On Friday, The Golden Guardians dismissed their head coach, Choi "Locodoco" Yoon-seop. According to ESPN, the termination was due to an inappropriate comment said to a female member of the Riot Games staff right before an on-camera interview during the North American LCS. (Online speculators say it could have been directed at former Travis Gafford prodigy Ovilee May, but that’s unproven). What Loco said was deemed “unsuitable” and the Golden Guardians, owned by the Golden State Warriors, have a zero-tolerance policy.
According to former Immortals social media manager Mateus Porthilo, Loco did something similar to a staffer last year:
Loco went to Twitter to say that he “will clear things up” and to not believe everything “at face value.” It’s still unclear what information is still unavailable, but being fired on the spot for something you said seems pretty damning. This one remark could potentially derail his whole career and make it difficult to work in esports again.
The former GG coach has a long history in the League Of Legends scene and has been the center of drama for some of the game’s most successful teams. Loco started his career on the early days of Team Solomid and Counter Logic Gaming and spent the next few years playing in Korea (and masturbating on stream). In 2014, he started coaching for TSM until he was fired on July, 2015. TSM owner Reginald wrote in a Twitlonger post at the time, "Right now, Loco is having a difficult time keeping the conversations productive."
Moving to Team Liquid as a content producer than coach, Loco encountered similar problems. In HTC’s Team Liquid Breaking Point, one of the greatest documentaries ever created about esports, we see the members of TL crumble right before our eyes. Dardoch, one of the strongest players on the current Echo Fox roster, gets into fights with Loco constantly. This created a rift in the team dynamic, letting the immaturity of everyone shine through.
League Of Legends has so few seasoned coaches, it would be a shame if we lost Locodoco for good.
