EPT
Contrary to his fairly good reputation in the west, Tabe has, for most of the past years, been viewed with at best disinterest and disdain and at worst outright hate in China. Tabe is typically perceived as someone who is somewhat slimy/sleazy in that he places his own self-interest above all else, and is a generally disloyal and untrustworthy individual. There are of course conflicting accounts of various things, but there have been quite a few stories and “incidents” around him. First, I’ll give you some reactions to Tabe’s leaking incident at World’s today/yesterday depending on your time zone.
PLU米勒 (LPL Caster)
http://weibo.com/3202111700/CEDUMeNZu?from=page_1005053202111700_profile&wvr=6&mod=weibotime&type=comment
虽然lpl队伍输了，我们也会气，也会骂，但永远不会出卖他们，更不会把这些当作跟别人炫耀的资本
Yes, even though we will be angry and be upset that LPL teams lost, we will never betray them, and we would never show off to other people through it.
Misaya
http://weibo.com/1140554177/CEDwXDYVN?from=page_1005051140554177_profile&wvr=6&mod=weibotime
http://weibo.com/1140554177/CEDytieUB?from=page_1005051140554177_profile&wvr=6&mod=weibotime
我就想问为啥别人都懂事地阻止你了，你还继续想做贱事？
I just want to know why you keep trying to do sleazy shit even after everyone else was trying to stop you?
Misaya also discussed this on stream - http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTM1NzU1Nzc5Mg==.html
EDG Sanshao
http://weibo.com/p/1001603896961882312996
Tabe 今天的所做，更是让我们所有一线俱乐部和队员感到愤怒。这种公开场合用最直接的方式暴露俱乐部的战术，无论是什么出发点，都是下流的，堂而皇之的坐在这个台上，靠出卖队伍信息来博得眼球，是一种耻辱！
What Tabe did today made the members of all the teams angry. To expose a team’s strategy in such a public and direct manner, no matter the intention, is depiscable. To sit on that stage and rely on selling out the team to get some views and attention, is shameful!
解说苏小妍 (LPL Caster)
http://weibo.com/5043210086/CEE3uFvy3?
from=page_1005055043210086_profile&wvr=6&mod=weibotime&type=comment
队伍打的怎么样不是我们能控制的事，但自己的职业素质怎么样，是自己的行为决定的……
How the teams play and perform isn’t something we can control, but what we can control is our own professional conduct…
闫紫境GwAwa (Former Caster, Host)
http://weibo.com/1558597584/CEDJA6PgJ?from=page_1005051558597584_profile&wvr=6&mod=weibotime&type=comment
回复@大半夜睡不着起来看猩猩:不得不说 我们解说从来没干过这种事 即使知道 不要说我们解说怎么怎么样 解说都在S5第一线/
I have to say, our casters have never done anything like this even if we know [information].
http://weibo.com/1558597584/CEDLGqe02?from=page_1005051558597584&type=comment
记得S3世界总决赛 皇族对阵SKT 老歪特和我说他有一手制裁FAKER 算大招 他练了很久 我在解说台上面说 皇族有大招 决赛有机会 大家请给皇族加油 结果他们没用 我也没说 现在告诉大家 是阿卡丽
Remember S3 World Finals, Royal vs. SKT. Whitezz also told us there’s a secret pick they have prepared for Faker that they practiced a lot. I said on the desk that Royal has a secret strat, and if it comes out in the finals, please cheer for Royal. They never ended up using it, and I never told anyone. I’ll tell everyone now, it was Akali
Edward (EDG Owner, on the EDG App)
这个叛徒Tabe。你他妈是中国人吗？
This traitor Tabe. Are you fucking Chinese or not?
解说小米 (LPL Caster)
http://weibo.com/2120006760/CEE5npr6S?from=page_1005052120006760_profile&wvr=6&mod=weibotime&type=comment
技不如人咱输得起，但这样的出卖，真的让人很气愤……//
We can lose because we get out-skilled. But to get sold out like this, it makes you angry….
Godlike/Ackerman
http://weibo.com/5400531923/CEDR1FsWk?from=page_1005055400531923_profile&wvr=6&mod=weibotime
tabe有锅，这个肯定甩不掉的，国外的直播解说，国外的队伍基本都会看的，或多或少会去知道一些。这个还是比较影响的，固然泄露了一些但是比赛从来没有说输了是一个人的责任，大家看的平静一点，起码来说tabe也是希望IG赢，只是不知道会有这样的后果
Tabe has blame in this, this is indisputable. Foreign [LCS] teams will typically watch foreign streams, and will more or less know what’s being said. This definitely have an impact. Even though some information was disclosed, a loss is never just one person’s responsibility. Everyone should calm down. At the very least Tabe was hoping iG would win, but just didn’t know there would be this kind of consequence.
小苍cany (LPL Caster)
http://weibo.com/2850616155/CEDRNdLmQ?from=page_1005052850616155_profile&wvr=6&mod=weibotime
不管IG是不是被BP打败，赛前透露关键信息这是什么心态干出来的？！
It doesn’t matter whether or not IG lost on ban-pick, what was going through your mind when you disclosed such crucial information before the game?!
LOL小楼 (LPL Caster)
http://weibo.com/2721185633/CEDEGDLp1?from=page_1005052721185633_profile&wvr=6&mod=weibotime&type=comment
我不是针对谁，也不帮ig甩锅，我只是觉得这样真的很没有职业素养
I’m not calling anyone out, and I’m not trying to divert blame from IG, but I feel doing stuff like this shows a lack of professionalism.
http://weibo.com/2721185633/CEDLBmVTl?from=page_1005052721185633_profile&wvr=6&mod=weibotime
利用chris对他的信任套出ig接下来想用的英雄，然后在解说台一个个念出来。IG输了就是菜，但是还要被朋友捅一刀吗？//@怎么也吃不胖的阿J:只是人家自己的分析，什么职业素养有什么关系
To use Chris’s trust in him to get info on what champs IG will pick next, and then to read them out one by one on the analyst desk. iG lost because they were bad, but they also got stabbed in the back by their friend.
And now, for Tabe’s “history.” I’m not trying to libel him, and this stuff is generally pretty well reported in China. As stated earlier, there is a lot of he-said-she-said, but this is the kind of stuff that informs public opinion of Tabe. Perhaps I’m slightly biased, but where there’s smoke there’s fire goes the old saying.
**Incident 1 – OMG drama**
Tabe and Whitezz were friends and went pro together on CCM, later renamed IG. Whitezz was eventually kicked from IG, and later reports say it was Tabe who did so. Eventually Tabe and Whitezz ended up on OMG together.
However, they both ended up leaving OMG. It was a huge scandal/drama in the scene, and the popular narrative (later disputed by Whitezz and Tabe/Whitezz’s next team). It goes something like follows:
Whitezz and Tabe left the team with Whitezz because both of them wanted their girlfriends to live at the teamhouse with them and to get a salary. Whitezz’s girlfriend UU and Tabe’s girlfriend VV were appointed as team managers or some similar role. The team acquiesced at first but eventually Gogoing/San/Cool were upset with the arrangement, since Whitezz and Tabe took the main rooms to live with their girlfriends whereas Gogoing and San had to room in a very small study room and Cool a temporary housing unit that was added to the roof/attic area of the team house. It was reported that Whitezz was a poor teammate (standard complaint of poor attitude, flames, doesn’t admit mistakes, doesn’t respect scheduled practice times, etc.). The other teammates wanted Whitezz to either improve or be kicked, but Tabe and Whitezz’s girlfriend, who was sort of a team manager, were against it. San expressed his desire to leave the team, and Tabe wanted San to stay, so he agreed to look into the Whitezz issue. The end result was a team vote, 3 voted in favor of kicking Whtiezz, and Tabe abstained.
2 Days later, Tabe announced that he would leave with Whitezz. He told the management/sponsor that if they wanted to keep Tabe and Whitezz, they hav eto kick San and Cool. Meanwhile Tabe and Whitezz’s girlfriend UU were saying Gogoing/San/Cool and the team have attitude/character problems and don’t believe in teamwork. Eventually they departed.
Sources-
OMG History, includes interviews/reports/anecdotes from various involved individuals, including former OMG sponsor, Whitezz, VV, remaining OMG teammates. It’s basically a he-said she-said scenario. http://lol.178.com/201209/140827509862.html
**Story 2 – “Retiring” from Royal**
In early 2013, Tabe left Royal. He cited poor working conditions and low salaries, and wanted to pursue a casting/streaming career to raise money to support his family. Netizens were generally supportive, since esports conditions back then were quite poor compared to today. However it turns out that Whitezz later went and begged Tabe to come back to the team since Royal floundered without him (recall Uzi was unwilling to play with anyone but Tabe, Royal went through 4 or 5 supports after Tabe left). Chat logs were shown on stream:
**Whitezz
*You have to think back, when you were playing on Royal, UU and I were living the life you and VV are living right now, having left the professional scene [T/N: Whitezz also briefly “retired,” but came back due to Tabe’s request as you’ll see]. You gave me a phone call and asked me to come help you play in the pro scene. I risked arguing with UU and chose to help you out. To think if I started streaming/making VODs back then I would probably have a decent income right now.
Ever since we went pro, you sold me out so many times, but when have I ever resented you?
And I’m not asking you for too much right now. Just finish up these last two months with me. I’m about to leave China, it might be many years before we see each other again.
A single word from you was enough for me to kick everyone on CLC [T/N: Canis Lupus Campestris, Noah’s Ark/OMG/Royal’s precursor http://lol.esportspedia.com/wiki/Canis_Lupus_Campestris］. I always bore the reputation of being the “team destroying demon” and got flamed for it, but you just left to go play on Royal on your own, and I quietly retired without saying a word.
When you were leaving Royal, we tried to keep you, but we didn’t try to hold you against your will. I know you weren’t happy, and you wanted to live your own life. But I literally have no options right now. Uzi switched four supports already, every single winning game ends up being a loss. I can’t even retire and successfully transition [T/N: into a casting/streaming career] right now. Do you want me to completely fucked? So much that you can’t even stop making vods for 1-2 months and help me out?
We’ve known each other for four years, just help me out, I’m begging you help me out once.
This is the last time I’ll ask you. If you still don’t want to help me I’ll never bring it up again.
**Tabe’s response
*As a caster/VOD maker, if I put in 100, I can get 100, but I can also get 1000. Do you understand? I’m 22, I need to think about my future. If I’m still 16 maybe I can expend my youth years.
If I’m still on Royal, do you think Xiaoxiao would be going to All-Star? Of course I’d get voted. And I really wanted to go to All-Star. If I don’t want to play pro I must have my own reasons, I gave up a lot too.
You can find logs/screencaps here- http://bbs.ngacn.cc/read.php?tid=6242903&rand=653
A few points here-
Loyalty is obviously valued very highly everywhere, especially in Chinese culture. Many netizens saw this as Tabe being a scumbag/etc, and public opinion really turned from when he first retired.
A lot of people mocked his comment on going to All Stars over Xiaoxiao. Recall that this was mid 2013, when WE and iG were still by far the two most popular teams in China, and Fzzf/Xiaoxiao were genereally regarded as far superior to any other supports. They think Tabe had an overinflated sense of importance.
Eventually Tabe was persuaded to return with a higher salary, and many people were of the opinion that Tabe orchestrated the whole thing and completely left Royal out to dry just to try to get some more money. Opinion is more divided on this, and it’s unclear what the actual reason was.
**Incident 2.5 – Tabe’s comments at/following S3 worlds.**
You may recall that Tabe very publicly lambasted the Chinese esports environment and the L.Ace organization at and after World’s. This drew the ire of many individuals in the Chinese esports scene, who accused Tabe of extrapolating the unsavory situation at Royal (salary/money disputes primarily) to the whole scene. They were especially quick to note that Tabe has a history of being involved in drama filled situations, and claimed he was unfairly slandering other organizations even though it was only teams that he’s been involved with that has had this sort of shadiness.
Again, it’s a he-said she-said thing, but it left a poor taste in a lot of Chinese netizen’s mouths.
**Situation 3 – Tabe’s Return**
Following this Tabe exited the scene and was somewhat forgotten. However, with the extreme growth of streaming and reports that top streamers like Misaya and Whitezz were making millions of dollars and living very comfortable lives, Tabe resurfaced. He started doing some streaming of his own but wasn’t particularly popular. In addition he went on the LPL stream to do some guest casting/analysis at games and some third party special events. Most people were kind of surprised that he was so quick to return after essentially denouncing the scene.
I would describe reaction to his conduct on stream/casting at events is generally negative to mixed at best. He tends to make a lot of vulgar/sex jokes on stream/to his girlfriend, including often bragging about how his girlfriend was a virgin when they first met, which some people view as crass. There was an incident when during a Chinese third party tournament, the casters had to fill time due to lag/delays, and Tabe told a lot of old stories about his time on Royal, including making fun of Godlike for being a virgin (supposedly the only one on the team) at the time which a lot of people perceived as distasteful or even outright malicious. He also was writing comments on Weibo after Uzi was benched mocking OMG in a pretty passive aggressive manner, and capitalizing on it to duo queue with Uzi while he was benched.
The perception is that Tabe relies a lot on tearing other people down to build himself up, and tends to place himself in the middle of controversy/tag along to popular personalities to build up his own brand.
**Story 3.5 – Tabe’s Brief Coaching Stint for SPG**
Tabe had a brief stint as a coach for a low tier LSPL team, Speed Gaming, in Spring 2015. The team didn’t really go anywhere and Tabe was relatively quiet, but there were some rumors/stories going on, sourced to Speed Gaming’s manager (a girl), that Tabe was a sleazy and egotistical guy. This might border on character assassination since there are no real sources, but it’s being spread around Chinese forums/Tieba pretty widely right now, so might help inform the Chinese netizen attitude towards Tabe.
**Incident 4 – Chris/LGD coaching scandal**
Those of you who followed the LGD coaching fiasco leading up to worlds might recall that the whole thing started when Chris heard from a “friend” that Korean coaches were getting paid multiples what he was paid. It’s widely speculated that this friend was Tabe. Chris, when he was a pro, started on iG in 2011/2012 with Tabe, and went on to CLC (was kicked by Whitezz, indirectly through Tabe if the previous story is to be believed), before returning to play for a bit on Noah’s Ark, then possibly kicked (unclear) again, at which point he went to another team, then returned to Royal. (Incidentally Pyl was also on that ill-fated CLC team and “left”). Opinion on this issue is split, but many feel like Tabe was intentionally trying to start shit out of jealously/malicious intent for whatever reason. After Chris left LGD and went to iG, Tabe was very vocal in talking about how they’re friends on the analyst desk, which led to today’s iG pick/ban leaking scandal.
The iG Draft Leak
Based on current reactions, this is probably the nail in the coffin for Tabe’s esports career in China.
There are some semi-joking posts stating that Tabe did this intentionally, either at the direction of Chris to mislead the enemy team or to divert attention from LGD and iG’s spectacular failure at World’s.
More common are people just viewing this as more evidence of Tabe’s sleaziness/questionable character. People are calling attention to the fact that he had everything written out, so it was pre-meditated and not something that was spur of the moment.
A common copypasta reads:
tabe不泄密ig会输吗？我认为他们照样会输。但是，如果ig赢了tabe就不该骂吗？ 再想一个问题。为什么tabe会知道ig的大招？答：肯定是tabe自己去问的，不然ig还会主动告诉你tabe? 再问：为什么tabe问了ig的人就告诉他了？ 答：因为tabe是中国人，Ig是中国队，谁都不会想到中国人会卖中国队。 最后一个问题，我为什么要来喷tabe?是为了ig的失败泄愤吗？ 不是，那是为什么，是因为我看到了让我反感的东西，让我恶心的东西，不喷，我心情不好，念头不通畅。 你见过3个外国人劝一个中国人不要卖队友吗？我见过。 你见过一个人为了秀英语就照着稿子读人家战队的战术吗？我见过。
Would iG lose if Tabe didn’t reveal their strat? I think they would’ve lost anyways. But, even if iG won, should we not flame Tabe because of it? Also, think of another issue: Why would Tabe know iG’s strat? Answer: Because Tabe is Chinese. iG is Chinese, and no one would expect a Chinese person to sell out a Chinese team. Last question: Why am I flaming Tabe? Because iG lost and I want to vent? No. Then why? Because I saw something that upset me, that disgusts me. If I don’t flame, I feel bad and can’t think clearly. Have you ever seen three foreigners try to stop a Chinese person from selling out his teammates? I have. Have you ever seen someone read strats off a script to show off his English? I have.
