Apologies for Incorrect Information - Page 14

On January 20 2012 15:09 VirgilSC2 wrote:
I had intended this to be a blog, but apparently this didn't belong in the blogs section and in here instead.

I'm writing this mostly for myself, as I'd like to express my thoughts on the entire situation in some form, however I've been asked by a few people to share my views as I've been one of the more vocal TSL supporters on the site as of late. Don't expect this to be thoroughly proofread as my news posts are, as I want to spill words out and then be done with it. As a friend, the entire situation has not only shaken my views on Coach Lee as a person, but as a leader as well.

That being said, it's not hard to know I'm a big TSL fan and supporter if you spend a decent amount of time around here. I tend to pride myself on knowing many things about the TSL team, and it was very considerate of Coach Lee to allow me to be the one releasing things to the public. As I am not a speaker of the Korean language however, I should have realized that the information I received was not only limited by the amount of interaction between the two languages, but by professionalism as well. I constantly got updates behind the scenes on my favorite team, sure, but I was a little blinded simply by the nature of our interaction. With the recent revelation by Rekrul, which I have no reason to believe is false, and no evidence pointing to the contrary, my whole view on TSL, not as a team of players, but as a group held together by what I once thought was the infallible Coach Lee has been shaken at the foundation.

When I at first heard news that there was a possibility of a partnership between Fnatic and TSL, I was very excited. It would mean that I might have a chance to see more of my favorite players at international events as well as helping the team bolster it's already weakened roster. I was happy to see Rain back in the TSL house, training for the Code A qualifiers and things seemed to be going well. Shortly thereafter, I was privileged enough to learn the identity of a new TSL player, which excited me very much for the upcoming GSTL, so much that I penned a BroodWar-esque hype thread for TSL. Mere hours after I had written it, however, the clouds began to darken as news was passed to me about the situation involving the Fnatic translator and the failure of the TSL/Fnatic partnership. At this point I think it's important to remind you that my information all came from the TSL side of things, and as a fan I was extremely angry and disappointed with Fnatic. In the same timespan, I also found out about Fnatic signing Moon, and while I was happy that Moon had finally found a team for Starcraft 2, I was upset that it was Fnatic, as I felt I could no longer support anyone from the organization including players.

Fast forward a few days, and the Fnatic hype video for Moon is revealed and I did an extremely rash and unprofessional thing confirming not only that the player in question WAS Moon, but also that aLive had left for Fnatic (keep in mind I only had the TSL information at this point). After Fnatics announcement of Moon, many people began to doubt my information (despite the fact that by then aLive's name had been removed from the TSL roster and his Twitter had changed). I knew it was only a matter of time before someone spoke out at the aLive/TSL/Fnatic debacle. I happened to be sitting at my computer as the news broke, and spent the next few hours fiercely defending my friend from other forum-goers. I even went as far as to insinuate that ToD, a Fnatic player, was misinformed and that Fnatic had, in fact, wronged TSL. Shortly thereafter, Fnatic released their statement, and while somewhat vaguely worded, it began to call into question my belief in the information I had received.

Shortly after , I received news (not from Coach Lee, but a source that will remain anonymous) that another TSL Player, Heart had left the team. This has since been refuted by Coach Lee, but he has not been able to clarify the situation, or why the e-mail I had seen would exist. Furthermore, upon discussion with other forum-goers someone on TeamLiquid told me to "update my signature" as Heart had also left the team (something I did not think should have been released publicly at the time). I kept acting to defend Coach Lee, as more and more people began to harshly criticize him and say hurtful things about my friend which I knew he was silently reading. I went to sleep last night slightly depressed about the whole situation.

I woke up this morning, and came across Rekrul's revelation about the situation involving Coach Lee, oGsSpunky, TesteR and Fruitdealer. I will say that never have I been that speechless in my life. Knowing Rekrul to be an extremely reliable source, I was not only extremely shocked that the Coach Lee I knew could do something like that, but also continue to act as he did in situations like the PuMa/EG deal and this current debacle. I could perhaps have fully understood if the situation had occurred and Coach Lee perhaps repented and changed his ways, but the more I looked at it, and analyzed it I couldn't force myself to believe he had.

I would like to first apologize to anyone I may have offended with comments regarding TSL and/or their remarks about Coach Lee. I don't think I said anything particularly insulting, but if I did, I apologize. Furthermore, I would also like to state that I'm not turning against my friend Coach Lee. Perhaps TT1 and I have different views on life, but I never think it's a good idea to give anyone the "blackbook 4 life" treatment. I am certainly willing to give him a second chance should he accept responsibility for what he may or may not have done, and I think the community should be willing to do the same.

On another note, this has been an eye-opening experience to me. Recently, I have taken on a very public and official role as a Team Manager, and I have realized that when trying to interface with the community in a professional way, there's not room to also have super-fanboyish tendencies. While I will still cheer for my favorite players from the team, I won't be expressing it nearly as much or as often simply because I plan to busy myself with other facets of eSports. As such, in the future I will not only be working harder to better my own team, and help my own extremely talented and hard-working players succeed, but to also bring more content from my contacts in the Korean scene to the foreign eye. I hope you will all join me in supporting my players at Team Clash in the times to come.

Thanks for reading,
Virgil