League of Legends player Cheon “Promise” Min-Ki is in serious condition today after reportedly jumping from a 12-storey building and ending up in a coma. According to several Korean news reports, this comes after he revealed alleged eSports match-fixing.
Promise played for South Korea’s AHQ eSports team. But according to him, the whole thing was a sham. On the Inven forums (via Gosu Gamers and Redditor AskMeAboutZombies), Promise wrote how the team was apparently created by the manager to throw games and lose on purpose.
In his post, Promise wrote how he was allegedly threatened by team manager Noh Dae Chu if he tried to win. Because of those threats, Promise said he did do things to lose on purpose. Continuing, he added (via AskMeAboutZombies):
When we first made the team, we were told that AHQ sponsored us with cash and computers. We didn’t know they only gave us gaming gear for rights to the team name. Our manager Noh had lied to us, and took out a loan to pay for our housing, living expenses, computers, and even our salaries. He was planning on placing illegal bets on eSports games and fixing them to win back the borrowed money and make a profit.
Things got worse, with Promise writing about how the manager allegedly sold off their practice computers and apparently telling them he couldn’t pay their rent. He continues (via AskMeAboutZombies):
Later on, I contacted AHQ and talked to their management in Taiwan. They denied ever donating any money or computers. They only donated gaming gear meant for the players themselves, not manager Noh. I asked if we could keep rest of the gear for practice and they approved. Eventually, we discovered that Noh was selling our practice computers so he could pay off his debts and run…
…we confronted Noh and announced we’re leaving the team. We demanded payment for the months that he still owed us. Noh responded that he couldn’t give us the money right away, but he would instead waive the 50% commission that AHQ claimed on prize money. Since we previously talked to AHQ management, the entire team already knew Noh was lying. AHQ never sponsored us with cash, never had rights to prize money and the computers didn’t belong to them, so who is he trying to pay money back to?
“I know I could have done better, but thanks to these events my professional career was over,” he added. “After practising to my best for a year, all I had left was a feeling of emptiness.” Promise ended his post with these words (via AskMeAboutZombies):
tl;dr: I’m not in this world after 5 minutes, AHQ Korea was a team made by Noh to profit off illegal gambling, teammates didn’t know and we had to fix games because of this. AHQ Taiwan never sponsored our team, it was a lie. I am sorry for all of this, and I can’t tell you everything, but I’m leaving now as I cant deal with this anymore.
Promise said he grew up in a disadvantaged household. As noted on Inven (via Redditor cakezz15), his father left when he was 15 years 0ld, and his family home had no heating. Pro-gaming was Promise’s way out.
The Reddit thread, which has been following the whole incident closely, is careful to point out that Promise didn’t attempt suicide only because of the match fixing and that he was dealing with other personal problems.
Reports out of South Korea (via tipster Sang) state that Promise landed on the roof of a recycling center. AHQ Korea’s Nam Hoon Kim told This Is Game that Promise was in the emergency room, adding, “His condition is stable. Police said he was not in a critical condition when they found him by the recycling bin.”
Yonhap News published photos of the building, and the roof that broke Promise’s fall.
Another article on Yonhap News (via Sang) states that Promise was discovered at 5.56am this morning, when a passerby heard a voice saying “Help me.” Promise has since come out of his coma, but has suffered multiple fractures throughout his body.
KeSPA, the Korea eSports Association, sent a dispatch to the hospital to check on Promise and told Inven that Promise “will need a long time to recover”.
The Korean branch of Riot, League of Legend’s developer, issued an official statement, which, according to Kotaku tipster Sang, states that it has formed an internal task force to investigate the match fixing. Riot Korea also added that it will spare no expense in aiding Promise’s full and complete recovery. Another English LoL broadcaster in Korea, MonteCristo, said he’s interested in working with the country’s media to help Promise’s family cover the medical expenses.
[취재] ‘피미르’ 중상, 생명 지장 없지만 회복에 많은 시간 필요 [Inven — Thanks Sang!]
피미르 천민기 LOL 승부조작 폭로의 내막과 라이엇-온게임넷-협회 입장 [This Is Game — Thanks Sang!]
League SCANDAL ; MUST READ ; SOURCE BY FORMER PRO ADC FIMIR ( NAJIN BLACK SWORD ; AHQ KOREA ) MATCH FIXING SCANDAL [Reddit]
Former AHQ Korea marksman “Promise” attempts suicide following matchfixing scandal [Gosu Gamers]
If suicidal thoughts are affecting you or someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Comments
14 responses to “League Of Legends Pro Attempted Suicide After Tournament Scandal”
Looks like he got lucky not having to pay those medical bills. That’s one less thing for him to worry about, I guess. Sad stuff.
TSM did a fundraiser for Promise and made 15024.40 dollars for him.
Let me start by saying I had family who committed suicide. Now…………
As soon as suicide comes into any situation I lose all ability to care. Its the selfish cowards way out. Guess what, most peoples lives are consistently bombarded with shitty situations which more often than not seem insurmountable. Still we stick our faces in the reaping machine and do what we can hoping that the next day will be better even though it probably wont be. To all those who have attempted suicide I can only say harden up or fuck off because I can guarantee someone somewhere else is in a much worse situation than you
Sorry that suicide has been a part of your family, must be horrible. I can’t agree with the ‘harden up or fuck off’ stance though, that’s certainly not going to help anyone in that situation and neither is the fact that other people are worse off than them, that’s not what it’s about.
Now I see why they committed suicide.
That would be a great argument if there weren’t physical and mental reasons for people to commit suicide. While the every day schmuck that has bills or the lass who thinks she can’t go on because her boyfriend dumped her offing themselves is kinda childish to me, I think there are situations where it makes sense that some one would want to end it all.
You are the exact opposite of a helpful person when it comes to suicide.
By your logic only one person in the world can ever be allowed to despair at their life, because only one person could ever have nobody in a worse situation.
You suck. Your opinion sucks. Shut up until you stop sucking so damn much.
the bigr: I’m sorry that the most tragic of events has left you so intensely bitter.
The closer you are to a family member who kills themselves, the more likely there is to be mixed emotions and feelings of extreme anger as you question how they could have left you on your own.
I hope that you aren’t plagued by bitterness for your whole life. It can ruin a life, being filled with anger and resentment. I hope you get some closure.
Your attitude is a reaction to something that you don’t understand and cannot control. So you dismiss it. When you get some wisdom under your belt you will start to see the world a little less starkly.
Right now you seem to need to find an absolute in your mind to slot this into. Filed under “I don’t care”. But that is not true. You do care. Your considered (if immature) logical explanation for your attitude shows you have actively decided not to care about a difficult issue, as opposed to actual apathy which would have seen you not comment.
When you are in a situation where everything seems hopeless and every path involves only greater pain, suicide can seem like a very attractive option.
What snapped me out of that temptation in the past was the realisation that there were people who cared for me and would be genuinely sad if I chose to die. However, there are people who who either are really alone or think they are.
Coping is almost never going to be a case of hardening up or effing off. It will probably be a matter of finding a new path; if necessary, resetting your life and looking for a way to start over. And if you can’t do that because there are others depending on you, it seems that you do have a reason to live after all.
That sounds very twee and certainly isn’t as easy as it sounds. Calling the lifeline people is probably a good start.
‘Harden up or fuck off’ enforces the cultural stereotype that people (but men in particular) are expected to silently deal with their problems or keep them bottled up inside instead of seeking help. Your attitude is the main reason why suicide in men is ten times higher than in women.
You need to sit down and seriously reconsider the way you regard other human beings and the hardships we all go through, because your attitude is not only disgusting, it’s harmful to people around you, your family included.
Sorry, reply fail.
I feel sorry for these guys. Pro gaming persons are so young and easy to exploit. Doesnt help that any opportunity for them is like a shining light.
I would contend that was exactly what they were trying to do (fucking off) when they attempted suicide…
I hope you and your family do not suffer from depression as that attitude is extremely unhelpful for people so unwell to be considering suicide.
“my career is over”.. Oh no what will you do now you can’t play games for a living!! This whole “industry” to me is just like bitcoin.. It’s new, it doesn’t really have any basis to exist – people could do it with or without money or with or without it being ‘professional’.. If you can win competitions and make a lot of money, enough to live on, then that’s great.. But it’s about as legitimate as people who “play the odds” online and enter EVERY online competition and sell the prizes/take the cash etc..
I feel bad for his situation, but realistically it should just be taken as a life lesson on that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is, and move on.
Micheal_debyl, you have done no research his father left at an 15 for him which caused him to leave school not be able to afford an education that money he got from gaming got sent to his family so they could pay their bills you are an inconsiderate worthless excuse for a human being lets put you in his position, in Korea its not like in the US there is no community college and when you drop out you’re done there is no going back so educate yourself and stop being a dumb pooping american and stop making us other Americans look like inconsiderate and ignorant poos like yourself