Victory Five was a Chinese professional

esports Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...

organisation based in

Shenzhen Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...

. It was owned by Mario Ho, head of

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

's esports association and son of the late Stanley Ho. It had teams competing in ''

League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL'', commonly referred to as ''League'', is a multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for ''Warcraf ...

'' and ''

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds ''PUBG: Battlegrounds'' (previously known as ''PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds'') is a 2017 battle royale video game published by Krafton, and developed by Krafton's PUBG Studios. The game, which was inspired by the Japanese film '' Battle Ro ...

''. Plans to merge Victory Five and

Ninjas in Pyjamas Ninjas in Pyjamas (often abbreviated to NIP and NiP) is a professional esports organisation based in Sweden that is best known for its '' Counter-Strike'' teams. In 2012, the team reformed with a '' Counter Strike: Global Offensive'' lineup upo ...

(NiP) were announced on 9 July 2020 by the teams' respective owners. The merger was completed on 10 August 2021, and, on 6 January 2023, Victory Five was dissolved and its teams were rebranded as NiP China.

''League of Legends''

History

Victory Five entered the professional ''

'' scene on 30 November 2018, when their application to the ''League of Legends'' Pro League (LPL), China's top-level league for the game, was accepted. Along with SinoDragon Gaming, Victory Five joined the league as part of its expansion from 14 to 16 teams. Victory Five's inaugural roster consisted of top laner Lim "Jinoo" Jin-woo, junglers Tu "Ben4" Xincheng and Hu "Pepper" Zhiwei, mid laner Lei "Corn" Wen, bot laner Wang "y4" Nongmo, and supports Le "Ley" Yi and Yun "Road" Han-gil, with Tsai "DOG8" Hsueh-yu as head coach. The team finished 13th in the 2019 LPL Spring Split with a 4–11 record. Victory Five replaced almost their entire roster for the 2019 LPL Summer Split, except for Ben4 and y4. Jinoo was traded to Edward Gaming in exchange for mid laner Li "Mole" Haoyan on 23 May 2019. Two days later on 25 May 2019, it was announced that top laner Huang "Aliez" Hao, mid laner Tao "Windy" Xiang, and support Li "Max" Xiaoqiang would be promoted from Victory Five's academy roster, V5 87. Despite the late addition of Hou "Otto" Guoyu, Victory Five finished 12th in the regular season with a 5–10 record. In the 2020 LPL Spring Split the team set a league record for most consecutive losses, failing to win a single series and winning only one game against the second-last team, LNG Esports. The team's performance was hindered throughout the season by the

COVID-19 pandemic in China The COVID-19 pandemic in China is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). China was the first country to experience an outbreak of the di ...

, as several of their players lived within quarantine zones and were forbidden from leaving. Victory Five revamped their roster prior to the 2020 LPL Summer Split; top laner Yu "Biubiu" Leixin, jungler Wei "Weiwei" Bohan, and bot laner Lee "Samd" Jae-hoon were acquired from Suning, while prospective rookie Guo "ppgod" Peng joined from FunPlus Blaze as the team's new support.

Tournament results

Organisation

The Swedish esports organisation

(NIP) announced on 9 July 2020 that it planned to merge with ESV5, a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

between eStar Gaming and Victory Five, to establish a new entity which would be listed on the

Nasdaq Stock Market The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

. The merger was actualised on 10 August 2021, with plans for Victory Five to rebrand under the NIP name by the end of 2022. Hong Kong rapper Jackson Wang joined Victory Five as an investor in September 2020. Victory Five also partnered with Team Holding, owned by Wang.

References

External links

* {{Weibo 2018 establishments in China 2023 disestablishments in China Esports teams established in 2018 Esports teams based in China Former League of Legends Pro League teams Defunct and inactive PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds teams