Riot Games has banned the former manager and the former coach of the LoL team Griffin indefinitely. The Koreans were a team that managed to qualify for the League of Legends World Championship 2019. But apparently, there were huge internal difficulties. Coach cvMax is said to have even abused players.
This is the penalty from Riot Games: Riot announced yesterday the verdict against the Korean team Griffin and its former employees:
- The former coach of Griffin and current coach of DragonX, Kim “cvMax” Dae-Ho, will be banned “indefinitely” from all eSports events organized by Riot
- The former director of Griffin, Cho Guy-nam, is also banned for life from all eSports events run by Riot Games
- The team Griffin receives a fine of 100 million KRW, which is about $85,000
The manager is accused of: He is said to have negotiated directly with a minor player without obtaining the consent of the parents. He is also said to have contributed to writing a clause in a player’s contract that severely restricted his rights, without informing the relevant committee.
The coach is accused of: The coach is said to have approached his former players with “physical and verbal” measures.
There was violence against some players.
As the players themselves report, especially top laner Sword (featured image) suffered under the coach.
Players talk about insults and attacks
This is what the players say: In an interview with Inven, three professionals and a coach from Team Griffin talk about the incidents:
- Cho “Sword” Sung-won – the top laner
- Lee “Tarzan” Seung-yong – the jungler
- Shin “Rather” Hyeong-seop – the substitute mid-laner
- and another coach Byun “Chaos” Young-sub
Apparently, top laner Sword took the most hit: The coach grabbed him by the collar and shook him aggressively. After that, he told him he “deserved it.” The coach told Sword that he would “follow him to the ends of the earth for revenge” or kill him if the team lost because of Sword.
The coach told Sword:
“You can’t make a person with only one arm clap. You have only one arm, I can’t treat a disabled person like others.”
Coach Chaos says cvMax frequently referred to players as “motherless,” which is apparently one of the worst insults in South Korea.
Rather says another player told him that cvMax pinched him so hard that he got a scratch and had to cry.
This is the background: This is a complicated situation. It was known for a long time that Team Griffin had major problems. They dominated the year in Korea but then lost in the playoffs against SKT1. There were already significant conflicts at that time.
The problems escalated before the LoL Worlds 2019 and became public. But so far, statements from cvMax have mainly been the focus.
Beforehand, it looked like there was a power struggle between coach and manager:
- Coach cvMax said that the manager blamed him for Team Griffin’s loss to SKT1 in the championship games in Korea. This ultimately drove him out of the team.
- The coach cvMax left shortly before the Worlds – trust was broken, he said
- the head of the team later apologized to the coach while the world championship was ongoing – and dismissed the manager.
- During the tournament, Team Griffin was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the LoL Worlds 2019 against Invictus Gaming, and especially top laner Sword had an unfortunate showing.
- The former coach cvMax later said that Sword didn’t play for him. It seemed that Sword had complained to the manager and thus drove cvMax out of the team.
The current information sheds new light on the situation:
- So far, cvMax was actually seen as “the good guy” in the eyes of the community, and Sword was the perpetrator who bullied him out to play himself
- now the situation looks completely different
There have been previous incidents in Asia where LoL players were literally held hostage by their teams.
Update 28.11.: Riot Games has postponed the penalty against LoL coach cvMax for the time being.
