Esports Community Calls Out Team SMG’s Controversial Firing of Ninjaboogie
The overall esports community called out Team SMG for their controversial reasoning to fire Michael “ninjaboogie” Ross Jr. from the roster back on May 20, 2022.
Announcement on our Dota 2 Squad!
We would like to thank @ninjaboogie for his enthusiasm, hard work, and dedication for Team SMG during our time together. Today, we part ways.
Thank you Ninjaboogie. Keep Boogieing, even under gunfire 🤍🧡 pic.twitter.com/qrqMfNrBkC
— Team SMG (@TeamSMGofficial) May 20, 2022
It all started with Team SMG suddenly announcing that they parted ways with the Filipino-American support player.
“We would like to thank Ninjaboogie for his enthusiasm, hard work, and dedication [to] Team SMG during our time together. Today, we part ways. Thank you Ninjaboogie. Keep Boogieing, even under gunfire,” the Southeast Asian team announced on their Twitter back on May 20, 2022.
tell them the real reason of the kick.
— Michael "ninjaboogie" Ross (@ninjaboogie) May 20, 2022
However, Ninjaboogie himself immediately fired back and called them out on the tweet and challenged them to reveal the reason for his abrupt departure from the team.
Kicked because my mom was on her last days and they assumed it would affect my performance. I already knew for some time that this day will come. Since she had stage 4 cancer. She passed away on monday. Imagine being fired from a job because you are about to lose a loved one.
— Michael "ninjaboogie" Ross (@ninjaboogie) May 20, 2022
He revealed in a series of tweets the alleged truth about why Team SMG dropped him. According to him, he was fired from the team as they thought that his family situation may affect his performance.
I gave my decision the following day and was informed he wanted to talk. They had a meeting without me and informed me the were going to continue without me. pic.twitter.com/AjPsE4YfPj
— Michael "ninjaboogie" Ross (@ninjaboogie) May 20, 2022
He then revealed more information about the circumstances behind this abrupt and questionable decision by Team SMG.
Ninjaboogie further explained that he was supposed to fly back to their bootcamp on May 14, 2022. However, his mom suffered from a stroke back on May 12, 2022 which led to his request for his flight moved to a later date as the actual start of their bootcamp was on May 20, 2022.
He also then made it public that fellow SMG teammate Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng gave him a call on the 14th for his decision. However, despite Ninjaboogie’s response (as shown on a screenshot that he also tweeted), the team had a meeting where he was left out and the team decided to simply continue without him.
As soon as those details came to light, the entire esports community rallied behind Ninjaboogie and called out Team SMG. Here’s a sneak peek of the tweets that surfaced when the issue was put into the spotlight.
“Who tf is TeamSMG?” I naively said.
“Ooooooh they’re the ones who kicked someone off the team because his mother was dying,” the internet replied.
Great look guys.
— Psynergic (@Psynergic) May 20, 2022
Trashhh 👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻
— xavi8k (@xavi8k_) May 20, 2022
Condolences brother, take care 🙏 it's never easy and people don't understand. It's a selfish world we live in.
— mimosa (@m1mosa_prophet) May 20, 2022
Cheer up brother.
— 23savage (@23savageDotA) May 20, 2022
Condolences, Brother.
— Secret Jessievash (@Secret_JcVash) May 20, 2022
At the time of this writing, Ninjaboogie’s original tweet exposé had reached 88.9K likes and 6.3K retweets. Meanwhile, Team SMG has yet to acknowledge the situation and no official statement has been made.
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