As known, on December 20, the international LoL community was shaken by a Chinese-language post on the official Facebook page of Gen.G. Specifically, to celebrate events in the international market for this team, starting with China, they made a post containing very sensitive content. This caused the LPL audience to be extremely outraged, and there are reports that Gen.G might lose all support from LPL. The post on Gen.G’s page was quickly deleted afterward.
However, the situation escalated further in an attempt to salvage the situation by Gen.G’s communications team. In their apology post to the LPL audience, the team inadvertently made the LCK audience feel uncomfortable as well, leading to another misinformation error. Immediately, the first apology post was deleted, and Gen.G had to issue a correction along with a second apology post. Unfortunately, this action truly felt like “adding fuel to the fire”.
Specifically, on many forums, mixed opinions have erupted. Some die-hard Gen.G fans believe that the LPL audience has blown the issue out of proportion. However, the majority of the audience still believes that Gen.G has poorly handled the media crisis and included inappropriate content. In a new move, Gen.G has suspended its entire communications team and is on the verge of canceling its entire schedule of international events.
But more seriously, some fans have pointed out a worst-case scenario: that Gen.G could lead to the LCK being “banned” by LPL. Specifically, not long ago, LPL was forced to supplement its documentation after a girl group spoke out about the culture of the billion-people country. Now, the issue with Gen.G is even more serious and will surely leave significant consequences, affecting not just Gen.G.
In the world of LoL, LPL is an enormous market, arguably the largest with a more extensive community than any region globally. However, Gen.G’s misstep could put the entire LCK in jeopardy, with this team being the first to feel the impact.