T1 fans accused of racism and homophobia – they did not allow an American to become a League of Legends coach

Chronology of the conflict around T1:

Nov. 1 T1 executives have announced that the League of Legends roster has left mentor Lim Comet Hye Sun and analyst Gary Tolki Milaret. Many fans hoped that Kim would take their place kkOma Jeong Kyun is a former T1 coach, with whom the club has won three world championships. He just announced his return to South Korea after two seasons in Vici Gaming…

the 3rd of November support T1 Lee Effort Sang Ho accidentally streamed a chat on Discord, from which it was clear that the team’s new mentors for LCK Spring 2023 will be former pro StarCraft II player Choi. Polt Sun Hoon and LCK’s American English-language caster Nick LS De Cesar. The fans of the team did not like these candidates very much: they began to actively criticize the club on social networks and demand explanations from the management.

November 8 T1 fans rented a truck with a big screen to display various messages to the club’s management. The car plyed outside the SK Telecom office and urged the organization to hire “more experienced and competent coaches”, “not to hide from the fans behind the players’ backs” and “to provide an official explanation for the drain incident.”

the 13th of November After a two-week silence, the T1 leadership introduced the new coaches of the League of Legends roster. Young Daeny Dae-in and Lee joined the club Zefa Jae Ming who previously worked with players DAMWON Gaming and helped them become champions 2020 World Championship in Shanghai. As for Polt, the rumor about him joining the club proved to be true, but instead of being a coach, he took over as general manager. Club representatives said nothing about LS.

November 16 T1 management gave the first official comment on the drain incident. Club representatives apologized to fans and suspended the official Discord channel to “develop new regulations and standards for social media communication for players and employees.” The organization also promised to punish those responsible for the incident, but did not specify who exactly. On the same day, kkOma announced that it would continue to work at DAMWON Gaming.

What’s wrong with LS?

Despite the fact that T1 found a good duet for the position of the team’s coaches, the complete disregard for the LS persona in the comments and official announcements only made the situation worse. If earlier the club only fought off criticism from Korean fans, now a wave of dissatisfaction with T1’s actions began to grow in the West. Esports journalist Richard Lewis first chided the club in an attempt to shift all responsibility for the drain from Discord onto unnamed moderators who are not to blame for anything, and then even declared the toxicity of T1 fans in relation to homosexuals.

Lewis recalled that De Cesar is openly gay, and this fact, in his opinion, prevented the American analyst from becoming a T1 coach. The journalist is sure that the fans of T1, whom he called one of the most toxic in the region, did not want to see a foreigner as the coach of the team, and even a representative of non-traditional sexual orientation. Lewis suggested that it was the fans who pressed T1 to get the club to refuse De Cesar’s services. As a result, the leadership of T1 gave way under public pressure, although they offered LS the job of an official streamer. In this drama, Riot Games also received its portion of criticism – the company was accused of ignoring the incident and of turning a blind eye to discrimination against LGBT people.

However, in the situation with LS, not everything is so simple, and T1 fans really have a reason to be negative towards the American analyst. In 2018 LS became a coach bbq Oliversand with him the promising Swedish player Sebastian Malice Edholm joined the team. Then this duo aroused great interest in the Korean community, because foreigners rarely come to play at LCK, especially from Europe. Malice performed well in Korean SoloQ, but quickly became famous for his bad behavior and manners. Several top players at once complained about the Swede and urged the league leaders to pay attention to him. At first, the managers of bbq Olivers promised to take tough measures, but Malice did not improve, and after another trick in the ladder he spoke sharply about him Untara Park Yu Jin, then playing for T1. During the controversy on social media, LS defended Malice and expressed the opinion that the Swede is criticized more often than others just because he is an “outsider”. In fact, De Cesar covertly called the Korean players racist, which the local fans really didn’t like.

What’s the bottom line?

It seems like the drama around LS and T1 is finally over now. Whether LS was really meant to be a streamer from the start, or whether the organization changed its mind under pressure from fans is unknown. Club leaders are unlikely to provide explanations and will most likely prefer to hush up the situation. Being the official streamer for LS looks like T1’s attempt to save face by offering the analyst a compromise. It seems that this calculation was justified, since De Cesar had already agreed to the proposed job. He recently recorded a video in which he thanked T1 for their support and trust, and apologized to Untara for last year’s incident.