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Competitive Ruling: Counter Logic Gaming

Riot·1/6/2015, 9:21:43 PM·0 votes·65,478 views
Organization: Counter Logic Gaming Region: North America Date of Ruling: January 6, 2015 Subject: Penalty; Violation of LCS Ruleset

Background

We were notified of allegations that Counter Logic Gaming’s (CLG) management violated the LCS anti-tampering/poaching provision by attempting to recruit Darshan “ZionSpartan” Upadhyaya during October of last year. ZionSpartan was at the time still under contract with Team Dignitas. Attempting to recruit LCS Team Members that are still under contract with other LCS organizations is a serious offense, and we began a thorough investigation to verify these allegations. Following the publication of our recent competitive ruling regarding CLG poaching William “Scarra” Li, CLG’s management voluntarily came forward to disclose the nature of ZionSpartan’s recruitment to LCS officials. As a result of our investigation and with CLG’s cooperation, we’ve discovered the following: During the 2014 NA LCS Summer Playoffs in early September, Counter Logic Gaming team member Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng had a conversation with ZionSpartan regarding his off-season plans and encouraged him to join CLG. ZionSpartan was still under contract with Dignitas at the time. Conversations between Doublelift and ZionSpartan regarding a potential move to CLG in the off-season continued off-and-on over the next several weeks. After ZionSpartan’s contract with Dignitas expired, he approached CLG management to negotiate a contract with the team for this coming season and was soon afterwards signed to the CLG roster.

Relevant Rules

10.2.12 No Poaching or Tampering.
“No Team Member or Affiliate of a team may solicit, lure, or make an offer of employment to any Team Member who is signed to any LCS team, nor encourage any such Team Member to breach or otherwise terminate a contract with said LCS team. Violations of this rule shall be subject to penalties, at the discretion of LCS officials.”

Ruling

CLG and Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng have violated rule 10.2.12 of the LCS ruleset and will be subject to penalties.

Competition Penalties

Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng is:
  • Fined $2,500
Counter Logic Gaming is:
  • Fined $2,000
  • Restricted from fielding Darshan “ZionSpartan” Upadhyaya as a player or coach for ‘the first week of the 2015 LCS Spring Split

Context

  • CLG’s management voluntarily came forward to disclose information regarding ZionSpartan’s recruitment to CLG. Doublelift, ZionSpartan, and CLG management all spoke separately with LCS officials and all gave similar accounts of the series of events which led to ZionSpartan’s recruitment to CLG.

  • We considered CLG’s, ZionSpartan’s, and Doublelift’s cooperation with us on this matter to be significant when weighing what the appropriate penalty in this case should be, which is one reason why this penalty differs from the one we levied in our recent ruling regarding CLG’s poaching of Scarra. That said, this ruling is still meant to convey that poaching is completely unacceptable in the LCS.

  • Our goal in restricting CLG from being able to field ZionSpartan is to limit the value of an ill-gotten acquisition. Our goal with penalties is to help avoid similar situations in the future, and a fine alone will not effectively deter determined organizations from attempting to poach players.

  • Teams are responsible for their players. Doublelift claims he did not notify CLG management of his efforts to recruit ZionSpartan while he was still under contract with Dignitas. Individual players who violate rules are accountable for their actions, but LCS teams are held responsible for the actions of their players and are required to arm them with knowledge of the LCS ruleset and monitor their behavior to ensure they are not violating them.

144 Comments

SavagePenetrator1/6/2015, 10:22:26 PM133 votes

Personally, I have a huge problem with this ridiculous rule. A player should be able to discus his or her career options whether that be current or future. Communication has to take place in order to receive offers, and express interest in certain teams. Rules like this will hurt the growth of League of Legends as an esport. It just decreases competitiveness of contracts.

DougsHugsNTugs1/6/2015, 9:55:59 PM28 votes

Thanks rito, ruling as painfully stupid as the report system itself. Kuddos

calforrai1/6/2015, 10:04:30 PM24 votes

pretty hilarious ruling here. pro players should never ask each other "hey what are you up to" after season ended.

Eternıty1/6/2015, 11:34:04 PM17 votes

I fucking hate that Riot seems to think that the competitive players cannot have a say in their own future. If the PLAYER wants to talk to someone about his future that should be 100% his choice and Riot should not be able to ban or fine someone just for talking like ffs

Oh Lord Hes Good1/6/2015, 10:54:56 PM16 votes

Sorry doublelift apparently you were not informed that, when signing to be a pro player, you get your American right to free speech revoked. What a joke of a rule that is.

C9 Xero1/6/2015, 11:41:18 PM11 votes

Law student for almost 8 years, this is the stupidest f*cking rule every devised. I'm sure there are many Riot employees handling the legality issues that agree. Ten slow-claps awarded to Nick Allen for putting his face on this joke of a violation.

Alquinn1/6/2015, 9:52:31 PM9 votes

Goes to show that this rule is actually f&%"$%ing retarded.

Fletcher Night1/7/2015, 12:17:51 AM8 votes

I love League of Legends, the LCS, and Riot games, but there really needs to be some kind of player's union or something equivalent that can look over the contracts players and teams have to sign, and communicate with Riot/LCS to establish some player rights. The level of control where a player cannot talk to another player or organization about future plan, on there own, while still in "Split" of League is some what over the top. I think pro players can have enough individual responsibility to talk with own organization and other organizations about what they want to do with their career. If teams are not given enough time to replace the player with a suitable replacement, or the player was not preforming adequately before a move, then fining action would seem more reasonable.

As always though I will trust Riot, and the LCS Team to make good and fair decisions for the future <3

Kastun1/6/2015, 11:01:39 PM7 votes

How is it an issue that a player goes to another team AFTER his contract with a previous team expires? As long as ZionSpartan isn't obliged to re-sign the contract with Dignitas he should be free to do what he wants. The fact that a pro player can't ask another on what their plans are, without risking a 2.5k fine is ridiculous.

OldManGraizer1/6/2015, 9:36:23 PM7 votes

I understand the rules and happy they are in place, but honestly... Zion and Scarra also know these rules exist and spoke with CLG. I think they should have ended the convo there, but they didnt and shares similar ideas with CLG. Should they not also be fined?

Level 18 Zoe1/6/2015, 11:59:52 PM6 votes

Nah, I have to support the players. It's their career, I'm actually surprised dig couldn't keep Zion, but frankly there is no reason why he can't have a chat with another team about it. again, contract was up, and he wanted something new. I don't think personally I would have done it any differently then they did. Zion could just stream and make the money back in a few days... so who cares really.

ZDWDx9FG1V1/7/2015, 12:19:52 AM6 votes

The reason this rule seems so ridiculous is because violation is based almost entirely on intent. if Dlift simply wanted to ask Zion about his plans for the future and had no intention of recruiting him, then that would've been perfectly fine. But if Dlift asked Zion intending to recruit him from the start, then that's a violation.

though in this case, that intent is irrelevant. People need to keep in mind that Riot didn't find out about this "violation." CLG went to Riot and admitted to their violation. Seems like the accounts of all parties involved support this claim, and therefore, Riot must dish out punishment.

JeffJeff1/7/2015, 12:12:01 AM5 votes

This is so stupid. What Doublelift and ZionSpartan had was simply a conversation between two friends about their future. The idea of poaching can ONLY apply if ZionSpartan terminates his contract or breaks it BEFORE IT IS OVER BECAUSE of DoubleLift. How can you possibly consider what DoubleLift said to ZionSpartan as an offer to join CLG? There were no technicalities, and there was no serious negotiation/offer to Zion at the time. HE LEFT DIG AFTER HIS CONTRACT ENDED BEFORE APPROACHING CLG. this is bullshit. Whatever happened to free speech? A friend can't discuss with another friend about their future? wtf is this

Frith3601/7/2015, 12:34:38 AM5 votes

I don't understand what everyone is angry about. Tampering rules are fairly commonplace in professional sports, and if League wants to be considered a true sport, it needs this type of protection. Teams are not allowed to talk to players as it could impact contract negotiations in future. Think if Player A was playing well in the last year of his contract, and Team A who has the rights to Player A has every intention on resigning him. Player B from Team B tells Player A that there may be an opening on Team B. Player A benefits, but Team A gets screwed as even before negotiations can begin they're behind the 8 ball. This is why in most pro sports an opposing team must gain permission to talk to the player or their agent.

A league must protect it's owners to protect their investment. If owners feel they aren't being looked after, they simply wont invest their money. No money, no league.

Amastris Dratwka1/7/2015, 12:09:28 AM5 votes

I understand most of you dudes are gamers who know very little about regular sports rules but this is fairly standard practice, so please understand what you're talking about before you open your mouth to complain that these don't exist as standard:

"Signing With Other Clubs: (a) Any player under contract to a Club as a Practice Squad player shall be completely free to negotiate and sign a Player Contract with any Club at any time during the League Year, to serve as a player on any Club’s Active or Inactive List, and any Club is completely free to negotiate and sign such a Player Contract with such player, without penalty or restriction, including, but not limited to, Draft Choice Compensation between Clubs or First Refusal Rights of any kind, or any signing period, except that such player shall not be permitted to sign a Player Contract with another Club to serve as a Practice Squad player while under contract as a Practice Squad player. (b) Notwithstanding Subsection (a) above, a Practice Squad player may not sign an NFL Player Contract with his Club’s next opponent later than 4:00 pm, New York time, on the sixth day preceding the game (except in bye weeks, when the prohibition commences on the tenth day preceding the game). When the current employer club has a bye the weekend before the game against the Club signing the Practice Squad player to an NFL Player Contract, such contract must be executed prior to 4:00 pm, New York time, on the 10th day preceding the game..."

Mage Player1/7/2015, 12:08:45 AM4 votes

Urgot to be kidding me. I'm Lucian respect for Riot.

Ecoh1/7/2015, 12:45:29 AM4 votes

I see why the rule is in place. If a team asks would you like to join their team DURING LCS and that player agrees, then that player can "sabotage" games on his current team. That's probably why the rule is in place in my opinion.

Amastris Dratwka1/7/2015, 12:24:57 AM3 votes

Here's an incident where the rapper Drake made a plea at his concert for Durant to join Toronto Raptors and the NBA team was fined $25K for that statement for anti-poaching:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/nba-fines-raptors--25-000-for-violating-anti-tampering-rules-with-drake-s--pitch--to-kevin-durant-141732492.html

NGdontdie1/6/2015, 9:52:43 PM3 votes

@OldManGraizer i agree. However i don't think any of them should actually be fined. At any time thank you America even under contract you cant still talk about you future to any open ended extent. There fining them for talking about what THEY are going to do after there contracts are up. There is honestly no illegal action taking place. Lets fine people for discussing there Future. Better start Fining every Pro Athlete in the World!

Iroijdik1/7/2015, 12:30:08 AM2 votes

When you are contracted by an organization such as an LCS team, you have a legal responsibility to avoid conflicts of interest. This is not a ridiculous rule and the fine is appropriate.

It does not decrease the competitiveness of contracts but rather strengthens it. It ensures the contract player will observe their duties to play their best for their respective team in return for the team paying them to do so. I guarantee any employer would be upset with your performance if they found out that you did not return them your best efforts and instead spent your time securing your own personal interests at their expense.