On August 13, there was a really strange moment in the E-Sports of League of Legends: the final 5th match in a series for qualification to the Worlds 2023 had to be canceled and restarted. A serious mistake was noticed, which could only be resolved by restarting the match.
What kind of match was it? It was the playoff semi-final in the lower bracket of the US league LCS. The winner secured 3rd place and thus a ticket to the Worlds 2023. The loser had to earn their ticket in a duel with an LEC team:
- Team Liquid had won the first 2 games of the series.
- However, the Golden Guardians then struck back and won games 3 and 4. A “Reverse Sweep” was in the air. It came to the decisive match 5.
- The irony: Although both teams are nominally “US teams”, they play with 3 South Koreans and only 2 North Americans.
League decides “invalid” and “restart” after 12 minutes
What was the problem? About 12 minutes into the game, the match had to be canceled and restarted. The supporter Huhi of the Golden Guardians was suffering from a game-breaking bug, as determined by the LCS.
Due to the bug, Huhi permanently had the Summoner ability “Teleport” instead of the selected ability “Flash”, which is considered essential for survival in LoL.
The LCS determined: due to the incorrect summoner play, the Golden Guardians had incurred a significant disadvantage. The situation also could not be resolved by a Chronobreak, meaning resetting the match within the game.
Therefore, the officials ordered a “remake” of the game.
Team loses momentum after the break and then the match
How did it end? There was a 40-minute break before the match resumed. The Golden Guardians lost the final match and there was ultimately no reverse sweep that had been in the air beforehand.
Decisively contributing to Team Liquid’s victory was a pentakill by their jungler Pyosik. It was the first pentakill by a jungler in LCS history:
The South Korean Pyosik, who surprisingly won the Worlds 2022 with team DRX, is the first world champion who has qualified for the Worlds 2023 with the victory of Team Liquid.
Following the match, it was discussed that the bug and the long interruption may have caused the Golden Guardians to lose their momentum and allowed Team Liquid to get back into the game.
The Golden Guardians must enter a duel with an LEC team to still qualify for the Worlds. It is critically discussed that the fourth-placed US team now has a month longer to prepare for the duel than the fourth-placed EU team: because the league final is still being played in Europe (via reddit).
How is this being discussed? With much mockery. One often reads: “Small Indie Company – can’t fix their bugs,” while Riot is one of the largest gaming companies in the world.
Such errors in the game undermine the integrity of e-sports. Unfortunately, they occur repeatedly. However, at such a crucial moment, they are thankfully rare.
During the MSI 2022, there were already serious technical problems:
LoL: Mess at the MSI tournament – Riot takes away 3 victories from a team, RNG must repeat all games
