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League of Legends Competition Ruling: Copenhagen Wolves

Riot··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 Bashi11 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.

KSHarrison11 votes

It's tempered by the fact that these are still relatively young teams. As the league matures, there will be less excuse for mistakes and oversights. Riot can always increase the punishments then

I'm sure if it were obvious that the CW had tried to maliciously game the system that Riot would have been harsher in their ruling.

KeroKeroDuke1 votes

I suggest then after the 1st/2nd offense, to ban the team all together. Seems fair?

GodsFavAtheist1 votes

No one is saying that the fine wouldn't increase. This is one of the 1st instances of this sort of violation. No point int trying to ruin the team with a fine because they broke a rule once.

Zenlay1 votes

Cw have dont it befor vs Bjergsen etc :)

Gizmoduk6 votes

Regi fined $2k for annoucing a player, CW do this and get only $1k fine....yup makes sense. Nick Allen what a joke

Flaccid Gyarados6 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 MOWGARTH5 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?

Scoot2 votes

if you want to go by logic then why not: Regi and Loco slander and harass members of CLG, but get no fine.

Venrae4 votes

Riot didn't issue a fine in that case because of multiple things.

  1. Slander that Regi and TSM has received from Summoning Insight (something that Monte is a host on)
  2. Riot has said that this stuff builds hype, but has to be monitored, and in this case, Riot decided to draw the line at that time, so issuing a fine would be ludicrous because no one knew where the limit was.

If I were to guess another reason, I'd say that because Coaches and Supporting Staff weren't recognized by Riot at the time, they had no way of holding Regi and Loco accountable (wouldn't be much different from a crazed fan making those claims, so punishing the team members is rather stupid in that regard). Now that Riot recognizes Supporting Staff, I think Riot will be more proactive in holding organizations accountable for things said on social media.

TakeOutTacos3 votes

Well as much as I don't really agree with Reginald being fined, it was under a different ruleset. Reginald was fined for breaking a Riot rule. CW was fined for fielding players who weren't under contract. We all know these things change as time goes on, and because the players would most likely be signed to contracts at some point is isn't as big a deal, since no player would become a starter if they weren't under contract.

They probably see the Reginald thing as something that could get out of hand if players / owners start doing all sorts of random things Riot doesn't want them to do.

The rules are bound to evolve as the leagues become more established. It has only been 2 years of LCS. Major League Baseball and other leagues were free for alls during their first decades.

ninjasun1 votes

Technically, CW did announces their players as in letting them play before even contracted.

Kingbiskit3 votes

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

SnipeLife3 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...

niklas13011 votes

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

Nyzos1 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.

Jubbeh1 votes

You do realize that players only get about $450 per game

TrollFan013 votes

Where did you find that out? I didn't know that.

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