Shortly before the start of the League of Legends Worlds 2019, the coach of the Korean team Griffin was fired. However, there are now new developments, an apology, and a fired manager. Oh, and Griffin is in the quarter-finals of the LoL Worlds.
What happened? The coach of Griffin, Kim “cvMax” Dae-ho, was fired from the team at the end of September. The reason given was the poor performance at the Summer Finals in Korea, where Griffin achieved only 2nd place.
Officially, the team has higher goals and wants to win the Spring and Summer Finals in the future. This was deemed impossible with coach cvMax, claimed team manager Cho Gyu-nam.
“Any other coach besides you should have won the championship at least once,” Cho Gyu-nam is said to have stated.
In the meantime, it has become clear that the manager used many unfair methods against the players of the team and the coach.
This led to a dismissal and even calls in Riot Korea and the government.
Manager allegedly pressured players into bad contracts
What did the manager do? In a statement, CEO Seo Kyung-jong of Still 8, the parent company of Griffin, announced that the team manager was fired. The statement also included an apology to former coach cvMax and Griffin fans:
- The CEO contradicted the portrayal that cvMax was responsible for the team’s failure at the Summer Finals.
- He also stated that manager Cho Gyu-nam was involved in various affairs regarding player contracts. He allegedly convinced former Griffin player Seo “Kanavi” Jin-hyeok to accept a contract with a competitor, even though Kanavi had previously rejected it.
The exact circumstances surrounding the former manager are now being clarified by Riot Korea (via dailyesports) and the Korean e-Sports Association (KeSPA).
According to Dexerto, even the Korean government is intervening and wants to establish new regulations to protect young esports players:
Many young players were not protected from a malicious, unfair contract that caused immense losses. I hope this new law can protect such young talents from injustices.
However, this statement is a translation of reddit user kanoth123.
Griffin despite problems in the next round
How is Griffin performing at the Worlds 2019? Currently, the new coach Byun “Chaos” Young-sub is leading the team in the Worlds. Griffin is doing well.
They finished the group stage in 1st place and even managed to defeat the European team G2 Esports. In the next round, they will face Invictus Gaming, the previous year’s champion.
Griffin was the surprise of 2018: Only in 2018 did the team Griffin, with the winner in the Challenger Series, make the jump to the LCK, the highest Korean league:
- At the start, they were already impressive and secured 2nd place behind KT Rolster in the Summer Season 2018.
- Griffin even won the Spring Split 2019 but then lost to SKT1 with superstar Faker in the playoffs.
- The same thing happened in the Summer Season 2019.
Former coach cvMax had a large part in Griffin’s successes. He led the team since July 2017.
