Riot Games has permanently banned the former coach of the LoL team “Team Solo Mid”, Peter Zhang. This is equivalent to a professional ban in League of Legends. Zhang is accused of unethical behavior, including embezzling salaries intended for players.
This is Riot Games decision:
Riot Games has ruled that Peter Zhang is guilty of “unethical conduct” towards current and former TSM players and employees.
As a result, Peter Zhang is permanently barred from working for any team or organization participating in any competition hosted by Riot Games.
Ultimately, this is a worldwide professional ban for Peter Zhang to work professionally in League of Legends or other titles like Valorant.
Who is Peter Zhang? Born in China, he has been working for Team Solo Mid since 2018, first as a coach for the Academy team and later as “head of player development”. On March 18, 2022, Peter Zhang was released from TSM. He was accused of a conflict of interest.
“Team Solo Mid” is the most successful and largest esports team in LoL in the USA. However, TSM is currently in a deep crisis.
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Multitude of allegations all about money
What is he accused of? Zhang was accused by his team TSM of embezzling approximately $250,000 paid to two players between December 2021 and February 2022.
Also, in October 2021, Zhang would have offered to sell a former TSM player’s car and send the money to the player, but he kept more than half of the $80,000 he received for the car. As you know from the discussion surrounding the incident, it was the car of world-class supporter SwordArt.
Zhang also borrowed money from 8 TSM players and employees about $15,000 over which he had some authority as a manager.
Investigations by Riot Games and TSM came to all these results – Peter Zhang was unable to refute these allegations with conclusive evidence.
Zhang dismissed allegations as a “cultural misunderstanding,” then remained silent
What did Zhang say? When the allegations surfaced, Zhang said it was all a cultural misunderstanding. In China, it is common to borrow money from friends. He needed the money for his sick grandmother (via Dexerto).
However, he denies the involvement in the embezzlement of player salaries. But now it seems to be the case that precisely these complications were his undoing.
In LoL, champs are regularly revised:
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This is behind it: In the background of this case there is a basic conflict:
Ultimately, however, the China phase went terribly wrong for TSM. The Chinese players they brought in didn’t work. And the intermediary Zhang was apparently pocketing money.
The whole “China experiment” turned out to be a total failure for TSM.
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