Jeon “Dara” Jeong-hoon, a Korean League of Legends player who was professional for three years, is retiring from professional gaming. His reason stems from incidents surrounding his foreigner resident card that were “truly frightening.”
Dara’s most recent team was SCARZ Burning Core, but prior to that he was a part of the Tokyo team Pentagram (previously known as Rempage). Back in February, Pentagram was apparently punished with a three-month ban because the staff members Nakamura Hiroki and Fujita Takuya were threatening their players. And it looks like one of these threatened players was Dara.
All foreign residents in Japan must carry resident cards and show them any time police officers ask, even if you have a permanent residency.
Here’s an excerpt from the Immigration Bureau of Japan:
“If you don’t carry residence card, you may be punished with a fine not exceeding 200,000 yen, and if you refuse to present it, you may be punished with imprisonment for not more than one year or a fine not exceeding 200,000 yen.”
Dara recieved a verbal warning for not carrying his resident card, but claims that at one point Pentagram management took away his resident card and make threats. He claims that Penagram member Fujita Takuya “didn’t ‘temporarily’ hold onto our cards. I heard him say, ‘If you don’t leave your card here, you can’t leave the team.’”
Now, Dara is retiring from League of Legends and professional gaming in general, and is moving back home to South Korea. In a series of Tweets, he described the “frightening” memories of Rampage (now named Pentagram), claiming that his head hurts and he has to take medicine.
“I can’t play in throw up,” he wrote. “My spirit is broken. I am returning to South Korea.”
Dara claims he felt powerless in a foreign country and that he doesn’t want to live in a world where the penalty for what he went through is just three months.