As we know, August 11th was a day that truly shook the Vietnamese League of Legends community. After several days of investigation, accompanied by countless speculations, the VCS organizers VCS made their final decision regarding the allegations of SBTC Esports’ involvement in wrongdoing. The result: all remaining players from SE have been banned from competition for 36 months. The owner of SE has been permanently banned from participating in all Riot tournaments. This is seen as the end of the SBTC Esports brand in the Vietnamese LoL scene.
Of course, with VCS currently attracting international attention, the global League of Legends community is aware of the SE situation. On some international LoL forums, many opinions state that SE’s punishment is severe but justified. Considering that SE was the runner-up of VCS Spring 2023, many believe that the VCS organizers and Riot could have imposed even harsher penalties.
A straightforward opinion links SE’s situation to the development of VCS: “VCS is becoming increasingly less attractive, and you can understand why when looking at the SE incident. A team that was the runner-up last season is now found to be involved in wrongdoing. But I’ve heard this team has faced many penalties in the past. I just regret that the SE roster includes some of the best players in their positions. This will definitely affect the overall quality of VCS.”
However, some opinions suggest that Riot and the VCS organizers should provide some evidence to dispel the doubts surrounding the announcement. Of course, no one will question the wrongdoing associated with SE, but more specific information from Riot would be reasonable, especially since the publisher has just directly taken over a tournament that has encountered such a serious incident.
Certainly, Riot’s decision is the final one. However, it is clear that the VCS incident will be a topic of discussion for some time to come, alongside the intense matches still taking place in the global League of Legends scene.