A bunch of alleged Counter-Strike matchfixers determined to make a sudden swap to League of Legends professional play, leading to a “pretend” professional group that bought caught after their very first sequence.
It’s more and more frequent for tier 2 esports leagues to be a hotbed for matchfixing and rigged matches, to the purpose that it’s been alleged matchfixing is the one purpose groups in these leagues keep afloat.
A Valorant scandal hit earlier this yr that alleged tier 2 groups had been betting lots of of hundreds of {dollars} on matches, and comparable scandals have come to move in League of Legends over time. China’s tier 2 league is especially infamous for this, with one bust leading to virtually 40 gamers getting banned.Article continues after advert
Nevertheless, one Lithuanian esports group within the Rift Legends league was so dangerous at hiding it that they bought caught after their first match and had been thrown out of the league.Article continues after advert
LoL group instantly banned for creating pretend group to matchfix
It’s no secret that competing in tier 2 esports leagues isn’t probably the most worthwhile enterprise on the market. The price of sustaining a group is so excessive that Riot Video games needed to exempt groups within the LCS (now LTA) from fielding a compulsory tier 2 roster in order that orgs within the league may keep afloat.Article continues after advert
However, whereas there aren’t some ways to become profitable off of fielding esports groups on this league, some lower than authorized means are on the market for groups to make a fast buck.
A group referred to as MY STAR dumped its whole roster forward of the Rift Legends 2025 Summer season Break up and fielded a wholly new one, with not one of the gamers from the prior group having something lined up. In addition they signed substitute gamers last-minute to skirt regional restrictions. Article continues after advert
MY STAR fully threw the primary recreation, with some gamers trying like they’d by no means touched League of Legends of their lives. Balukos specifically had it tough, with him dying 5 occasions in lane by the ten minute mark.Article continues after advert
By the best way, it’s doable to guess on how dangerous a sure participant will get beat in lane on sure betting websites, which may very well be a doable motivation for this participant specifically fully throwing the lane.Article continues after advert
That is on prime of kory and LakatosD being accused of matchfixing in Counter-Strike, although they’re each nonetheless allowed to compete because the allegations had been by no means confirmed. kory’s LoL identify is identical, whereas LakatosD goes by SZLOBESZKOV in Counter-Strike.
Viewers additionally seen that the gamers’ expressions within the webcams hardly ever modified and that none of them talked for the whole length of each matches, a weird incidence for a professional recreation.
What’s extra, the webcam for the participant labeled as Balukos matches the looks of Lesterik, a former principal roster participant who had been moved to “substitute”.Article continues after advert
Danijel Šego, aka Lesterik’s LinkedIn profile pic aspect by aspect with Balukos’ webcam on broadcast
Balukos’ identify is listed as Luka Glisic, whereas Lesterik’s identify is Danijel Šego, making it not possible to inform in the event that they actually did get a brand new participant and simply looped their former participant’s webcam or if the “actual” Lesterik was actively taking part in for the group.Article continues after advert
Ruf is the one participant who has proof he was really taking part in, with the sport’s draft being mirrored in his glasses. Nevertheless, he wasn’t speaking in any respect. Fairly, he spent a good portion of his time typing and gazing his second monitor, prone to talk with the true teammates he was taking part in with fairly than the folks on their webcams.Article continues after advert
Rift LegendsMY STAR’s webcams appeared like this for the whole sequence, with gamers blankly staring in random instructions and saying nothing
Because of this, the whole org has been booted from the league efficient instantly for matchfixing and breaking a number of components of the league’s code of conduct. Extra info will be discovered on this Reddit publish from dudanced, a passionate fan of the league who recapped the leadup to this group’s ban.
Rift Legends is bringing the problem to Riot straight and will pursue authorized motion towards the group for damaging the league’s picture.Article continues after advert
