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Kr1stal departs Xi Lai Gaming

raezeri

September 23, 2024

Savva "Kr1stal" Fedorov has announced that he has departed Xi Lai Gaming Xi Lai Gaming China Unranked WsLeo Huang Pinwei (黄品维) Lysoar Liang Youhao (梁优好) NoMan James Man Rarga Arthur Churyumov happywei Deng Minwei (邓闵维) and is now an unrestricted free agent just days after winning China Ascension 2024.

Kr1stal has been playing in various Challengers circuits in Asia since 2022. Before competing with XLG, he played as the in-game leader for the SCARZ SCARZ Japan Unranked Art Koki Kagami Gwangboong Kim Gwang-won (김광원) muto BRIAN Medusa An Min-cheol (안민철) roster that placed second in Pacific Ascension 2023 after falling to BLEED BLEED Inactive .

XLG proved to be a strong team in China under Kr1stal's leadership throughout 2024. During Ascension, they only suffered defeats against Rare Atom Rare Atom China Unranked Guran Zhou Minyan (周铭言) nnono Midnight Wang Yingjie (王英杰) Z1yan Liu Zihan (刘紫涵) , who they lost in both the group stage and the upper final.

Faced with the same opponents for a third time in the grand final, XLG came alive and delivered a dominant 3-0 stomp. Kr1stal stood apart individually in that series with 57 kills to only 26 deaths, 274 ACS, and 174 ADR, and was a top ten player for the entire tournament by K/D ratio and ACS.

XLG's decision to release Kr1stal is presumably due to the rule stating that each VCT team may only field one non-resident player, as both Kr1stal and XLG duelist Rarga hail from Russia. XLG head coach hvoya clarified that Kr1stal had already agreed before joining the team to part ways with the team in the event that they won Ascension.

Xi Lai Gaming Xi Lai Gaming China Unranked WsLeo Huang Pinwei (黄品维) Lysoar Liang Youhao (梁优好) NoMan James Man Rarga Arthur Churyumov happywei Deng Minwei (邓闵维) are now:

Arthur "Rarga" Churyumov
Deng "happywei" Minwei (邓闵维)
Fei "Satoshi" Zhixian (费郅贤)
Chen "MrCANI" Tingxun (陈廷训)
Zhuo "MarT1n" Zhengjie (卓政杰)
Aleksandr "hvoya" Eremin (Head coach)
Chong "Fayde" Hoc Wah (Coach)

Comments:

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#1

islaaa

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it was a good run o7 he deserves a good team

#5

Daxta

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Kr1stal was igl? it's over

#11

Iamronaksingh

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I think they released him due to an import rule , one import allowed?

#16

Breloof

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Yeah they had the chance to either release the duelist, or the IGL, and apparently chose the IGL.

We saw how that went for JDG.

#31

Blue_Iced_Tea

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Yea but between a good igl and a cracked duelist, igl is much harder to find in general. Maybe it’s different in China tho.

#37

geospliced

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Kr1stal was going to leave regardless.

#46

unknown_trash

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Yeah I see kr1stal going to emea

#2

Aquemini

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L for xlg

#13

smoshh

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I mean it was that or the duelist, both picks were a bad decision. Even though the problem here is the vct rule

#18

PunisherXPR

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Yeah but I think its easier to find a good chinese duelist than it is to to find a good chinese IGL. They were both bad decisions, but they still chose the worst out the 2.

#47

SXNFLGJL

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There's cracked chinese duelists everywhere imo
A fragging chinese IGL is going to be more difficult to find

#60

nanashitokumei111

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Keyword that everybody ignores for some reason "fragging IGL"

#3

toofan1

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Sadge

#4

catNmouse

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I think finding a new cracked duelist is easier than an IGL but since they all decided on this, best of luck to him.

#6

ARk1d

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who replaces him now, any rumours?

#61

Ory

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me

#7

xLeo

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wtf

#8

CarnageBTC

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Told ya....blind GMs only care about MVP

#20

xhaetae

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Kr1stal literally mvp’ed tho

#24

CarnageBTC

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well apparently thats not how MVP works .... bcoz Rarga got MVP in the finals .... CN is duelist=best player pilled..... just like old times
[btw apparently kristal agreed to leave XLG at the time of signing]

#38

geospliced

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Kr1stal agreed to leave the team after the season before it began.

#39

CarnageBTC

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yeah thats just sad.... why is he taking such a risk

#9

masterX

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JDG story 2.0 incoming

#10

willow888

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KOI Kr1stal

#59

koromast

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if its not that koi is done because not having minny is already bad enough

#12

Syx_

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Releasing their fragging igl is the biggest L

#14

Dhrom49

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no way

#15

Lori496

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I don't know how well this decision is boutta play out but, best of luck to both kr1stal & XLG in the next season!

#17

snowconedeity

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realistically who is gonna replace Kr1stal

#19

drextonnn

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letting the fragging IGL go must be the worst move you could make💀

#21

Xmic

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Language is the main problem. Kr1stal only speak Russian and English. In ascension, they had two Russian players, so they can speak English. Kr1stal can speak Russian with Rarga too. But in Vct cn, only one russian player can remain. Thinking about one Russian IGL use English to command four Chinese players. It's crazy.

#30

Sk00d

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does rarga speak chinese? otherwise It'll be a similar issue

#32

Xmic

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He doesn't speak English. But from the experience of VCT cn, the language barrier of duelists or sentinels may not affect the strength of the team, e.g.Nova and DRG.
The best way is to follow the way of JDG and FPX, whose IGL can speak both Chinese and English. For example, if XLG can get Midnight (RA is ready to sell him), a bilingual IGL in Chinese and English, XLG may not become too weak.

#34

Xmic

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Sorry, I made a typo. I mean Rarga cannot speak Chinese now. He can speak English.

#22

Breadlol

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07 Best of luck to both Kr1stal and XLG, cant wait for their T1 debut

#23

Frogger0_0

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unluckiest player ever

#25

Hobbit

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Liquid needs him

#26

nockedT

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Welcome GX Kr1stal

#33

ohhkida

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fr definitely better igl than redgar

#27

Aayan

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Sucks it has to be this way. At least he’ll be sought after in EMEA as an igl

#28

ShiNN

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Prx kr1stal?

#35

ohhkida

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still the same import rule? something or kr1stal

#41

JSN

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Something counts as apac I thought?

#45

welikefortniteandvalorant

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how

#54

cristiadu

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why would he

#56

aspassonjiezounb

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nope hes memea

#62

ohhkida

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He's a Russian, which is counted as EMEA player, hence an import

#29

Seo_w

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2023 RA core mistake

#36

tur0n

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too good to be free agent, someone pick him up

#40

Er3ngenes1s

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Welcome TL Kr1stal

#42

JSN

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Why keep rarga over kr1stal? :((((((

#57

aspassonjiezounb

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if keep kristal you will see a russian commanding 4 chinese in english.That's insane

#43

Chow1E

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i can see he ended chose bleed or ge tbh if emea has no offers, or back to china

#44

geospliced

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TYLOO Kr1stal would be interesting lol

#48

-Polaris-

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GIA Kr1stal

#49

charleser

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He's definitely getting picked up by GX, Liquid or KOI right? A fragging igl is really hard to find and there's not a lot of proven igls for the t1 EMEA teams to choose from.

This is bad for XLG though. They could become another DRG, a team with really poor midrounding and inconsistent results if they don't get a good igl.

#50

MrSycopaf

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Riots should change the rule and only allow 1 non-resident in Ascensions, which is same to the main series.

#51

Dakoo

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They did him dirty bro, and he also was the best player of the grand final

#53

cristiadu

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They didnt do him dirty, it was the plan from the beginning. They cannot keep both russian players and krystal wanted to go somewhere else

#52

cristiadu

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dude just made them go to t1 then left

#55

aspassonjiezounb

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RA 3.0
But guys im telling you guys that Kristal has known he will be kicked out if making it to the VCT before he joined XLG.Good luck kristal

#58

_amBrian

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he better have some juicy EMEA offer lined up or we riot

#63

shai0

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I've been a fan of his since the early run of scarz in challengers last year. sucks to make it to two ascension finals in a row, win the second one, and still be cut. hope he gets picked up somewhere.

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