Since the beginning of this year, TSM, one of the most
successful esports teams in North America, has been involved in several
scandals that have drastically affected how its fans and the rest of the gaming
world see it. In previous years we have learned about part of this team's dark
side, such as some of its members struggling with depression and others being
stalked.
However, in this blog, we're going to be talking about some
serious accusations that have been made against some of the coaches of this
team. Keep reading to find out why everyone is talking about this.
Peter Zhang's Unethical
Practices
On March 18th, TSM announced that Zhang "Peter" Yi
wouldn't be participating as the team's coach anymore due to a conflict of interest
and alleged unethical practices. Soon after this announcement, it was revealed
that the real reason Zhang left the team was due to "financial
irregularities."
Moreover, Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng was the one to
speak up about Zhang's unethical practices, as he tried to scam several players
of the team by asking them for huge sums of money among the several thousands
of dollars. It is claimed that Zhang would tell these players that he needed
the money to pay for his grandmother's cancer treatment and that he would pay
them back as soon as he could.
However, he would also lie about the price of the treatment, and
when the players would talk about this, they would discover Zhang's story was
incomplete. Therefore, they would assume he was lying about the whole
situation. Luckily, most team members managed to cancel their wire transfer
before it was too late.
TSM's Toxic Culture
Zhang's scams aren't the only scandal in which TSM has been
involved lately, and this one directly affects its CEO and founder, Andy
"Reginald" Dinn. In January 2022, TSM and
Riot started an investigation against him due to alleged verbal abuse
towards his players and employees.
Wired released the original news article, and its investigators
spoke to several TSM employees who claimed to witness how Dinh abused and
humiliated his employees to the point of making them cry over minimal issues.
These anonymous workers claimed that working at TSM required them to be under a
constant threat of getting fired over any small detail.
However, this wasn't the first time that someone had made such
allegations against Dinh, as Doublelift had spoken about this terrible behavior
in the past.
This ongoing investigation started in 2021, but Dinh has also
talked about this pretty recently. He claims that his abusive behavior is
justified due to his high expectations and zero tolerance for underperformance.
He expects nothing but excellence from himself and those on his team.
Nonetheless, he admits that his feedbacks tend to be blunt and direct and that
he could sometimes word these phrases differently.
Bottom Line
Competitive gaming isn't the paradise we sometimes think it is.
Players go through all kinds of experiences to be part of this world, and
sadly, this may be only the tip of the iceberg regarding the dark side of our
beloved teams.
Still, if you want to know more about the latest gaming news,
don't hesitate to check out the rest of our blog.
