Team Secret CEO profanely blasts 4AM over Sylar controversy

Oct 13, 2020

Reading time: 2 min

Team Secret and Four Angry Men most likely won’t play each other any time soon, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t already a rivalry forming between the two teams.

Secret CEO John Yao released a blistering social media post about the 4AM organization, according to AFK Gaming. In a move made to ensure controversy was whipped up, the Team Secret organization then translated the post and published it on top Chinese social media platform Weibo.

“I don’t understand why DOTA2 players join noob orgs that don’t know wtf they’re doing…Is joining a shit org like 4AM really worth what they are paying you, assuming that they even fulfill their contract obligations, which at this point every player on the team should be questioning?” Yao asked.

While one might chalk this up as the latest example of Team Secret drumming up controversy by smack-talking its present and future rivals, this does speak to some of the ill will that has taken hold with regards to 4AM.

Why are Secret and 4AM beefing? Find out here!

Team Secret isn’t alone in blasting 4AM Dota 2

Dota 2 super teams have seen mixed success over the years, with teams such as Newbee winning The International 2014 and others including 2020’s OG never really shining. There’s always excitement when it comes to seeing a long list of talent come together, and there’s plenty of reason to be excited for this 4AM lineup:

Zhang “Eurus” Chengjun
Lu “Somnus丶M” Yao
Zhou “Yang” Haiyang
Xu “fy” Linsen
Ru “RedPanda” Zhihao

While there’s cause for excitement over the team’s abilities on the server, the Four Angry Men organization hasn’t really endeared itself to fans in real life.

Within 24 hours of announcing its inaugural roster, 4AM announced that it was dropping its original carry player Liu “Sylar” Jiajun in favor of Eurus. While that marked a likely upgrade, it was mired by the fact that Sylar was added because 4AM was unable to secure Eurus’ services from Vici Gaming.

The players came together and agreed to pay for transfer fees from their own salaries in order to make this work for 4AM. This was seen by many as unprofessional on the part of 4AM, as well as extremely disrespectful to a highly regarded veteran in Sylar. This wasn’t helped when news broke that 4AM was also unable to come to an agreement to add Vici Gaming coach Bai “rOtK” Fan.

Ultimately, success is the only real answer for criticism in esports. If 4AM lives up to its potential and takes the Chinese Dota 2 scene by storm as many are expecting it to, memories of any early roster troubles and social media snark will be quickly forgotten.