Lu Yao, better known to Dota 2 players and fans as Somnus—one of the top midlaners in the game today and part of team Royal Never Give Up as their position two—has been hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19. This comes off the back of two PCR tests that showed things were not looking good for Somnus. RNG later released a statement regarding the issue.
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With the recent COVID-related incident for RNG at the 2022 League of Legends World Championship not having impacted the organization as much, the situation seems to be more severe for its Dota 2 team. It turned out to be so serious that RNG had to forfeit game two in the series against PSG.LGD. This was a series that many fans were looking forward to, especially since a lot of the current RNG lineup belonged to the old PSG.LGD back in 2018.
what happened to game 2 vs PSG.LGD?
— Blossom Meta???????? (@blossom_meta) October 17, 2022
As of right now, the situation seems to be more stable, with Somnus doing better and confirming that he will be playing from isolation.
This is probably the best outcome for RNG because they did not register a sixth player as a stand-in. Many assumed that RNG’s coach Xie Junhao, better known as Super, would be filling in due to his previous success as a midlaner in the past with teams such as Vici Gaming and LGD in the past.
After this positive news, RNG will keep going in their group stages today, with series against Hokori and Evil Geniuses. Their performance so far at the group stages has been phenomenal with a 9-3 record in the rankings. With the promise of Somnus continuing to play for the team in this crucial hour, it seems like RNG is definitely in the favor of team Royal Never Give Up today.
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