In League of Legends, the player Wang “WeiYan” Xiang receives a harsh penalty. The league bans him for 2 years. His team has kicked him out but now has to pay nearly €380,000 in fines. The player is reported to have talked about manipulating matches in the Chinese LoL league LPL.
This is what the player did: A few days ago, the Chinese team Rogue Warriors announced they had released their jungler Wang “WeiYan” Xiang.
In a statement from the club, it was stated that they had discovered the player was involved in activities that seriously violated the team’s rules. They showed zero tolerance, would release him, and transmit relevant documents to the league. The team did not specify what the player had done.
However, an anonymous post surfaced on the Chinese platform Weibo, clarifying that the jungler had talked about “match manipulations.” One of the matches in question had been won by the Rogue Warriors 2-0 – so he couldn’t have thrown that one.
Who are the parties involved?
- The team Rogue Warriors is currently at 3-6 in 13th place in the LPL. This is a spot in the lower middle of the league.
- The player WeiYan is a product of the Rogue Warriors and was promoted from their second division team. He had only earned a starter position in the LPL team in week 2 of the ongoing season.
Harsh penalty against player and team: “Obligation violated”
Here’s how the league is reacting: Three days after the jungler was fired by his team, the Chinese LoL league LPL has now responded:
- they have determined that the player intended to violate the fairness of the league and was involved in illegal activities – it’s about “match manipulation”
- the player will be banned from all professional League of Legends activities for 24 months, he may play again on March 27, 2022
- during the 24 months, he will also not be allowed to stream content related to LoL – the league aims to work with streaming platforms to enforce this
- The team will receive a fine of 3 million Yuan, which is about €380,000
- the committee will continue to investigate the incident and emphasizes how important it is for everyone to adhere to the rules
Why is the penalty against the team so high? The LPL says the team did not report the player. The team merely informed the LPL committee that the player had been reported.
It is the team’s duty to ensure that players adhere to the rules. The Rogue Warriors have violated this duty.
These are further penalties for LoL players: The various professional leagues of League of Legends and Riot Games frequently issue penalties against individual players and teams. These range from harmless to very serious:
- There was a $1000 fine against G2 Esports because their top laner Wunder played WoW Classic in an official LoL stream – a penalty that G2 Esports and the community laughed about at the time
- Things were much more serious in Korea: A coach was banned for life for allegedly choking his player – but the verdict was later postponed due to Korean fans speaking up for the coach
In cases of match-fixing, like in WeiYan’s case, the LPL seems to impose harsh penalties. Although the 2-year ban in LoL is still milder than the case of Fortnite player FaZe Jarvis: he was banned for life from Fortnite for using an aimbot.
