Xi Lai Gaming Xi Lai Gaming China Rank #2 Viva Lifan Ran (冉立凡) NoMan James Man Rarga Arthur Churyumov happywei Deng Minwei (邓闵维) coconut Colin Patrick Chung (钟弘祖) has signed former JDG Esports JDG Esports China Rank #9 kklin Zhang Ziling (张梓凌) stew Park Young-chan (박영찬) jkuro Yong Haochong (杨浩聪) Babyblue Geng Haoran (耿浩然) Z1yan Liu Zihan (刘紫涵) player Lifan "Viva" Ran (冉立凡), continuing the chain of a domino effect of recent roster moves among Chinese teams. Colin "coconut" Patrick Chung (钟弘祖), who had been on the team's roster for offseason tournaments, was also signed permanently.

Viva is no stranger to Challengers teams. He spent the 2023 team on Rare Atom Rare Atom China Rank #7 Guran Zhou Minyan (周铭言) zhe Niu Zhe (牛哲) nnono Satoshi Fei Zhixian (费郅贤) Midnight Wang Yingjie (王英杰) , and reached the grand final of Ascension China where they lost to Dragon Ranger Gaming Dragon Ranger Gaming China Rank #4 Flex1n Lo Rui (罗瑞) vo0kashu Ilya Ushakov Akeman Zhang Haoran (张浩然) Nicc Shao Yi-qun (邵逸群) SpiritZ1 Lin Dingyu (林定宇) . Following that, he was picked up by JDG Esports as part of a four-man Rare Atom signing class. Over the course of the last two seasons, Viva's in-game role has remained relatively the same. With Rare Atom, he handled the duelist duties on Jett and Iso while also logging time as Sova and Viper. This continued with JDG in 2024, though his minutes as a duelist significantly decreased.

In 2024, Xi Lai Gaming defeated a new-look Rare Atom in the grand final of Ascension China, avenging two previous defeats in the competition against them to earn themselves a spot as China's 12th VCT team. Following the win, they parted ways with in-game leader Kr1stal due to the team having more than one non-resident player. XLG has been one of the busier players in the Chinese offseason window, dropping coach Fayde for new assistant ANXiOS and picking up players YOU , ZiXuan , and coconut .

The ripple effect following roster movement from other Chinese VCT teams such as TYLOO TYLOO China Rank #12 splash Moses Christophe Jonathan Scales Zhang Zhen (张震) Ninebody Ding Yi (丁毅) sword9 Li Wei (李卫) slowly Kelun Sun (孙科伦) Yoyo Xu Youxiang (徐佑翔) and the aforementioned JDG has reached Xi Lai. They parted ways with MrCANI , who was a part of their Ascension-winning five-man core, and have now signed Viva.

Ahead of their debut season in the VCT, Xi Lai have impressed at OFF//SEASON events. Top-four finishes at WALL-E Cup and FGC Invitational preceded their Superb Cup win, which saw them defeat world champions EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #3 ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) Jieni7 Zhang Juntai (张君泰) .

Xi Lai Gaming Xi Lai Gaming China Rank #2 Viva Lifan Ran (冉立凡) NoMan James Man Rarga Arthur Churyumov happywei Deng Minwei (邓闵维) coconut Colin Patrick Chung (钟弘祖) 's roster is now:

  • Colin "coconut" Patrick Chung (钟弘祖)
  • Lifan "Viva" Ran (冉立凡)
  • Arthur "Rarga" Churyumov
  • Deng "happywei" Minwei (邓闵维)
  • Yip "YOU" Man Ho
  • Zhuo "MarT1n" Zhengjie (卓政杰)
  • Liu "ZiXuan" Junwei (刘俊伟)
  • Aleksandr "hvoya" Eremin (Head coach)
  • Victor "ANXiOS" Troshkin (Assistant coach)
  • He "snowave" Yujie (何宇杰) (Analyst)

Editor's note: A previous version of this article had the headline, 'Viva brings life to Xi Lai Gaming', which could have caused confusion with current FunPlus Phoenix player Life . The headline has since been changed.