Reginald Responds to Article About TSM's Workplace Culture

Team SoloMid (TSM) CEO Andy “Reginald” Dinh has been accused of fostering a “culture of fear” in TSM and Blitz, as per a report written by Mikhail Klimentov for the Washington Post. The article mentions multiple statements from former employees of TSM as well as Blitz, a company co-founded by Reginald. The employees stated that they feared interactions with Reginald since they could not deduce which “Andy” they were “going to get.”

One such harrowing instance of Reginald allegedly fostering a “culture of fear” was when he reportedly fired TSM’s Head of Human Resources (HR) since the person “asked a question that Andy didn’t like.” The report also mentioned the alleged misclassification of staff as contractors and not employees. This prompted a response from CEO Reginald himself on Reddit.

Reginald’s response to the Washington Post article

Reginald replied to a post on the Team SoloMid Subreddit on 4th May. He said he wanted to make sure things were clear so that people don’t speculate. Reginald stated that he was “very hands-off on day-to-day operations” and that he had met TSM’s head of HR once for an interview before he was let go. He added that he was not his direct manager and outlined his interactions with the HR head.

“The first work interaction was that this person emailed our executive team to ask for recommendations on hiring for a competing organization. Generally, the first task that you do is to put together a 30,60,90. I told X person that it was not [a] good use of time and that they should focus on building trust within the organization,” Reginald wrote.

Further, Reginald added that the HR person did not agree and thought it was indeed a good use of time to recruit for another company “because by building strong relationships with other companies - it would naturally help us if we needed help from other recruiters at other companies.”

TSM’s CEO said that he did not think the HR head’s approach was effective and that he “showed a lack of prioritization.” Hence, he thought it would be best to part ways sooner rather than later.

Additionally, Reginald promised to do a complete AMA (Ask Me Anything) once the investigation is complete since he does not have anything to hide.

What did the Washington Post article say?

The article also added that “members of teams ranging from sales to programming to content said they witnessed other workers get called out by Dinh in calls or intra-office chat rooms and publicly shamed.”

Additionally, multiple employees at TSM and Blitz, based in Los Angeles, reportedly believed that they were misclassified as contractors and not employees, stating that this violated California’s employment laws.

Employees at both TSM and Blitz also alleged that the atmosphere was like that of a startup and that they had to do multiple roles since everything was fluid. The article also detailed multiple employee testimonies where they were worried about being fired.

Notably, Reginald is being investigated by Riot Games and TSM after multiple current and former employees accused him of bullying and verbal abuse in the workplace. A Wired report stated that both investigations have been underway since late 2021.

In response to the Wired report, Reginald said, “[I have] exceedingly high expectations for myself, and I share those same high expectations with everyone I work with. I have zero tolerance for underperformance. I am intense, passionate, driven, and relentless in the pursuit of winning- it’s my nature.” However, he acknowledged that his vocabulary was harsh and that he needed to work on his delivery.

Notably, after looking at Reginald’s reply on Reddit, former TSM player, and star attack-damage carry (ADC) player Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng stated that Reginald allegedly threatened to sue him for disparaging TSM when he spoke up against TSM’s work culture.