All eyes are on Riot this past week.
As League of Legends has pressed on to become one of the most dominating forces in eSports, it came as quite a shock that the Season 2 World Championship would have such rampant accusations of team cheating. Since the first day of the event, 5 of the 12 competing teams have been accused of gaining unfair advantages by disregarding tournament rules. Team WE, Invictus Gaming, Team SoloMid, Taipei Assassins, and Azubu Frost at some point during their matches used the spectator’s map on the screen behind them to see where enemy players were located.
With Riot propagating the advancement of eSports, it was imperative that this situation be handled with the gravity deserving of a professional sport. And that’s just how Riot saw it.
Taking to the forums, VP of eSports RedBeard issued a statement regarding the accusations:
“We’ve completed a comprehensive investigation of all alleged incidents of players looking at the venue screen at the World Playoffs…We evaluated these cases based on intent, severity and tangible impact to the course of the game. Based on our investigation, the Azubu Frost incident is the only one where we determined there to be tangible impact – we believe other members of AzF modified their gameplay (level 1 ping and Jayce brush check) based upon the information gained. We don’t believe, however, that these actions decided the winner of the game.”
Based on Riot’s rules, the company fined Azubu Frost $30,000 dollars – or 20% of their current tournament winnings – for unsportsmanlike conduct. The money is instead being donated to Riot’s charity program in Korea.
As for Team WE, iG, TSM, and TPA:
- Quarterfinal #4, Game 3 (CLG.EU v. Team WE) at 19:24 on the game clock – WE WeiXiao looked up at the venue screen. Practical benefits to Team WE were limited – Corki’s moves after WeiXiao’s look would have been logical, whether he saw Sona’s position on the venue screens or not. We have determined this to be unsportsmanlike and have issued a warning.
- Group Stage A (IG v. SK) at 13:00 on the game clock – iG Zz1tai looked over his right shoulder at the screens. From our analysis, there was no material impact to the game. We have determined this to be unsportsmanlike and have issued a warning.
- Quarterfinal #3, (restarted) Game 1 (AZF v. TSM) during game pause – TSM Dyrus turned his head to determine whether it was feasible to see the minimap screens from the stage. TSM obtained no direct meaningful benefits from Dyrus’ action as the game was restarted, but we have issued a warning.
- Quarterfinal #2, Game 1 (TPA v. NaJin Sword) at 4:11 on the game clock – TPA Stanley briefly looked to his left, then looked forward and adjusted his monitor. We’ve determined he was responding to glare issues. The position of all five players of NaJin Sword was already visible to TPA at this time. While Stanley violated the referee’s instructions to look forward at all times, there was no unsportsmanlike conduct.
In retrospect, the stage layout could have been improved to prevent this from happening to begin with. After all – even if it wasn’t intentional – a quick neck stretch from any of the end players could instantly give them access to a completely visible map. And RedBeard knows this:
“We take this stuff seriously. Our rules on sportsmanlike conduct are clearly communicated to competitors, and our decisions here are based on those rules. More importantly, this sort of behavior shouldn’t have been possible in the first place, and we recognize that and have taken steps to ensure it doesn’t happen in the future.”
How do you guys feel about Riot’s response? Should the pro teams have gotten harsher punishments? Are they warranted at all? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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