“As a professional Overwatch player, you have it good because you can play all day.” Under these conditions, you probably lose interest.
The players from the Korean Overwatch team “Mighty Storm” claim that they were mistreated by the coaching staff. They say they had to train up to 16 hours a day and had a poor training environment. For example, there was only one bedroom that 10 people had to share. Because the food often wasn’t enough for all the players, they had to buy food with their own money. Additionally, they were yelled at and demotivated.
The training went from noon until 05:00 AM
In an interview with a eSports website the members of the Mighty Storm team explained the conditions under which they had to work and live. The training times were long. It started at noon and sometimes ended at 04:00 AM or 05:00 AM.
Throughout the day, there were only one or two meals. These meals consisted of 2-3 quail eggs, kimchi, and a type of sweet-salty soybean paste. Delicious. Because the food was often not sufficient for everyone, the players had to get food at their own expense.
If you didn’t want to share the bedroom with 10 people, you could sleep in the living room. However, there was no alternative to the bathroom. There was exactly one bathroom that 16 people had to share.
The payment, according to the players, also did not go as planned. It was supposedly agreed upon a payment of 70/30 (team/organization). In past tournaments, this agreement was allegedly not upheld.
Coaches demotivated players before matches
During a tournament in November, they were defeated by Lunatic-Hai, one of the strongest Overwatch teams. Before they faced this team, the coaches allegedly told the Mighty Storm players: “You are probably going to lose 3:0 today.” They also allegedly did not provide the team any tactical help or strategies for this match. When the team subsequently got eliminated from the tournament, there was no more food for that day. The coaches said, “they didn’t deserve any food.”
After a loss in October, the players were allegedly yelled at by the coaches. They were instructed to leave the vehicle that was supposed to bring them to the team house. After walking 40 minutes to the team house, the coaches said, “You are not even worth getting training.”
You might wonder why the players didn’t just leave the team. There is also a story about that: When the player Gang “SIP” Jun Hyeong expressed his desire to leave the team, management responded that it would be a breach of contract. They would report it to KeSPA (Korean eSports Association), and he would never be able to play professional Overwatch again. Such a threat makes a strong impression on young players.
The organization denies the allegations
According to the organization, the allegations against them are not true. For example, the team captain Jun Hyeong allegedly did not fulfill his contractual obligations. For this reason, there was no money from the organization after the OGN-APEX tournament.
According to management, it is also not true that there was too little food. Furthermore, certain statements were supposedly misquoted. Instead of saying that the team is bad, they told them “If you continue to train like this, you will lose 3:0.” Sounds a lot nicer, right?
KeSPA addresses the accusations and states that the team will receive legal support. Hopefully, there will be a happy ending to this story.
The new Overwatch League system is supposed to be the future of eSports. It should provide players not only with a fixed salary contract but also other positive aspects. How this system works and what you can expect from it is explained here.
