Leena Xu (27) is the head of eSports for Team Solo Mid, one of the largest teams in the League of Legends. TSM has now signed her boyfriend, star player Yilang “Doublelift” Peng, and since then there’s been nothing but trouble. Xu is under constant fire from the community.
This is Leena Xu: Leena Xu is the “President of eSports” for TSM. In this role, she was named by Forbes as one of the “30 under 30 – Games” in 2019, as one of the 30 most influential people in her field under the age of 30.
Xu wanted to bring top stars to TSM – got in trouble for it
These are her problems: Leena Xu has sparked three minor to medium disturbances in the LoL community in recent weeks:
First, she mentioned on Discord in April that TSM had been in talks with “many big LoL stars”:
- They had attempted to sign the top support “Vulcan”, who became a US champion with Cloud 9 in 2020.
- Additionally, they wanted to sign ADC “Upset” from Schalke 04, a German. They had offered a crazy amount of money, but Schalke said “no”.
This made LoL fans angry at the end of April when the Discord screenshots circulated. Xu cannot poach LoL players who are under contract. You just don’t do that.
Xu then stated that she had been misunderstood; they had contacted the teams, not the players themselves. She just wanted to show that TSM had tried to sign high-profile players.
Tim Reichert from Schalke supported the statement. Xu had contacted them about Upset back in 2018. He had no reason to believe that she contacted the player directly.
But hardly had this issue been cleared away, when the next one arose for Xu.
At the end of April, TSM signed bot laner Doublelift after a disappointing season, who also had a rough year with Team Liquid.
Doublelift is currently Leena Xu’s boyfriend. She was accused of a conflict of interest; she cannot bring her own boyfriend into the team.
The players and she herself denied this. Doublelift said that his move to TSM had nothing to do with his girlfriend being on the team.
TSM is just a super org and he is excited to play with his old LoL buddies Bjergsen and Biofrost again.
But the actual blunder came shortly after.
Xu “leaks” negative comment about jungler Dardoch
This is causing trouble for Xu: Now Xu was on a call and said about TSM jungler Dardoch, “no team wants him.” This went live over Doublelift’s Twitch stream, which was currently broadcasting his LoL game live.
This caused quite a stir; one shouldn’t speak about one’s own team members like that.
Furthermore, Xu must be professional and should not discuss such delicate matters near her boyfriend. It is none of his business what happens with Dardoch.
Xu said that it happened poorly. In the past she could talk while Doublelift was streaming. However, he had a new PC which he hadn’t correctly set up yet, so her comment went live on Twitch.
TSM’s boss defends Leena Xu
This is the situation now: The criticism towards Leena Xu has become loud, louder, and quite ugly. Now the boss of TSM, Andy “Reginald” Dinh, has stepped in.
He states: Doublelift would have been signed anyway, he is simply the best for the position. He decided that himself.
The issue with Dardoch was a mistake and should not happen. However, the situation has been clarified and they apologized to him personally.
Furthermore, Leena Xu is responsible for TSM’s entry into new games such as Fortnite or Apex Legends. She has nothing to do with the LoL team.
He himself stands behind Leena Xu. She has a long history with TSM, having volunteered initially and helped build the team.
He is very sorry that the community discredits her “hard work” now.
Vicious attacks on TSM’s head: Job obtained through sex
This makes the situation so spicy: Two things are coming together
- on the one hand Xu has obviously made real mistakes for which she is being criticized
- at the same time there is a lot of mockery against her and statements that are seen as “sexist”. The nasty LoL commentator Thorin tweeted: It’s not that hard not to sleep with your employees. Another responded on Twitter: That’s how she got her job in the first place. Xu was once in a relationship with TSM’s boss, Andy “Reginald” Dinh
Reginald says: She would not have gotten the job because she was previously in a relationship with him. He can assure the community that she deserves the job.
Women and LoL are still a sensitive issue. In February 2020, the all-female team Vaevictis eSports was removed from the league after losing 28 times in a row.
