Scout officially allowed to participate in Worlds 2024
Lee “Scout” Ye-Chan has been cleared of his travel ban and is now officially allowed to travel to Europe for Worlds 2024. The LNG Esports mid laner was originally travel-banned due to legal complications with his former organization, EDward Gaming (EDG).
LNG Scout Barely Squeaks Through
Allegations then surfaced in the days that followed the original report which stated that Scout had not only known about the ban for months, but that LNG had not. Furthermore, Scout’s agency had allegedly assured the player that they would handle the situation - spoiler, they didn’t.
With LNG’s hopes of resolving the issue in time to compete properly at Worlds 2024 dwindling fast, they turned to JDG mid laner Zeng “Yagao” Qi, who agreed to step in to replace Scout on a temporary basis for the Worlds run.
However, Yagao’s very presence at Worlds was also subject to intense debate, as Riot’s roster lock for Worlds 2024 concluded on the 16th of August. LNG had not submitted a substitute name for their mid laner at the time, calling into question whether Riot would grant the exception in this case.
Incompetence or Lies? Or Both?
The crux, however, of the issue revolved around when LNG became aware of Scout’s travel ban. EDG’s manager claims that Scout knew about the ban after the Spring Split. Assuming that includes Spring Playoffs, that still leaves us just post-20th April. Plenty of time to, oh… I don’t know, open your mouth to the org that currently employs you?
LNG themselves are claiming they only found out after the regional qualifiers that just concluded on the 2nd of September. LNG qualified as the winner from this tournament and as the 3rd seed overall from the LPL.
However, Scout’s agency is telling a different story. They claimed that they had informed LNG as soon as Scout had attempted to travel back to Korea for a vacation. When that occurred, is anyone’s guess.
But the vagueness of the timeline, as well as the contrasting stories the public is receiving leaves me with only one question - what is Scout’s side of the story? How is it possible that two sides are telling such different tales and the person of greatest interest and at the center of the nexus, remains silent on the matter.
LNG Finally Ready to Go
For the time being, thanks to the quick aid of Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk paying off a portion of the fees for Scout, the LNG mid laner can now rejoin his team at the most prestigious event of the year.
The matter is far from settled, but for the time being, it has been quelled in favor of Scout being allowed to attend Worlds and represent his team and region.
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Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
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