TES naiyou receives lifetime ban following matchfixing violations

Chinese jungler Yang “naiyou” Zijian, who last represented Top Esports, has been officially banned for life as a result of the investigations regarding match fixing in official matches.

Top Esports naiyou banned from competitive forever

The League of Legends Pro League (LPL) disciplinary management team, which began the investigations after receiving a report from Top Esports, officially issued the results and penalties on March 27, 2026. In the public statement, the disciplinary team confirmed the jungler had committed several serious violations during the competition, directly and/or indirectly affecting the fairness of the matches, therefore violating Articles 12.1.1.1 and 13.1.1 of the competition’s rulebook.

As a result and the severity of the actions, the committee decided to issue a permanent ban on the player, disqualifying him from any official honors awards, and “prohibiting him from participating in any professional or semi-professional competitions organized by Tencent, TJ Sports, and Riot Games”.

It’s worth noting that the statement also publicly called out the club for “serious oversights in their daily player management” and “failing to detect and stop the player’s violations promptly. Nonetheless, it also recognized the club’s cooperation and proactivity in reporting the matter, urging all clubs to learn from this incident and strengthen players’ education and supervision.

“This punishment is not the end. The league’s disciplinary management team will continue to investigate the relevant leads obtained during the investigation and will synchronize relevant information and suspicious external personnel to the entire league’s esports ecosystem and related teams, leaving no place for those who erode the league’s ecosystem to hide,” said the disciplinary team in the official statement on Weibo.

Top Esports terminates the player

Top Esports also issued a statement themselves, terminating the contract with the naiyou and deducting all unpaid salary, tournament prize money, and team benefits. The club also stated it reserved the right to pursue liability for breach of contract and any resulting economic losses.

TES naiyou is the latest player to be found match-fixing in the LPL. Prior to him, the league had issued lifetime penalties to other pro players, including former Team WE player Xiang “Condi” Ren-Jie, former Rogue Warriors Wang “WeiYan” Xiang, as well as former FunPlusPhoenix player Zhou “Bo” Yang-Bo and Cai “milkyway” Zi-Jun. Among the four, only Bo had a chance to continue playing professionally, as he moved over to the LEC to play for Team Vitality and Karmine Corp. That being said, Bo has been teamless since the end of 2024