Drama erupts around CLG over controversial team meeting video

Jul 12, 2021

Reading time: 2 min

CLG offered fans a look behind the curtain with a now-deleted video showing general manager Daniel “Tafokints” Lee says discussing impending roster swaps in the 2021 LCS Summer Split.

The video was seemingly recorded shortly after CLG ended its most recent LCS week with a 1-2 record. Tafokints states directly that he is looking at making roster swaps and that this may be “the last time that we have this roster of five playing”. Only an hour after releasing the video, CLG took it down from Twitter.

In the recent week, CLG managed to take down TSM on the first day but followed it up with defeats to FlyQuest and Dignitas. This leaves CLG at the bottom of the standings alongside Golden Guardians with a 5-13 record this split. In an attempt to push towards the playoffs, CLG is now expected to make changes to its roster in the immediate future.

“It’s been a little over two months and we are not really progressing,” Tafokints said. “There’s really likely going to be changes this week. I’m exploring options, so this might be the last time that we have this roster of five playing.”

Tafokints followed up his message to the players by saying that a potential 3-0 result this week could have kept him from making any moves. With the win over TSM it started out great, but things unraveled with the two losses immediately after.

CLG removes video after community backlash

The initial response from the community after seeing this video wasn’t positive by any means. Airing a sensitive moment for the team prompted many fans and industry figures to speak up against CLG and some even recommended that the video should be taken down.

While many fans are in favor of transparency from teams in general, it was not well received that CLG went out and directly shared a meeting like this. With players’ jobs on the line every day in a league like the LCS, many are of the opinion that such a content piece was untasteful.

Only about an hour after release, CLG ended up taking down the tweet and released another one apologizing for the post. CLG’s intention was to share an authentic moment with fans, but acknowledged that showcasing management moving to demote some of its players wasn’t necessarily a great move.

How CLG will handle the upcoming week is still unknown, but it seems likely that there will be changes to the roster before the next game against Team Liquid.