Xiao8's departure and Xtreme Gaming's failure at The International 2026: Who is to blame for the poor results

Xtreme Gaming finished its run at The International 2026 in the group stage with a dismal 1-4 score. The performance of what was once China’s top team began to decline several months ago. But the reasons behind the turmoil at XG are only now coming to light.

As a reminder, the club’s first questionable decision this year was the replacement of the coach. Zhang LaNm Zhicheng and Wang Maps Yutian took over as the team’s coaches, replacing Zhang Xiao8 Ning.

On Weibo, Xiao8 stated that leaving Xtreme Gaming was his personal decision:

There were no arguments, and no one kicked me out. At that time, I felt too tired, the pressure was immense, and I was in poor personal health, so I decided to take a break.

However, shortly thereafter, a post appeared on Reddit containing information from an insider close to Chinese clubs and team managers. According to the insider, the organization’s owner — Ye Yi — was to blame for Xtreme Gaming’s decline and Xiao8’s departure. And the legendary coach’s departure wasn’t the start of the problems, but rather the final breaking point.

Last year's TI runner-up finish boosted the owner's confidence to an all-time high, leading him to believe that this is the best chance for them to win TI. Therefore, at the beginning of the season, he blindly listened to some half-baked fan suggestions, kicked XM, and replaced him with NTS (arguably the better player before this year). At the same time, because XinQ had poor mentality, bad work ethic, and wanted unreasonably long break, they just brought in Fy.

The owner is someone who heavily superstitious about player "star power," believing that only so-called star players can achieve results.

An insider notes that these roster changes hit Wang Ame Chunyu, who was on good terms with Guo Xm Hongcheng and Zhao XinQ Zixing. Lin Xxs Jing was also unhappy with the reshuffle, as Xu fy Linsen was performing noticeably worse than XinQ.

But the owner, acting as the boss, handled this issue poorly. Because he cares immensely about saving his own face, once his roster decisions were questioned, he openly and explicitly backed Fy, and even found excuses to criticize Xxs for "behaving like some superstar." Xxs is the type of person who just starts coasting and throwing the moment he gets unhappy (refer to his stint back when he played for IG and Team Aster).

Despite the deteriorating team atmosphere, the squad continued to give it their all and played hard in the first half of the season, as Xtreme still had high ambitions to win TI. According to an insider, the final turning point was ESL One Birmingham 2026.

In their elimination match, Xiao8 went against the preps and stubbornly drafted Keeper of the Light for NTS, leading to their loss (it was heavily criticized by everyone as the losing pick). Then, the owner, without discussing it with Xiao8, suddenly hired Maps as assistant coach to seize drafting control, which made Xiao8 feel disrespected and feel like he was being pushed out. After that, the entire team's morale just completely collapsed, and Ame and Xxs were already completely checked out at that point after both couldn't convince Xiao8 to stay.

Therefore, everyone can clearly see that starting from the draft at this TI, XG just went there without any chemistry and with a dreadful atmosphere, barely trying to win at all; all of them only wanted to go home early and to put an end to this torment.

As a reminder, last season, the founder of Xtreme Gaming, Yang Yang Yiqing, issued a scathing statement following the roster’s failure at DreamLeague Season 26. He called the team, which failed to advance past the group stage at DL, unworthy of representing the Chinese region at the Esports World Cup 2025. Later, representatives of the club — which at that point was already owned by Ye Yi — stated that the early elimination from DreamLeague was caused by a variety of factors but was not related to the players’ professionalism.

At the Esports World Cup 2025, Xtreme Gaming also failed to reach the playoffs, but the roster went on to become the runner-up at The International 2025. EWC 2026, as well as TI15, saw the team eliminated among the first, marking some of the worst results in the organization’s history.

According to several insiders, Chinese clubs will avoid Cheng NothingToSay Jin Xiang next season, though the reason for this decision has not been disclosed. It is also unknown whether Ame will continue his career and whether Xiao8 will return to his coaching position at XG or another team.

As CyberScore previously reported, Vici Gaming disbanded the roster immediately after being eliminated from The International 2026.