The mid laner Lee “Faker» Sang-hyeok is a legend of the scene League of Legends. Unfortunately, if it is impossible to count all his fans, it is also difficult to count all his haters. The player has suffered for several years hateful comments and personal attacks from a large number of individuals.
Thus, with the desire to defend its players and staff members, the management of T1 and its lawyers issued a press release announcing an official complaint against Faker’s harassers.
Today, T1 will file a formal complaint against “John Doe” of a specific online community who continuously and repeatedly harassed Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok with malicious comments.
Faker himself believes that fans’ objective assessment of a player’s performance and career is something a professional player has to put up with. However, unwarranted criticism and personal attacks should not be accepted.
At T1, we are committed to protecting each of our Member Affiliates from unwarranted attacks. Earlier this year, we filed lawsuits against those who verbally attacked our coach, Kim “Moment” Ji-hwan, and today we are filing new lawsuits against those who attacked Faker.
The lawsuits we are bringing today are not one-time actions. T1 would like to make it clear that if there are any further instances of people violating the personal rights of our players, we will take proactive legal action to protect our players.
Freedom of expression should never defame or violate the rights of others. T1 will continue to do their best to protect their players and create a healthy esports culture.
Another press release was then published, but this time by the legal representatives of the midlaner of the current top team in the LCK (tied with Gen.G Esports):
Despite T1’s repeated pleas to those who leave hostile comments, we have found that not only have these comments increased, but they have also become more harmful. The player, his family and everyone around him continues to suffer psychologically. We therefore had no choice but to file a complaint against the authors of these malicious comments online.
Regarding Faker’s opinion on this issue, we only pursue criminal charges against those who repeatedly and habitually leave such malicious comments, as he believes that such individuals should be severely punished. As such, there will be no plea or out-of-court settlement.
Please be aware that our law firm will continue to monitor online discussions to see if there are malicious comments that can be criminally assessed against Faker and T1 players, and will take proactive legal action to address this type of harassment. We hope that a healthy and mature esports culture can be established to avoid such legal actions in the future.