On the 7th, Riot Japan officially apologized to Jeon “Dara” Jeong-hoon, who recently retired from the League scene; their apology was in reference to their poor handling of an issue surrounding the player. Riot Japan announced publicly that they “apologize about how poorly we managed the players performing in this league. We also want to show gratitude to Dara and to his commitment in the LJL.”

They stated that “In early April, Dara expressed that he felt unpleasant and highly insecure when his former team tried to contact him. Afterwards, he requested consulting about this issue with his team.” Riot Japan said that they contacted his team SCARZ Burning Core and talked about this issue, “If this relates to inappropriate acts such as player harassment, we will immediately stand up and handle this incident.”

However, Dara decided to retire from the League scene. Riot Japan later announced “We strongly urged the teams to obey the law and build positive player ethics, but it didn’t work out as we wished. We will again send our message to the teams about the importance of obeying the league’s rules and ethics. Furthermore, we will make and provide a better consulting service for the players.”

▲ Jeon “Dara” Jeong-hoon on the left

Dara joined Rampage (now named PENTAGRAM) in 2015, and claimed a total of 3 Japanese League titles. Last year, the team finally got the chance to perform in the League of Legends World Championship.

The incident occurred soon after he tried to transfer to the second division team, SCARZ Burning Core. In December of 2017, Rampage staff members Nakamura Hiroki and Fujita Takuya constantly threatened Dara and eventually took his Japanese residence card to stop him from leaving the team.

Riot Japan Punished the two employees by giving them a three-month ban from the LJL stadium. Additionally, the team PENTAGRAM (former Rampage) was issued an automatic forfeit loss up to week 5; which covered the entire LJL Spring split ‘Round 1’.

Although the people involved in this issue were penalized, Dara was still traumatized. After his move, he did manage to lead and promote SCARZ Burning Core to the 1st division. However, he revealed that he was frightened to confront his former team members in the LJL; he eventually announced his retirement after 3 days.