The LoL pro Steven “Hans Sama” Liv is being sued by a French agency that represented him in contracts in 2021. The agency allegedly negotiated a contract with an American team, but Hans Sama then switched to another one. This is said to represent a breach of contract.
What’s going on? Hans Sama is a French LoL player who played for Misfits from 2016 to 2019 and then for Team Rogue on the bot lane from late 2019 to late 2021. However, at the end of 2021, he sought to move to America.
- During contract negotiations, the player was represented by the French agency Athletes Representation & Consulting (ARC). His contract there lasted until the end of 2021 and would have automatically extended for 2022 if neither party had terminated it.
- ARC negotiated a contract with the American team Cloud9 on behalf of their player at the end of 2021. The European team Rogue also met with Cloud9 to discuss the transfer fee.
- But Hans Sama unexpectedly switched to Team Liquid and even had a different agency negotiate this contract.
- ARC sees this as a breach of contract and is now suing, as The Jacob Wolf Report reports. While they did not provide any details, they confirmed the lawsuit. Hans Sama and the new agency have not commented.
It is common for agencies to negotiate contracts for well-known athletes. This practice has also arrived in esports, just like transfer fees. For the player Perkz, a sum of around 4.3 million euros was paid in 2020 – the current official record in LoL.
ARC received no commission, Rogue even accepted a lower transfer fee
What else is in the report? Hans Sama reportedly already trained with Cloud9 during the off-season at the end of 2021. Everything seemed to indicate that the bot laner would switch there – especially after the discussions between the two teams and the agreement on a transfer fee.
The agency of Hans Sama would have contractually received a 5% commission for the transfer.
But the final contract with Team Liquid was not negotiated by ARC, but by another agency named Proxy – even though Hans Sama was still contractually bound. Furthermore, ARC reportedly did not receive a commission for the transfer.
The LoL pro is said to have expressed an urgent desire to switch to Team Liquid, which led Rogue to accept an even lower transfer fee.
Hans Sama returns to Europe, Team Liquid only relies on Koreans
How did the year in America go? Not so well. Team Liquid was actually regarded as something like a superteam. With Bwipo, Bjergsen, and Hans Sama, they brought in three strong pros who had already been successful in Europe. The purchase of these three reportedly cost up to 7 million dollars.
However, Team Liquid only achieved 3rd place in the regular summer split and also missed the qualification for the Worlds in the summer playoffs. They lost first to 100 Thieves and later to Evil Geniuses, both with 3:2. The team fell apart.
According to the latest reports, Hans Sama is now set to return to Europe. A switch to G2 Esports is on the table (via Twitter).
Team Liquid is also completely restructuring. All European stars are gone, and they are fully relying on Korean players, including Summit (FunPlus Phoenix) and Pyosik from DRX, who won the Worlds with the team in 2022.
