournaments had contingency plans to allow for players to compete in the tournament remotely.
At the time of writing, it is unclear whether such plans exist for TI11. We will update this article as and when more information is made available to us.
Through an official post on Weibo, RNG has confirmed that Lu "Somnus" Yao has tested positive for COVID-19 and is currently in a hospital.