League of Legends Competition Ruling: Copenhagen Wolves

Riot·10/29/2014, 9:43:28 PM·0 votes·30,437 views
Organization: Copenhagen Wolves Date of Ruling: 10/29/2014 Subject: Fine; Violation of LCS ruleset Facts: On September 14, 2014, it was brought to our attention that two members of the Copenhagen Wolves, Karim “Airwaks” Benghalia and Paweł “Woolite” Pruski, allegedly played in LCS matches before they had signed valid contracts. We have concluded our investigation of these claims and have discovered the following: On May 13, LCS officials informed the Copenhagen Wolves’ manager that their roster changes were approved on the condition that an issue with Airwaks’ and Woolite’s contracts be resolved prior to their playing in the LCS. The issue with the contracts was around their contract termination dates, which if not resolved would make the contracts invalid. LCS officials followed up with the Copenhagen Wolves CEO to finalize the contracts on May 15. Although these changes were eventually made, we recently discovered that Airwaks’ and Woolite’s contracts were not signed until early June. The EU LCS Summer Split began on May 20 so these players had already participated for multiple weeks in the EU LCS without valid contracts. The League currently does not mandate that owners provide it with copies of their player contracts. In this case the player contracts were provided to the League upon request to the organization’s management once the investigation had begun. Relevant Rules: From the 2014 LCS ruleset: 3.2 Roster Requirements “All Starters must have a written contract with the team they are playing for.“ Ruling: Copenhagen Wolves has violated rule 3.2 of the LCS ruleset. It is unacceptable for LCS organizations to field players without contracts during their LCS matches. Competition Penalties: Copenhagen Wolves is:
  • Fined $1,000

19 Comments

Kishi Bashi10/29/2014, 10:24:24 PM11 votes

That seems too small a punishment. If I was a team manager, I would definitely do this now if I thought it would help. $1000 dollars will not discourage any team from doing this in the future if they think they can win. Riot is essentially saying there's a $1000 dollar fee to play ineligible players. Either the rules need to be changed or the penalty increased.

Flaccid Gyarados10/29/2014, 10:53:02 PM6 votes

Riot seriously, making Regi pay 2,000 for just announcing a player that wasnt riot approved yet but CW get away with letting two players play without a contract for multiple weeks? I think CW should be fined by the number of games the two played and fined for each player playing without the contract. The money is going to charity anyways.

PJ MOWGARTH10/29/2014, 10:50:22 PM5 votes

Don't worry, they Fine the Team $1,000.00 for playing games while not under a contract, but Regi gets fined $2,000.00 for announcing a player early? Logic?

Kingbiskit10/29/2014, 11:14:12 PM3 votes

break rules and have illegal players in LCS- 1000$ talk trash on twitter - 2000$ Logic of Fines? - Priceless

SnipeLife10/30/2014, 7:41:50 PM3 votes

Everyone bitching about how small the fine is compared with the fine towards regi... How much more money do you think TSM/regi makes over CW? Riot calculates the fines by keeping into account the severity of the violation and the earnings of said team/player. TSM's earnings is like a 1.000 times more than that of CW with their big fanbase and sponsors so please stop your whinings cause it was just pocketmoney for regi...

niklas130110/29/2014, 10:18:54 PM1 votes

Small fine lol even though they played many games and they know it o.O

Nyzos10/29/2014, 10:43:45 PM1 votes

The fine should be equal to the players salary for games unsigned, w/ ofcourse a mandatory pay of players on top of that for weeks unsigned, if the players were indeed not payed during said time. 1,000, is chump change.