The end of the road? What’s next for China’s World Elite

Another season in China’s League of Legends Pro League (LPL) passes, and with it goes another chance for League of Legends team World Elite to fight on the world stage. And just like last year, the team is out before the action really started. No LPL playoffs, no World Championship China Qualifiers—nothing.

(See: The best League of Legends team in China will be decided this week in the LPL Summer playoffs)

With one of the most popular teams in China showing very lackluster performance for two consecutive years, Chinese fans are once again talking about what’s next. Some say World Elite should just disband now and preserve the team’s image from its golden years (2011 and 2012), before falling any further. Others suggest that CaoMei and WeiXiao, the team’s two most prominent members, should consider retiring or switching teams. The rest simply hope next season will be different.

World Elite at its prime

But all things considered, it’s been a great run for World Elite. The team has been in existence for over three years now and has been home to many top players who went on to grander things. Most notable are ClearLove and Fzzf, who joined Edward Gaming, the LPL Spring 2014 champion and first seed in the LPL Summer 2014 playoffs. And then there’s Misaya, who is making a fortune online in his retirement.

Last year, the organization made a few drastic changes by bringing in some Korean support (Hiro as head coach, Sin as jungler, Ninja as midlaner). But now that World Elite’s hopes have been dashed again for another year, is it time for more some more changes? Let’s take a look at how things could play out.

Left: Sin, right: Ninja

World Elite disbands

As one of the largest gaming organizations in China, World Elite has teams for League of Legends, Dota 2, Starcraft 2, and Warcraft 3. The organization has also announced teams for Smite and Heroes of Newerth in the future.

(See: Tencent wants Smite to be an eSport as Team WE announces new Smite team)

So even with fans complaining, it’s hard to imagine the organization would let go of its insanely famous League of Legends team—especially since its Dota 2team has already disbanded. Additionally, with rumors of World Elite forming a third team for League of Legends, we think the chance of this happening are extremely remote.

CaoMei and WeiXiao retire

Considering how well Misaya has been doing these past few years, retirement just might be on the minds of CaoMei and WeiXiao. The pair could possibly go the casting/commentary route like PDD did when he retired from Invictus Gaming this year, but the more likely scenario is that they become coaches for the World Elite organization. In the end, it depends on how much fight CaoMei and WeiXiao have left in them. After seeing how annoyed these two became in some of their matches, however, it feels like there’s not much.