In a Weibo post Wednesday, EDward Gaming informed fans that top laner Chen "Mouse" Yuhao would be leaving the 2016 World Championship to return home to China because of a family emergency.

An English translation of the post reads:

Important announcement: Hello everyone, we are very sorry to inform you of our regrets. Because of major accidents in the home, EDward Gaming's League of Legends division top laner Mouse has had to leave Worlds and immediately return to his hometown. We are very sorry about this, and the club staff will do all we can along with Mouse to limit the difficulties. In the remaining World Championship matches, EDG will carry Mouse's dream and everyone's expectations with us to go all out. I hope you can cheer for us, thank you!

A follow-up statement from Riot Games confirmed that Mouse would be leaving, and said that he would be replaced on EDG's lineup by Tong "Koro1" Yang in their Saturday quarterfinal match against the ROX Tigers. According to the statement, EDG provided Riot with official documentation showing that one of Mouse's family members had died.

At last year's World Championship, after a difficult group stage, EDG substituted Koro1 into the main lineup instead of Shek "AmazingJ" Wai Ho. This year, Heo "PawN" Wonseok is EDward Gaming's main substitute, but as a mid laner and Korean player, he cannot serve as a top lane sub on the current roster. According to tournament rules, EDG are able to play with a second substitute under emergency circumstances.

Kelsey Moser is a staff writer for theScore esports. You can follow her on Twitter.