Clid, the jungler for LCK team Hanwha Life Esports, is in hot water after several screenshots from women he allegedly interacted with have surfaced. These include him allegedly making sexual advances toward multiple women, one of which was a minor at the time they were messaged.
After picking up 2021 World Champion Viper and 2022 World Champions Kingen and Zeka, Hanwha Life Esports was a team that faced a colossal set of expectations entering 2023.
They fell well short of those expectations in Spring, but the team has been on an upward trend since then. After taking sets against KT Rolster and T1 to three games and winning their other four series, the team’s 4-2 record has been well-earned and reflects that they’re improving.
However, with sexual harassment allegations against Kim ‘Clid’ Tae-min coming to light, the veteran jungler is in hot water with LCK fans.
Leaked DMs show Clid’s alleged harassment toward LCK fan
After someone who goes by ‘Seoyeon’ posted several explicit DMs publicly, along with a selfie the pro player sent her, the screenshots quickly spread around Twitter and were shared amongst LCK fans.
Many of the messages Clid allegedly exchanged were sexual in nature, saying that he was “hard right now” in an explicit context, throwing insults like “cow” at Seoyeon, and voicing intentions to grope her that were claimed to be signs of affection, rather than threats, in the messages.
Seoyeon also posted selfies the player allegedly sent her through Kakao Talk, a Korean messaging app, along with additional screenshots in the following hours.
Seoyeon claimed that she reached out to Hanwha Life Esports for compensation as a result of the “mental damage” Clid had caused her. However, according to Seoyeon, these complaints were ignored. She now claims that she’s taking other steps against the pro player.
Another user that goes by ‘erica_ahri’ came forward with allegations against Clid following Seoyeon’s post, with explicit messages sent to her in 2022, while she was still a minor.
These messages to Erica allegedly showed that Clid wanted to meet up with her. The message included some flirtatious language that complimented her looks. That said, it doesn’t seem the two actually met up, according to the messages Erica posted publicly.
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Clid misses LCK match against DPLUS
Following these allegations, recent HLE content featuring Clid was pulled from their YouTube channel, and all of Hanwha Life’s players besides Clid were spotted playing an ARAM during the time of their usual scrim block.
While Clid is involved in a scandal, other HLE players are seen in ARAM. It looks like the scrim schedule has been cancelled. pic.twitter.com/Y22nObEhFB
— Rumorman (@Mr_Rumor_) June 27, 2023
While this is all still speculation at the time of writing, and there’s no confirmation that scrims were canceled, it’s certainly odd to see the entire HLE roster playing ARAMs without Clid just after this controversy broke.
Clid’s agency, Shadow Corporation, issued a statement on June 28 on behalf of the player in which it “sincerely apologizes to anyone who may have been hurt or offended by Clid’s behavior”.
“Untrue statements have been recklessly circulating online,” Shadow Corporation wrote.
“It is true that Clid liked the Instagram of the person [who made the Twitter post]. Then the person sent Clid the DM first. He then engaged in a friendly conversation with the poster, during which some suggestive language was used. But there was no inappropriate behavior beyond that.
“Clid has never actually met the person, and the other person mentioned later that they had a liking for the player but never actually met him.”
Clid has been left out of Hanwha Life Esports’ starting lineup for the June 28 match against Dplus. In his place, the team is fielding academy player Jo ‘Grizzly’ Seung-hoon, who is making his LCK debut.
Hanwha Life Esports has not yet commented on the allegations levied against Clid or stated whether the player is facing disciplinary action.
Clid has been one of League’s best junglers for years, with him representing JDG, Gen.G, SKT T1, and FPX before landing on Hanwha Life Esports. Despite his time on FPX in 2022 and his Spring 2023 Split with HLE being a bit subpar in comparison to his previous highs, he’s still regarded as an extremely strong player.