Following a series of League of Legends match-fixing allegations, Riot Games has taken it upon itself to investigate the matter. The developer will now pay special attention to promotional matches for the spring Challenger League season in the North American region.
Allegations of match-fixing in the Challengers LCS
The first allegations of match-fixing came from league journalist Sander Hove. Yesterday, September 5, Hove revealed that many players are allegedly involved in match-fixing.
The allegations of match-fixing have not been confirmed at this time. However, it is believed that the player who is implicated may have bet a large amount of money on his opponent before the start of a match.
On the other hand, Hove comments that Riot Games is focusing its investigation, especially on the qualification matches in which Supernova participated. This team was eliminated from the first division of the NACL after losing to LiT and Mirage. Supernova dropped to ninth place in the league during the NACL regular season. Then, as a result of the last two losses in the promotion round, the team no longer belongs in the league.
Now, Hove has reported that a Supernova player had apparently muted his communications during his qualifying game drafts. In addition, it has been reported that this same player locked up a random champion, which was against the team’s stated strategy. Undoubtedly, this is an unusual mistake repeated on different occasions in Supernova’s match against LiT and the match against Mirage.
However, at the moment, it is not clear whether this situation is due to match-fixing. But Riot Games has all the necessary tools to investigate any bet made in the game and determine if we are facing a match-fixing case. Riot Games is in the investigation phase and has not disclosed any details on the issue.
[Sources] Riot is conducting an investigation into the alleged throwing of a series in the LCS Challengers League Promotion Tournament#LCS #NACL #PathtoLCS pic.twitter.com/9Fj1KYaA6y
— Sander "LCS Eevee" Hove (@LCS_Eevee) September 5, 2023
NACL’s bad moment
The allegations of match-fixing in the NACL come at a bad time. Let’s remember that the biggest esports organizations have left the second division. These abandonments came after Riot Games eliminated the rule that forced them to participate in this league. The consequences of this decision by the developer could be seen in the Summer Split, where only three LCS teams kept their NACL squads.
In case Riot Games confirms that there really was match-fixing, this would be a strong stain for the second division, which is just recovering its balance. It is important to note that this would not be the first match-fixing case in LoL. In the LPL and PCS, there were previously confirmed cases of match-fixing. As a result, the players involved were sanctioned by Riot Games.