LCS drama heats up as EMENES and Summit flame former teammates
Christian Betancourt/Colin Young-Wolff/Riot GamesAs if the LCS off-season wasn’t hectic enough, both EMENES and Summit have taken to social media to call out former teammates in the wake of a poor Worlds 2023 showing from both of their respective teams.
Jang ‘EMENES’ Min-soo certainly had a large impact on the LCS in the short time he was competing within it. From winning in Spring 2023 a short time after his LCS debut to being a big part of why C9 lost the Summer Finals, he’s been a huge part of the LCS’ 2023 storyline.
Ultimately, he’s chosen to retire and pursue his passion to become a veterinarian and complete his military service. However, before he bowed out, EMENES released a so-called “donezo manifesto” calling out former teammates, NA and EU as a whole, as well as content creator LS.
Meanwhile, Park ‘Summit’ Woo-tae got in on the action after EMENES’ comments reached Twitter/X, leading to him directly calling out APA before apologizing shortly after. Clearly, there was some tension between the LCS’ top teams.
EMENES’ “donezo manifesto” calls out LCS and LEC players
This all started with EMENES’ fmkorea posts that spread across social media, eventually hitting Twitter and Reddit while being translated by various community members.
The Reddit post going over some of what he said shines light on some of his standout points within the debate, sparking a massive discussion amongst LoL fans.
He claimed that NA’s solo queue environment was bad, that NA doesn’t practice enough, that Fudge and Blaber didn’t practice, and that Western leagues “suck”. While he had favorable words for Berserker, Inspired, Jojo, Contractz, Yeon, and some other North American players, he seemed to feel they were the exception rather than the rule.
He also felt that C9 CEO Jack was a “genius” and respects him “even though we broke up on bad terms,” as EMENES put it.
Additionally, EMENES seemed to hold some former and current XL players in high regard, claiming that they kept him from retiring altogether before he came to Cloud9. However, he felt that he was discriminated against because of the language barrier, claiming that he learned Turkish curse words to talk back against others.
LS chimed in, firing back at EMENES’ comments and giving his condolences to Cloud9’s support staff, saying he’s, “so sorry for everything you three had to deal with when engaging with this guy over the year.”
This also comes alongside allegations from RichsWraith that EMENES was a “literal alcoholic” who showed up to practice under the influence. The accusations were denied by EMENES in another fmkorea post.
EMENES also posted a variety of screenshots from conversations between him and Cloud9 support staff analyzing and breaking down LPL and LCK matches, something he claims NA teams didn’t do enough of.
He further jokingly commented that, “If Coach Rigby wasn’t there, I would have committed suicide right then,” with Rigby being the Cloud9 coach he claimed to have liked the most.
Ultimately, EMENES posted dozens of times in fmkorea, documenting his experiences as a pro playing in the West. If nothing else, he seemed determined to go out with a bang as he retires. However, as the dust has settled, EMENES made one last post to bid everyone farewell.
Here’s an excerpt from that post:
“I will not be writing any statements after today and what I am doing now is nothing more or less than a mere whim. I did what I wanted to say and now I have no regrets. The reason I was able to not break down even during the harsh ordeal was because of my confidence that my path was not wrong and the few friends who believed in me.”
Gary Handley/Riot GamesEMENES continued, “The reason I was more angry was because I loved LoL that much. In the past, I invested all my time in LoL just for success and only thought about winning. In order to please everyone, I wore a mask that didn’t fit and held it in, and when I burst out from time to time, people were no longer on my side. I tried to end it by concluding that it was because I was inadequate and not good enough, but I feel relieved after letting go of all the accumulated tension.”
Cloud9’s only response at the time of writing is, well, nothing at all. They’ve declined to speak on any of the internal happenings for their 2023 roster.
However, Summit also got wrapped up in the drama after tweeting about former teammate Eain ‘APA’ Stearns.
Summit apologizes for calling out APA
Beneath a Twitter post EMENES made firing back at LS’ prior comment, Summit chimed in on a conversation about LCS fans discussing who was the worst performer at Worlds. When someone said Summit, Fudge, and Zven were their top 3, Summit had some words of protest he’d later apologize for.
“There was nothing I could do with [a] Ziggs one-trick” claimed Summit, staking the blame on APA as fans called him out for having poor performance.
Though Summit apologized a short time after, the damage was already done. With Summit having already removed the Team Liquid branding from his account, there’s a good chance he’s moved on from the team already.
That said, Summit did have kind words for his former C9 teammates.
It remains to be seen if there’s even more off-season drama between players as the LCS gets shuffled around and rosters settle.
