So this bit surprised me. First off, I apologize for my absence. Had to deal with some other things off-site. I was going to take a small break to catch up with my own life, but this piece really got my attention earlier today. For those of you wondering, this guy is Cheon Min-Ki, a pro-level League of Legends player hailing from South Korea. From what I have heard, this young man is good enough to be considered the top 0.5% in the world. As of this morning, he attempted suicide by jumping off a twelve story building. Why? It turns out, the team he represented, AHQ Korea, was a sham team that made profits off of losing (fixing games) and then making profits off of the underdog winnings. Min-Ki was not directly responsible for the incident, however. This guy's teammates and himself were basically strung along for the ride, leaving his manager, Noh Dae Chul, responsible for the crimes. I'll discuss more about this after the break, but this case definitely is interesting as it shows how some aspects of gaming are not as clean-cut as we would like to imagine.
[prebreak]Continue reading[/prebreak]
From what I have seen right now, Min-Ki is in critical condition, with severe head and back injuries. He left a rather in-depth suicide note detailing the problems he was facing with his manager. This was translated from a Reddit thread, after being posted from a Korean Legends community. It's a really fascinating read, though very unfortunate, and I sincerely hope this guy recovers because he has guts for doing this.
Hello everyone, I am former LoL pro Pimir. I was on ahq Korea, also known as ahq K Promise. I also used names such as patience/AD Pimir etc. My death note is on my face book and i will be gone 5 minutes after i post this so proof that its really pimir will be on my kakaotalk and facebook. I am writing on inven today to tell you about game fixing well since im gonna be gone soon. Conclusion first. Me and Actscene (another ahq korea player) were only ones who were actually involved in the game fixings and other teammates kenw about it after the games. Purpose of Game Fixing: Manager Noh's Toto -toto is korean illegal betting on sports games including LoL Timeframe: 2013 Lol Champs Spring Manager Noh told the teammates taht if we don't lose to big teams (KT, CJ etc), Ongamenet threatened the team that they would not be able to play in the playoffs. Obviously its a lie but we knew about it afterwrds. Manager Noh told all of us, and Hoon said he won't be a part of it. Manager Noh called me and Actscene later that night, and we believed him so we would put game fixing to action. Game Fixing vs KTB game 1 and 2 vs CJF game 1 and 2 if you look at all four games you will see that we gave first blood in all of teh games. game against KT, we were losing then we came back. We knew we could win the game, but in my mind we had to lose. The calls over voice and Manager Noh's voices kept on coming into my mind and I was confused the fuck out of myself. I thought this is fucking mad and they won. Game 2 vs KT, was not fixed we couldnt win at all.
When we were playing CJ, manager Noh threatened that if you win a game here, AHQ will be DQd from LoLChamps. In game vs KT, as a professional player, obvsly I wanted to win and did so. However, in game vs CJ, the threat made me realize that all my effort in becoming a pro will be useless if I win this game. I purposely didnt deal damage in team fights, flashed and ezreal E'd forward to be killed etc. We beat CJ in the morning of the game day in a scrim as well, with the exact same team comp they used in the OGN game. Hoon and I carreid the scrim. after the game, I told Hoon about the whole thing and Hoon was already having conflicts with the Manager. He said there's something off about him and because he's had long career as a professional gamer already, I guess he had senses to realize werid things the manager was doing. Why Manager Noh told us to Fix Games When we first made the team, AHQ didnt actually sponsor us in cash. THey just gave us gaming gear and the team name. Manager Noh borrowed money for our living costs, housing, computer, our pay etc. Players didnt know about this and learned about it later. He was going to play illegal sports gambling by fixing games to pay back all the borrowed money + make profits. I will mention my skype convo with actual AHQ person later for proof.
Detailing the Extent of Corruption
When we told teammates that game fixing happend and how Noh reacted. Because every teammate knew, we talked to manager noh after our game against SKT. He told us that we should lose vs Najin 2:0 later that week, make shitton of money and GTFO from pro scene. We told him that we arent interested in Toto gambling and we wont do it. Even at this point we didnt know that AHQ didnt sponsor us and when we came back to the living quarters after the Najin game, 3 computers were sold and he was clearing the house. He said he couldnt pay the rent and the apt said we should leave. That we would lose gas, electricity and water (even though it was Manager Noh who tried to cut them off on his own unsuccessfully). We had Lg game coming up so we said we will stay at the living quarters until the LG game. We asked why he sold our practice omputters and Noh said AHQ is demanding money from the team. WHen i talked to actual management from AHQ in Taiwan later, none of this ever happened and they never gave them computers either. Also they never gave any of the gaming gear to manager Noh but the players themselves. I asked if we cuold keep rest of the gear for practice and he said for sure. Noh was selling our practice computers so he could pay off the deb and run. So after our next game againt Najin, we told him we are going to leave the team. We are going to get paid for the months that he hasnt paid us. Noh told us taht I cant give you the money right now and that he will instead not take the 50% commission of the prize money if AHQ were to win. Entire team already knew from talking to management in Taiwan that Noh was lying, that AHQ never sponsored cash, and the computers hes selling are not AHQs so why is he trying to pay back money to AHQ?
Noh lied that AHQ had rights to prize moneys and that he has to pay them although we already kenw he was lying out of his ass. We gave him evidence that we knew he was lying but he woul just argue its not true. After 2~3 hours of arguing we agreed that Noh would pay back the pay we've missed over the months and tha the wouldnt touch the prize money from OGN. We couldnt practice for a week because of this and played vsLg IM game, and Najin eventaually won. We couldve done better and I knew I couldve done better but thanks to this my pro life was over and all i had left was feeling of emptiness after practicign to my best for a year.
3 line conclusion Im not in this world after 5 minutes AHQ korea was a team made by Noh to make money off illegal gambling, teammates didnt know and we had to fix games because of this. AHQ Taiwan never sponsored korean team and was a lie. I am sorry for all of this and I cant tell you everything but I am leaving now as I cant deal with this anymore.
This poor guy had a disadvantaged background, and his manager was basically using his talents to become rich, holding their pride as skilled game players over their heads. It turns out that their equipment, their housing, their salaries, were all loans that the manager took out. They were never sponsored officially by AHQ, only their equipment which gave them the naming rights to the team. Riot did issue a
statement declaring that it would spare no expenses in the recovery of this fellow, and a police investigation regarding the game fixing is currently underway.
With that in mind, it seems a bit harsh, how gaming defined his life and because of the mountain of problems he was undergoing, it led him to jump off the roof of a building. Which leads me conveniently into my issues: corruption in eSports, and the fear of speaking out.
When thinking about the corruption issue, it's sad when you see people who are so disadvantaged financially, being taken advantage of; having their talents utilized for someone else's greed, playing the game that they love. This corruption issue is supposedly rampant in these types of games, with people making illegal bets on these games, something punishable by jail time. It's weird, because if the issue is so rampant as people say, why are these guys not being better educated on the issue? What right do people have in justifying this? How could you justify ruining the lives of people for greed? Some people sardonically criticize eSports, thinking that there's no real skill involved with these types of games, and yet these tournaments have huge payouts that could set a player up for life financially after a few big wins.
Speaking out is also a bit of a problem in these gaming groups. There are some articles that describe players being tortured (yes, tortured, with pain) over poor gaming results. This
Reddit thread details some of those incidents as well, about players being caned, being beaten for performing badly. Min-Ki definitely set off some waves with this incident. To you, though, would it be worth speaking out, risking your life, to detail this sort of corruption and fear that exists in such a society? Is it worth dealing with the backlash, or is it better to keep the head down and simply continue forward?
Personally, I'd like to wish this guy a safe recovery, and hope that this manager ends up in prison. At the end of the day, though, there are some who claim that this is typical eSports, which has some concerns as, when you look at it, people are dying or getting injured over a
game! Where do you guys stand in terms of this? Have you heard of this incident yet? I'm definitely fascinated with the idea of corruption that occurs in the video gaming industry, but this just seems out of the ordinary as someone almost died for it. Chime off in the comments below.
Source - Eurogamer
