Allegations by Hangzhou Spark team supervisor Longduo against player Krystal (EN Translation)

Original article: https://www.weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404400904794144862#_0

1. Before the team moved to the US and was gathered in China, Krystal requested not to live with the team and instead live on his own (due to personal sleeping issues). While this went against the team’s desire to gather the entire team together, the Spark decided to respect his health problems and allow Krystal to do so. In return, Spark requested that Krystal not to let this special arrangement hinder practice progress with the team, and be on time to practice.
   Yet, Krystal has repeatedly arrived late and gave himself leave to return home, which are against the team’s rules.

November: Late on 15th, 27th, 30th; Took leave on 18th, 28th, 29th
December: Late on 5th, 18th, 24–28th; Took leave on 20th
January: Late on 4th, 5th; Took leave on 9th (without informing beforehand), 10th, 11th, 26th, 28th, 29th

Conversations Krystal had with the team’s managers are partially shown at the end of the article.

2. When the team was moving to the US for Stage 1, Krystal had the wrong visas and had to return to China. After going back to China, he repeatedly delayed his return to the team by allegedly feigning illness.
On the 21st of January (Beijing time), the team are leaving for the US. Without any prior communication, Krystal suddenly contacted the team at noon, saying he needs to deal with his girlfriend’s paperwork to the US, and cannot go with the team. After the request was rejected by the team, he “followed” the team to the US. But on the 21st of January (LA time) after the team arrived in the US, Krystal entered the US with only a B visa (tourist visa) instead of a P1 visa (athlete visa) like everyone else. According to OWL regulations, non-US players must hold a P visa to play on stage. (Many players hold both a P1 visa and a B visa, IIRC for convenience travelling out of the US temporarily). The team suspects that Krystal intentionally entered the US using a B visa only, since they have repeatedly reminded the players to get a P1 visa.
Thus, Krystal had to return to China to get the P1 visa in order to compete. Krystal was requested by management to return by 30 Jan afternoon.
When he was back in China on 28 Jan, he requested for leave due to contracting conjunctivitis. He claimed the doctor required him to rest for a week, and cannot return to the team on the 30th as previously requested.
Team managers for the Spark called Krystal on the 9th of Feb about his situation, he said he was in Beijing, and needed more time to be away from the team due to him contracting a cold.
February 14th rolled around and Krystal was still not back with the team. He had missed all OWL preseason events, and cannot be with the team at the start of the regular season the next day. After being unable to contact him for multiple times, the Spark issued Krystal a demand letter (I think it’s one, I’m not a lawyer) demanding Krystal stop violating the company’s policies and not conforming to the team’s arrangements, and to return to the team immediately.

(The legal letter is at the end)

Krystal finally returned to the team on the 21st of February (US time), with the following events missed (all dates in PST):
- All practice with the team since 28th Jan
- A stage test on 1st Feb and a preseason match with the Boston Uprising
- Media day and interviews on 8th Feb
- Final stage test on 10th Feb and a preseason match with the Seoul Dynasty
- Regular season match against Shanghai Dragons (though he was suspended by the League for account sharing, as a member of the team he should still have been with the team)
- Regular season match against LA Valiant and Team Day

3. Being disruptive to the team by insisting to switch roles five days before the start of the stage. Then began to display negative behaviour following the start of the stage.
Because of prior controversies (see above), Krystal has had a bad rep with the rest of the players and coaches. But management is continuing to try to have everyone get along with him. Before the latter half of Stage 2, Krystal had been playing the “flex DPS/Brigitte” role. When things were going smoothly, Krystal suddenly missed a week of scrims because his visa approval got delayed. Afterwards, he wasn’t fully focused on practice, until he requested to switch roles (to main DPS/Zarya) 5 days before the start of Stage 3. Despite being persuaded against doing so by the coaching staff, Krystal insisted, which threw a spanner into the works by the coaches. But after extensive discussions between management and the coaches, they finally relented to Krystal.
This “compromise” only calmed Krystal for three days. After setting up scrims where Krystal was main DPS, the coaches compared his performance to GodsB, and presented the starting roster (Krystal wasn’t on it) two days before the team’s first match. In the two days prior to the beginning of the matches, the team couldn’t satisfy Krystal’s demand to split scrim time evenly between him and GodsB. After being notified of it, Krystal began to act negatively during practice. The fits he threw became larger and larger, so large that it affected the other players’ rest. Later, Krystal began sleeping in during practice or not attending at all due to “falling ill”. When the team told Krystal about the risks of changing roles (the coaches explained the difficulty of it, he might not start any more, he might have fewer opportunities to scrim etc.), he agreed to accept the outcomes at the time.
During this time, Krystal never tried to earn a starting spot through merit or talent, but by repeatedly complaining that “he never got fair treatment during scrims” or “the team favours Koreans”, and asked for more opportunities to scrim and start.

The team also no idea whether Krystal really wanted to transfer to another team, or is using it as a coercion tactic. When he first brought up his desire to change teams (on 18 June), we attempted to contact several teams (Boston, Washington, Guangzhou etc.) for a transfer. When Krystal repeatedly asked about the progress (of contact with the other teams), the teams have yet to reply.

The following is Krystal’s attendance sheet for the month of June (however, when the team got wind of his mother being ill, Krystal was awarded full days worth of salary for the whole month of June out of compassion):

4–5th: On time
6–7th: Left early
8th: Game day
9th: Rest day
10th: On time
11–12th, 14th: Absent
13,15th: Game day
16th: Rest day
17th: On time
18–19th, 21st: Absent
20,22nd: Game day
23rd: Rest day
24–25th: Absent
26th: Sick leave
27th: Game day

4. Absent since the end of stage 3 till now to visit family
As mentioned previously, but since Krystal’s been smearing the visa reapplication process online and withholding facts, a few points:

Krystal wanted to return home (presumably Beijing) to visit family, but at the airport, we realized the plane ticket on bound for Shanghai instead. Krystal tried to cover it up with several excuses.

The people who helped Krystal reapply for his visa was staff members from Bilibili Gaming, who oversee BLG’s other esports divisions. In actuality, there had been no delays during the whole process (also, Krystal has applied for a P1 visa before anyways, so he knows what documents to send), but Krystal had intentionally delayed or not sensed the urgency required, and was slow in submitting his passport photo and other required documents.

(The legal letter essentially details all of points 1, 2, and 3, and claimed that Krystal violated the “Player Professional Services Agreement” signed on 20 October 2018 between him and Bilibili. The letter also demands that Krystal contact the team’s managers and return to the team, follow orders and requests from the coaching and management staff, as well as OWL staff, to actively participate during practice, and not to break any more rules. Within three days of receiving the letter, Krystal must respond promising not to violate the Player Professional Services Agreement, and if so, will agree to fines and written apologies.)

(I’ll translate the highlighted texts, if I need to translate the rest please let me know)

Nov. 18, 11:15:
Krystal: I need to wait for him to finish clearing out the bathroom and pack my things. I’m at home, my mother’s out.
Doublesai (Team manager): ETA?

Nov. 21, 09:01:
Krystal: …
wtf
I just woke up, my alarm didn’t go off

Nov. 28, 13:11:
Doublesai: Why aren’t you here yet?
Krystal: Hospital is giving me a transfusion
38.7 (deg C)
Fever

Nov. 29, 17:06:
Doublesai: What happened? Where are you?
Krystal: I’ll be there immediately
It hurt a lot just now
I didn’t want to move

(Showing that Krystal was late/absent for several times due to being “sick” and other reasons)

Dec. 10, 16:07:
Krystal: I’m going back to Beijing
(Sends details about the arrival airport at Beijing)
I forgot to tell you yesterday
Doublesai: You need to tell me beforehand

Dec. 20, 11:45:
Doublesai: You promised me yesterday…
Scrim today at 1pm
Better be here by 12.30

Dec. 20, 12:41:
Krystal: I lost my wallet…

Jan. 7, 11:38:
Krystal: Suddenly got a fever, and a headache…
Doublesai: Go to the hospital, remember to take sick leave, or let me get the team leader to bring you there

Feb. 8, 14:40:
Doublesai: What is happening over there? You agreed to come back on the 30th, then agreed to come back in 3 days. What day is it now? You didn’t even apply for leave, and missed so many days of practice and preseason. Are you not going to attend tomorrow’s media day and the preseason match on the 10th?