At MSI 2025, Cui "Shanks" Xiao-Jun, midlaner for Anyone's Legend in the LPL, earned fans around the world for his standout individual performances and personality. His quirky sunglasses, happy-go-lucky attitude, and One Piece fandom — alongside his jaw-dropping mechanical highlights — set him up to be a future fan-favorite from the LPL. Yesterday, that veneer was shattered.

During a debate stream discussing the legality of escort services and sex work in China, several current and former LPL players — including Shanks, Li "LP" Fei, Xie "ICON" Tian-Yu, Li "Mole" Hao-Yan, Hu "Ale" Jia-Le, and Han "Smlz" Jin — spent two hours harassing a female creator they disagreed with. On their official, public-facing livestreaming accounts, the players slung profane insults, engaged in sexual harassment, and even escalated to death threats.

By the time Shanks joined the stream as backup, ICON and his friends had long abandoned the topic of the debate in favor of personal insults. Among other things, they alleged that she'd moved to the U.S. as a sex worker and — ironically — that she was too ugly to be a prostitute in the first place.

Her life in the U.S. became a lightning rod for racist insults, with ICON saying that he would "call a black man to sexually assault [and kill] her" in America. Others attempted to slut shame her by claiming that she'd moved to the U.S. to have sex with black men — vitriolic, bigoted remarks that only escalated in intensity over time.

Shanks then repeatedly asked for the woman's address, coming to ICON's defense by claiming that the former midlaner was just interested in her. Per one fan's translation, his contributions were squarely in the territory of sexual harassment: "He wants to make peace with you and date you," Shanks said, "So where do you live? Where do you come from?".

Riot and AL respond

In China, the controversy divided LPL fans — and the wider Chinese community — between supporters who claimed the comments were just jokes and critics who thought it had gone too far. Former IG jungler Gao "Ning" Zhenning was among those who came to the players' support.

AL, for their part, fined Shanks three months of his salary bonus — a small slap on the wrist in context of previous fines levied against LPL players for less-severe transgressions, as Kelsey Moser pointed out online. Since these actions had been conducted so publicly — on the players' primary livestreaming accounts, with no doubts about their identity or intentions — and the severity of the harassment, many fans expected harsher punishments for Shanks and LP, the two active players involved.

Riot Games, when reached for comment by Arsh Goyal, gave the following statement: "We are aware of the situation involving Shanks and his recent behavior. We are currently working with the LPL to monitor the situation and will support any further action if necessary. At this time, we have no additional information to share." — Lolesports Representative