A villain needs a face, why Aphromoo is under fire.

I would like to say hello to everyone. I want to mention a few words about the 100T situation, mostly about the whole Cody Sun fiasco, and how rumors and speculation without proper use of information can damage a person's reputation for no good reason. This means that yes, Aphromoo will be the main topic of this article.

 

So after questionable decisions on a roster for worlds and little communication to go on, 100T has been the talk of subreddit recently. From most of my finds, it's mostly negative in nature and people are disappointed with the team's performance. Without little information to go on, we can only guess why this disaster happened. The nature of people when they are disappointed is to find a source to blame, and it seems to me that most of that blame is being diverted to Aphromoo.

 

Most of the posts you will find about Aphromoo are pure speculation or using past evidence in a derogatory way. Why is this so? When people try to blame someone, it's much easier if it's one singular person with a face who most of the community knows. Saying management is to blame is a hard concept to grasp, since "management" could take on multiple forms. Is it a group, is it a person, or even just a situation born from misfortune? There is no form to grasp, so people cannot latch on to management as a scapegoat for their rage for yet another underwhelming World's performance from a region with a history of disappointment.

 

I will not elaborate on Aphromoo's own performance on the split or in worlds itself. I myself believe his mechanical performance was not up to par. However I do want to talk about the nature of how he's seen in team management. Whenever people bring up Cody Sun not being able to play on the team, most of the reasons you see people bringing up is that Aphromoo is the one at fault or that it's either him or me, which is completely ridiculous. A player does not have so much power to actually decide their own roster, as it is the COMPANY that has the final say. Even then, for a company to listen to one singular player to compensate them is ludicrous, and would require a mountain of evidence instead of speculation if you want to be taken seriously. Past cases of where Aphromoo seemingly decided who should stay and who should go are being brought up, and they are being twisted from what was previously said about them. "This happened three times now, First Doublelift, now Meteos and Cody Sun" Where is the substantial evidence to prove this was Aphromoo's fault? Merely saying it has happened X times in the past is not enough. Aphromoo being painted as a puppet master due to being in the presence of roster changes is merely conjecture, and it is just slandering his name with no rhyme or reason to many people with questions on why their team showed such a weak performance.

 

On the topic of previous situations, The Doublelift CLG situation seems to be the most referenced one. It has been confirmed by multiple people, even Doublelift himself, that he at this time was a toxic teammate. League is a team game through and through, and if you think a player's skill is more valuable than their ability to work with others, then you are living in the distant past. Gone are the days where one person can carry a game, winning requires a team effort, and I'm sure we all know how just one player can bring a team down. The roster at this day spent enough time to where Doublelift was given enough time to change, but he did not. So Aphromoo himself gave an ultimatum, "It's either him or me". Here, people are portraying Doublelift as a victim of a betrayal by a close friend, when in reality, this was just a business decision. If there is a player who brings your morale down and is refusing to change, then the answer is to cut him off and bring in someone who will. Playing in LCS is a job, not a fairy tale land where your dreams come true and friendship prevails. You are expected to work together with individuals in a polite manner, even if you do not like each other. Gambit in old times was cited to be like this, and they were the top dogs once upon a time. Honestly, Doubelift himself was the one who got the best end of the deal, learning humility and improving himself drastically in teamwork, showing through in an impressive home split.

 

100T is a fairly new to the Esports scene, as such it's to be expected that their handle on PR is not an experienced one. With Cody Sun also on radio silence, we have nothing solid to go on in what is happening behind the scenes. Aphromoo has become the unfortunate scapegoat to everyone's ire, when in truth we should wait for more information before casting our anger and blame. This may not be anyone's fault, it may be just merely circumstances where unfortunate outcomes of life are happening.

 

TLDR: Before you brandish pitchforks to Aphromoo or 100T as a whole, wait for more information and communication before you potentially ruin a person's reputation needlessly.