German eSports team Meet Your Makers (MYM) has âreleasedâ its manager Sebastian âFalliâ Rotterdam following the revelation that he had threatened League of Legends player Marcin âKoriâ Wolski to intimidate him against quitting the team.
MYM announced that Rotterdam has been âimmediately releasedâ from the team as part of a lengthy message posted on its Facebook page addressing the recent scandal. Read the full statement below, emphasis mine:
First off, weâd like to thank Richard Lewis and the Daily Dot for exposing a weakness in our management structure. Sometimes, we trust in the wrong people and weâre guilty of doing that more that weâd like.
Please know that the actions of the few involved do not represent the passionate hard-working team we have at MeetYourMakers. Upon hearing the news, weâve spent time collecting the facts to investigate internally.
We wanted to share this, our immediate actions and follow up, with the entire community. This is to everyone thatâs experienced the same emotional rollercoaster we have the last few days.
THE FACTSÂ :
1. Sebastian âFalliâ Rotterdam, MYMâs General Manager did have a threatening conversation with Marcin âKoriâ Wolski upon discovering Koriâs desire to leave the team house prior to the start of the LCS
2. Also present in the room was MYMâs e-sports manager, Damir âNestlieKâ Dedic
3. No other people were physically in the room when the recorded conversation occurred
4. This incident was not reported to the CEO, Khaled Naim.
IMMEDIATE ACTIONSÂ :
1. Seabstian Falli Rotterdam. Falli has been immediately released from MYM.
2. Kori. Weâre part of an open dialogue with Kori, ourselves and RIOT. Weâll always try to do whatâs best for our players. Once a decision that Kori is happy with has been decided, we will let everyone know (or Daily Dot will!)
3. RIOT. RIOT are now deliberating over the unfolded events and will release their own formal statement soon
4. Damir. Weâve decided to retain Damir, our esports Manager. We want to see punishment served for the offenders not harm the victims. Upon discussions with the players, it became clear that Damir is not being blamed for what transpired. Like Kori, he felt threatened and pressured by a higher-up in the company who had later told him his job was at risk if Kori left the team.
FOLLOW UPÂ :
1. We will host 1 on 1 sessions with our players and a neutral third party. The objective will be to understand any areas of improvement and identify any issues like this proactively.
2. Weâve always trusted our managers to do whatâs best for the players and exercise discretion in their decision making. In this instance, our trust has been abused. Going forward, we will host regular bi-monthly chats with all players + management to keep updated on any ongoing concerns. Management will also need to ask for approval from the CEO for any decisions involving player changes so that ultimate responsibility lies with CEO Khaled.
3. We will wait for an official RIOT statement and accept that we will need to ensure going forward something of this magnitude never happens again
4. 4. Our staff are part of the community we all call home. We rely on our conversations with all of you. Journalists, redditors, players, managers. Please if you ever hear of something as fundamentally shocking as what has happened, drop us just a one line.
We didnât want this to sound like a rehearsed PR statement.
As the CEO of MYM, I can only say that I truly apologize for my own choice of words in my communication. I would also like to extend a sincere apology to Richard Lewis and his team at Daily Dot- in the future we want to be part of the solution not cause issues for those doing great work for the community.
We owe a massive debt of gratitude to everyone who spend even a moment watching MYM including our hard working staff. To confirm, we are already working with Kori to figure out what he wants to do next.
Kori will soon make his own announcement which we feel shouldnât come from us, as this has affected him so personally. Weâll support any statement he makes and stand-by him no matter what. Heâs a big part of MYM and heâll be treated as such.
TL:DRÂ :
â General Manager Sebastian Falliâ Rotterdam fired
â Esports Manager Damir stays on- players agreed
â Kori to decide what his next steps are
â CEO Khaled to have 1-to-1âs with players + staff alongside a netural third party to identify any existing issues
â MYM wants to thank the community for their ongoing support and concern
â MYM wants to thank Richard Lewis and the Daily Dot for making us aware of these issues. We want to acknowledge Richardâs and esport journalistâs role as essential for teams like us
Thank you all,
Khaled Naim & the entire MYM
News surfaced over the weekend that Rotterdam had threatened Kori aggressively upon learning that the player wanted to step down from his position at MYM, going as far as to tell Wolski he would make sure the teenage gamerâs mother would lose her house.
Riot has yet to comment publicly on the story. MYMâs statement is the first indication that the company is planning to weigh in on the issue.
To contact the author of this post, write to [email protected] or find him on Twitter at @YannickLeJacq
