Efeng, CEO of iG, had previously held one of the top three ranking roles at the governing ACE Alliance for Chinese esports. As of yesterday, he has left his duties with ACE. Here is his resignation letter below:
I’ve officially resigned from my D.ACE role as Events Director, and I want to clarify a few things.
1. Reason for resignation
I’ve always said what needed to be said, and have never been afraid to take blame when necessary. But the recent treatment of King (ACE Alliance top official) has really left a bitter taste. He’s put everything into serving the esports scene, yet when his own club (Club WE, famed in LoL and with a long history, but no Dota team in the past few years, the club has seen declining fortunes in the last year and recently has seen instability hit hard) faces difficulties, all he gets in return are sarcasm, taunting, and people making light of the situation. I think that if the same thing happened to me, it would be even worse than King. So I might as well call an early end to it, so you all can celebrate once and be done with it.
Another is, iG in this past year hasn’t been in ideal shape, so I do not hope to see what happened to King’s WE happening to us [at iG] as well. If you want to label me as incompetent that’s fine, or say I’m running away that’s okay too, my only hope is to help iG operate steadily and stably onwards from now. ACE itself now has lots of capable individuals who can handle all aspects, and thus no longer even needs me around.
2. D.ACE
Don’t go throwing around any more talk about how D.ACE is working to help LoL. If the clubs involved simply wanted to kill off Dota, then merely having each club disband their respective Dota squads would be enough. Which club has a profitable Dota squad right now? Clubs are working to protect and grow Dota 2, with the hope that it can successfully take the torch from Dota 1 and become as hot as it once was in China. This was why ACE was formed, to protect and maintain order within the scene.
Secondly, ACE’s decisions to date have all come absent of outside influence. All criticism of ACE should come from reality first — This year’s losses at TI3 came with ACE, last year’s win at TI2 also came while ACE existed, no difference in that respect. Those who claim ACE denied events from happening, please stand up and provide proof of your claims. And at least since I’ve been appointed this role, I haven’t felt that Dota events are more sparse than in other games. If there is an event with a lack of ACE clubs, then it must have been because the clubs or players didn’t want to go, because where is the reasoning otherwise?
3. ACE Alliance Chairman
From the establishment of ACE, we needed a person who could lead, so King was selected unanimously. Regardless of personal support or not, everyone agreed on him as best for this role (professionally). This role would have no salary, no glory, we all knew that this role would be Scapegoat number 1.
Saying things like “if you don’t want to do it then don’t do it, no one is begging you here”, to those people I must tell you, it was indeed the respective clubs that begged him to do it. I was the one that most wanted to vote against his appointment, but even I couldn’t suggest which person would be able to perform the role in a way that would satisfy all of the players, sponsors, clubs, media, and fans. Since ACE solidified its presence this year, King has brought up multiple times that he wanted to resign, but looking inside, who is there that can keep all the clubs happy while also not presenting a large conflict of interest?
4. The players
At the end of May this year when I was appointed Events Director, I was firm in requesting that we take into account players’ thoughts. If there were players that were unhappy with something then I would absolutely not accept things, and thank you to Yao and Director 8 for their support at the time. For me, I cannot necessarily claim that I’ve contributed much, because honestly I don’t feel that I did that much, but at least in the past six months I have not done anything to let anyone down. And also in the past six months I’ve felt that Dota players have become more and more mature, have become better and better in coordinating with the clubs and ACE, and have grown to be more understanding of each other. This is all great for the growth of our scene, thank you all!
Just as it is for the players, it should be for those who truly love Dota, I think we must support ACE. I hope we can all calmy realize ACE’s role and extent of power. ACE represents the various clubs, yet the clubs are the most important element in this professional scene. Each ACE decision is come upon by the clubs collectively, so, if you support the clubs yet still say you are against ACE, this is a contradiction. For the players it is the same, ACE looks forward to the day when a players’ alliance emerges, because this also represents advancement in our industry.
As for Dota 2, strong opposition is ahead, hard competition is following behind. Only if players and clubs and fans can come together, is there hope to stand strong amongst these challenges. Which of us has not grown up playing Dota? So if we can each give our bit to help, things will be better. On the other hand, you could continue flaming players, ACE, the clubs… back then on the Replays.net forums, the forum flamers alongside select editors did just that, they flamed, and did they save Warcraft 3? In reality they caused the events and clubs at the time to hasten their demise, because no one wants to be flamed. There’s not much money to be made in the first place, so why continue on just to have your name dragged through mud?
Of course I must also thank the clubs, players, media, and friends within the scene for their support in helping Dota have more and more events and competitions nowadays. And thank you to you all for your support of my work these past few months. If ACE requires assistance in the future I will of course offer everything I have. I hope the Dota scene can come together closer, such that Dota 2 can reach the heavens. 🙂
DOTALAND.net 