League of Legends
The entire eSports world was rocked by the news that the Vietnam Championship Series Spring 2024 League of Legends organizers announced the postponement of matches on March 15 and, three days later, the championship suspension for an indefinite period on March 18.
The decision was made after an investigation into participants suspected of violating rules regarding the integrity of the competition. The blix.gg team has conducted a small investigation and reconstructed the chronology of events for you. We are ready to share the data we managed to collect.
Highlights
- Chronology of events and explanation of the VCS match-fixing scandal
- List of suspended players
Opening Remarks
League Legends
League of Legends has its fair share of scandals involving match-fixing in professional games. Still, Vietnam's professional league, VCS, has been hit by an enormous scandal that has jeopardized the entire region.
The VCS has long been a "dark horse" region in international League of Legends competitions.
These players are not paid as if they are playing in a major region, and many players allegedly resort to alternative methods of generating income, such as deliberately rigging matches and profiting from betting.
While this isn't the first betting scandal to hit VCS, it's so widespread across the league that it could eventually sink the entire region's professional scene.
Event Chronology
The Vietnam Championship Series Spring 2024 began on January 20. Teams played for $73,000 and a spot in the Mid-Season Invitational 2024 play-in.
However, after Riot Games reported suspected match-fixing, the 2024 VCS Spring Split organizers announced on their Facebook page on March 15 that the matches would be suspended due to "unexpected events".
Riot summoned all eight teams to VCS Studio to investigate match-fixing, including Team Secret, GAM Esports, Team Whales, Vikings Esports, Cerberus, MBE, Team Flash, and Rainbow Warriors.
Team members were ordered to sit in the reception area and were called into the meeting room one at a time to testify. In the meeting room, Riot provided a sheet with the names of the coach and players of all eight teams. The interviewees were then asked to circle the names suspected of match-fixing.
Riot also asked players and coaches whether or not they had cooperated with these suspected cases.
The shortest "interview" lasted 5 minutes. However, obtaining all the testimonies sometimes took more than an hour.
On March 18, VCS announced on their official Facebook page that they are suspending the tournament indefinitely.
The tournament was suspended to determine which players or coaches (if any) intentionally influenced the games' outcomes. At the time of the shutout, it was determined that the standings at the end of Week 7 would decide which teams would qualify for the playoffs. The results of the Thursday, March 14, games were not counted.
On March 28, organizers put up a post with the investigation results. Because of the initial results, they decided to suspend the league even further to keep the competition fair while they continued their efforts behind the scenes.
Thirty-two players and staff members have been suspended from all Riot Games eSports events. According to a VCS statement, "Based on initial findings, we have decided to suspend all competitive activity of the following individuals temporarily and will continue to analyze additional data". During the suspension, these individuals cannot participate in any Riot Games eSports events, including official tournaments or tournaments organized by third parties."
The following is a list of suspended participants.
Banned players list
GAM Esports
- Đỗ ‘Blazes’ Đình Sang (Mid Laner)
- Lê ‘Pyshiro’ Viết Huy (ADC)
Team Flash
- Lê ‘Dzung’ Minh Dũng (Manager)
- Đinh ‘Marcus’ Bùi Quốc Cường (Top Laner)
- Lê ‘Draktharr’ Ngọc Toàn (Jungler)
- Nguyễn ‘Jane’ Hoàng Khánh (Mid Laner)
- Lương ‘Puddin’ Thành Tài (ADC)
Team Secret
- Quách ‘Qiang’ Khánh Hoàng (Jungler)
- Hoàng ‘Eddie’ Công Nghĩa (ADC)
Vikings Esports
- Ngô ‘Kratos’ Đức Khánh (Top Laner)
- Lương ‘Gury’ Hải Long (Jungler)
- Võ ‘Kairi’ Văn Phi (Support)
- Nguyễn ‘Bunn’ Vũ Khang Nguyên (Support Sub)
CERBERUS Esports
- Nguyễn ‘Pun’ Đăng Khoa (Top Laner)
- Trần ‘Ikigai’ Bảo Quang (Jungler)
- Nguyễn ‘Richard I’ Hoàng Phú (Mid Laner)
- Nguyễn ‘Slowz’ Huy Hùng
MGN Blue Esports
- Võ ‘Ryuk’ Hoàng Lê Khang (Top Laner)
- Đào ‘Rigel’ Văn Tuấn (Top Lane Sub)
- Nguyễn ‘Sorn’ Minh Hào (Jungle)
- Bùi ‘Froggy’ Văn Minh Hải (Mid Lane)
- Tiêu ‘Zodiac’ Quốc Lương (Support)
Team Whales
- Trần ‘BeanJ’ Văn Chính (Jungler)
- Lê ‘Gloryy’ Ngọc Vinh (Mid Laner)
Rainbow Warriors
- Nguyễn ‘HinieeeC’ Hoàng Nghĩa (Manager)
- Nguyễn ‘Raze’ Kỳ Vương (Coach)
- Nguyễn ‘Yuki’ Anh Kiệt (Top Laner)
- Nguyễn ‘2T’ Trọng Trí (Top Laner)
- Nguyễn ‘Spot’ Phan Đình Khôi (Jungler)
- Nguyễn ‘Hyo’ Trung Hiếu’Trung Hiếu (Jungler)
- Nguyễn ‘Artifact’ Văn Hậu (Mid Laner)
- Vũ ‘K1ller’ Quốc Hưng (ADC)
The players could add information or respond to the reviewing committee's decision. Some already claimed their innocence. Le "Gloryy" Ngoc Vinh requested Team Whales to terminate his contract with the organization to "have time to provide more evidence to prove himself clean." BeanJ did the same thing.
The two competed in the World Championships and said they would provide all correspondence, audio recordings, and other evidence to clarify their name.
Team Whales published a post regarding what's going on.
GAM Esports member Levi stated that their team collaborated with Riot and independently implicated two players in a match-fixing case.
Rainbow Warriors, MGN Blue Esports, and Viking Esports confirmed the investigation results and said the players would stop competing as ordered by the committee.
Team Flash and Rainbow Warriors removed themselves from the championship.
Final VCS 2024
On March 29, VCS announced that MGN Blue Esports and CERBERUS Esports withdrew because too many participants were suspended indefinitely after investigations. Thus, the number of teams in the playoff round will be reduced from 6 teams to the top 4 teams of the group stage.
On March 29, organizers announced that the playoffs would resume on April 3, with only the TOP-4 teams from the regular season: Team Secret, GAM Esports, Team Whales, and Vikings Esports.
The teams were allowed to make emergency transfers to fill the disqualified positions. Vikings Esports is actively recruiting for any Challenger player in VN who wants to be a mercenary for the team.
Team co-owner and head coach SofM announced and confirmed his involvement as a player with Vikings Esports. This news was also published on the VCS LMHT Facebook page.
SofM | Vikings Esports
GAM pulled BigKoro out of retirement as a player and put him in the ADC role. We'll likely see many coaches end up filling in for their teams.
PCS and VCS Product Manager Bun "ChisinX" Chi assured fans that the start of the playoffs is a "top priority" for the league and its organizers.
Summary
We'll watch what's happening in the Vietnam Championship Series Spring 2024 League of Legends and beyond as Riot Games continues its investigation.
