TSM taking legal action after PUBG player is poached

Top esports organization TSM has promised to take legal action against an Indian org after it announced the signing of a TSM PUBG Mobile player — without ever negotiating with TSM themselves.

TSM has established itself as one of the premier organizations in esports, especially prevalent in North American League of Legends, where they have won multiple domestic trophies alongside the likes of Team Liquid and Cloud9.

As such, they’ve seen the growth of esports from a grassroots scene to the highly professional, financially enticing industry it is today.

That’s why they were stunned when they saw PUBG Mobile player Arjun ‘SHADOW’ Mandhalkar announced by another team, called GodLike Esports, without ever being contacted. Now, they’re looking to take action.

“A team just announced a new player for their BGMI (PUBG Mobile) starting roster, that is still contracted to TSM, without talking to TSM,” said TSM’s head of global social and community, Duncan Cox.

TSM’s mobile director Jeff ‘SuiJeneris’ Chau responded by saying that “Krafton India Esports has not responded for over a week regarding this issue when TSM India reached out.”

SuiJeneris then confirmed that they are “taking action” against the org, and will have an update about the process in the future.

He then also posted a series of screenshots of a conversation between TSM and Shadow, which show the player asking to be transferred to another team and TSM even offering a free loan so that he can play elsewhere.

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As it transpired, though, they brought him into the fold without holding any conversations with TSM — despite Chau’s insistence that the organizations must come to an agreement on his transfer.

The Indian org didn’t take kindly to the comments made online by TSM’s execs. They posted two separate statements on Twitter, denying any accusations and saying that everything they did was fair and legal — and even saying they’re going to take legal action against TSM.

“We, at GodLike, followed all the legal and ethical procedures while engaging with Shadow, as he was not bound by any agreement in existence,” they said. “However, Shadow’s erstwhile organisation started defaming Shadow as well as GodLike by releasing his personal chats on social media platforms, which is a violation of privacy and punishable under Indian law.

“Due to constant slandering on media portals and news channels, we are constrained to make this statement that we are in the process of filing a criminal as well as civil case against the people who are releasing private chats and making defamatory statements against GodLike and also against one of the players who is openly abusing Shadow and GodLike on social media platforms.”

With TSM undergoing legal action against GodLike, it’s unclear what the outcome of this situation will be, so it’s well worth keeping an eye out on whether Shadow makes an appearance for GodLike any time soon.