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The 2022 TSM Scandals

9/24/2023

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.