Here’s a dire situation in the competitive-yet-cutthroat esports circuit. Team SMG recently announced that it is parting ways with one of its top Dota 2 players Michael “Ninjaboogie” Ross Jr.

Announcement on our Dota 2 Squad!

We would like to thank @ninjaboogie for his enthusiasm, hard work, and dedication for Team SMG during our time together. Today, we part ways.

Thank you Ninjaboogie. Keep Boogieing, even under gunfire ?? pic.twitter.com/qrqMfNrBkC

— Team SMG (@TeamSMGofficial) May 20, 2022

Sounds normal, right? Well, it turns out that Ninjaboogie said that he was allegedly kicked from the team after requesting to spend time away from the team during boot camp to tend to his hospitalized mother.

Kicked because my mom was on her last days and they assumed it would affect my performance. I already knew for some time that this day will come. Since she had stage 4 cancer. She passed away on monday. Imagine being fired from a job because you are about to lose a loved one.

— Michael "ninjaboogie" Ross (@ninjaboogie) May 20, 2022

Team SMG was set to begin boot camp today to prepare for the upcoming Summer Tour of 2022 Dota Pro Circuit. However, Ninjaboogie said his mother suffered a sudden stroke on 12 May and was admitted to the hospital. He requested Team SMG to have his flight moved back through the weekend since his mother was either going to be discharged or possibly “pass away due to complications” due to stage four cancer.

He even made it clear that he would settle a few more things before his mother’s hopeful discharge and will join back with BootCamp.

I gave my decision the following day and was informed he wanted to talk. They had a meeting without me and informed me the were going to continue without me. pic.twitter.com/AjPsE4YfPj

— Michael "ninjaboogie" Ross (@ninjaboogie) May 20, 2022

Sounds like a good reason to head out temporarily, right? Apparently that didn’t fly with Team SMG. Instead, the team held a meeting without Ninjaboogie and informed him that they would move on to the next season without him. Hence, the above Twitter message. That message did not mention the reasoning, so Ninjaboogie had to speak up on his social media channels. He even added that he was given no prior warning before being removed from the roster.

As to why he didn’t go back to taking care of his mother earlier before all this? Ninjaboogie’s dad passed away near the beginning of the pandemic, so he was bumped up as head of the family and had to use up his career earnings supporting his family for the past two years. His role with SMG was his main method of taking care of the family.

How else do i take care of my mother after i exhausted all my earnings surviving the pandemic and taking care of her? My father died at the beginning of the pandemic and was bumped up as head of the family.

— Michael "ninjaboogie" Ross (@ninjaboogie) May 20, 2022

Team SMG has yet to make an official statement about Ninjaboogie’s comments. This is quite a bad look for the esports company. The company could argue that this sort of tragedy could affect a player’s mental state, so the logical thing to do is to give him a couple of weeks off to sort all of it out and then come back in a new season in tip-top form, unless he says that he’s good to go mentally in the current season. Why cut him off entirely from the team unless there is some politics in play?

Regardless of what you think about esports, no one deserves to lose a job in the field due to bereavement. You can do better, esports.