Krystal, who rejoined the Spark in Los Angeles early on Thursday morning had been in contact with Hangzhou during his trip back to China but Hangzhou did not make Krystal aware of the requirements needed to return to the United States, multiple sources have confirmed.
Despite holding a work visa for the United States, sources have stated that Krystal also needed to complete a holiday visa that would have allowed him to return to the country in time for the first week of stage four. Multiple sources have also confirmed that Krystal was not made aware that he needed a second visa, the Sparks upper management was allegedly aware of the situation and that nobody informed Krystal that he had the incorrect visa to return. The teams management was in constant contact to provide him with the correct visa and could have prevented any delay in this return. Despite this the Sparks management team still decided to "gravely warn" him and fined him 3 time his salary made over those 10 days.
On Thursday morning a thread appeared on twitter sharing some facts in regards to Krystal's situation this season and looked to tarnish Krystals name further and play him out to be worse than he had been during the current situation. Haloofthoughts can, in fact, confirm after seeing and having the entire thread translated, that these facts were shared on Chinese SBB website called Douban by an anonymous poster who claims they were a "former fan of the DPS player and the person who got him the job at the Hangzhou Spark". While Krystal's name is not mentioned once in the post, it has been linked to him and his behaviour around the team this season. Multiple sources with in the Chinese Overwatch scene believe this post was created by someone associated with the Hangzhou Spark organisation.
Douban which is mostly known as a website that reviews films and television shows has little to no Overwatch interaction. Sources have alleged that it was intentionally leaked there because the most popular Chinese website to talk about the Overwatch League, NGA, was down maintenance until the 2nd of August. Haloofthoughts can also confirm that in the leak on Douban, never mentions Krystal's name once, outside of the mentioned reason for above.
Tension has been high between Krystal and the upper management of the Hangzhou Spark since he joined the team. Krystal initially had offers from both the Hangzhou Spark and one other team this off season and he had asked if provisions could be made for his girlfriend to join him in Los Angeles. While the Spark agreed to help with this process, the second team declined and due to Krystal wanting to play on the same roster as Main Tank Guxue, he, chose to join Hangzhou. Shortly after Krystal changed his mind and wanted to join the second team and asked to be traded, a request that the Spark denied before the season had even begun.
The relationship between the Hangzhou Spark and Krystal worsened when he was suspended for the first game of the season for account boosting and then required to go home in stage 1 for treatment to an eye problem. These were some of the reasons why they entered discussions with the Boston Uprising earlier this season regarding a trade involving Krystal but the team decided not to go through with as they did not want the negative feedback from their Chinese fan base. This was confirmed by multiple league sources.
Multiple league sources have also confirmed that there is no problem between Krystal and teams coaching staff/players and he still wants to play for the Spark this stage. While there is a chance that Krystal will see playing time this stage and the end of season playoffs, it will remain to see whether he remains as an Hangzhou Spark player past this season.
Edit: It was the Hangzhou Spark who offered to help with provisions for Krystal's girlfriend and not the second team.
Edit: It was the Hangzhou Spark who offered to help with provisions for Krystal's girlfriend and not the second team.
Haloofthoughts reached out to the Hangzhou Spark but they declined to comment. We were unable to reach Kystal for Comment.
(You can find more Overwatch League related content on Twitter @haloofthoughts)
(Picture Credit: Robert Paul & Overwatch League)
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