Honda has announced the company's decision to terminate their sponsorship agreement with Team Liquid, as reported by Huffington Post Japan's Rio Hamada.
The decision was taken after the Team Liquid Rainbow Six Siege player Lucas "DiasLucas" Dias posted on his personal X account a GIF of an atomic bomb after the Brazilian's 5-7 loss against the Japanese side CAG Osaka. The match took place on May 13, and the defeat meant Team Liquid had been knocked out of RE:L0:AD, the first-ever competition on the Siege X version.
Although the player deleted the post minutes later, it didn't go unseen by the Japanese community, who quickly complained about DiasLucas' behavior. Many of them took screenshots of the post before the player removed it from his profile.
Two days later, on May 15, DiasLucas released a post on his personal X account apologizing and taking full accountability for his actions.
One day after DiasLucas' apologies, Rainbow Six Siege Esports Brazil's official X account revealed that "Team Liquid's player Dias Lucas received an official warning for inappropriate behavior," which was part of an ongoing investigation."
Four days after DiasLucas' apologies, Honda revealed the company's decision to terminate their sponsorship agreement with Team Liquid.
According to the Huffington Post's report, Honda initially lodged a "strong protest" with the team. After seeing DiasLucas had deleted the post and had posted an apology, Honda didn't take any major decisions. However, after "careful consideration" of the situation, the Japanese motor company decided to terminate the contract.
Shortly after the split was announced, Team Liquid issued a statement through their official X account.
Apart from extending their apologies to the Japanese side, CAG Osaka, and the Japanese esports community in general, the team laid out some future actions they'll be taking in response to this situation. In short, DiasLucas will receive a fine, and all team members will go through mandatory retraining over the next six months. On top of that, Team Liquid will be donating all their winnings from Reload to charity, along with the money from DiasLucas' fine.
Honda has been one of Team Liquid's biggest sponsors since their sponsorship began in January 2019. In June 2022, Team Liquid's League of Legends team was renamed to "Team Liquid Honda".
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