Weeks after Grifin fired their head coach cvMax, an interesting turn of events have unfolded. After an interview from top laner Choi “Sword” Sung-won, the Griffin player pleaded his former coach “not to spread false rumors”. Griffin’s bot laner Park “Viper” Do-hyeon made a similar statement afterward. While the words were clear, the players’ body language told the opposite.

CvMax heard the statements while streaming and decided to reveal the truth. He wore a Griffin jersey while watching Griffin play. He even pretended to be with his former team during pick and bans. After the game, Viper requested that cvMax should stop talking about the players so that they could focus on playing at Worlds. However, cvMax decided enough was enough.

In his stream, he revealed he had feuded with Griffin’s manager Cho for quite some time. CvMax had a unique way of training his players and apparently, Cho didn’t like it one bit. Cho also told cvMax that after the finals, he will be gone from the team. Enraged, CvMax threatened Cho that he would leave even before and dared him to prepare the team himself. Afraid of the consequences, Cho backed off but his decision still stood.

After Griffin lost the finals, the two danced around the decision for a while. CvMax wanted it to be the management’s decision but Cho wanted to frame it as CvMax quitting. When the players were asked, none of them could speak, potentially due to additional threats by Cho himself. Embarrassed, CvMax left the team and decided not to tell the public about the truth.

Former Griffin ADC DdangWoo confirms CvMax’s claims

In a Youtube video posted on Reddit, a former Griffin member confirmed his coach’s previous statements. He provided a third-party perspective on the controversy and gave the community much-needed proof. He confirmed that the conflict between Cho and CvMax had been going on for a long time, even before Griffin became known to the community. Also, Cho never let CvMax ever take credit for Griffin’s success.

Reddit user u/Calycae made a thread containing the translated statements from both CvMax and DdangWoo. The summary vindicated the players of Griffin, citing potential threats from Griffin management to make false statements.