The head of player development at TSM FTX, Zhang “Peter Zhang” Yi, has been terminated from his position due to ‘serious allegations of conflicts of interest and unethical practices,’ according to a statement made by the team on Friday afternoon.
— TSM (@TSM) March 18, 2022
While TSM FTX offered no specifics about the alleged actions that resulted in his termination, screenshots obtained from TSM’s public Discord revealed messages from Peter Zhang admitting to “some mistake” and thanking everyone for “the journey.”
“I will write my part of the story later when I cooled it down,” Peter Zhang wrote. “But right now, I need to pack my stuff.
Peter Zhang first joined TSM FTX in Nov. 2018 as the head coach of TSM Academy before becoming head coach of the main League Championship Series roster in Dec. 2019. After bouncing back and forth between the two squads for the next year, he finally settled as head of player development in Dec. 2021.
The termination comes at a tumultuous time for TSM FTX. Even before the 2021 offseason began, the long time North American power house was already going through controversy. A Wired article reported that Riot Games and TSM FTX would be launching separate investigations into their long time CEO, Andy “Reginald” Dinh, for accusations of verbal assault and bullying.
The organization’s LCS team is also currently in last place with two wins and 11 losses for the 2022 spring split. They also lost their former head coach and signature player, Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, to Team Liquid. Then, longtime general manager of League operations Parth “Parth” Naidu left the organization shortly after.
TSM’s offseason concluded with two new rookie additions in Zhu “Keaiduo” Xiong and Wei “Shenyi” Zi-Jie, but the latter was sent to play for their Academy team four, winless games into the season. Wang “Yursan” Sheng-Yu replaced Shenyi.
It wasn’t long before Shenyi returned as an active member of the main roster, but Keaiduo took a trip down to Academy next, with mid laner Ji “Takeover” Cha Hyeun-min replacing him.
This is a developing story that will be updated as more information becomes available.
