Taiwanese LMS has made a shocking verdict to remove a team from the league. Team Dragon Gate is now permanently banned from the competitive landscape after they were proven guilty for fixing matches.
An anonymous tip came to the league organizer, Garena in which it was reported that the owner, the jungler and the coaches of the team fixed matches for gambling purposes. It seems like the incident took place in more than one series. Since Riot has taken very strict action against the guilty party.
Justice Served!
Initially, Garena invested the allegations and composed a report of all the in-game comms, the chat record and the replays in which Team Dragon made unexpected decisions. The organizer not only interviewed the entire management of Dragon Gate but each player of the team. Then they reported their findings to Riot. In the news published by Riot, they have mentioned the numbers of games in which the Chinese side cheated. Yet, they have made very strict verdicts against the members involved in the scandal:
- Weijie Hu, the Owner of Dragon Gate has been sentenced to a lifetime ban. This means that he can no longer form any amateur or a professional team in League of Legends.
- JGY, one of the members of the active roster will not be able to represent any team for 4 competitive seasons. Since the players have been given an 18-month ban.
- The two coaches of the team seemed to have gotten the least punishment as they have been banned for just 12 months.
LMS parts ways from Dragon Gate
Team Dragon Gate announced its arrival in November 2018, since they took over Team Afr’s slot. In the Spring Split 2019, the team has performed quite poorly as the finished at last place. They played a total sum of 14 series out of which they won just two. The team was on its way to face relegated from the league.
We are yet to know the name of the candidate who will fill Team Dragon Gate’s slot for the next season. Riot could organize a competition for this slot or they could just give the slot to the winner of the 2019 ECS Spring Split, SuperEsports. Since SuperEsports was to take on Dragon Gate of Friday for the spot in LMS. You might think that a team can buy a slot in the LMS. But this is not the case since the Taiwanese league does not hold the franchising model that is adopted in NA and EU. The model of the league is still the old one, where the team at last place is relegated to the tier two league. While the winner of the tier to gets the spot.
In reality, this is a bitter day for League of Legends and eSports. These incidents are one of the root causes to the fact that eSports is not recognized as a proper competitive sport. We are quite confident that Riot will make further arrangements to discourage the teams.
