Whether in traditional sports or esports, match-fixing and corruption are behaviors that are always hard to accept. Therefore, all players, whether unintentionally or intentionally involved in match-fixing, face heavy criticism from the community and receive bans from tournament organizers and game publishers. In some countries, even encouraging others to fix matches is considered a criminal act and is strictly punished by law.
Recently, the Victoria Police in Australia arrested two 25-year-old men named Kingsville and Brooklyn after being found guilty of inciting match-fixing related to the LPL tournament. According to information shared by the police, they received a report from a betting company about these two men placing unusual bets on several LPL matches on June 8, 2021. In their announcement, the police believe the integrity of some matches has been compromised.
While the police have not disclosed the specific match that was fixed, according to the Wikipedia page of the LPL tournament, there were two matches that took place on June 8, 2021. The first was Rare Atom defeating OMG with a score of 2-0, and the other match was EDward Gaming’s 2-1 victory over Bilibili Gaming. According to the police announcement, if enough evidence is found to convict them, these two men could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
If the two men mentioned above are convicted, the investigation will certainly not stop there, as the integrity of several matches has been affected. At that point, the LPL organizers and Riot Games will have to step in to investigate which players were incited by the two men and engaged in match-fixing. It wouldn’t be surprising if the LPL continues to announce bans in the future (similar to the case of Bo).