JackeyLove rumoured to re-join Invictus Gaming

Rumours surfaced mid-week suggesting Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-Bo could be returning back to Invictus Gaming after being let go by the same organization in November 2019 when his contract with IG expired.

JackeyLove joined Invictus Gaming in June 2016, at only 15 years of age, meaning he was too young to play in the LPL, however, still had a shot at proving his worth at the 2016 NEST, where IG won the title after defeating LGD Gaming in the grand finals.

Due to his young age, JackeyLove spent two years as an inactive member of IG, until late November 2017, when he was finally old enough to play under IG's banner in the LPL.

Invictus Gaming got off to a flying start in 2018 season, by claiming a bronze medal at Demacia Championship and later finished at the top of LPL Spring Season with an impressive 18-1 record, having only lost one match against Royal Never Give up. Unfortunately, IG failed to keep their momentum going as they fell flat in the LPL playoffs, where they lost to the same team that caused them problems throughout the regular season.

Adding salt to the wound was their defeat against Rogue Warriors, which saw the Chinese roster finish the LPL Spring playoffs at an underwhelming fourth place.

Invictus Gaming went on to finish third in Demacia Cup 2018 Summer and won the 2018 LCK-LPL-LMS Rift Rivals, before returning to make waves in LPL Summer, where IG won the regular season and finished second in the LPL Summer Playoffs.

JackeyLove played a pivotal role in the team's success, with his incredible skill and he did not need long to establish himself as one of the best ADC mains in the LCK. He further cemented himself as one of the best later in 2018 World Championship, where IG steamrolled through the opposition en route to their maiden World Championship title.

While he was regarded as somewhat inconsistent before the tournament, his clutch performance against KT Rolster in quarter-finals among other great displays of skill throughout the tournament helped him make a name for himself and he was soon regarded as one of the key players for IG.

Despite IG's impressive 2018 season, the Chinese roster failed to impress in 2019 season as they crashed out of the 2019 World Championship in the semi-finals against FunPlus Phoenix and to make matters worse, they lost four members of the organization this November including when Lee "Duke" Ho-seong,  JackeyLove, coach Kim "Karam" Ga-ram and coach Won "Mafa" Sang-yeon.

Since JackeyLove became a free agent on November 21, he has become one of the most sought after players in the League of Legends transfer market, with numerous LCK and other teams looking to sign the 19-year-old prodigy. Early rumours suggested JackeyLove could be joining Suning, however, to date, there were no announcement from the team, who instead opted to move their jungler Wei “Weiwei” Bo-Han to the bottom lane for their Demacia Cup venture.

At the same tournament, we also saw a debut appearance of IG's new bottom lane which consists of former academy team ADC Ding “Puff” Wang and former ViCi Gaming support Su "Southwind" Zhi-Lin. Unfortunately, the former world champions failed to impress, seeing how they did not even make it out of the group and finished at a 13th-16th place.

In the Demacia Cup it became evident IG clearly lacks the quality they had in the previous two seasons, which sparked the rumours which claimed that the team is looking to re-sign JackeyLove in a bid to strengthen their bottom lane ahead of 2020 LPL season.

The former CEO of Invictus Gaming and former leader of EDward Gaming Liu “Efeng” Yuan posted a cryptic message on his Weibo personal account earlier this stating "Maybe we should congratulate IG", which might imply JackeyLove decided to stick with IG for one more season.

While there are no official announcements about the possible move as of yet, there is a strong belief among the LoL community JackeyLove will return to Invictus Gaming. Should, however, JackeyLove, decide to join another team, it would mark the first time in his career he would not play for IG organization, seeing how he has never left the team since he joined the professional League of Legends scene.