cvMax true details uncovered - League of Legends Korea Controversy

Written by plusEV contributor teaaaa

Being a longtime and loyal LCK fan, I have watched, observed, read all the streams, interviews, and news articles regarding the situation with Cvmax, Kanavi, and Griffin. Hopefully I can clarify to the WESTERN scene on some misinformation that is going around here along with some extra crucial details that the people who translated previous streams/articles have missed.

cvMax's career is on the line, along with players like Deft/Keira, and the rest of the DRX trainees/along with management.

The Kanavi Situation

To the people that keep asking, why is cvMax coming out with the Kanavi contract deal now, AFTER he was fired. Why didn't he come before? This just seems like a retaliation to get back at the Griffin/Still8 management....

Very simple answer, is that cvMax only found out about the full details of the contract/threatened situation after he was fired. Kanavi personally called him , watching cvMax's world stream and explained to him the full details. Prior to this, cvMax thought that Kanavi tampered because of what the Griffin management/ and CEO Cho Gyu Nam told him.

This has been proven by cvMax, Kanavi, and the investigation. Kanavi even came to cvMax's stream, proved he was there during the stream by logging into his solo que account. (Cute fact, Kanavi was sleeping/snoring on cvMax's stream today)

The Physical/Verbal Accusations

The statements of Tarzan, Rather, Sword, and Chaos on the physical / verbal abuse to Inven/Riot officially got cvMax banned for life.

The first problem with these statements/eyewitnesses is that the only person out of these 4 players to have been physically (we will go more on this below) or verbally abused by cvMax is Sword. cvMax himself said this, and the interview itself pretty much talks about this. The other incidents, regarding the "pinch too hard", "dead mother", " and verbal abuse is regarding to the players Chovy, Newt , and Doran.

This is very important because if you read below, Chovy and Doran did not want their stories to be related to a physical/verbal abuse case. Newt himself is still in touch with cvMax and Newt called him and said, "Hyung can I come over to your house and come on stream so I can talk to them about my thoughts" cvMax " I never called Newt and said, "hey can you come on my stream and tell them this and that and such, Ill give you money etc " Newts the one who called me, came to my house himself by and said his own words, not mine.

The second problem is that these incidents are taken out of context.

The third problem is that most of these incidents/accusations take place 2-3 years ago, not this Summer, not before cvMax got fired.

cvMax words on stream:

"Griffin/Still8 won't let me directly contact/meet with Chovy or Doran since they are under contract but I have met with Chovy's parents and I know how those players feel about me based on my previous conversations with them. They all told me that they in no way think that my feedback were in any way some sort of abuse. They told me that they do not want Griffin/Still8/or other players to talk about their son's incident as some sort of related case to this and they are furious at the management and that if they were to proceed, they will take legal actions."

"Doran feels guilty because he thinks this all happened because of him, because I started him , because Griffin did not win the finals" "Doran was the only one who tried to stop me from leaving, he contacted me best of luck to my future but I did not reply because I did not want to be assumed for tampering"

The Chovy Thigh Incident

"Yes, I pinched Chovys thigh during KT finals while showing him the monitor." This I admit and I personally apologized to him afterwards, but I pinched him because I wanted him to focus." This incident happened in 2018 Summer and cvMax apologized because this is the one case where he felt that he went over the line.

The Newt Scrim Incident

"I didn't say Newts parents or mother was dead, I said that if this was a solo que situation, your teammates would flame you by saying that your mom is dead. (the insult is sorta popular in toxic korean solo que environment) This incident also took place 2 - 3 years ago. Current coach Chaos only joined after the regional finals of 2018. (This chaos statement isn't by cvMax but by korean posters )

Newt on cvMax's stream a month ago

The Sword Physical Accusation/Disabled

"I never grabbed him by his neck, I grabbed his shoulders and I shook him because I wanted him to focus."

"My exact words were an analogy. Sword, a disabled person with only one functioning hand can't clap like a fully functional person, I need you to clap and be in sync with the other players. I did not call him a disabled person."

Rather accusations, statements

"You know what Rather would say to me? He asked me for more feedback, that he wanted to get better, he would also complain and say things like "Why are you so easy on Sword compared to the others?"

cvMax "Rather told me that Kanavi is lying to me , that CEO Cho Gyu Nam and Still8 would not do such a thing. . "Ok Rather, so if Kanavi is lying about all of this , then I guess Kanavi and I are the bad guys right? He replied "..Yes"

cvMax "Ok, so if we are the bad guys , and if we are misunderstanding some details, lets meet. Lets talk with you, lets meet with Griffin/Still8 , with Kanavi and I face to face" Rather " Ok, lets meet, there is NO way that the CEO is a bad guy." (cvMax and Kanavi has evidence of this conversation.) (Go down below for another story/conversation with Rather)

After agreeing to meet, Rather was not allowed to meet with us by Still8s Ceo, Seo Kyungjong.

More direct quotes, with evidence / proof of former ex griffin players/trainees/ and past SNS DMs

Cvmax "I knew from day one that the system wasn't perfect, and the reason for that is that no one MONITORS me. What I mean by this is that , I get to monitor the players situation, the players levels, their solo que history, their scrim results, how they want to play, what they need to improve, what they need to do , what they need to cut back on but NO ONE does that for me, so to solve this situation I asked them EVERY MORNING.

"Guys, is there anything I can do to help you guys, should I be more involved with you guys, should I be more critical of your solo que, of your scrims , should I be more blunt with the feedbacks, should I tone it down a bit? Griffin team meetings

"Nah everythings good coach"

cvMax in a jokingly manner "Really ? Am I that perfect? hahaha"

cvMax:

"Not ONCE, NOT ONCE did any of these players that are right now accusing me of physical/verbal abuse came up to me and said , "Coach our results are good but I am not comfortable about this situation and your feedbacks, I wish you would tone it down a bit". "If they came to me and said these things, then yes I would have changed my approach, my ways. "You know what the funny thing is that I don't understand? I actually toned down my feedbacks after our first year, not because any player asked me to. Afterwards, they would complain and ask Coach, why aren't you being more critical of us, why have you changed?

(cvMax shares evidence of this by showing us his kakaotalk DMs (SNS , Messaging app) with Tarzan, go below)

"These 4 players are being brave?? They are scared for life? Go check ALL of the Griffin Vods/BTS/Interviews, do they look like they are players scared for life? You know who is the one being brave here?

Its THIS GUY RIGHT HERE (pointing at a snoring Kanavi offscren, same house). Its US.

Hes the one who got out of China, who came to personally to tell me his story, his career / life would have been screwed.

The people being brave in this scandal is us not THEM. Lets say this is all true. Why did not a single player or rep before all this went to Riot Korea and said "Our coach is abusing us, We fear for our lives, mental, and physical health."

I asked them every team morning meeting, guys I am here to help you, to protect you, it is my job to support you. I am a supporter, tell me what I need to work on. If they truly feared for their lives, why are they saying this now? This is a retaliation.

"I am banned for life because of these 4 players statements, but in a way I actually understand this because I still haven't talked about behind stories of Still8, and Still8's CEO Seo Kyung Jong, but this is so entertaining. (He didn't say anything more about this, probably because of laws and shit but cvMax definitely seems like has some info about some shady stuff about Still8.)

"DRX?, I'm going to be honest with you guys. I like Deft. I want to work with Deft, and if all the truth comes out from this incident, along with me getting unbanned, I will definitely work with DRX."

Showing Tarzans kakaotalk DMs with cvMax and cvMax words.

2019/06/13

Tarzan

"Dae Ho Hyung"

"When I am doing bad in scrims"

"can you please be more harsh/critical to me"

Cvmax

"ㄷㄷ " (short for 대단 , used like "wow, immense etc")

Tarzan

"In my opinion, the way I feel is that you are holding back to protect my mental health"

cvMax *calls him

I was very moved by Tarzan because of this at the time.

cvMax scrolls past a lot but by the looks of the conversation, you can honestly say that Tarzan and cvMax had an ok relationship to say the least. They talk about eating dumplings, contemplating on wether cvMax was going to lose muscle mass, talks about how SKTs Support/Jungle are monsters at spell checking (time line is within 2018 Kespa cause he also says KEG are good , they just took off a map from Damwon) Also says that no one in our team spell checks.

Tarzan would repeatedly come up to me and say, "Hyung I need you to help me move these players, these guys aren't taking these games seriously , you need to be give them more feedbacks. I have no power if you don't move them."

cvMax second stream

"I came back because I forgot to mention these 3 things, that I wrote down.

One. Riot Korea says I said a cuss word to Sword, yes I did but this incident took place after Sword came back from worlds, and I said "Fine do whatever the fuck you want." (He was not a coach of griffin at the time cause he was FIRED)

Two. When Rather went to Flash Wolves to play under Coach Sweet ( aka Chung Jung Hee, former JAG/Kongdoo and current JAG coach), he told me that they had many problems. Rather kept saying things like to cvMax, " Hyung, Coach Sweet's feedbacks are night and day compared to yours, now I know you are special after playing under Coach Sweet." Coach Sweet would tell him that "Even if Kkoma were here to coach you, all you would say and follow is cvMax." Coach Sweet and Rather had very big arguments about this , these are words of Rather himself when he would come back to visit us during breaks/vacations.

When Rather went back to Flash Wolves, I didn't buy him any vitamin/supplements so I gave him half of mine.

"This is really important because this took place AFTER the incidents that Rather says were physical/verbal abuse incidents." (So basically, if Rather felt he was abused all that year long, why would he constantly fight with other coaches and be critical of their feedback?)

Three. "I have never felt more supported by the community ever in my life. I also am so sorry to Newt, Doran, and Chovy. I never wanted them to be involved with this and I just want to say that they are amazing guys and that I am very grateful."

CloudTemplar, employee of Riot Korea, former LCK Jungler, current commentator for LCKs thoughts and the ONLY RIOT KR related employee/caster/ to talk about this Issue. That is right, he is the only riot related employee to publicly speak on this issue.

Nothing so far from side caster Kim Dong Joon(but apparently he is casting PUBG finals so), No words from legendary main mc Jun Yong Joon. Nothing from KangQui , another caster, former pro. (edit on KangQui part, he apparently said on stream that this is bs regarding to the life long ban)

"If these allegations are true, then yes cvMax should be punished but I think that everyone can agree on is that no one seems to be satisfied with this investigation, more details will probably come out every day. We need to know more about this from both sides, right now it is not a 50:50 situation. Too many questions needs to be answered.

He also said that this is not an easy situation for himself.

This was his 2nd stream regarding this scandal , his first stream about this topic was that , we all should wait for the details to come out first, and then we will talk about this case.

He ended the stream saying that he will talk more about this when more details come out and that he will not shy away from it.

Personal words

The Korean community 99.9 % believes in cvMax. They do not believe an ounce of words from Griffin/Still8/ And Riot Korea because Riot Koreas reps , Ceo Cho Gyu Nam, and Still8s Ceo are all connected from their Starcraft days. Not to mention, CEO Cho Gyu Name knows pretty much every esports related figure, journalist, and players during his days as CJ / GO team head manager.

They also believe in him because he is the one , who is coming on stream , showing evidence. He is the one actually risking his reputation, not Still8 or Griffin. All his streams are up on twitch/youtube. We also have live statements from Force (Former Griffin ADC) saying that cvMax never physically abused anyone, and that he was there for the Newt Incident.

His youtube channel if anyone understands korean, he talks about this a lot.

Also, the statements from Griffin/ and Griffin players accusing cvMax doesn't make sense. If these allegations are true, are they saying that they watched by as their players were being abused left and right for over 2 and a half years? That not a single functioning adult tried to stop him? That in this day and age, all the players, the players parents, and members of Griffin/Still8 management saw the abuses going on but was too afraid to do anything?? A head coach has that much power over all these people? Somehow that they just realized, after all this time and the Kanavi scandal, that they are somehow the victims and that cvMax is the sole evil guy, that abused players physically and verbally under CEO Cho Gyu Nams watch?