[Dox]

Pretty much everyone has already heard about this since the announcement an hour ago, but I thought the thread warranted a valid discussion.

Resident superstar Korean translator OrangeMilkis revealed a translated article on Twitter and Team Liquid. Extract below:

TSL announced today that they will be releasing Puma on their team. The team revealed today that after Puma won NASL, Puma directly received interest from a foreign team, Evil Geniuses.

Manager Lee noted that "It is disappointing that we have to make a decision like this, but it's absolutely disgusting that Evil Geniuses would ignore the coaches completely and directly go talk to the player"

TIG confirms that Puma will be joining Evil Geniuses. EG made an offer to Puma after they made it to the round of 4, and after that, Puma had decided that he would accept EG's offer. Puma revealed his intentions to the TSL manager after coming back to Korea. Manager Lee decided to respect the player's wishes in the end. He noted that "It's really disturbing. It feels like the player I raised was just stolen away from me.", adding that "There needs to be a system to stop foreign teams from stealing Korean players like this"

EG has been revealed to pay Puma a certain amount of salary, and to provide Puma with money for foreign tournaments.

With the recent acquisition of the team formerly known as fOu by FXO, PuMa to EG and MinChul/NaDa being "globally branded" by SK Gaming, I think the pattern of Korean offshore dominance is here to stay.

[NvRossi]

so much money in the scene right now, koreans want some of that action

[Xenomorph]

TSL seems to be falling apart imo. Kinda sad to see =(

[Maynarde]

Originally Posted by TARossi

so much money in the scene right now, koreans want some of that action

Plenty of tournaments outside of Korea that TSL weren't going to send him to, now he's gonna get some of that sweet sweet moolah.

GL HF PuMa

[Xeen]

Practicing with Incontrol isn't going to let you keep beating MC, PuMa.

Quick Comments

PiG:

lol so true

[NvRossi]

because puma joined EG for the practice partners...

[Daboo]

I feel quite sad for tsl, all these players suddenly leaving. But it's weird to expect EG to talk to the coach, atleast in the corporate world no one talks to your manager when they make you an offer, but I guess he might have been looking for an arrangement like what ogs and sk gaming have done.

Even though it's perfectly normal for this to happen, but I still feel a little hate for EG, especially after the controversies over inside the game/sotg, team liquid and EG masters cup.

Oh well, best of luck to puma, hope practicing with machine,incontrol,demuslim can help you beat the best.

Edit: Coach lee, you could totally buy out the STX brood war team and make them play sc2 hey atleast we'll get to see toss girl

[MeLo]

Let's hope EG doesn't have a relaxing training schedule or else he'd end up like FruitDealer.

Hopefully EG becomes a much better team overall now that they've got a good terran to practice with/get results.

[Xeen]

Originally Posted by TARossi

because puma joined EG for the practice partners...

No, obviously he joined EG because EG could afford to fly him around for tournaments outside Korea. He's almost certainly going to practice with koreans the same as ever.

Certainly looks out of place on EG, though.

[Xenomorph]

Originally Posted by Xeen

No, obviously he joined EG because EG could afford to fly him around for tournaments outside Korea. He's almost certainly going to practice with koreans the same as ever.

Certainly looks out of place on EG, though.

I assume he will be flown into the new EG house, so maybe less practice with koreans?
I wish the vultures in the TL thread would shut up until EG makes a press release, there isn't enough solid facts on what actually occured and what exactly is going to happen (i.e will PuMa stay in korea etc.) l2 be patient ppl

[Dox]

Originally Posted by Xenomorph

I assume he will be flown into the new EG house, so maybe less practice with koreans?
I wish the vultures in the TL thread would shut up until EG makes a press release, there isn't enough solid facts on what actually occured and what exactly is going to happen (i.e will PuMa stay in korea etc.) l2 be patient ppl

I'd be extremely surprised if PuMa left Korea. I imagine he'll continue living in Korea and practicing with the same people. Except now he'll be travelling all over the world for global events.

[DtorR]

For some reason this reminds me of the giant football clubs in europe. You can throw money at these awesome players and they will basically join. Maybe one day EG will be this powerhouse like Man Utd.

[AxSGRiM]

Everyone who left TSL got better results (ie Trickster)

[noobinater]

Dick move by EG and sucks for TSL. What's their best player now, Clide? yeah

[TAavanar]

Originally Posted by noobinater

Dick move by EG and sucks for TSL. What's their best player now, Clide? yeah

your right how dare they try to make their team better?
in all seriousness i find it funny that people are bagging EG for recruiting Puma, they obviously want a stronger team like every other team, im sure if any other team had the opportunity to get Puma on their team they would of done it.

[Xenomorph]

EG actually recruiting PuMa is not the issue here, its just how they went about it. In korea (as I've come to understand) one team will approach another teams management when it comes to buying off one's players. However, EG did not go to the TSL management but rather directly to the player, which has caused this fiasco. I can agree with the statement TSL had given in that it was the wrong way to do it, but this is a sport and this kinda thing happens more often than one would think and I hope that everything works out well for everyone in the end.

IMO theres more than one side to this story and that there must be atleast something going on in TSL for it to lose 4 of its star players (Rain, PuMa, Trickster and FD) so quickly.

Once again, this is just my opinion

Xeno

[yongming]

dirty move by eg. sucks for tsl. coach lee did mentioned that they were rebuilding and now their best player leaves.

[AxSGRiM]

Smart move by him imo considering the state of TSL and what EG had to offer.

[dippa]

tbh i think it's better for esports overall.

if you don't want to lose players, teams are going to be forced to contract their players earlier if they want to hold onto talent. the "korean way" essentially would have seen TSL bar any contact with puma whatsoever, which is unfair since he was good enough to be a part of their team - but wasn't good enough for them to offer a contract to initially.

EG have been predators here, there's no doubt about that. but a world where players are offered contracts earlier just in case they come good (like the world of soccer) is far better than one where players can essentially be in this limbo situation where they're sort-of-but-sort-of-not on a team and their financial security is up in the air.

[Xenomorph]

plz read the update guys

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/view...opic_id=245970

[Nobunaga]

It's interesting how it developed. On one hand, you can be quick to criticise TSL for not having a verbal agreement instead of a hard copy, but then you have to realise the environment from where their from, and how their team was created.

A lot of them are ex-brood war players from the team estro, and their coach is from MBCHero. The biggest difference between the SC2 and BW scene in BW is Kespa, and you could probably understand that SC2 teams might not want to get bogged down with restrictive player contracts when they all know each other from "the old days".

Unfortunately, things like this will happen and moving forward, the scene will have to make rules to prevent this from happening. As far as I know, this season has had the most player switches so far? It's better that these things are created early on in the scene.

[EXCL]

Team contracts are bound to happen as sc2 gets bigger, just like any other sport. They work both ways in that its security for the team and security for the player, so win win for both. It's just a matter of time....

[LennX]

Well TSL Coach Lee has given his side of the story, and it is a rather balanced statement. Mostly he blamed himself for being unable to retain some of his players and not forcing players to sign contracts asap.

More info @ http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/view...opic_id=246368

[noobinater]

EG's semi-official side of the story.

tl;dr

1) PuMa has signed with EG, but it didn't occur until very recently - days after the news was originally posted.
2) EG approached PuMa first, and has never claimed otherwise, despite what has been said in the press.
3) Both EG and PuMa agreed that the best approach (communication-wise) was for PuMa to speak with Mr. Lee as a *first step*, and then afterwards EG could become involved with Mr. Lee directly.
4) PuMa was not contracted by TSL, and did not receive a salary.
5) PuMa spoke with Mr. Lee about EG, and their conversation was amicable.
6) To PuMa's surprise and confusion, Mr. Lee made his public comments very shortly thereafter. This happened before PuMa had even had a chance to update EG on his talk with Mr. Lee.
7) EG has already sent a letter to Mr. Lee, apologizing to him for any personal disrespect that this situation has caused him. EG is also publicly apologizing to him for the same reason.
8) EG feels that TSL's public reaction to this situation was knee-jerk and unfair. The fact that PuMa spoke with Mr. Lee as the *first* step in this process does not mean that EG disregarded or ignored TSL. EG and PuMa both agreed that PuMa speaking with Mr. Lee would be the best *first step* for the process. EG expected that the next step in the process would involve speaking with Mr. Lee, but EG did not have a chance to do so, due to the fact that Mr. Lee went to the press so quickly after speaking with PuMa.
9) EG has been speaking with Korean team managers about the situation, and will continue to do so.
10) PuMa is very happy to be on the team, and asks that the community be supportive of both him and EG.

[Nobunaga]

Yeah, don't read the non-tl;dr version...the guy just repeats the first two paragraphs 10 times.

[Unstable]

tl:dr

your still a douche for the way you treated milkis and until you apologise i wont have any respect for you

[NeO_CN]

update was very late doesnt really help of course they can put good spin on it with so long

[ke_ivan]

Well, at least they took the time to reply in an orderly fashion. I'm not too sure who to believe. When you hire someone, or are headhunting, you don't approach to company. Same with players. As to how it was done, it certainly could've been done better. I think TSL was wrong to just release PuMa like that: they shouldn't have just dropped him. They should've gone into talks with EG.

TSL as a team is falling apart. That just goes to show that management isn't too good. I don't think they'd be in this position if they'd handled their players properly.

[Dox]

I think the EG summary really does shine a positive light on the discussion. I really don't think there's any sense in taking sides now - both parties have presented the scenario and it's quite clear what happened.

And anyone who is rude to OrangeMilkis is just awful.

[SkyBreaker]

Originally Posted by Unstable

tl:dr

your still a douche for the way you treated milkis and until you apologise i wont have any respect for you

My e-drama/soap opera curiosity is peaking, what did I miss out on?