Scorched Earth: EMENES peaces out into retirement in the most volatile fashion

In typical North American fashion, some players just cannot gracefully exit a scene. Former Cloud9 Mid Laner Jang “EMENES” Min-soo has dropped his ‘Donezo Manifesto’ on his way out the door. This comes less than a day after he announces his intentions to retire, pursue military service, and further education afterwards.

The ‘Donezo Manifesto’ term has its roots in the term ‘Donezo,’ which loosely translates to ‘being done with something.’ In this case, it translates to a massive pile of receipts for bridge burning when one is sure there is no looking back. Classic North America. So, where do we start?

Who is EMENES and what did he do?

EMENES was the former Mid Laner for Cloud9. He began his career in Korea, playing for Gen.G’s academy roster. He bounced around Asia before landing in Turkey, and then Europe. He finally ended up on Cloud9 academy before moving up to Challengers and then the main team.

He most recently found himself amidst a scandal just before the start of Worlds 2023, leading to questions on whether or not he would even be allowed to participate. The circumstances surrounding his scandal involved racist remarks (in chat) he made on the Korean Soloqueue server towards EU streamer Spearshot.

The issue of the remarks came to light after Spearshot posted the above screenshot on his X account. This drew the ire of the community, and Cloud9 was swift to take action. They temporarily benched him while awaiting the LCS’ decision.

The final judgment came down to a fine, in the amount of $15,000 USD and an educational training course that had to be taken before the start of the 2024 LCS season. But he left before the off-season even finished. So, guess he won’t need the course.

Highlights of his Donezo Manifesto

Here are some of his best comments on the NA scene.

• Fudge and blaber don’t practice. However, Fudge did help the team function by making up for another player’s ‘selfishness’.
• Even accounting for the bad Solo Queue environment, NA does not practice enough. (Does not analyze replays of other regions or analyze Solo Queues from other regions).
• LS is not human. (I’ll leave you to puzzle this one out)
• Western LoL sucks.
• Best NA talent: Berserker, Inspired, jojopyun.
• Best work ethic, jojopyun, yeon, contractz, academy players, players on excel while he was playing there, and the NRG roster.
• Claims he did not realize the ‘go back home’ comment was racist at the time.

Bonus content:

• EU: cocky AF (but still bad apparently), does work hard, but the scene is very political.
• NA: lazy AF. Knows they won’t get cut. But some of the newer players and NRG work really hard.
• Apparently wrote a 30 page analysis after the T1 series (?) on discord of LPL and LCK VODS to prepare for their next game. Person on the coaching staff basically ignored it and didn’t read it at all.
• Does not like Europe because if one’s English is not good, they give you shit. If you argue, they label you toxic. If you aren’t good as an import, they shit on you on Discord in their own language (his opinion).
• Shouted out Kryze, Finn, Markoon, Nukeduck, Patrick, Mikyx, and Coach Nova for keeping him from retiring.

Reactions

Understandably, the vocal majority of NA are quick to dismiss EMENES’ comments. However, he does voice valid points according to other commenters. NA’s work culture (or lack thereof) has long been an open secret. The question now becomes, does NA eventually evolve and change with the rise of new, younger players? Or does it stagnate into further obscurity and irrelevance? Does what EMENES comment have any weight to it?

Sidenote: As if to prove EMENES’ point, here is Summit of TL with a recently deleted Tweet from last night. (He was referring to mid laner APA)

Credit: Gary Handley/Riot Games

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