The MAD Lions team accuses its League of Legends competitor G2 Esports of manipulating players from other teams. This is not allowed under the statutes of Riot Games. MAD Lions and other teams in the LEC are now calling for a revision of the rules.
What is currently happening in the LEC? The organization MAD Lions accused the competitor G2 Esports of manipulation during the meeting between the LEC teams and Riot Games. MAD Lions also called for a revision of the manipulation and poaching rules in the league. This was reported by the website DotEsports.
The meetings allegedly took place on September 2 and 3: In a vote, 8 of the 10 teams opted for such a revision. G2 Esports and Team Vitality voted against it. However, Vitality argues that the existing rules are not being enforced correctly, according to the report from the e-sports site.
All 3 teams declined to make a statement to DotEsports. However, Riot Games announced that no official complaint regarding the manipulation of G2 Esports had been submitted, which they could investigate.
G2 is allegedly searching for a replacement for Rekkles, digging up banned players
What is the specific issue? Which players are to be manipulated or poached is unclear. However, there are rumors that G2 Esports wants to part ways with their AD-Carry Martin “Rekkles” Larsson.
As a replacement for Rekkles, G2 Esports is reportedly interested in Matyáš “Carzzy” Orság, the AD-Carry from MAD Lions (featured image). However, he is under contract until November 2021 and can only transfer during the off-season in November.
How G2 Esports will proceed in 2022 is still unclear. For the team that has dominated LoL in Europe in recent years, this year has not been good. They missed the qualification for Worlds 2022.
- The midlaner Caps has received a contract extension until 2023 and remains with G2 Esports.
- The future of the other players and coach GrabbZ, who has led the team since 2017, is still unclear.
Rule catalog aims to prevent manipulation and poaching
What are the current rules? The Global Penalty Index from Riot Games specifies exactly what is allowed and what is not (via Esport-assets.com). Three rules relate to the topic of poaching:
- A player who manipulates another to poach him for a team receives a ban of between 5 and 10 months.
- Non-players of a team or its subsidiaries are also not allowed to attempt to poach other players or offer them employment. The maximum penalty results in a permanent exclusion.
- Thirdly, players or coaches are not allowed to solicit offers from other teams without the express consent of the current team, as long as they are under contract. This can lead to a ban of between 3 and 15 months.
All allegations of manipulation must be reported within six months of the alleged incident.
Does manipulation happen often? There are clear regulations from Riot Games designed to prevent manipulation and the poaching of players. Often, such cases are not heard of. However, G2 Esports has already been accused of such behavior twice in the past.
Where have there been allegations of manipulation? G2 Esports has been involved in two incidents where the accusation of manipulation was made:
- First, in 2016, there was an incident where midlaner Perkz allegedly “poached” the players Zven and Mithy. 10 to 15 European players were said to have been in a kind of “secret group chat,” as Slingshot Esports reported at the time. Mithy subsequently transferred from Origin to G2 Esports.
- In 2018, Perkz allegedly manipulated top-laner Odoamne, bot-laners Hjarnan and Upset, as well as support Wadid. This was reported by VPEsports. However, the LEC denied that they received a complaint.
G2 Esports and Perkz were not punished for either incident.
The MAD Lions team surprisingly won the LEC in summer 2021. The team also includes a German player:
