Esports Fairness committee in Korea has suspended cvMax for five months due to incidents that happened during his time at Griffin.
cvMax has been under investigation for a year for his transgressions during his time in Griffin. He was being investigated due to reports of physical and verbal abuse on Choi “Sword” Sung-won. Here is what we know of the news.
Timeline of the investigation
On 2019, cvMax left Griffin and was accused of physical and verbal abuse on players primarily Sword. Riot started an investigation in October of 2019 to investigate the situation. In that investigation Riot received statements from the parties involved and deemed that cvMax was indeed guilty. Therefore, Riot sanctioned an indefinite suspension for cvMax. However, a week later, Riot withdrew the suspension due to a lack of through investigation.
Riot Korea said they would turn it over to a third party group for an investigation into the matter. While the trial of cvMax is going on in the courts in Korea, Riot Korea contacted the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the incident.
The FTC decided to carry out a separate investigation via the Esports Fairness Committee and found cvMax guilty of abuse on Sword. Therefore they decided to ban cvMax for 5 months till May 2021. Hence, cvMax will be banned from KeSPA as well and cannot take up his role as Head Coach for any team during the duration.
Reaction to the suspension
It came as a shock given that the trial is still ongoing for the dispute. The commission has responded by saying that the results of the trial will have no bearings on their decision. Thus, the decision will not be changed regardless of the trial’s verdict. DRX has also issued a statement regarding the situation.
cvMax has responded on his stream saying it was an “unfair process” and refuted the accusations. The sentiment around twitter and reddit has been in support of cvMax. There was a conflict of interest pointed out about the CEO of Loud Communications which merged with Griffin’s mother company, Still8, was in this committee.
With all of that said, until the trial has a verdict, it is hard to judge whether cvMax was indeed guilty or not. DRX is put in a tough situation with KeSPA Cup registration deadline being tomorrow.
The statement for the Esports Fairness commission can be found here.
For more esports news, keep an eye on our website for more news and information.
