On March 29th, the VCS organizing committee released a blacklist of individuals and teams suspended from all activities related to Riot’s Esports. This news immediately sent shockwaves through the League of Legends community as this “hall of shame” included 32 names from all 8 teams in the tournament.
Interestingly, most of the jungle players in the tournament (except Levi) are temporarily suspended from competition. It’s sad that a position once proud for Vietnamese League of Legends, featuring names like SofM and Levi, has now become one of the most tainted. This has raised concerns within the community about the severe shortage of jungle players in VCS teams.
Perhaps seeing this opportunity, the once mighty jungle god of VCS – Ego, unexpectedly expressed his desire to return to competition right under the tournament’s announcement. However, fans at home reacted extremely harshly to Ego, believing that this player had no chance of returning to professional play. Some even suggested that even if the jungle in VCS was completely vacant, it still wouldn’t be Ego’s turn to be recruited.
Despite his talent and being the MVP of the VCS Summer 2020 finals, Ego’s career ended abruptly amidst a series of dramas. This stemmed from his significant gambling addiction and his debts to many colleagues within the local League of Legends scene.
Even earlier this year, Ego claimed to be “about to join SofM’s team” to continue borrowing money everywhere. This led the owner of VKE to publicly clarify that he had no association with this former player. Clearly, for a player with such an unreliable past, it is nearly impossible for Ego to be recruited by any professional team.
Not stopping there, Ego himself had already received a ban even before the aforementioned negative drama of the largest domestic League of Legends tournament. Specifically, at the beginning of 2023, this former player publicly engaged in account boosting after retiring from professional play. This alone was enough to warrant Ego a lifetime ban, let alone any hope of “reviving his career.” Therefore, the notion from League of Legends fans that Ego is “no hope” is not exaggerated at all.
Fairly speaking, this incident is seen as a complete purge of the tournament from the VCS organizing committee and Riot Games. It remains unclear what the quality of the tournament will be after this “negative purge,” but it will undoubtedly be much cleaner. For someone like Ego, who has been involved in too much negativity, there is certainly no place for him in the League of Legends community after this incident.