Andy “Reginald” Dinh is a former pro and co-owner of the League of Legends team TSM. On Twitter, he commented on a debate regarding the import of players from other regions to America. He became offensive and received a fine from Riot Games.
What exactly happened? The player Vulcan is the current support for Cloud9, a pro team. He commented on Twitter regarding an import debate currently taking place in American LoL.
He ironically tweeted: “If you want a completely imported team, why not just buy a team in the region?”
Reginald, the head of TSM, replied with the following statement: “Ignorant tweet. If every LCS team left LCS – you would be unemployed, buddy, and probably only getting minimum wage.”
How did Riot respond? The game’s developers imposed a fine of $5,000 on Reginald – officially for “inappropriate behavior,” as reported by the website DotEsports.
According to this, Reginald has since apologized to Vulcan for his words and explained that sometimes his emotions got the better of him. Vulcan, in turn, accepted the apology.
In an interview with Travis Gafford, a content creator focused on LoL and esports, the player said:
I didn’t take it personally […]. In my opinion, there isn’t much to apologize for. I think, as a team owner, he should show more composure and not attack me the way he did, but it’s okay.
However, behind the attack lies an interesting debate currently being held in America. According to the import rule, only 2 players from abroad may be recruited to a team. However, many team leaders have spoken out against just that.
America relies on players from other regions instead of fostering local talent
What is the problem in America?
- In recent years, the e-sports in LoL has been dominated chiefly by teams from Korea, China, and occasionally Europe.
- The American LCS is considered the weakest region. In 2019 and 2020, none of the 3 teams even made it past the group stage of the World Championship.
- Recently, TSM, Reginald’s team, went 0-6 at Worlds.
The last notable success of an American team was achieved by Team Liquid at the Mid-Season Invitational 2019. They unexpectedly made it to the finals, but lost 0-3 to G2 Esports.
The success at MSI 2019 was primarily due to two players:
- Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in (then 24 years old) – a supporter bought from the Korean team Gen.G
- Jeong “Impact” Eon-young (then 23 years old) – a top laner who had already become world champion with the Korean team T1 around Faker in 2013
Instead of fostering local talent, the American team bought strong, older players from abroad. This is not an exception and often involves huge sums:
- By the end of 2020, the team Cloud9 bought the European player Perks from G2 Esports for 5 million dollars
- TSM also took action and signed the Korean support SwrdArt for as much as 6 million dollars.
- In 2019, the jungler Broxah moved from European Fnatic to Team Liquid. Back then, the G2 Esports coach criticized: “Anyone who moves from EU to the USA gives up winning”.
The problems surrounding the American LCS’s young talent are known worldwide. The Korean midlaner and world champion DoinB stated that in the USA, mainly older veterans and foreign players dominate.
What is the debate now? According to DotEsports, the management of the LCS teams has advocated for the abolition of the import rule during an annual meeting of the league.
They want to be able to recruit more than 2 players from other regions for their teams in the future.
Of course, players like Vulcan, who come from America and want to continue playing professionally in LoL, view this critically. This very discussion led to the Twitter conversation that ultimately resulted in the fine for Reginald.
Anyone looking to delve deeper into e-sports in LoL will find an interesting column here: While e-sports in Fortnite is dying, LoL remains strong – What sets them apart?
