The Russian esports news site Cybersports reported yesterday on the results of an investigation into match-fixing allegations within the professional League of Legends tournament system in Russia, involving Vega Squadron – one of the strongest names in the region.
Specifically, at the LCL 2020 Spring Open Cup – the precursor tournament for LCL Spring 2020, several members of Vega Squadron participated in a match-fixing and betting scheme. In particular, the members of this team placed bets on the matches in the tournament they were participating in on a betting website.
Additionally, some recorded conversations revealed that Vega Squadron members discussed fixing the outcome of their match against a lower-tier team – Funny Yellow Dog. In this, some members of Vega Squadron would “intentionally throw” to ensure their team lost, thus profiting from the betting odds as Vega was deemed the “favorite”.
After a lengthy investigation, Riot Russia found no concrete evidence linking Vega Squadron to “intentional losses”, while the other members defended that the contents of the recording were merely jokes made during match preparations.
However, due to their involvement in betting, these players were concluded to have violated the tournament regulations, and thus, they received penalties from the tournament organizers.
Yet, when the penalties were announced, the gaming community was left unsure whether to laugh or cry, with numerous criticisms directed at Riot Russia for the absurd nature of the punishments.
Specifically, the Vega Squadron members involved in betting, including coach Kirill “JamesPeke” Katashov and top laner Oleg “Charger” Zhuravlyov, will be banned from participating in all professional League of Legends activities until July 13, 2020. Support player Vladislav “Simsin” Samokha and former AD carry Rolandas “Optimas” Vincalovičius (who also filed the complaint) are banned from participating in professional League of Legends activities until July 1, 2020.
Notably, the LCL Summer 2020 is scheduled to take place at… the end of June or early July, while the LCL Spring 2020 has already concluded, meaning the penalties for the four mentioned individuals – banned from participating in professional League of Legends activities, were enforced at a time when there were no related professional League of Legends events occurring, rendering the bans nearly pointless. At most, these players would only miss a few early-season matches.
It can be said that Riot Russia’s handling of the situation was truly baffling, but the Vega Squadron members involved in betting and match-fixing also did not escape severe penalties from their parent organization. Currently, Vega Squadron has terminated contracts with all team members as of May 1 – the time when the case was reported by Optimas, and for those involved, being pushed out was almost a foregone conclusion.