Nuguri and Alphari retire from League

Esports might be a lucrative environment for investors but the players competing in it find it more and more excruciating. The offseason in the competitive League of Legends scene kicked off with Alphari asking Vitality to terminate his contract. Now nearing the end of it, we got the news that former World Champion Nuguri is also going to retire. What is making 23-year-olds quit on their childhood dreams and pursue a career change?

DWG top laner Nuguri retires

And just like that, one of the greatest young prodigies coming out of the Korean talent pipeline is now moving on to better things. Former World Champion and Damwon KIA top laner, Nuguri , has just announced his retirement. The statement comes after most of the offseason moves have concluded, despite Nuguri being a hot commodity. 

Fans could have guessed that a move like this was in the near future, given what he’s been through the previous 12 months. Just a year ago, Nuguri said he was taking time off and not signing with any team, due to health concerns. Fatigue and mental health have always been taboo topics in the esports industry, until now.

Alphari asks Vitality to terminate his contract

The LEC offseason is always at its peak before players are allowed to switch teams. Just days before the November 15 deadline, a lot of roster moves were speculated. Reports came out that Alphari had asked Vitality to terminate his contract. Everyone thought that Alphari was looking for a change of scenery, but it was much deeper than that.

What followed suit came out of the blue. In his pinned tweet longer, Alphari announced he was taking a split off.  After 9 teams in 6 years, and two highly profiled fiasco of seasons on alleged super teams, Alphari had enough. He closed out his tweet by saying that he either comes back rejuvenated and ready to win or realizes that playing and competing doesn’t make him happy as it used to. 

Downsides of competitive gaming

Nuguri and Alphari are neither the first or last professional gamers to go through this. They are just the most recent in a long line of similar stories at the time of writing. Nobody can deny the truth that esports and competitive gaming have taken off in the last five years. But how much have the players benefited from that? The LCS Player Association is the closest thing to a union we have seen in esports. 

While players in traditional sports make their voices heard, competitive gamers seem to crumble under the pressure. In less than a decade, the NBA became a league run by the players. Collective bargaining agreements helped players receive massive salary increases, only when they realized they were the product being sold. But things don’t work out like that in competitive gaming. 

Nuguri and Alphari started young

Most of the players are teenagers or young adults who can barely function without their families. How are they supposed to know what they deserve and what they should demand? Both Nuguri and Alphari started playing when they were 16 years old, and probably don’t have a high school diploma. And for the first few years of their career, they probably didn’t get paid or treated appropriately. Even to this day, if you are not in the higher tiers of competition, you are not promised health care and a minimum wage. And that’s even before you encounter the toxic environment and community surrounding competitive gaming.

Alphari in the LCS

Both of these have spent countless days practicing 16 hours to reach the level they are at now. And all that effort goes under scrutiny every time they play. It’s hard to believe but they are human beings as well, feeling everything fans say despite hiding behind a screen. 

Alphari is well aware of the stigma surrounding his name. His previous failures, the recollections of his previous teammates. But fans can’t know how much effort he put into the 2021 Team Liquid roster.

 All they know is that he butted heads and got head coach Jatt fired. They didn’t know what was going on internally with Vitality’s super team this year, except that they failed to make Worlds. Nobody cares to ask what staring at a screen for 16 hours a day over the course of 6 years does to your mental health. All fans want is wins, and even then you can’t catch a break, as evidenced by the flak both Pyoshik and Faker received. 

Nuguri with FPX

Nuguri’s case was probably even worse. He left the best team in Korea to join a super team in China. If you aren’t aware of how psychotic fans of competitive League of Legends in Korea are, Faker’s grandma has received death threats after his misplay. And that’s what the greatest of all time is enduring. Despite becoming public enemy number one in Korea, Nuguri was never made to feel comfortable in China. A 22-year-old moving into a foreign country, with a completely different social structure and language than what he had been used to. And this was China in 2021, which is to this day still feeling the consequences of the Covid epidemic.

Imagine reading everything these players have read after some poor performances. Not being able to use your phone since all you see is negativity. After the collapse of the 2021 FPX roster at the World Championships, players were told to swim back to China. That they were a disgrace to the game and community. As a community, we must do better. But bigger changes need to happen, if esports are going to match the trajectory of traditional sports.

Solving the issues

Esport psychologists are the first step, and legal consultants are a must. With how many notable figures in the community are coming out about predatory contract policies, the time to act is now. If Rekkles, Upset, and nearly Jankos are sitting on the sidelines, being paid minimum wage, wasting precious years of their short-lived careers due to profit margins, where’s the hope for the younger players? The next generation that is ready to drop out of high school to pursue their dream only to be met with harsh and irresponsible criticism as a daily occurrence. Nuguri and Alphari won’t be the last examples of this, if we don’t do something about it.

Header: Twitter/ Jeesun Park