Copenhagen Wolves: A Rift in the Pack

The European League of Legends Championsip Series has been a source of excitement this year. From the winning ways of Fnatic to the utter chaos of Unicorns of Love matches, EU knows how to keep you intrigued.

But this year has also been big on a different kind of intrigue: scandals in the professional scene. Last split it was Meet Your Makers and the #BigSorry controversy. But this split’s bout of shady dealings revolves around the Copenhagen Wolves.

A slew of leaked Facebook chat messages and other incriminating conversations from Wolves’ coach, Karl “Dentist” Krey’s allegedly hacked computer yielded some startling revelations.

Deficio and Other Dealings

It was the end of the Spring Split of 2015, and while the Wolves didn’t wind up in relegation yet again, they entered the playoffs only to get thrashed by the eventual 3rd place team, H2k.

To build on this improvement, the Copenhagen Wolves management decided that changes were in order. New sponsorships were brought in, such as Diglife, a firm based in Norway and LA-based streaming service, Azubu.

The plan? Create Europe’s next super team. The problem? Management deemed no other team members as “super” aside from Aleš “Freeze” Kněžínek, who posted insane numbers in spring despite the team’s middling record.

This necessitated attracting better talent onto the Wolves squad, even if it meant a bit of poaching within the LCS. But with Riot’s strict anti-poaching rules that would heavily fine CW’s management for so much as suggesting another player break contract, a workaround was concocted in the form of Martin “Deficio” Lynge.

Now a shoutcaster for Riot, Deficio was technically immune to the anti-poaching rules, and was coerced by the CW management to recruit players from other teams under the premise of Deficio receiving an eventual managerial position within the organization later on.

This ended poorly for all parties involved, and Riot cracked down on both Deficio and Dentist for orchestrating such backhanded power plays as can be found in one of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels.

A Cold Shoulder for Freeze

Clearly, not being able to have their coach on stage caused the Wolves to falter in their LCS matches. At first, many fans thought it was merely the strategical disadvantage they faced, but it soon became apparent that issues within the team ran deeper.

CW’s management received a scare after the end of the first split, with other LCS teams like SK Gaming showing interest in acquiring Freeze. Since the AD Carry star was held in such high esteem, team owner Jakob Lund Kristensen went into talks with Dentist to do all it took to keep Freeze on the roster.

This resulted in the management tampering with the deal they made with Azubu. What was initially supposed to be a $2000 dollar streaming salary for each player was cut in half for the 4 other team members in order to increase Freeze’s salary.

Now while this was underhanded, Dentist decided to be open about some of the goings on to the entire team, which inevitably caused a rift between Freeze and the rest of the team, as anyone could have guessed.

With Freeze eventually feeling entitled because of the favoritism extended to him by the management, and the rest of the team feeling unwanted, it’s easy to see how the team environment devolved so quickly.

The Pack is Split

So what did all this amount to for the Wolves? For starters, jungler Karim “Airwaks” Benghalia left the team, citing the poor environment as a major factor in his decision.

He’s succeeded by former Alliance/Elements jungler, Ilyas “Shook” Hartsema, who ironically got his big break on the Wolves team of 2013. While Shook is indeed a tested player who’s had World Championship experience, much like Jesper “Jwaow” Strandgren’s joining of MYM last split, he’ll find it hard to stay afloat in an already sinking ship.

Other members of the team have expressed their grievances over what’s transpired, with longstanding top laner and captain, Joey “YoungBuck” Steltenpool voicing his desire to leave the team once a suitable replacement has been found.

With his close friends on the way out, even support player Petar “Unlimited” Georgiev released a heartfelt statement about his desire to leave not just the team, but professional play altogether.

YoungBuck’s eventual departure will mean that Copenhagen Wolves must find a new team captain

The Wolves have a 2-8 record and are dead last in Europe going into week 6. Two of their team members are disheartened and looking to quit. The poor atmosphere leaves little hope that they will have much motivation or synergy moving forward. Is this rift in the wolf pack enough to make them the MYM of summer?

For a team marred with so much controversy while having to deal with so much negative fallout—it certainly looks that way right now.

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