Punished for Banning 5 Support Champions
This is perhaps the funniest story from the LCL Spring 2019 tournament (the top league in Russia) when the RoX team was punished by Riot Games for unsportsmanlike behavior. Specifically, in the match against Vaevictis Esports, RoX banned all 5 Support champions because all 5 players on the opposite side were female and were all “Support mains” as well.
Although Riot provided evidence that RoX made inappropriate comments, such as calling their opponents “little diamonds,” this punishment did not receive support from the community. They believed Riot was overreacting and trying to gain favor with female gamers after the gender discrimination scandal that the creator of League of Legends faced. Later, Vaevictis Esports only lasted in the LCL until the end of 2019 before being eliminated from the tournament due to poor results.
Punished for Playing Jayce as Support
Remember back in 2015, the then-world champion Mata was fined $8,000 for intentionally using Jayce in the Support position during the Demacia Cup match between Invictus Gaming and Vici Gaming. If Mata had played seriously, it would have been fine, but he displayed a very poor attitude and was uncooperative with his teammates due to conflicts, with rumors suggesting he was even playing with one hand, leading to his team’s disastrous defeat.
Both the punishment and the reason for Mata’s fine were quite understandable; he disrupted the game, so the penalty was justified. However, the bizarre thing is that a world champion like Mata, who has gone through all the ups and downs of professional play, could engage in such game-disrupting behavior. Was his conflict with teammates really that severe?
Punished for… Poor Quality Tournament Headphones
Also in 2015, our VCS tournament witnessed a player being fined for the extremely humorous reason of having… ear pain. Specifically, the Support player Tsu from the Saigon Jokers team removed his noise-canceling headphones before the game ended because they caused him unbearable pain due to their poor quality. While the rule was not wrong, it was the poor quality of the noise-canceling headphones that caused the player discomfort, and they did not intentionally break the rules.
Many players in the VCS at that time also reported this to the organizers because they found the poor quality of the equipment to be quite uncomfortable. While removing noise-canceling headphones before the game ended deserves a warning, the actual issue lies with the organizers for providing such subpar equipment.
Punished for… Going to the Bathroom in the Wrong Place
This is probably the most absurd reason for a punishment in the career of “the golden boy of penalties” – Zeros. Specifically, in the VCS Summer 2019, during a match against Cerberus, GAM Esports lost a ban and had to struggle hard to overcome their opponents. The VETV commentators only vaguely mentioned that a player from GAM violated the regulations, and it wasn’t until the team’s fanpage confirmed the reason that everyone was stunned by its absurdity.
Ultimately, GAM Esports still won and remained the champion of the VCS Summer 2019, but what people remember most about Zeros are the penalties, with this particular reason being the pinnacle of absurdity. Moving into 2020, the number of penalties for “the Demon King” has noticeably decreased; perhaps it’s due to the new year bringing new fortune or because Zeros spent most of his time playing at GAM’s gaming house.
