Top Esports

Top Esports, previously known as Topsports Gaming, is a Chinese esports organization. Its League of Legends team competes in the League of Legends Pro League (LPL), the top-level league for the game in China. It was founded on 21 December 2017 by athletic apparel company Topsports.

History
The Topsports Gaming brand was unveiled on 21 December 2017 by athletic apparel company Topsports, which had acquired the LPL spot of DAN Gaming. The team's first tournament was the 2017 Demacia Championship, where they placed ninth to fifteenth after losing in the third round to Suning Gaming.

Topsports was a member of the LPL's eastern conference during the 2018 spring season, placing seventh with a 3–16 record. For the 2018 summer season, Topsports was moved to the western conference where they placed third with a 10–9 record, qualifying for playoffs. The team lost in the first round to Royal Never Give Up. Topsports was one of eight teams that participated in the 2018 National Electronic Sports Tournament (NEST 2018), placing second after losing to JD Gaming in the finals. This result qualified Topsports for the 2018 Demacia Cup winter season, where they placed second again after losing to Invictus Gaming in the finals.

During the offseason before the 2019 LPL Spring Split Topsports changed up their main roster, which became top laner Bai "369" Jiahao, jungler Xiong "Xx" Yulong, mid laner Zhuo "Knight" Ding, bot laner Lee "LokeN" Dong-wook, and support Nam "Ben" Dong-hyun. The team finished third in the regular season with an 11–4 record and 4th in playoffs after losing to Invictus Gaming in the semifinals and FunPlus Phoenix in the third place match. At NEST 2019, Topsports fielded their trainee roster and placed fifth to eighth after losing to Edward Gaming in the quarterfinals.

On 15 May 2019, it was announced that Topsports Gaming had renamed to Top Esports. Top Esports placed second in the regular season of the 2019 LPL Summer Split and third in playoffs after winning the third-place match against Bilibili Gaming. The team was unable to qualify for the 2019 World Championship after narrowly losing to Invictus Gaming in the last round of the regional finals. Xx left the team on 15 December 2019 and was replaced by LMS veteran Hung "Karsa" Hao-hsuan. Ben and LokeN followed suit shortly after, and were replaced with Zhang "QiuQiu" Ming and Liang "yuyanjia" Jiayuan, and Ying "Photic" Qishen respectively. Top Esports lost to Vici Gaming in the 2019 Demacia Cup semifinals and placed fifth to eighth.

During the 2020 LPL Spring Split regular season, Top Esports experimented between QiuQiu and yuyanjia in the support role and originally intended to start former Invictus Gaming player and world champion Yu "JackeyLove" Wenbo as their bot laner. However, due to the length of JackeyLove's contract, he was unable to play until near the end of the regular season, with Photic maintaining his role as Top Esports' starting bot laner until then. Nonetheless, Top Esports finished fourth in the regular season with an 11–5 record. After defeating Team WE and Invictus Gaming in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively, Top Esports made it to their first LPL finals. After a close series, Top Esports lost to JD Gaming and finished runners-up.

Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the annual Mid-Season Invitational was cancelled for 2020 and replaced by the Mid-Season Streamathon, an online live stream event featuring several tournaments and show matches. One of the online tournaments held was the Mid-Season Cup, featuring the top four teams from the LPL and LCK. Top Esports was drafted into Group A along with FunPlus Phoenix, DAMWON Gaming, and T1. The team finished second in their group, advancing to the knockout stage. In the semifinals, Top Esports swept Gen.G, moving on to the finals where they defeated FunPlus Phoenix to claim the Mid-Season Cup.

Top Esports did not make any roster changes going into the 2020 LPL Summer Split, although they did experiment with QiuQiu in the bot lane. The team finished first in the regular season and received a bye to the semifinals, where they swept Suning. After another close series against JD Gaming in the finals, Top Esports managed to defeat their longtime rivals, claiming their first LPL title and qualifying for the 2020 World Championship as the LPL's first seed.

For the main event group stage of the 2020 World Championship, Top Esports was drafted into Group D along with South Korean team DRX, North American team FlyQuest, and Russian team Unicorns of Love.