[UPDATE Nov 25] Nongshim RedForce officially announced that they have signed Ghost. In their tweet, they said "We are happy to announce that Ghost has joined NS RedForce! Please give him a warm welcome as he completes our roster for the 2022 season."

[UPDATE Nov 23] Following the controversy regarding DWG KIA and NS RedForce regarding bot laner, Jang "Ghost" Yong-jun, both teams have released a follow-up statement regarding the matter.

Here's a translation of the statement above.

"We'd like to provide an official statement regarding the stove league controversy regarding Jang "Ghost" Yong-jun. We'd like to announce that both parties have talked in person and cleared up all miscommunication issues.

NS RedForce have also apologized for their misuse of the word, 'hijacking', which caused a lot of confusion. Through us, NS also officially apologized to the player for all the trouble as well. 

We'd like to apologize to all the LCK fans for causing concern. Both DWG KIA and NS RedForce will strive to shape a healthier culture for the league."

The LCK stove league continues to burn hotter than ever, and it’s controversy between two LCK teams, DWG KIA and NS RedForce.

On Nov. 21, Jang “Ghost” Yong-jun, currently a member of DWG KIA, posted a statement on his Facebook, implying that his offseason moves have been less than smooth.

 "As you know, I am contracted with DWG KIA till 2022 but I was looking forward to a new challenge with a different team, but that team lied to me, so I lost three days of my precious time," Ghost wrote, not naming the org in question. Shortly after, however, NS RedForce CEO, Oh “Evans” Ji-hwan, came out with his own response (translation via /u/Hektor_Ekhein). 

NS RedForce CEO responds

"In the afternoon of Nov. 19, I approached [DWG KIA's] CEO directly regarding player transfers, and shared our proposed salary that day. However, the player in question [Ghost] and the team refused our proposal on Nov. 20," writes Oh. "In our first conversation, we said that it would be difficult to match the player's requested salary and we would propose a contract with options. Afterward, we received the player's phone number from DK's CEO and our coaching staff sent our proposal to the player. However, we were informed that DK interpreted our proposal as matching the player's current salary and we took this as a refusal and closed our bidding attempt."

"I am having difficulty in agreeing with the phrase 'deceive the player and the team over three days'. No team representative, including myself, made any contact with the player after the team refused our proposal," NS RedForce's CEO adds, admitting to miscommunication.

DWG KIA management responds

DWG KIA issued several replies themselves. COO Lee Joon tweeted that "[NS RedForce] are trying to conflate the main issue with accusations of tampering and hijacking". The org added, via a Facebook post:

"To protect the player in question, DK initially refrained from retaliating against a certain team's controversial, absurd actions that have been the cause of community debate, but due to the player's great mental stress and tangible loss, we have decided to respond at a team basis.

DK aided Yongjun Ghost's transfer by not requesting a buyout. That one team had finished negotiating Mr. Jang's salary, and we had received a confirmation that his current salary would be matched. We then confirmed that with only a verbal agreement and small terms left, as soon as Ghost agreed to join that team, the team's head coach and coaching staff called him privately to halve their initial proposed salary.

Ghost and DK protested strongly about this course of action, but the team in question expressed their inability to match his salary due to financial troubles.

If such financial troubles did exist and the team was aware of them, then the negotiations with Ghost should never have been attempted. We would like to inquire if wasting time while enticing the player without sufficient capital is really a negotiation norm."

DWG KIA ended by saying they possess all evidence around the dispute and will not hesitate to air them should NS RedForce "continue to distort the truth and escape responsibility".