The Biggest SCANDAL In Esports History Explained

Competitive gaming is no stranger to cheaters and dishonest players, as every game with a pro scene has to deal with them. Typically when this occurs it's one or two individuals that see punishment, and rarely an entire roster.
In todays case the issues were so rampant and wide spread that 38 individuals across two leagues would see punishment, with suspensions ranging from just a few months, all the way up to lifetime bans.
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#leagueoflegends #scandal #esports

[@TheAfker]

flat out threatens to kill a teammate on stage in front of the ref, is found guilty of match fixing, doesnt even get a 2 year ban. bruh

[@vgamedude12]

meanwhile if you say a naughty racist no no word you get perma banned. What a joke riot is.

[@Dovah_Slayer]

Tbf gamers say that shit all the time

[@KlearChristal]

​@@Dovah_Slayershouldn't be normalized or tolerated

[@insertcolorherehawk3761]

And then the audacity to do it again once you get unbanned!

[@arosbastion7052]

@@KlearChristal grow up pussy

[@elmowilcox]

“Have your hand tendons removed” is a VERY creative specific threat.

[@FunnyStripes]

Sounds like a more unique version of "I'm gonna break your legs" or, more appropriately, "I'm gonna cut off your hands"

[@jeremyriley1238]

I agree. Shocking how he got off with a twelve month ban instead of a lifetime ban and possible being put in jail since he made the threat in front of five players and a referee.

[@RedEyesBlackDragon0]

"Soft play" is one of the hardest things to prove. Sometimes you just hit a slump.

[@CantusTropus]

Starcraft 2 had something similar in 2015, featuring some of the most popular and respected players in the game. Caused most of the esports organisations to flee from the game entirely. The game's still going strong, but the Korean scene never recovered from that scandal.

[@Abyssoft]

Was that the one were the guy behind it all ended up killing himself when he was facing criminal charges?

[@CantusTropus]

@@Abyssoft I never heard about anything like that. What I do know is that Life, who up until that point was one of the most famous and well-respected Starcraft players of all time, became so disgraced that his name still cannot be mentioned in official broadcasts, and he became a kind of "Man Who Cannot Be Named" of Starcraft. From what I know (and I could be wrong), Korean culture is extremely judgmental towards criminals, which isn't exactly unfair, but it also contributes to a strong mob mentality, and prevents them from admitting that someone who was unfairly accused was actually innocent, because they "have to be guilty" (which has happened a few times).

[@tapiocaweasel]

@@Abyssoft i think that might have been the cheating scandal in Starcraft Broodwar that occured in liker 2005 or somehting. SaviOr, the best zerg in the world around then, was taken down. I didn't know it happened again in SC2

[@TheSuperappelflap]

the reason most esports orgs quit the game was actually blizzard deciding to region lock the WCS tournaments, which meant korean players could no longer participate in EU and NA leagues without a visum. the matchfixing scandal didnt have much impact besides sending Life to kespa prison.

[@prawngravy18]

@@Abyssoft you might be thinking of the asian league player who tried to jump to his death when after it was found out he was forced to fix matches, luckily he survived though. His name was promise, his manager was betting on their team whilst fixing games.

[@piguyalamode164]

38 individuals is insane considering that there are only 26 teams of 5(that's 130 total players). Though there where a few non-player actors in there, but still insane

[@KaloKross]

brace yourself for the truth of the other leagues coming out, im sure it will be a few years or at least c9s ownership fully changes over

[@jimmythecrow]

this is very common.

[@jimmythecrow]

@@KaloKross yup, tons of these streamers people love are actually cheaters

[@alicehiess6508]

Lilith, that’s nearly a 3rd

[@S4NSE]

You might have forgotten the fourth dimension

[@X-35173]

Not to condone whats going on, but how funny of a game would we get if 2 organizations separately paid off teams to lose, and then those 2 teams faced each other!

[@romad6963]

That episode of South Park where the South Park boys and other rival baseball teams tried throwing the game comes to mind

[@captainbube1217]

@@romad6963bro i was about to comment exactly that.

[@kira-dk2mx]

I would not be surprised if that actually happens.

[@letsmakeit110]

happened in olympic badminton about a decade ago. they had a round robin pools, then bracket style setup where both teams wanted to lose to get a better bracket. they started just playing "soft", eventually serving it into the net like 5 times in a row. During the investigation one team realized the evidence was indisputable and fessed up, while the other tried claiming their players were "tired". So tired they lost to a team who was intentionally trying to lose, lol. In the end both teams were disqualified from the bracket.

[@optidalfprime3904]

That's silver ranked play but with no money

[@Storster]

To be honest I'm not really into esports at all, but this was quite interesting and kept me engaged. Cheers!

[@Abyssoft]

Thanks Storster, it was an unfortunate but interesting story, glad you enjoyed it

[@AttorneyGeneralGregStumbo]

I’m not saying it is but this seems like the fakest comment. It’s at the top too haha.

[@ieuanhunt552]

It's like watching a Summoning Salt video. I have very little interest in speedrunning. I will however watch a 40 history lesson on blindfoldeded Punch Out! speedruns.

[@dada78641]

The Starcraft scene had a similar match fixing scandal years ago, the first of its kind in esports. It really deeply hurt the scene, and it also really hurt viewership and public perception of the game. The indirect consequences from the fallout really cannot be overstated. It's really paramount that you prevent these things from happening to begin with because they have a genuine chance of killing the scene outright. Especially today with every esport having a ton of competition from other games.

[@dada78641]

Also, it's actually illegal in Korea to do matchfixing in esports. You can actually go to jail for it, and you have to pay back whatever you earned from it. I don't know if that's the case in other countries but it should be the law everywhere.

[@swimmerkat3965]

One of the cited incidents of alleged match fixing being a Yasuo player ditching the team fight to farm creeps is just too perfect. I guess even pros aren’t immune to bronze-level behavior

[@LucianDevine]

I've always thought that getting caught match-fixing, not just talking about it, but actually doing it deserves a lifetime ban, regardless of which sport or esport. Why should any team trust you again after definitive proof is found? Won't every single bad game you have in the future be suspect, especially if it's against an objectively worse team?

[@EvdogMusic]

For those who come clean before being caught, you'd have to have the ban not be for life: otherwise no one ever will.

[@LucianDevine]

@@EvdogMusic I can agree with that. Turning yourself in shows that you are willing to accept the consequences and that you likely have some remorse for your actions.

[@LucianDevine]

@@SioxerNikita Why would you matchfix more if you know you are getting a lifetime ban if you get caught? The point is to make the risk outweigh the gain, especially if the salary is in any way comparable to whatever their compensation is for matchfixing.

[@MewtwoStruckBack]

One thing I don't see people discussing - how much were the payments for match fixing compared to the payments from the league for winning games/tournaments? It goes back to things like point shaving in college athletics - when the players were paid absolutely nothing beyond their scholarships, "name image and likeness" deals did not exist, but the people at the top were making millions if not tens or hundreds of millions, deals to alter a match outcome or get to where you're not covering a certain spread cannot be judged as harshly as if, say, you had a player making millions and they were fixing matches for $5,000 or something. I feel like this should have not only been factored into punishments but also, if the issue was "players are making more money from fixing matches than we're paying them" this should have led to the conclusion of "we need to pay the players more, WAY more, enough so that match fixing is not seen as a lucrative option compared to playing normally and fairly."

[@woopslap]

I never played league, but this is nuts

[@JosephHk743]

I don’t follow esports as much, but I know it’s dishonorable when there’s shady business involved to cause match-fixing controversies.

[@emkira3]

I want to see a match we're both teams are paid to take a dive and the length they'll got to not to win

[@Sevenigma777]

Tbh all professional sports go through a period of corruption and fixing games. This just means E-sports are mainstream lol

[@Abyssoft]

Hockey is the only sport I can think of that hasn't had any match fixing revealed in its entire history

[@Sevenigma777]

@@Abyssoft well maybe not on a massive scale but there has been many accusations throughout the years of people fixing game. You can look it up. More so I think hockey hasn't really been caught they fly under the radar being there aren't as big as NFL and NBA. It's also harder to prove stuff as it is a low scoring sport so the gambling lines are harder to prove collusion and/or harder to Influence. Although NHL may not have had a massive gambling problem there has been isolated incidents but also NHL had more problems involving money laundering and players illegally betting on other sports as in Operation Slapshot.

[@JoJoZaka]

it means they're unregulated because nobody takes sweating in a chair as a serious sport

[@az8039]

UFC is pretty clean

[@mikemck4796]

It means they need to figure out how to solve it if they want to be mainstream. There are other games once popular that are varying degrees of niche now due to their scandals.

[@gamingguru757]

Love the content man, probably won’t stick around for the premier cause I have work tomorrow but your videos are incredible and I hope this comment finds you well. Much love

[@alan-daniel]

call me crazy, but if someone was found to fix a match, it should be an automatic permanent ban. It's inexcusable and will forever be an asterisk associated with anything they ever do in the game in the future. I know next to nothing about League of Legends, but game-fixing delegitimizes the entire industry

[@informitas0117]

Of course that should be the case, only the whistle blower should be left with no punishment to encourage it. Only permanent bans will stop it.

[@salis-salis]

This is one of the most stupid, and simultaneous important, story in gaming. Watching the game-play when hearing about the infractions, the money... smh good vid! i like how you mix the channel content up now and then, it's not all just the same speed-running (though don't stray too far from that, it's why we all subscribed in the first place!

[@Abyssoft]

The plan is to keep the speedrunning content the main focus, but to cover topics outside of it now and then as well; this is the test to see if that plan is a good one

[@Ianbassfox]

Your vids keep getting better nice job

[@ElionMars]

Can we talk about how tough that guy has to be to invite a coach he knows is match fixing to dinner to get him to spill, and then hear that about removing hand tendons, and still thinking "yeah, I'm reporting this dude." Stone cold.

[@ember-evergarden]

not really once you find out he was killed a year later in an "accident"

[@PapaBadDadcumsuckgod]

Stuff like this is why all players need to be compensated fairly regardless of placement

[@SomebodyPerfectly]

Can't stop the greedy by giving them more of what they greed for.... But you are right...the US academy players have a 75k minimum salary thats TWICE of what a chinese team JDK advertises (about 37k USD)....and the Cn salaries are capped aswell (be it to ensure competition, or to take away bargaining power from the pros)

[@soupstoreclothing]

it's proven that people are less likely to do any kind of crime if they have their basic necessities and some luxuries guaranteed. this is why universal basic income amd countries that practice it result in less crime. it's the same concept as you're talking about. the less well compensated players are going to cheat bc they're not being compensated as well as other competitors. i'm not sure about the cost of living but i do know that jealousy can drive people to crime as well.

[@DeadManSitting]

"Make sure you don't get cheated out of watching my next video." hahaha nice lol

[@MetallHeadSpeedruns]

Dang, my boy lethargicwaldo is really good at league! :). Great vid dude

[@tripple-a6031]

While LoL and MOBA in general are pretty much the worst games out there and me lacking any interest in esport in general, this was kinda interesting after all.

[@KCGunner]

How does esports have the power to ban you from streaming? That's like a player in the NFL getting caught cheating and the league saying you're banned from the NFL and you aren't allowed to play football at your home.

[@DDDHunter]

They own the software, they can just ban any account they are using

[@mariusjenkins7294]

They run the servers, so if they ban you and you are streaming the game, that means you are playing on their servers and bypassing the ban either with a new account or a VPN if you are IP banned...

[@John-xs9ru]

Companies dont exist to provide products or services to their customer. They exist to exercise control over the consumer; what they purport to provide to the consumer is merely the means by which they seek to exert control or to justify their control.

[@MrDeldris]

You don't own the games you buy, you buy a license to use the game. This also gives the company the right to revoke this license, so it they want to ban you from their game in any scenario then they can.

[@LiEnby]

​@@MrDeldristhat's just a nicer version of what other person said. Tbh

[@KJ-mv2fw]

it went even up to the point where the matches weren't even streamed last year

[@ItWasSaucerShaped]

eSports must be absolutely rife with this kind of cheating because there's no dedicated effort to deal with it whatsoever. And if you're not actively trying to stop cheating, it just becomes part of the institution.

[@scootinand]

Seems to me like that might be, relatively, at least, one of the most wide spread cases of cheating not just in esports, but sports in general. To be spread across that many people, in that many teams, and two separate leagues? That's way more in depth than a single team deflating footballs or even the Chicago White Sox throwing games for the mob.

[@ManaDrain315]

I don't know, but I'd assume that PED use is pretty widespread in all physically demanding sports.

[@PokeMaster22222]

I wonder how big a...riot...this caused, amongst the LoL competitive crowd.

[@trongnghiachu1977]

I know the pun. 😂

[@suncat530]

sacrifice to the algorithm

[@kingj521]

This is why i see all Athletes/olympic athletes/entertainers(movies music shows) & gamers as just people who are exceptionally good at things. Im a true fan of Very few things

[@mikemck4796]

As a long time pool player and fan, I don’t look forward to the amount of fuckery e-gaming will be introduced to in the upcoming years.

[@doccatface6868]

Great video, but I dunno if I can trust anything a talon player says. Pretty braindead, to a man.

[@Abyssoft]

Talon footage wasn't me!

[@prawngravy18]

I just can't believe the name spunk was allowed in the LCS.

[@BossBoomBox]

Spunk... bruh, don't these players google search the random English words at least once before confirming it as their username?

[@unluckyomens370]

Tbf it does have like 2.5 meanings in english

[@Xhalonick]

Didn't expect to see a league video from you, quite unexpected because I love league lol good stuff

[@TheAwes0meWilly]

it's not a video about the biggest scandal in esport history, it's a video about the biggest scandal in LEAGUE OF LEGENDS

[@RayAkuma]

Ohhhh E-Sports, think i know whats coming...

[@faelger9473]

you mean inting...diving is something else. But great video!!! :) Diving: trying to kill an opponent by DIVING (going) INTO tower range hoping to get out of range with a kill before/without dying yourself, often leads to death without getting a kill. INTING however (which is what you mean), stands for INTENTIONAL! For example: Intentional FEEDING! Feeding being Dying by an enemy player's hand over and over giving him advantages. INTING, in this case, means INTENTIONALLY feeding an opponent deaths for whatever reason...per example Gambling debts that have to be paid XD

[@imperator9343]

"taking a dive" or just "diving" is a general term across competitive sports, independent of the specific gameplay meaning within LoL/MOBAs

[@hwangunnie09dez96]

6:49 what's the name of the track (music), please ? 😉

[@SCHMOBEX]

imagine risking your whole career for 500$...

[@sycophant8470]

spoilers when you do it is because you arent making enough money from the thing you are required to work on more than a full time job

[@SCHMOBEX]

@@sycophant8470 considering how much an average management person in esports can make its an very easy fix. especially when the owner makes 100k+ on a thrown match offering 5k or more is not really that much then lmao

[@sycophant8470]

@@SCHMOBEX many top tier players only make 6 digits do you think people in minor regions and development leagues make?

[@testerwulf3357]

@@sycophant8470 That’s why esport shouldn’t be your main job especially as during aging you’ll naturally get worse and become part of lower ladders with younger people taking up top spots..playing games isn’t a full time job. They only cheated because they got greedy and saw a way to make money, it’s how gambling works..gambling works by pulling on humanities greed.

[@sycophant8470]

@@testerwulf3357 you are acting like you aren't putting in even more work than a fulltime job to become top level.

[@YugiMomo]

I hate people who cheat/ are dishonorable with competition so fucking much

[@theheavenlyfb4071]

I always find it odd when people get banned when they report that something dodgy is happening, I mean if they're coming forward to call out this behaviour then why ban them?

[@blackpepper2610]

Maybe because they also involved in it

[@LucianDevine]

Depends when they report it. If they report it the moment they are approached about it then they shouldn't get a ban. If they fixed several games and profited on it only to eventually report it, they should absolutely still get a ban.

[@theheavenlyfb4071]

@@LucianDevine Ah I gotcha

[@Grimeaper]

Whistleblowers, who report to the FBI that their company is doing shady shit that could get people killed get fired and black balled it is the same shit different company typical practice. It is a way to instill fear over others who work for you, while making an example. So you can get away with future shady shit.

[@lasennui]

"If I was a betting man..." I see what you did there.

[@commander_frog]

When will the e fighting end

[@sacrefice_8753]

Not even suprised. Anyone remember WCS S1 ? Shit was corrupt from day 1 and riot never cared. These few players that got "banned" ? Not even a drop on a hot stone...

[@komradekohska7274]

I think my ranked teammates are also getting paid to throw matches because god damn

[@generalgk]

I wonder if the whistleblower will get a phone call from the Chinese Government and then mysteriously disappear

[@tristanlaird5470]

Here we go, Bois

[@mydadsacop123]

Cheating in gaming is about as sad as it gets

[@chrisfusion6945]

When moneys involved its inevitable. Its just like it sports

[@darkshado124]

Chinese Competitive Match-Fixing? Frankly, I'm not surprised. :/

[@BahamutEx]

Why not permanently ban any management involved? Also I hope the person who threatened the removal of tendons got investigated by the police.

[@informitas0117]

Gambling making everything corrupt and dirty!? Color me surprised!

[@trivynium]

I forgot to check the date and didn't realized this wasn't about VCS lol, those don't learn about history doomed to repeat it.

[@ricebun4669]

Me watching this and not knowing a damn thing about League or its pro competitive scene: 😳😳😳😳😳😮😮😮😮😮🤯🤯🤯🤯

[@jesterbob828]

This guy sounds exactly like Gersh One from Onemindsyndicate.

[@blank.e5plus]

Ah yes a 4th of the pro players cheated, never change

[@skknireeker9073]

I didnt understand what Match-fixing is?

[@Spongey1985]

this is a bit tone-deaf to the korean broodwar scene, there was a MASSIVE match fixing scandal involving a plethora of top level pros. the best zerg in the world (the flash of his time) was ostracized over it.

[@swizzamane8775]

Lets look into other Esports, not just LoL. People need to look into how much casual play for these games are infiltrated with ranked puzzies looking for cheap wins. Its not just match fixing (although this qualifies as such, just in the opposite for rank boosting). Pathetic people like these need all forms of bans enacted, not just partial bans, but also extensive bans (on any and all current and future alts as well)

[@kitchenbriks3685]

Any cheating should be a lifetime ban.

[@ketchup901]

I am not surprised at all to learn that this was in the China league. It's very sad what the CCP has done to its people.

[@stonekidman2306]

You never explain what lpl or ldl mean; I know nothing of this game and hoped the video would explain what and how things were fixed/cheated, but it’s just info dump

[@ls190v2]

Scandalous.

[@lillithplays6514]

Wait isn't this illegal? Like not just cheating but actually against the law?

[@bibsp3556]

Probably, given you can bet on it. Somewhere there's a law being broken

[@FizzleFX]

Extremely sloppy way of cheating

[@germanothomas4799]

Hey nice video. You should've define what is "match fixing" the first time you mentioned it. As someone outside of e-sports I was lost for like 4 minutes.

[@aaronloach]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing :P

[@LiEnby]

Loosing on purpose basically

[@kaydwessie296]

As I used to always say while playing League when my toxic ass friends would argue with the enemies "Come on, guys, it's just a game. Can't we have fun with our friends?"

[@oniinu]

And now we're doing it again with the VCS lol

[@BatkoNashBandera774]

As if I needed another reason not to quit Dota 2 and level down to LoL ...

[@laughgaming556]

I mean you have a game full of trash people who throw match’s just to troll and you expect the “pros” to be better ?

[@djtomoy]

Haha having endemic corruption is the closest esports has come to being an actual sport

[@Xenodyne]

9:12 hoooly shit I hope that pro player is still ok

[@DarkOmegaMK2]

League of Legends involves in some shit?!?! *Fake gasp* I'll be... How unheard of!

[@cmd5789]

These 2 month bans are too short???

[@Eurynomos326]

'oh cool a video about saviour, it's been a while' oh nvm

[@cursedcat6467]

The thumbnail looks like an irl discord server XD

[@Thundawich]

I mean.... was it even that big of a scandal? It didn't really affect any of the major regions, and all that came of it was one really good rookie got shafted to a shit league. As far as scandals go, this one was pretty inconsequential.

[@David-wj3tg]

Dont use it like a wonton

[@vgamedude12]

Bro gangplank built Ludens lol

[@kuro9410_ilust]

china at it yet again on another esports scandal

[@StepBaum]

Good video :)

[@allensmith2125]

Cheaters ratting each other out classic

[@ONW4V3R]

League's so toxic that even if you're a pro, but you're actually bad, it's "fixing" lmfao

[@mudkipalpharius]

I feel like you should be able to bet on yourself

[@Nimrod336]

It's b.s but we have to add Filipino champ

[@ObservationofLimits]

LoL - League of Losers RIOT is the most toxic entity involved

[@maskettaman1488]

Chinese teams corrupt. Shocking

[@averagewhiteguy2]

The Chinese are the biggest cheats in basically anything competitive. This is not shocking in the slightest.

[@utopiandystopia1383]

you work a 9 to 5 for 12 dollars an hour meanwhile match fixers dont have to work another day in their life

[@TheGaming100]

I'm confused. What advantage would these player even get from INTENTIONALLY losing games

[@Abyssoft]

The money they, and their coaches and owners get from betting on outcomes they already know will happen

[@TheGaming100]

@@Abyssoft so you get money from betting on the outcome on the match as opposed to actually winning the match? If anything, that seems very counter intuitive

[@Abyssoft]

@@TheGaming100 they can't guarantee that they will win the match, but they can guarantee they will lose by playing poorly. There were other things being bet on as well from what I read, like their own performance in lane, but as I said in the video one of the team owners was making hundreds of thousands by match fixing.

[@One.Zero.One101]

@@TheGaming100 It's not counter-intuitive, it's actually very logical. You're betting on something that has 100% odds. Throwing games is one of the oldest forms of cheating on sports.

[@Deadmeatsz]

China and honesty? 😂

[@bigmango202]

i think you should activate windows

[@rodneyhobbs6507]

Seems like it if u weren't one of the 38 you were slacking. A duty to cheat.

[@skollkid]

Bigger than shroud?

[@MarkushenrikDrolsum]

720p okk

[@WomenRespecter9000]

"using an ability with a long cooldown WONTON-ly" bruh

[@crammaster88]

Okay, yeah. I can get how they’re banned from a league. But what people do in the privacy of their own home is none of said leagues concern. As long as they aren’t messing with any official league matches you cannot ban someone from streaming a game to their own streaming channel. You’d be violating their privacy. Streaming under the league sure that’s fair. But in private under unofficial terms. No.

[@KaosMasterX]

I guess league has to be #1 in something since its such a shitgame compared to dota

[@nokiot9]

Why would they ban the whistle blower indefinitely? Or even for 4 months. Kinda messed up. Like they wanna discourage whistle blowing in the future.

[@mariotaz]

The fuck?