Doublelift Reveals TSM Reginald Workplace Bullying, Allegedly Calling Assistant Coach ‘Banana Man’
Ex-TSM League of Legends pro ADC player Yiliang ‘Doublelift’ Peng recently took to his stream to talk about Riot Games’ ruling against TSM CEO Andy ‘Reginald’ Dinh. Stories surrounding his workplace bullying and harassment continue to rise over time. However, Doubelift recalled a particularly alarming story alleging how Reginald bullied an assistant coach by calling him “banana man.”
Riot Games passed a ‘competitive ruling’ on TSM CEO Andy ‘Reginald’ Dinh workplace bullying
LoL Esports posted their “competitive ruling” against Reginald that Doublelift read aloud on his Twitch stream. The document stated that: “The League believes that there was a pattern and practice of disparaging and bullying behavior exhibited by Andy Dinh toward TSM players and staff members.”
As a result, TSM is fined $75,000 and Reginald must complete sensitivity and executive training. Doublelift believes that the biggest blow is that the CEO is on probation for two years across all of the Riot Games ecosystems. Additionally, there will be an independent party to run a tip-line for all TSM League of Legends players in the event that any further bullying or harassment continues within the organization.
Doublelift revealed the problematic origins of TSM Andy ‘Reginald’ Dinh allegedly calling an assistant coach ‘banana man’
Doublelift concluded his segment by speaking on Twitch about another story about TSM Reginald that he never previously told the public. He alleged that the CEO allegedly bullied an assistant coach, who he called the banana man. Doublelift avoided publicly saying their name, but he confirmed that the employee identifies with male pronouns. The players called the assistant coach banana man but didn’t understand the true origin of the nickname.
“At a certain point, he came and told us exactly how he got that nickname,” Doublelift said. “So, he got this nickname because he was the assistant coach and he would basically do a lot of the tasks that just help out the team. So, he would bring us snacks, and a lot of the players on the team, like Søren [Bjergsen], a bunch of others, like eating bananas. He would constantly bring bananas. We all appreciated him, liked him, we appreciated him not just for that, but for all of his contributions to the team as a coach.”
Doublelift continued: “One day, he got into an argument with Andy and Andy said, ‘I don’t even know why you’re here. You’re the most useless coach I’ve ever seen. All you’re good for is bringing the players bananas.’ Ever since then, Andy called him banana man to his face. Because he did it, all of us thought it was some sort of inside joke and a funny nickname.”
“Yeah, Regi actually said that to the assistant coach, like, ‘I don’t know why you’re here, I should just fire you right now. You’re the most useless coach,'” Doublelift recalled about Reginald. “I remember this distinctly … After that, I was like holy s***, you want us to stop [calling you banana man]? After I heard that story, I was like, ‘I didn’t know the origin. This must be traumatic. You thought you were going to get fired.’”
Doublelift concluded: “I thought it was some sort of funny, playful thing. Maybe it’s partly because he brings bananas, but I didn’t think about that interaction and that’s how it started. He was like, ‘No, at this point, it is kind of funny. I can just shrug it off.’ It was pretty sad for a while.”
Doublelift recalled CEO allegedly demeaning Bjergsen for ‘draft diff’
Ex-TSM executive Leena Xu reminded Doublelift of a story about TSM Reginald during the Twitch stream. He couldn’t help but laugh when recalling a story that he found truly ridiculous.
“Leena’s saying that she had to argue with him for over an hour about why it’s not OK to tweet ‘draft diff’ after Bjergsen was coaching them in playoffs and they lost a series or a game,” Doublelift said. “So funny, man.”
The term “draft diff” refers to a difference in champion drafting during League of Legends. Reginald wanted to assert that they lost a game because a coach supposedly made poor choices with champion drafting strategies.
