Chongqing Wolves Hit Rock Bottom as KPL Dynasty Crumbles
For years, Chongqing Wolves were the closest thing Chinese mobile esports had to a sure thing. In the King Pro League (KPL), the country’s top Honor of Kings circuit, the club reached the annual grand finals two seasons running and lost both times by the same 2:4 scoreline to AG Super Play. This week the run ended earlier and more quietly: Wolves fell 2:4 to TTG in the knockout bracket and finished in the top six, missing the annual finals for the first time.
The numbers are stark. The year-end final in Chengdu carries a champion’s purse of 20 million yuan, and Wolves will not be there to chase it. The club’s own Weibo account posted a single word after the loss — ‘chaos’ — a rare public admission from an organization built on disciplined, system-first play.
The roster tells the rest of the story. Support player Fanfan left. Star laner Fly departed, returned on loan, and never quite looked like the player who once defined the team’s identity. Xiangyu moved to TTG — the very opponent that ended Wolves’ season. In a league where roster continuity is the foundation of every dynasty, Wolves have been rebuilding while still trying to win now.
The broader KPL picture is shifting too. TTG, a club that spent years stuck in the middle of the table, beat Wolves in the summer final and then eliminated them again in the year-end bracket. JDG, a relative newcomer that renamed its way into the league only a few seasons ago, pushed TTG into the lower bracket and then swept Wolves without dropping a game. The old hierarchy is being rewritten from both directions.
For fans, the pain is not the losing. It is the absence of a plan. Losing a final is a wound; losing twice to the same rival by the same margin is a pattern. Watching the club’s own account describe the state of things as ‘chaos’ reads less like a rallying cry and more like an honest diagnosis. Supporters who have followed Wolves through years of near-misses say the annual step-short has become the most exhausting kind of loyalty.
The club has said it will work to find its form again. But the year-end tournament is already over, and the next season’s roster decisions will be made in the shadow of this result. In a scene as young and fast-moving as the KPL, a dynasty is only as durable as its next rebuild. Wolves now face the hardest question in esports: whether to keep chasing the title with the same core, or to accept that the window has closed and start over.
For global readers, the KPL is a useful window into how Chinese esports fandom works. It is a mobile-first league built around Honor of Kings, a game with hundreds of millions of players, and its clubs carry the same emotional weight as football teams. When a giant like Wolves stumbles, the conversation is not just about a bracket — it is about identity, loyalty and what a club owes the people who kept believing.