Korean Senator says League of Legends team Griffon's player contracts are worse than slavery

[spartaman64]

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Translation:

Kanavi's contract is worse than a slavery contract; he was treated like an animal. Kookmin Ilbo analyzed Kanavi's management contract, and it has been revealed that the reality is worse than before. To summarize yesterday's and today's contract papers, the situation sums up to this:

Through it's attorneys and agencies, the team can sell the player and make any arbitrary contracts as it wants, without the player's agreement.

 

Without any clear standards of evaluating the player's skill levels, the team can kick out players whenever they want only bases on their decisions. They kicked out head coach CvMax, even though he led the underdog team to the 2nd place in LCK.

 

If the player points out the company's faults and therefore gets a bad rep for it, he has to spit out 2.5 times his annual salary AND all the money he have received from this organization. No evident standards or rules, of course. So if the player becomes a whistleblower, he will get punished for it.

Also, the clause that allows the player to resist against the company's unfair orders has been removed. Even though this contract is brutally unfair, the player has to obey the company like an chained animal.

 

Is this a fair pro player's contract? No. It's worse than a slave contract; it's an animal contract. Griffin forced Kanavi to sign multiple contracts and made him a chained animal.

Last month, Griffin personnel came to my office and pleaded that they are being wrongly accused. They said that they did it out of good intentions, that they wanted to protect the player. However, after the slavery documents were revealed one by one, they just said "There is no problem in the contracts" without any solid evidence. Did their loving and caring mind for the players just suddenly vaporize? I was talking about the illegalness of these contracts, but they talked about procedures to evade the important context. Now, I'm curious what kind of sophism they will bring up. We'll see until this case is completely over.

CONCEDE YOUR FAULTS AND APOLOGIZE, NOW.

Taking a revenge against whistleblowers and shoving problems under the rug will never end this case.

 

Done by fareastoctopus on Reddit 

 

Heres some background to what happened that led to this

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With just a month away from Worlds, Griffin announced that they were parting ways in a mutual agreement with cvMax. The news came as a shock to a lot in the League community considering his achievements with team Griffin. So this left Griffin to go into their biggest tournament without a coach on whom they relied on for two years.

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“I think cvMax is spreading lies, we like him as a person, but he says a lot of things that bother us,” says Sung-Won in an interview with Naver.

In responding to Sword’s interview, the ex griffin coach said that he and Sword were at odds. cvMax was willing to give their current sub top-laner more gaming time than Sword with the belief that the sub is better. The interview by Sword sparked their former coach to open up on stream about his time at Griffin, its front office operations and his decision to leave.

cvMax states in the stream that there was a rift between him and Griffin manager Cho Kyu-Nam. Kyu-Nam made a move to fire him after the loss to SK Telecom T1 in the final. The loss turned out to be the third time they finished as runner-ups in a row. cvMax also claims that Kyu-Nam told him that Griffin’s accomplishments have nothing to do with him as a coach as they would have succeeded nonetheless.

“Griffin standards are high, the unsatisfactory results shttps://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/dzf30z/senator_has_statement_kanavis_contract_is_worse/hould be enough reason. Griffin was always going to succeed,” says Kyu-Nam in response about his release. “You were just lucky.”

cvMax went deeper into the world of Griffin, revealing that academy players eat what the main team leaves. The academy players lack proper chairs and tables with the use of old equipment for practice. On the stream, cv Max also said that Kyu-Nam forced Griffin’s Kanavi to sign a contract for JD Gaming for the lowest possible salary and the highest possible transfer fee which he kept for himself.

Following the controversy surrounding Griffin and its management, STILL8 released a statement. Seo Kyung-jong, CEO of STILL8, took the company’s website and issued an apology to fans. He announced the dismissal of Griffin’s CEO Cho Kyu-Nam with investigations ongoing. Both Riot Games and Korea e-Sports Association (KeSPA) are investigating the claims from cvMax on stream as to Kanavi’s joke of a contract.

KeSPA reportedly held an emergency meeting with Riot Korea opening an investigation to check the details of the contract procedure with an announcement to come after the findings of the ongoing investigation.

 

source:  https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/dzf30z/senator_has_statement_kanavis_contract_is_worse/

 https://gall.dcinside.com/board/view/?id=leagueoflegends3&no=3093944&exception_mode=recommend&page=1

https://www.esportznetwork.com/inside-the-troubled-league-of-legends-team-griffin/

 

League of legends esports have come a long way but things like this show that there is still more to go. Forcing substitute player to eat the leftovers of the main players and not allowing them to buy their own food is unacceptable and confusing. I have no idea why would you do that other than to humiliate them. If they buy their own food they are spending their own money so why won't you let them spend their own money to not go hungry. Also forcing a player to take the lowest salary contract so you can get a big payout is obviously scummy and probably illegal. I've also lost a lot of respect for players like sword and tarzan. Not liking your coach and wanting him to be fired is one thing but defending how the team treats sub players like shit and screwing over kanavi is another. I hope korean Senator Ha prosecutes Cho and other people involved to the full extend of the law and set a precedent that employee abuse like this won't be tolerated and esports organizers are still bound by employee protection laws. Also another thing i thought of is that riot games korea has to approve all player contracts so how did this get past them?

[rcmaehl]

I mean have you seen sports contracts in general. It allows shit like this:
 

 

It's no wonder eSports are similar, if not worse.

[spartaman64]

4 minutes ago, rcmaehl said:

I mean have you seen sports contracts in general. It allows shit like this:
 

 

It's no wonder eSports are similar, if not worse.

i understand that theres fines for stuff like being late but a fine thats 2.5 times your salary and you have to give back your salary is just unreasonable.  

[SpaceGhostC2C]

3 minutes ago, rcmaehl said:

I mean have you seen sports contracts in general. It allows shit like this:

Have you seen non-sport labor contracts and workplace rulebooks in general? Because they all have penalties for indisciplines, negligence, or not fulfilling your duties...

 

 

3 minutes ago, rcmaehl said:

 

Spoiler

 

Context missing? As in, these are penalties for first team players, with salaries in the hundreds of thousand of pounds per week? Like 1,000 GBP is not a fine for them, it's a price Not to mention that everything listed there can be summed up as "not doing your job or not showing up for work", given their profession...

[Bombastinator]

There’s a long history of player slavery in sports.  American professional baseball is a classic.  The music industry is similar.  Big corporations like slavery, and with individual contracts they can often get away with it.

[Brooksie359]

1 minute ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Have you seen non-sport labor contracts and workplace rulebooks in general? Because they all have penalties for indisciplines, negligence, or not fulfilling your duties...

 

 

Context missing? As in, these are penalties for first team players, with salaries in the hundreds of thousand of pounds per week? Like 1,000 GBP is not a fine for them, it's a price Not to mention that everything listed there can be summed up as "not doing your job or not showing up for work", given their profession...

Yeah it sorta makes sense. If you are a salaried employee and end up neglecting your duty it makes sense you should get payed less in the form of a fine. That is completely different than someone being screwed over royally just for talking bad about a company that treats them like crap. 

[Touch My Hamm]

Until there is some sort of protection for esport players akin to those for sport players in the NA then this will keep happening. This has happened in the past with sport players where teams where making bank and the players being taken advantage of, now players can make stupid amounts of money and can get stock with their teams. Esports is still a relatively new market and mainstream is very reluctant to embrace it. With alot of the news in NA trying to push that video games cause violence and other silly studies (that could or could not have any validity) this changes the perception of video games. I believe the biggest hurdle for video games is that they are hard to watch. Sports you understand that these are humans being at the top of physical prowess actively throwing/tossing/running. Where as watching video games are hard to understand what is going on.

 

Example is that I play league of legends but watching Dota 2 i am completely lost and cannot stand watching any games. The screen moves around panning to things I dont understand now know what to look for. In sports I know that I am watching humans do X and that is better then how I would do X. you might not understand USA Football but you can watch the game and understand that you would not want to get tackled by another player. games do not have this since there is a disconnect from what is happening on a screen.  

 

Well thats my opinion on it

[Brooksie359]

4 minutes ago, GodSeph said:

Until there is some sort of protection for esport players akin to those for sport players in the NA then this will keep happening. This has happened in the past with sport players where teams where making bank and the players being taken advantage of, now players can make stupid amounts of money and can get stock with their teams. Esports is still a relatively new market and mainstream is very reluctant to embrace it. With alot of the news in NA trying to push that video games cause violence and other silly studies (that could or could not have any validity) this changes the perception of video games. I believe the biggest hurdle for video games is that they are hard to watch. Sports you understand that these are humans being at the top of physical prowess actively throwing/tossing/running. Where as watching video games are hard to understand what is going on.

 

Example is that I play league of legends but watching Dota 2 i am completely lost and cannot stand watching any games. The screen moves around panning to things I dont understand now know what to look for. In sports I know that I am watching humans do X and that is better then how I would do X. you might not understand USA Football but you can watch the game and understand that you would not want to get tackled by another player. games do not have this since there is a disconnect from what is happening on a screen.  

 

Well thats my opinion on it

I would disagree. Most sports are unwatchable if you don't understand it but like with everything you can learn. Also there is a fair amount of people who watch esports but do not play the game themselves. 

[RuffRuffmcgruff]

30 minutes ago, rcmaehl said:

I mean have you seen sports contracts in general. It allows shit like this:
 

 

That's a bit of a poor example, those charges are a drop in the ocean for a lot of the Chelsea players. I can see what you're getting at though. If i was fined every time i made a cup of tea incorrectly or printed out a document in black and white instead of colour i'd be pretty pissed to.

[Touch My Hamm]

19 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

I would disagree. Most sports are unwatchable if you don't understand it but like with everything you can learn. Also there is a fair amount of people who watch esports but do not play the game themselves. 

My point isn't that they are "unwatchable" as preference would put a key part in what you like. My point is that in any sport regardless of your thought you can see a human aspect to running faster then yourself or that they are physically stronger then you. This is key in sports that they are meant to be the best at doing X physical activity. I hate watching baseball but I understand I cannot throw a ball that fast. Watching CS:GO tournament would be hard for anyone (non video game people) to pickup. The disconnect of the human activity is what I believe turns alot of people off esports. Its more about when you watch soccer/football that even without understanding the game you know that they are humans running around trying to score points. If we look at CS:GO you see something in first person with guns with fast paced screens shooting in split second moments. This can be very disorientating to try and pickup if someone has no idea what is going on. 

[Brooksie359]

4 hours ago, GodSeph said:

My point isn't that they are "unwatchable" as preference would put a key part in what you like. My point is that in any sport regardless of your thought you can see a human aspect to running faster then yourself or that they are physically stronger then you. This is key in sports that they are meant to be the best at doing X physical activity. I hate watching baseball but I understand I cannot throw a ball that fast. Watching CS:GO tournament would be hard for anyone (non video game people) to pickup. The disconnect of the human activity is what I believe turns alot of people off esports. Its more about when you watch soccer/football that even without understanding the game you know that they are humans running around trying to score points. If we look at CS:GO you see something in first person with guns with fast paced screens shooting in split second moments. This can be very disorientating to try and pickup if someone has no idea what is going on. 

Not really. I mean it is just as hard to pick up sports if all you see is people running around. You can likely tell that eliminating the enemy team has something to do with the objective of the game in csgo as much as you can tell that tackling has something to do with the objective of the game in football. I think it is easy to think sports are easy to watch and pick up when you have already been exposed to it. When I first watched football when I was really young I couldn't make heads or tails of it because all I saw was some people run into each other and other than that I had no idea what was going on. To say that it is any less confusing than esports is sorta laughable. Also each esports games vary in terms of complexity with dota 2 and league of legends being up there in terms of complexity. 

[Touch My Hamm]

4 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

Not really. I mean it is just as hard to pick up sports if all you see is people running around. You can likely tell that eliminating the enemy team has something to do with the objective of the game in csgo as much as you can tell that tackling has something to do with the objective of the game in football. I think it is easy to think sports are easy to watch and pick up when you have already been exposed to it. When I first watched football when I was really young I couldn't make heads or tails of it because all I saw was some people run into each other and other than that I had no idea what was going on. To say that it is any less confusing than esports is sorta laughable. Also each esports games vary in terms of complexity with dota 2 and league of legends being up there in terms of complexity. 

you are comparing being young to adults watching it. Sure there is something to do with growing up with video games. but if you think complexity of kicking a ball into nets and figuring our what is going on in Dota 2 is comparable in understanding mechanics I dont know what to say... There are some rules you would need to understand but in reality its people kicking balls and running around where as a video game someone is using a controller/keyboard and mouse and controlling X on a screen to score points/win the game. understanding that actual sports use human bodies is a basic understanding of how you move. you know that you can do X and that person can do X much better than you and that is cool. If you think watching a video game tournaments is the same complexity as watching people run around a track is sort of laughable.

[Brooksie359]

2 minutes ago, GodSeph said:

you are comparing being young to adults watching it. Sure there is something to do with growing up with video games. but if you think complexity of kicking a ball into nets and figuring our what is going on in Dota 2 is comparable in understanding mechanics I dont know what to say... There are some rules you would need to understand but in reality its people kicking balls and running around where as a video game someone is using a controller/keyboard and mouse and controlling X on a screen to score points/win the game. understanding that actual sports use human bodies is a basic understanding of how you move. you know that you can do X and that person can do X much better than you and that is cool. If you think watching a video game tournaments is the same complexity as watching people run around a track is sort of laughable.

I literally just said that dota 2 is probably one of the most complex esports games so to compare it to a simple sport is just dumb. Anyways the esports audience is very large and alot of then don't actually play the games so you are clearly wrong. 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

3 minutes ago, Caroline said:

Ah, the real modern slavery.

 

I don't think that penalties for not holding your end of the bargain is slavery, though. It's not like the employers don't get into trouble for not delivering their part.

 

I know there are many workers around the world signing "voluntary contracts" (if they are lucky to be formal workers) from an extremely asymmetric positions in terms of bargaining power - often from a position of outright desperation.

However, that can't be generalized to every labor relationship, least of all that of professional football players in the UK. I don't find anything outrageous point in the rules posted, nor in the ones at my workplace. It's pretty much "we pay you X to do Y. We can't just pay you less than X but you have to actually do Y". Having warnings, fines, and small penalties is a way to avoid going from perfect working relationship to getting fired at the slightest deviation.

[Touch My Hamm]

1 minute ago, Brooksie359 said:

I literally just said that dota 2 is probably one of the most complex esports games so to compare it to a simple sport is just dumb. Anyways the esports audience is very large and alot of then don't actually play the games so you are clearly wrong. 

How was i wrong I explained how regular sports have a common standing with humans since you can run/throw/tackle just like the athletes in sports (not including people with physical difficulties). This allows it to be much easier to have a common ground where a video game has a disconnect. 

[spartaman64]

10 minutes ago, GodSeph said:

How was i wrong I explained how regular sports have a common standing with humans since you can run/throw/tackle just like the athletes in sports (not including people with physical difficulties). This allows it to be much easier to have a common ground where a video game has a disconnect. 

any person with any concept of war will have common ground with league though. dying = bad and letting the enemies into your base = bad

meanwhile when i watch fencing i just see two people running and jumping at each other over and over and for a while i had no idea how any of them are scoring points because they poke each other at around the same time

[Touch My Hamm]

5 minutes ago, spartaman64 said:

any person with any concept of war will have common ground with league though. dying = bad and letting the enemies into your base = bad

meanwhile when i watch fencing i just see two people running and jumping at each other over and over and for a while i had no idea how any of them are scoring points because they poke each other at around the same time

That is true. I guess its my limited English with what i am trying to explain. When you watch Soccer you can quickly understand kicking ball and team blue is good and team red = bad. Where as in league there are so many things going on at once. 3 lanes with fighters trying to kill minions and other players for gold, pushing lanes while jumping other lanes. The aspect im looking at is that this is not a human doing this its a screen where most the interactions are 8 buttons and mouse movement. Where if you see Hussein Bolt run around a track you quickly understand that you cannot run that fast. Its not video games in general as some sport games are easier to watch but these are not as popular as regular sports? there are many varied reasons and I just put my 2 cents as to why I see alot of sports fans not watching eports or alot of adults not watching esports. I also believe that not growing up playing games would have an affect on this as well.