The emerging esports industry strives to get as close as possible to traditional sports in terms of viewership numbers and commercial success, even getting sponsorships from Nike, Louis Vuitton, and BMW. But the behind-the-scenes, work and player lives have remained drastically different, with infidelity scandals from the likes of Tiger Woods, Tony Parker, and Ryan Giggs not having esports equivalents. That is, until now.
The star ADC player, Tang "huanfeng" Huan-Feng, of Chinese League of Legends team Suning has pulled out of the LPL All-Star Weekend following allegations of infidelity made on social media. Huanfeng is alleged to have cheated on his girlfriend with several other women during the 2020 League of Legends World Championship in Shanghai.
Huanfeng was selected to the Rookie Team and was expected to have his World Championship performance be celebrated. He has stepped down from the Rookie Team and will not be attending the League of Legends event.
It is disappointing that this news has come out regarding huanfeng, a rising star in global League of Legends. He earned the respect and admiration of fans for coming up from a background of poverty and instability to become one of the best ADC players in the world. During the 2020 World Championship, he was instrumental to Suning making the final, where the team unfortunately lost to Korea's DAMWON Gaming.
The Chinese League of Legends scene has had a history of players getting caught up in unusual scandals. Earlier this year, Yan "Wei" Yang-Wei was fined one month's salary by his team for failing to take Smite, which prevented him from doing his role as the team's jungler. Other more serious controversies include Xiang "Condi" Ren-Jie being suspended for 18 months for match-fixing and multiple players being fined for using inappropriate language in-game and during livestreaming.
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Source: Suning