Over the weekend, the final of the “PRM Cup 2024” of the German Prime League in League of Legends was played. The team of leading German Twitch streamers for LoL, NNO, faced off against the Unicorns of Love. A decision against the streamer team is now being sharply criticized.
What a match it was? The “PRM Cup 2024” is the last tournament in German LoL of the year. After that, the teams reorganize.
32 teams are participating in the event. The tournament began on September 30th – the final took place on October 25th.
In the final, NNO faced off against the Unicorns of Love – Sexy Edition.
Agurin is one of the owners of NNO:
Team NNO is on the winning path, but the match is annulled after a pause
What was the crucial moment? The teams played the first two matches evenly at 1-1.
In match 3, NNO was ahead after 17 minutes with a substantial gold lead, and it looked like they could turn the match in their favor after a won teamfight.
But then a pause was ordered because apparently a game-changing bug had occurred to the disadvantage of the Unicorns of Love.
The game paused for an hour, and ultimately, it was decided that the match would not count and would be annulled. A “remake” was ordered.
In a “Remake,” the game is completely annulled and restarted.
At the Worlds, the European team G2 was disadvantaged by a similar situation.
Players of NNO tilt after ruling, lose match 3
This was the impact of the decision: NNO’s lead was gone, the new draft was significantly more advantageous for Unicorns of Love, and they could win game 3.
The players of NNO appeared annoyed after the pause and the decision and seemed to play unfocused.
As a result, NNO managed a comeback in game 4, but game 5 was again won by the Unicorns of Love, who secured the cup.
Prime League explains controversial decision in a statement
Why was this decision made? The Prime League explained in a statement (via x):
The bug that led to the annulment of match 3 was that Sion’s ultimate did not trigger an audible effect. Normally, a global sound is played to alert all players: Sion has activated his ultimate, is immune to crowd control, and is moving faster.
Normally, the Prime League states, a Chronobreak should have been ordered here, meaning rewinding the match to the point when the bug occurred. However, there was no one from Riot available who could perform such a Chronobreak; therefore, the entire match had to be replayed.
NNO filed an appeal against the decision, arguing that the bug had occurred earlier and must have been known to the Unicorns. However, no evidence was found that the Unicorns had noticed the Sion bug beforehand. Therefore, the appeal was rejected.
They took a lot of time for the decision, which can also be seen in the long pause in the game.
Twitch streamers were furious during the match
How did the streamers react during the match? Team NNO includes 5 of the leading German Twitch streamers. They were live on Twitch during the pause in the match and were furious.
They were upset about the decision to take away their clear advantage over such a triviality. They called it a scandalous ruling and an undignified end for their team, as the match was the last game for NNO Prime.
Streamer calms down after the match: Excitement changes nothing
How did they react after the match? The largest German Twitch streamer for LoL, Frederick “NoWay” Hinteregger, has calmed down significantly by now. He is now trying to calm the heated passions and says he was also emotional, but he wants to ask the fans not to verbally attack either the Prime League or the Unicorns of Love now.
It wouldn’t change anything about the situation. The wave of hate is now unnecessary.
Overall, the mood among the comments is heated. Especially fans of NNO say that the Prime League has embarrassed itself here.
That a remake was ordered because the warranted Chronobreak was not technically possible is received very poorly.
Streamers were live berating their opponents, Unicorns of Love: They should have noticed the bug with Sion much earlier and should have saved their “protest” for the case of losing a teamfight, only to express it then. That is just unsportsmanlike.
The Prime League is already having a hard time at the moment. Significant upheaval is apparently on the horizon for 2025, which will result in a significant decrease in players’ salaries and a drop in the competitive level. Teams are already adjusting to the changed situation: In LoL, HandOfBlood’s team is now replacing a key player with a Twitch streamer (33)
