Top Esports (TES) has been forced to make a roster change in the LPL after Yang ‘Naiyou’ Zijian was handed a lifetime ban from competing after being found guilty of match fixing.
The LPL team has terminated Naiyou’s contract and is withholding all of his unpaid salary and bonuses. In his place, former League of Legends World Champion Gao ‘Tian’ Tian-Liang has returned to the organisation.
Naiyou had been a promising jungler, earning an LDL MVP award before joining China’s top league, but after just three months with TES, the 21-year-old is now banned for life from the LPL, all Riot Games tournaments, and all Tencent and TJ Sports events, including both professional and semi-professional tournaments.
His teammates had grown suspicious during the LPL Split 1 Playoffs earlier this year which saw TES eliminated early after a 3-2 loss to Weibo Gaming.
In the fifth and final match of that series, Naiyou had built magic resist items despite the fact that WBG had a very fed Jinx, who finished the game with 14 kills, and the only AP threat was Galio.
The investigation was announced at the beginning of March, and it didn’t last long as Naiyou admitted to intentionally throwing matches during the Playoffs.
Speaking on his stream, TES head coach Chang ‘Poppy’ Po-hao claimed: “Naiyou admitted that he matchfixed every game TES lost in the playoffs.
“Do you know how good he is? If he wants to win, he can win. If he wants to lose, he can lose too. This makes me really upset. Think about our results. How far could we have made it if he didn’t matchfix? I can’t even imagine.”
TES Bring Back Tian and Jackeylove
Ahead of LPL Split 2, TES have made a couple of roster changes in hopes of qualifying for the Mid-Season Invitational.
As mentioned prior, veteran jungler Tian, who won Worlds with FunPlus Phoenix in 2019, has returned to the team after a stint with WBG last year.
Additionally, another former World Champion in botlaner Yu ‘JackeyLove’ Wen-Bo has also joined the team. It is not yet known what will happen to the team’s other ADC, Zi ‘JiaQi’ Jia-Qi.
Both players sat out the previous split, perhaps attempting to avoid burnout and end the 2026 LoL season on a high.
The new roster, completed by toplaner Bai ‘369’ Jiahao, midlaner Lin ‘Creme’ Jian, and support Wang ‘fengyue’ Run-Lai.
Is this the biggest case of match fixing in LoL esports history? Let us know on the Insider Gaming Discord.
It’s not all doom and gloom for the league, however, as the LPL has attracted its highest viewership in years.
