In less than a month, SBTC Esports has lost two of its brightest stars due to penalties. Zeros was permanently banned for misconduct, while Dia1 just received a one-year suspension for engaging in underhanded dealings during his time with GAM Esports.
Being close teammates who now both find themselves sidelined, Zeros immediately spoke out after Dia1’s official punishment, disclosing many stories surrounding character V. – the former boss of GAM Esports, who according to the speculation of Ma Vuong 2k and many in the online community, was the one to leak evidence of Dia1’s “underhanded dealings with SBTC Esports,” leading to this penalty for the player.
During a live stream, Zeros used strong language to talk about character V., explaining why Dia1 ended up violating contract terms when transferring from GAM to SE. Specifically, according to Zeros, he and some other players initially planned for GAM to violate their contracts (overdue salaries) to nullify their agreements with GAM and leave as free agents. However, Dia1 hesitated to leave because he wanted to continue playing with “Anh Khánh” (Levi).
Later on, when GAM fulfilled its obligations under the contract with Dia1, meaning they paid his full salary, this player declared that the SBTC Esports manager was his representative and negotiated his departure from GAM with this “manager”. Zeros analyzed that at this point, Dia1 was actually the one violating the contract, leading to this “delayed” punishment.
Additionally, the player born in 2000 revealed that the prize money he received for winning with GAM was only 16 million VND, while asking Team Secret, despite finishing fourth, their players received up to 40 million VND in prize money.
Regarding the penalties, Zeros affirmed that “all suspensions in VCS are due to character V.,” revealing that this figure had once declared: “I hate someone, so I just ban them.”
Zeros further stated that the former boss of GAM was once part of the VCS tournament organizing committee, so he knew the rules very well and “if he hates someone, he bans them,” “he protects the GAM players a lot,” “this V. is a powerful figure, even if Loc played for hire, he still supported him.”
With a permanent ban from professional League of Legends, Zeros can be said to have “nothing left to lose,” and for the first time in his career, this player admitted he once “played for hire”—one of the most taboo activities for players.
However, according to this player’s sharing, the owner of GAM at that time was well aware he played for hire but turned a blind eye, implying that “playing for GAM meant he was protected.” And the question many people ask after hearing this story is whether GAM Esports received any favoritism compared to other teams during the time character V. was in charge, stemming from this character’s “special status”?
Not only Zeros but also some former names or those related to GAM have spoken out about the incident involving Dia1. However, it should be emphasized that the punishments received by names like Minas, Zeros, Dia1… were due to their violations of the rules and regulations of the tournament. Not considering the situation, but purely on the grounds of logic, these are still penalty announcements that have gone through the investigation process conducted by the organizing committee.
Currently, the incident is still generating a lot of heated debates within the Vietnamese League of Legends fan community.