TSM respond after “unprofessional” LCS broadcast segment provokes backlash

On the February 3 LCS broadcast, a segment aired about Peter ‘Doublelift’ Peng’s history with TSM and the back and forth between him and TSM founder and CEO Andy ‘Reginald’ Dinh. TSM employees were “shocked and saddened” by how their org was represented.

Update: Both LeTigress and the LCS broadcast team have officially apologized for the segment. You can read their apologies here.

Original story below…

The February 3 (Week 2, Day 2) LCS broadcast didn’t get off to a great start. With technical issues resulting in an hour-long delay and players having to compete remotely, the day wasn’t off to a great start.

In order to fill the time between games, there was more content than usual from casters and analysts. Pro players have been a big part of LCS broadcasts with the new direction they’ve taken with content creation. However, with pros playing remotely, those plans likely had to change. Some of the material was a hit with the community, while one segment has prompted a major backlash.

Leading up to TSM’s match against 100 Thieves, a segment about Doublelift’s history with TSM and its founder/CEO, Andy Dinh, has sparked controversy within the community – as well as with TSM itself. Employees working within the organization weren’t happy about the story that was told on air.

TSM calls out LCS broadcast for “unprofessional” segment

TSM is one of the oldest and most established esports organizations within League of Legends as a whole. Considering they got their start within League of Legends, there are a lot of LCS fans that still follow the org.

However, TSM was subject to multiple investigations conducted between 2021 and 2022. One was directed toward the at-the-time head coach of their LoL team, Peter Zhang, while the other was based around CEO Andy Dinh. This investigation came after Doublelift publicly accused Dinh of abuse during his time in the organization.

The broadcast segment highlighted the back and forth between the two, bringing legal documents and accusations exchanged between the two on Twitter back into the public eye. Both LCS fans and people working for TSM were disappointed in the “unprofessional” broadcast segment and the light in which it painted the organization.

There’s a much more active thread on the official League of Legends subreddit. Still, the one above from the TSM subreddit contains not only the broadcast segment in its entirety (one that has since been deleted from the LCS Twitter page), but reactions from TSM staff on the situation.

TSM SmaK, a manager within the organization that works with multiple teams, expressed that they were “shocked and saddened” by the content of the broadcast.

“We have a team of great players who put their heart into their work and just want to play the game. They did nothing to deserve to be disrespected like this right before one of their most important matches. It’s an important topic that should be discussed anywhere else. Let the players play the game.”

TSM Dunc also confirmed that a conversation was “well underway” with Riot games on how this was handled in the Reddit thread. That reply was paired with his tweet referring to the situation.

While the new direction of the LCS broadcast has, in most regards, resonated with League of Legends fans, the community at large has agreed that this was a miss.