The German streamer Noway4u regularly showcases his matches in League of Legends on Twitch. Recently, he encountered players who seem to manipulate the outcomes of games. In a video, he explains the issue and rants about the betting mafia.
What is the problem? Noway4u, one of the largest German LoL streamers, explains the situation as follows:
- There are stream snipers who specifically wait for well-known players to log in. They try to get into the match with multiple players.
- In the best case, there are players from this group in both teams, as this gives them the flexibility to manipulate the match in either direction.
- Then, large sums are wagered on how the game will end. Since the groups can influence the outcome quite reliably, they can make a lot of cash from it.
How such manipulation can look was shown by the streamer himself in a video on YouTube. At the beginning, everything seemed relatively harmless, but later on, his teammates did curious things.
Although Noway and the streamer TheBausffs, who plays with him, are both really good LoL players, they cannot win the match:
The betting mafia is about a lot of money
How exactly does such manipulation work? Initially, it is important to get players from your own circle of acquaintances into the matches – as mentioned above, best in both teams. For this, the manipulators are willing to leave matches if necessary, which is why Noway often struggles with multiple queue drops.
After that, the game is played fairly normally at first so that the manipulation doesn’t become obvious. During the course of the match, smaller errors are then introduced. Matches are lost, for example, when your team constantly has to fight 4 vs. 5 or gives away important objectives like the dragon soul or the Baron.
But even if you are not actively in the match, there is still the possibility to manipulate. Other players on the team are offered money to intentionally lose. The sums involved are around 100 dollars or even more. Noway4u says about this:
Players who play Master or higher would like to have League as a job. You can’t live off of it, unless you’re a pro player or streamer. And 90 dollars to int for 20 or 30 minutes is a lot of money.
Is the problem really that big? Matchfixing is not completely new, but it feels like the complaints have increased in recent weeks. Alongside Noway4u, other streamers like TheBausffs have also commented on the issue. He said in the stream: “Noway is one of the few normal players in the queue.”
However, manipulation exists not only in Europe, and especially not only in ranked matches:
- In China, 28 players and 2 complete e-sport teams were banned in August for match-fixing. Tournament matches in the second Chinese league were manipulated, which is roughly equivalent to the Prime League in Germany. However, it seems that it was not about getting better placements, but coaches and players were betting on wins or losses.
- In November, 14 players from the Turkish second league were banned. They also manipulated their matches in tournaments.
The most significant headlines about match-fixing occur especially when professionals are involved. Normal ranked games, on the other hand, do not attract as much attention and are apparently not scrutinized as intensely by Riot Games.
Noway4u showcased a Turkish player in another video, who apparently had something to do with the scandal in the league. This player specifically played only with Noway in the last four games, although the German played many more matches during that time. “He just paused while I was playing,” he points out.
Moreover, the player achieved very mixed statistics: 2/7/9 on Yuumi – although he later simply went AFK – 2/16/9 on Nami and 2/12/1 on Sett. It definitely seems like he was trying to lose intentionally.
The only match he played against Noway, he won with 7/6/11 on Tristana.
Can nothing be done about it? The German streamer states: “I have now moved away from this mindset that I suspect manipulation everywhere. At the end of the day, there’s nothing you can do about it.”
He reports the player directly to Riot Games, but it probably brings little. The streamer says that he keeps encountering the same accounts and can even identify them at the start of the matches.
For Noway4u, the entire LoL year has been a rollercoaster. With his team NNO, he made the jump to the first German LoL league, but then there was immediately some bad news:
