In the LPL region, there are certain rules for professional gamers when climbing ranks, notably the requirement to compete on the same server (China has many League of Legends servers). This has led to relatively slow-paced gameplay on that server, and it’s not uncommon for players to get frustrated with teammates or opponents after losing a match. The peak of this occurred on the afternoon of June 15, when Khan – the Top Laner for FPX, was heavily insulted by a Chinese professional gamer live on stream:
Specifically, during that match, Khan’s team faced many disadvantages, while Khan was the only one with a slight advantage while split-pushing. However, his teammate Nunu began to insult Khan with remarks like “useless to the point of just sitting and farming, gank and die, 18% winrate over 11 matches, not even worth sh*,…”
Shortly after, the Ekko player on the opposing team, OMD Mori (the second team of OMG), also attacked Khan with comments such as: “the imported Korean trash is being insulted but sits quietly, 4 Chinese can’t win because of one Korean who’s too trash, always talked a lot in Korean ranks, why not say anything now,…”
According to stream viewers, OMD Mori insulted Khan for his past statement “4 Chinese can’t win.” Throughout the match, this player used Khan’s past slip of the tongue to insult and belittle him. Meanwhile, Khan chose to remain silent to avoid escalating the situation further.
Returning to that match, it might be a bit subjective to look at KDA and discuss each player, but with Khan’s KDA, it can be seen that at least he did not feed and contributed significantly during team fights (participating in 8 out of 13 kills for the team), and even became the MVP of the team.
After investigation, the LPL tournament organizers announced that OMD Mori violated LPL rules under sections 11.1.10 and 11.2.5, imposing the following penalties:
– A fine of 10,000 RMB for OMD team.
– A 2-match ban for Mori.
What’s notable here is that although Khan has also faced criticism for mocking Chinese players in the past, this time, the LPL fan community has completely stood by him. This is because, after the slip of the tongue while still with LongZhu Gaming, Khan took very sincere corrective action by cutting his hair and posting a public apology.
Meanwhile, Mori’s actions not only rekindled deep-seated conflicts between the two communities but also reflected poorly on him as a professional League of Legends player. In this case, it’s clear that even LPL fans can no longer defend their “homegrown” player.