Introduction: The S16 season has officially started, and nearly all players have been paying attention to the recent matchups. The LPL region is currently in a brief off-season. In this latest pre-New Year competition, many have been joking about the Spring Tiger Emperor. Once a top professional, his form this season has fluctuated significantly. Recently, during a livestream, a hilarious moment occurred when he was solo killed in lane by a Gold-ranked player while playing his signature champion Yone. After the screen went black, he looked stunned and also revealed that the LPL has increased penalties for Alt+F4 early game exits, with fines now quadrupled—from 5,000 to 20,000 RMB.

Xiaohu’s "signature Yone" gets solo killed by a Gold player

Most players are quite familiar with Xiaohu. As a former top mid laner in the LPL, he reached the peak of his career while on RNG. He is the only player to have won MSI championships both as a mid laner and a top laner. During that year’s top lane matchups, he innovated new gameplay styles by bringing mid lane champions into the top lane. As RNG faced increasing issues, he downgraded himself and urgently left the team. After many years with WBG, he is now approaching the end of his career and is likely to retire after this season.

With the regular season concluded, many pro players have entered a short break. In a recent livestream, Xiaohu had a very funny moment when he solo laned against a Gold player using his career-defining champion Yone. Just minutes later, he was solo killed by the opponent’s Irelia. After the blackout, he looked shocked because even if a pro struggles with a champion, the skill gap between pros and regular players is huge. Thus, Xiaohu joked that the opponent might not actually be a Gold player. Nearby, Zitao also looked very awkward, making the scene highly entertaining.

Later, Zitao also had a solo match, and at the end of one game, he pressed Alt+F4 to quit. Xiaohu immediately commented that pressing Alt+F4 now costs 20,000 RMB from your bank account. When Zitao asked why, Xiaohu patiently explained that the fine is for quitting early during matches. This year, penalties have become much stricter. Even if the club pays, players must provide transfer records. The rules are tighter, which is good—no rules, no order. Many players have done this before; even 369 was fined 5,000 RMB for early quitting when he was with JDG. Now the fine has quadrupled.

During this off-season, a major news item sparked widespread discussion online: the very popular former gold-tier streamer Da Sima has returned to livestreaming. His comeback generated huge buzz, instantly reaching over 100,000 in gifts and flooding the chat. His debut is expected to earn over a million. This has led to lots of chatter, especially since many former "Seafood TV" stars have returned, but PDD has yet to reappear. He was once the top figure in League of Legends but disappeared from the public eye after some incidents and is rumored to be abroad.

Goodbye, Renwei

No one expected the LPL management to become so strict. At the end of last year, there were talks about better regulating pro players. This time, the officials have taken real action by enforcing all penalties directly on players. Stricter rules greatly affect players’ attitudes during matches. So far this season, no player has been seen quitting early with Alt+F4 after a match, whereas in previous seasons, one or two cases were common.

What do you all think about this situation?