Savva "Kr1stal" Fedorov has announced that he has departed Xi Lai Gaming Xi Lai Gaming China Rank #6 Rarga Arthur Churyumov happywei Deng Minwei (邓闵维) Satoshi Fei Zhixian (费郅贤) MrCANI Chen Tingxun (陈廷训) MarT1n Zhuo Zhengjie (卓政杰) and is now an unrestricted free agent just days after winning China Ascension 2024.
Kr1stal has been playing in various Challengers circuits in Asia since 2022. Before competing with XLG, he played as the in-game leader for the SCARZ SCARZ Japan Rank #8 MrTenzouEz EJAY Eroll Jule Delfin adrnking Adrian Setiawan Yotaa Yota Kaouachi Yoshiii John Yoshiharu Kawakami roster that placed second in Pacific Ascension 2023 after falling to BLEED BLEED Asia-Pacific Rank #25 crazyguy Ngô Công Anh .
XLG proved to be a strong team in China under Kr1stal's leadership throughout 2024. During Ascension, they only suffered defeats against Rare Atom Rare Atom China Rank #7 sn0wFlake Pang Xuyang (庞煦洋) Midnight Wang Yingjie (王英杰) freeing No Ha-jun (노하준) , who they lost in both the group stage and the upper final.
Faced with the same opponents for a third time in the grand final, XLG came alive and delivered a dominant 3-0 stomp. Kr1stal stood apart individually in that series with 57 kills to only 26 deaths, 274 ACS, and 174 ADR, and was a top ten player for the entire tournament by K/D ratio and ACS.
XLG's decision to release Kr1stal is presumably due to the rule stating that each VCT team may only field one non-resident player, as both Kr1stal and XLG duelist Rarga hail from Russia. XLG head coach hvoya clarified that Kr1stal had already agreed before joining the team to part ways with the team in the event that they won Ascension.
Xi Lai Gaming Xi Lai Gaming China Rank #6 Rarga Arthur Churyumov happywei Deng Minwei (邓闵维) Satoshi Fei Zhixian (费郅贤) MrCANI Chen Tingxun (陈廷训) MarT1n Zhuo Zhengjie (卓政杰) are now: