Renegades Co-Owner Faces Poaching Allegations from Gamers2
Chris Badawi, co-owner of Renegades, has been accused of poaching by European Challenger team, Gamers2.
Allegations of poaching have become a contentious issue in the professional League of Legends scene. However, Riot Games only punishes poaching in the highest level of the game, the League Championship Series. So, what happens when a Challenger Series team poaches a player from another Challenger Series team?
The current controversy revolves around former Gamers2 AD carry, Mohammad “Jebus” Tokhi. Tokhi joined North American Challenger team Misfits on May 7, shortly after Gamers2 lost to LowLandLions in the Challenger Series playoffs on March 31.
Gamers2 owner, Carlos “Ocelote” Rodriguez, accused Misfits of tampering and poaching. Badawi would later come under fire for not only the Tokhi incident but also for allegedly attempting to poach other LCS players. Riot’s internal investigation found evidence of tampering in one case involving Yuri “KEITH” Jew, banning Badawi from the LCS for a year and requiring him to divest ownership in his team if it were to qualify for the LCS.
Now, Badawi and his recently rebranded team, Renegades, are embroiled in controversy again. Rodriguez penned an open letter to Riot Games, accusing Badawi of publicly lying about his interactions with Tokhi and Gamers2. Tokhi also posted a statement titled “Shady, shady G2,” in which he claimed that he and his teammates weren’t given a contract until they reached the playoffs, even though they had been living in the Gamers2 team house for some time. Tokhi says Badawi reached out to inquire about his contract once the playoffs began.
Former Gamers2 team manager, Daniel Vorborg, contradicted Tokhi’s account, claiming in a statement that everything promised by Gamers2 was delivered, but it wasn’t guaranteed in writing.
In response, Rodriguez provided more details about what allegedly happened behind the scenes. He included screengrabs of Skype conversations with Tokhi, which Rodriguez claims show that Tokhi “confirms he wasn’t a part of this drama and that everything was created by Badawi.”
Despite the conflicting accounts, Rodriguez believes that Tokhi’s statement should be taken with skepticism as there are always two sides to a story.
Photo via Riot Games/Flickr