By: Donald Slater
In the Spring of 2020, one of the most prolific esports franchises, TSM (formerly known as Team Solo-Mid), came under scrutiny for the way the team handled one of its players in the offseason between the spring and summer seasons. As the season concluded, the team was in the midst of making roster moves to improve their chances of success in the summer season. Affected by these changes was a player with 5 league championships under his belt joining the team—Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng. Peng is regarded as the best player at his position in North American history and his girlfriend, Aileena “Leena” Xu is currently TSM’s president. Doublelift previously had a stint with TSM which culminated in two championships before he departed for Team Liquid.
Doublelift’s arrival to TSM had been criticized on social media and Reddit by fans and various League of Legends (“LoL”) personalities as being a conflict of interest. Many felt that Doublelift suddenly underperforming to the point of him being benched and asking to be traded to TSM was far too suspicious to just be a coincidence. Upon fan backlash and outrage, Riot Games conducted an investigation into the matter which ultimately concluded that the transaction was indeed legitimate by their standards. Neither this nor pleas from both teams, including from Doublelift and Leena did much to soothe the optics of how everything looked.
Shortly after his arrival to TSM, Doublelift began livestreaming himself playing LoL to generate fan hype for his return to the team. During one of these streams, Leena was on the phone having a conversation about official team matters in the same room. Viewers of this stream were able to clearly discern Leena speaking about one of the team’s members, Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett, and her inability to move him from the team as, “no one wants to pick up Dardoch.” Once again, the criticism about the Doublelift trade began to flare up again as even though they are dating, Doublelift was given access to what many felt was “privileged” information about players, from Leena, which should remain private amongst management.
Furthermore, Leena had accidentally announced to the world that the team was not only looking to trade a player but that they were unsuccessful in doing so. Professional and former professional LoL players began to weigh in on the situation on Twitter, many fearing what the future of the esports culture would look like if there was no action taken to protect a player who’s bargaining power had been decimated. One former pro who was one of LoL’s biggest streaming personalities felt this would be an important point in history for the league’s player association to come to the aid of Dardoch. It should be noted, however, that 3 of the 5 executive representatives of the player’s association are TSM players and 1 of them is Doublelift himself.
Ultimately this public disaster for TSM fizzled out but many still feel that this was a dangerous time in history for esports and League of Legends in particular. Aside from a public apology issued by the owner of TSM and Leena herself, not much was done to rectify the situation. Esports is still in its infancy despite it recently becoming a billion-dollar industry. Its infrastructure mimics that of traditional sports in the idea of having a team owner, GM, coaches/analysts, and players with substitutes. Where the industry has been known to fall behind is the nuance in handling the subtle issues such as player contracts and scandals arising from conduct that could be viewed as detrimental to the team.
In this case, despite everything wrong with what happened, the issue that remains is the perceived conflict of interest issue with the Doublelift transaction. A “conflict of interest” exists when a person has a duty to more than one person or organization, and the existence of such causes an adverse outcome to the interest of another. Prior to Doublelift’s return to TSM, he was trying to help Team Liquid get another championship; at this same time, Leena had an interest in leading TSM to another title. Although these competing business interests existed, the individuals have personal interests that align due to their personal relationships.
Looking at all the information that has been made publicly available, it would be very hard to prove that a conflict of interest did exist. Leena’s attempt to grab one of the best players in the region furthers her interest in TSM. Prior to the acquisition of Doublelift, the team had been public in their struggles with the “bot lane” (the role Doublelift plays) they had. Likewise, where Doublelift’s relationship with his teammates on Team Liquid was falling apart, along with his motivation to play, there is no evidence showing that this was a result of an effort to join TSM. Also, if the owner of Team Liquid felt that Doublelift’s trade request was made in bad faith, he could have always denied the request or chosen a different trade partner and destination for Doublelift. Finally, the intent is naturally hard to prove so there would need to be texts, messages, lettera, etc., that would indicate either Doublelift’s or Leena’s intent to harm their respective interests.
Ultimately, this chain of events may have been no more than an unlucky coincidence for all the parties involved. This incident highlights the glaring issue of how unprepared the esports industry is to handle these types of occurrences. Having a player’s association was an excellent idea when it was formed but means nothing as they took no part in the Dardoch situation. Similarly, it is still unknown how this may have impacted Dardoch’s negotiations with the team he joined in the summer and whether that played a role in his compensation or negotiating power as Leena’s comments led the community to believe he was a low-value player. Only time will tell and experience is the best teacher so perhaps the next time a nuanced player issue like this arises, proper mechanisms are in place to protect the injured parties. To this day, the player’s association has remained silent which makes its formation seem as if it was a mere formality. If esports are to take the next step as an industry, issues like this must be confronted head-on with the proper resources available to any potentially injured party. The player’s association at the very least should have opened their own investigation to report to Riot Games and the league. Similarly, Dardoch’s agent or representative should have been an outspoken advocate for him. The facts behind this incident are certainly unique and may never be replicated again, however, player rights and protections are fundamental to any traditional sports league and it can be no different for an industry that sees itself as the future of sports.
Student Bio: My name is Donald Slater Jr., I go by “Slater” and along with being a law student I am a former esports competitor. Though I never made it to the biggest stages with the bright lights, my passion for the sport has only grown stronger and has sparked an interest in the laws revolving around it. My personal experiences in my years as a player fuel my desire to explore this field more as it grows. There were many issues I remember seeing that likely would have been different had proper player protections and regulations been in place and now I use my legal education to explore how to make esports, the sport.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are the views of the author alone and do not represent the views of JHTL or Suffolk University Law School.
