During the League of Legends offseason, players are usually hunting for new beginnings and greener pastures. But for former Team Liquid marksman Steven “Hans Sama” Liv, this free agency period could turn into a nightmare.
The 23-year-old pro player is reportedly being sued by Athletes Representation & Consulting (ARC), a French esports agency, after he allegedly breached his contract by signing with a competing agency and didn’t pay commissions during his time with Rogue, according to esports journalist Jacob Wolf.
These issues purportedly arose near the end of 2021 when the esports agency met with Rogue to discuss a possible sale of Hans Sama’s contract to an LCS organization prior to the start of the new year. Rogue and ARC eventually found two teams that were interested in Hans Sama’s services and willing to pay his buyout: Cloud9 and Team Liquid.
While ARC began negotiations with Liquid, however, a competing agency called Proxy ended up securing Hans Sama a new deal. Because the star preferred Liquid as his next destination, Rogue agreed to a lower buyout than what was proposed by C9. By working with Proxy, however, Hans Sama broke his contract stating that ARC was his exclusive representative.
“We deeply regret this situation—which is unprecedented in the life of our agency—but we must confirm that we have a dispute with [Hans Sama] about the conditions under which our collaboration ceased,” ARC founder Nathan Laprade said. “As we were unable to reach an amicable agreement with [Hans Sama], we were forced to bring the matter before a civil court for an independent third party to assess the situation. It is nothing personal, and we trust [Hans Sama] feels the same way.”
While this situation unfolds, Hans Sama is still looking for a team to join in 2023. He has been linked to a few European rosters since the competitive season ended, including popular LEC organization G2 Esports.