In the world of League of Legends, if one had to identify a region renowned for its negativity, many would immediately think of LPL – one of the two largest League of Legends scenes globally, yet riddled with “blemishes.” Specifically, in the LDL tournament, there has been at least one match-fixing scandal that has rocked the league each year since 2020. Not only have smaller teams been implicated, but even prominent teams like FunPlus Phoenix and, more recently, school-level teams have participated in match-fixing. This has left the LDL currently “frozen” in all activities and on the brink of being dissolved.
However, the larger tournaments have yet to record any serious match-fixing incidents, aside from the most notable case involving LGD Gaming, which has some verifiable evidence. Previous cases involving Leyan or Xx have been viewed as excessively harsh penalties or lacking satisfactory explanations from the LPL organizers and Riot. Nonetheless, LPL fans have always been suspicious that there are indeed negative practices within the league, yet no one has discovered them or dared to report them.
Recently, Icon – the former star of LNG Esports and a participant in the Worlds 2021 – announced his retirement. For those who may not know, Icon is one of the most well-known players in the LPL, not necessarily for his high skill level, but because he is a “young master” who played League of Legends professionally just to satisfy his passion. According to many fans, Icon’s peak was between 2017 and 2020. However, during that time, he played for Oh My God – a mid-tier LPL team with little chance of competing for titles.
Icon stated during a recent stream: “LPL truly has a lot of negativity and issues. In the past, we had to fear the officials from the tournament organizers. But now that I have retired, I can say this. People often think that match-fixing only happens in smaller teams. But that’s the problem. Larger teams often avoid suspicion better than smaller ones. There is definitely negativity in LPL.”
Icon’s actions have been praised for their courage by many. However, some believe that his disclosures are merely one-sided statements from a former LPL player. But given what has happened with LDL, many fans are hoping Riot will take strong steps to verify all potential negativity (if any) affecting the League of Legends scene in the region.