Three Gaming Organizations Banned from League of Legends LCS
Riot Games, the developer of the highly popular MOBA game League of Legends, in an impressive move has banned three professional gaming organizations from fielding teams in the LCS. The three organizations in violation are Renegades, Team Dragon Knights (shortened to TDK), and Team Impulse (shortened to TIP) for reasons relating to the well-being of players. LCS, short for League of Legends Championship Series, is a professional tournament circuit operated under Riot Games that brings together the best teams competing to qualify for the even more prestigious World Championship playoff series.
The LCS has its own rulebook written with competitive fairness and player well-being in mind. Renegades was found in violation three points of fair management. First, current owner Christopher Mykles had a deal with suspended former owner Chris Badawi to reinstate Badawi within the organization as a co-owner after his suspension ended. Badawi was banned last June after attempting to poach Team Liquid players under contract. Second, team management refused to honor payment and contract provisions while additionally not maintaining a safe environment for the players. However, early public responses from Renegades players Legendary, Hakuho, and Crumbz deny the allegations of an unsafe environment.
The last point in the Renegades ruling also involved TDK over transparency regarding an act which may have been collusion through player trading. Following the trade of two players from each team, some of the players were being compensated on their old contracts. LCS officials had previously approved the trade deal summary submitted by the two organizations, but found both in violation over truthfulness in upholding player contracts. TDK owners Chris Shim and Sean Shim have been banned indefinitely “from any association or affiliation with a team in a Riot-sanctioned league” on top of previous player poaching violation that was to last for one year. Renegades owner Christopher Mykles has been banned for one year and Chris Badawi has been banned permanently.
Team Impulse management has also been permanently banned in addition to a $20,000 fine though instead for not writing out contracts with all its players and repeatedly withholding payment since 2015. League officials had previously intervened on earlier missing payments to some success, but currently believe that some players are still owed several months of compensation.
In an act by Riot Games to give the players as much chance to continue competing for the rest of the year, all three organizations each have until May 18 to sell their their spots on the LCS to another organization. Some dont consider the spots valuable since the teams for all three organizations did not score enough points during the season split playoff to escape the Challenger Promotion Tournament. During this event, these bottom scoring LCS contestants play against what are essentially D-League top teams for a spot in the next LCS split. A guaranteed LCS seed is currently assumed to be valued at around $1 million dollars ever since it was reported that retired basketball player Rick Fox bought Team Gravitys spot before the start of the 2016 LCS season for that amount.
Avid followers of the League of Legends competitive scene have expressed awe at the scope of the investigations and the punishment levied against those named in violation. Professional gaming is still developing in light of its explosive growth half a decade ago which has allowed shady organizations to take advantage of desperate young players looking to make it big in this scene. Riot Games receives criticism for completely controlling the competitive scene of League of Legends, something which no other developer or distributor has done for their game products, but such a system has allowed the company to strictly enforce rules that protect players and have been repeatedly applauded for those efforts.