Contenders China team makes big allegations against Blizzard, Defiant

Olivia Richman Published 27/03/2019

A Chinese Contenders team is making headlines for some hefty accusations against Blizzard, the Overwatch League, and Toronto Defiant.

In a Weibo post, Overwatch team Lucky Future first leveled allegations against Robin Shi, the head administrator for the Chinese Contenders series. The team stated that between March 6 and 11, Shi took no action against the head coach of LGD Gaming after some shady dealings had been brought to his attention. This included the head coach for LGD Gaming “breaking standard procedure” by privately contacting Lucky Future’s support main, Li “Garry” Guan, to tell him there was an Overwatch League slot open for him.

“This happened prior to the start of Contenders, so Garry’s practice schedule was hampered by this debacle,” said Lucky Future.

Lucky Future later added that the team had found evidence that LGD Gaming’s own explanation for the events was false.

Lucky Future called out LGD publicly, but Shi and Chinese OWL senior manager Johnson Jiang said that Lucky Future was only trying to smear LGD’s reputation. Garry is currently playing on the OWL team Chengdu Hunters.

But Lucky Future went on to say that Shi “unfairly favors” certain Contenders teams while harassing others, including Lucky Future.

One example of this was when Lucky Future found out that its off-tank Yi “XiaHai” Zhou was boosting and account sharing. The team immediately terminated his contract and notified Shi of the allegations, only to see the terminated player be approved to join a competing squad.

“He said the investigations would have to wait as there was another issue to be settled. Meanwhile, XiaHai appeared on Hero Taciturn Panther’s roster,” the allegations continued.

Lucky Future had more to say about Jiang as well. When the team expressed concerns over Garry’s possible OWL transfer and the impact it would have on his Contenders practice, Jiang allegedly said, “The boss of Lucky Future cares about too much. Get him to fuck off.”

Lucky Future then accused Jiang of continuing these sorts of aggressive statements, reportedly saying, “These are the rules set by the American OWL office. There is no room for negotiation. If you don’t agree with them you’ll just have to leave.”

Jiang was also accused of preventing Lucky Future management from buying an Overwatch League slot going into Season 2. Jiang allegedly didn’t inform Lucky Future’s ownership of a closed meeting on the topic until just one day before. Jiang is also said to have spoken ill of the team, telling potential investors that Lucky Future was unprofessional. This is said to have contributed to some sponsorship talks falling through.

Meanwhile, Lucky Future believe Jiang secretly helped other organizations get an Overwatch League spot instead, while also spreading rumors that Lucky Future players were already being signed elsewhere.

These rumors led to the Toronto Defiant supposedly lying to their own support player Jun-seo “Lucid” Yoo. The OWL expansion team reportedly told Lucid he was signed, but the team never signed the contract. Since there were rumors that Lucid was already signed, other teams stopped pursuing him and he ended up retiring from Overwatch.

There has yet to be a response from either Blizzard or Toronto Defiant.

Olivia Richman

About Olivia Richman

Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.

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