LCS Drama: Emenes and Summit Flame Former Teammates

The League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) off-season has been anything but quiet, with players taking to social media to air their grievances. EMENES and Summit, in particular, have been calling out former teammates and the LCS as a whole following a poor showing at Worlds 2023.

EMENES, who retired from professional play to pursue his passion of becoming a veterinarian and complete his military service, made waves with his “donezo manifesto” in which he called out former teammates, as well as the NA and EU regions. Summit also got involved, directly calling out the LCS Players Association before apologizing. These incidents have highlighted the tension between top teams in the LCS and the drama that can arise during the off-season.

EMENES’ “donezo manifesto” calls out LCS and LEC players

EMENES, a former professional League of Legends player, has been making waves on social media with his controversial comments about the state of the game in the West and the players who compete in it. In a series of posts on fmkorea, EMENES called out several LCS and LEC players for their lack of dedication and poor performance.

Emenes Donezo Manifesto (on korean forums)
byu/oioioi9537 inleagueoflegends

According to EMENES, NA’s solo queue environment is bad, and the region as a whole doesn’t practice enough. He singled out Fudge and Blaber, two players from Cloud9, for not practicing enough and claimed that Western leagues “suck”. However, he did have favorable words for Berserker, Inspired, Jojo, Contractz, Yeon, and some other North American players.

EMENES also had high praise for C9 CEO Jack, calling him a “genius” and expressing respect for him despite their bad breakup. Additionally, he spoke highly of some former and current XL players, who he claimed kept him from retiring altogether before he joined Cloud9.

However, EMENES also claimed that he was discriminated against because of the language barrier, saying that he learned Turkish curse words to talk back against others. These accusations have not been verified.

LS, a well-known League of Legends commentator, responded to EMENES’ comments, giving his condolences to Cloud9’s support staff and calling EMENES an alcoholic who showed up to practice under the influence. These allegations were denied by EMENES in another fmkorea post.

EMENES also posted screenshots of conversations between him and Cloud9 support staff analyzing and breaking down LPL and LCK matches, something he claims NA teams didn’t do enough of. He further joked that if Coach Rigby weren’t there, he would have committed suicide, with Rigby being the Cloud9 coach he claimed to have liked the most.

Despite the controversy his comments have caused, EMENES seems determined to go out with a bang as he retires. He posted dozens of times on fmkorea, documenting his experiences as a pro playing in the West. In his final post, he bid everyone farewell, saying that he had no regrets and was confident that his path was not wrong.

At the time of writing, Cloud9 has declined to comment on any of the internal happenings for their 2023 roster.

Summit Apologizes for Calling Out APA

During a conversation about the worst performers at the Worlds, LCS fans named Summit, Fudge, and Zven as their top three. Summit, who was part of the conversation, protested the claims and blamed APA, saying, “There was nothing I could do with [a] Ziggs one-trick.” Fans called him out for his poor performance, prompting Summit to apologize shortly after.

Despite the apology, Summit had already removed the Team Liquid branding from his account, leading to speculation that he has already moved on from the team. However, he did have kind words for his former C9 teammates, stating that he knows “you end Zven is the best player in LCS.”

The off-season has been filled with drama between players as the LCS gets shuffled around and rosters settle. Summit’s apology shows a willingness to take responsibility for his actions and move forward, but it remains to be seen if this will be the end of the drama or if there will be more to come.