Cover-Credits:
Shortly after the Washington Post’s article on Team SoloMid (TSM) was published, the League of Legends and esports communities were given a glimpse into the workplace culture of TSM through first-hand employee records on social media platforms. On the League of Legends subreddit, former TSM League of Legends head coach KC “Woodbuck” Woods revealed his experiences of working at TSM.
What did Woodbuck say?
TSM roped in Woodbuck, a basketball coach, in mid-November of 2015 and was let go in February 2016.
After the new article on TSM was published, he took to Reddit to share some of his first-hand experiences.
Commenting on a Reddit post, Woodbuck disclosed that he was paid an equivalent of $42K USD a year to be the head coach of the League of Legends team. He said, “I worked 16 hours a day and was made to feel guilty if I tried to take 5 minutes at any point during day/night to step away and call my GF, now wife.”
He stated that when he reportedly struggled to manage the personalities of a few players, Andy “Reginald” Dihn and Parth “Parth” Naidu (previous general manager of TSM) told him that he was not living up to the quality of a major league coach.
Woodbuck added, “Guys... you are paying me, someone with no esports experience, $42,000 a year and it is my first month. You kinda get what you pay for. I was also an independent contractor and was required to live in their gaming house.”
This statement made by Woodbuck also validated one of the points that were discussed in the Washington Post article about the categorization of workers as contractors, who had no benefits.
Another former employee of TSM named Cryssy initially tweeted out how the article barely scratched the surface of the situation at TSM. She has since made her account private on Twitter. However, before this, former TSM attack-damage carry (ADC) Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng read Cryssy’s tweet on his stream.
She reportedly wrote, “When I worked at TSM, I was called back from a family dinner - a dinner for celebrating my engagement to my then-fiance in his hometown - to handle a video being recalled due to a sponsor discrepancy. At 8pm at night. I missed my engagement dinner for a YouTube video.”
She also added that she was misclassified as a contractor but fulfilled the duties of a full-time employee. “I routinely worked 11+ hours a day with zero overtime pay, no benefits, and no bonuses. All taxes out of my own pocket.”
Cryssy also stated that she was “tired of being scared of speaking up about an org[anization] that *literally* treated [employees] like cogs in a machine.”
Doublelift also revealed that Reginald reportedly threatened to sue him for disparaging TSM and talking about the alleged bullying and verbal abuse that employees went through at the organization.
Following this, North America's League of Legends Championship Series Player Association (LCSPA) encouraged people to come forward to talk about disturbing or inappropriate workplace experiences at esports organizations.
It wrote, "If you've had a disturbing or inappropriate workplace experience at ANY esports team, contact us and we will do whatever we can to help you navigate your situation."
