LNG Scout beats the case, will play at Worlds 2024 after lawsuit

LNG Esports Lee “Scout” Ye-Chan overcame the travel ban from his EDG lawsuit to participate in Worlds 2024.

The 2024 League of Legends Worlds Championship is in full swing. The earliest clashes already drew over 1 million viewers. However, one player’s hopes of joining Worlds 2024 were questionable for a short while. LNG Esports shockingly replaced Scout with Zeng “Yagao” Qi in September 2024. Scout’s travel ban was due to the lawsuit with his former team EDward Gaming. However, Scout has lifted the travel ban by paying a significantly heavy bond. According to Kenzi131, a reliable source for Korean esports, Scout “demonstrated a strong determination to participate in Worlds despite the financial burden.” LNG’s official Weibo account has also confirmed Scout’s participation.

Still, some fans wonder what the lawsuit is even about.

LNG Scout and EDG lawsuit timeline explained

LNG Scout is embroiled in a civil lawsuit with his former League of Legends esports team EDG over contract disputes.

In 2021, Scout allegedly signed a contract with KT Rolster despite being under contract with EDG. Although EDG and Scout settled the matter after speaking with Riot, the player still desired a return to the LCK. EDG would reportedly only allow Scout to leave if he could find an LCK team that matched or outbid EDG’s salary. However, Scout did not receive offers from LCK teams after his Korea trip.

In December 2022, Scout left EDG and joined LPL rival LNG Esports, which shocked fans given Scout’s six-year tenure with his former team. In July 2023, EDG filed a civil lawsuit against Scout for signing with LNG, citing a breach of contract.

“After going back to Korea, Scout found no team could give him a better salary than us. Then he came back, it was really awkward. I’m not happy, we are giving him such good offers and treatments,” said EDG Owner Edward Zhu on a live stream about Scout’s alleged lack of professionalism. Fans speculate Zhu felt “betrayed” by Scout’s move to LNG, especially after they raised his salary.

Scout cleared to travel for Worlds 2024

Despite legal troubles, Scout will travel to Worlds 2024 to play for LNG as originally planned.

The lawsuit’s most recent impact was the Worlds 2024 travel ban fiasco. Scout’s agency, Super Agent, released a statement against EDG regarding the lawsuit.

“EDG has interfered with his application for a work visa, seized his personal bank account, and banned him from leaving the country… we and LNG only found out about Scout’s travel ban after he tried to return to Korea for vacation but was unable to do so,” said Super Agent.

Ji “Aaron” Xing, an EDG manager, claims the court had informed Scout of his travel ban after the first trial in the lawsuit. LNG reportedly contacted the LPL for support to resolve the situation. Meanwhile, Aaron claimed that Scout’s agency threatened to drag EDG through the “war of public opinion.”  EDG’s lawyers responded that they did not care about the pressure from public opinion. Aaron concluded the stream, saying they would let the legal proceedings run their course. Scout also shared his thoughts on the situation on social media.

“I can completely understand why everyone is disappointed in me, I feel that the only thing I can do now is to face the things in front of me and focus on the game first, I’ll definitely explain myself to everyone in the future,” shared Scout.

A week after the statement, LNG confirmed on Weibo that Scout was cleared to participate in Worlds 2024. While the lawsuit’s outcome is still up in the air, Scout’s Worlds 2024 participation is no longer a question mark. Regardless of the lawsuit, LNG fans are happy to see their favorite team at full strength for Worlds 2024.