"As most of you know by now, last Thursday afternoon KST, reports of EG signing a player away from TSL were first published on several Korean eSports websites, and shortly after, were also posted here on TL. I'd like to take a few paragraphs to shed some light on the situation.

As of now, PuMa has signed with Evil Geniuses, and he will be joining our team. We will be announcing his travel schedule and training location later in a formal press release, because we think that this occasion deserves to be announced on its own terms, in a non-reactionary fashion. Additionally, despite what was originally reported, PuMa didn't sign with EG until very, very recently - days after this became a public issue. We at EG, and PuMa himself, both feel that this situation has been unfairly blown out of proportion.

EG first spoke with PuMa at NASL, prior to the round of 8 matches. TSL has said that we claimed that PuMa approached us first - I don't know where this is coming from, but I want to make it very clear that we approached him. When I introduced myself to him, I did not throw a contract in his face, I did not pressure him, and I did not attempt to use any aggressive recruitment methods. I simply let him know (via a translator) that EG was looking to support a Korean player, and asked him if he had any interest on a general level. He asked me some questions, and I answered them. We also made it very clear to each other that neither of us would be not be able to proceed with this recruitment unless TSL's coach was okay with it. In the weeks following NASL, PuMa and EG continued our discussion. As of last Wednesday, there was very serious mutual interest in having PuMa on EG; serious enough that he brought the issue up to Mr. Lee, the coach of TSL, as EG and PuMa had agreed would happen.

According to PuMa, his conversation with Mr. Lee actually went very well, without hostility or animosity. Mr. Lee himself has stated in one of his recent interviews that their conversation ended on good terms. For this reason, PuMa was very surprised and confused when he found out that Mr. Lee had gone to the Korean press in a negative fashion, and that he had publicly "released" PuMa from TSL. EG was also very confused, as we were waiting for PuMa to speak with Mr. Lee before proceeding with the signing, and we hadn't even heard back from PuMa when the news broke. Neither EG nor PuMa wanted to proceed with the signing, unless it could be done on good terms with TSL. For EG, growing our Korean fan base and developing mutually respectful relationships with Korean teams are both very important long-term goals. We've put so much work and planning time into being able to recruit a top-tier Korean player. Why would we want to invite such controversy and sign our first Korean player under these kinds of public circumstances?"