TL;DR
Korean Mafia, a team competing in the New Zealand Esports Hyperfibre League for League of Legends has engaged in competition manipulation through account sharing. All registered players on this roster have been banned from the next season of NZEHL and the High School Esports League.
Players
- timtams
- yubin
- Stripe
- Stylish Guy
- oceopgg
- HTC Somnus GuaPi
Timeline
On 22nd of September, Korean Mafia played Minotaurs in the NZ Esports Hyperfibre League guild playoff final for League of Legends. The winner of this game would progress to represent Tempest in the national finals live event.
Korean Mafia won this series 2-0.
After the match, Minotaurs opened a complaint to accuse Korean Mafia of account sharing. Claiming that a high ranked Challenger player was playing on another team members account under the name Stylish Guy.
The evidence provided by Minotaurs was deemed sufficient to raise legitimate concern from the tournament organiser.
Korean Mafia denied the accusation but was unable to provide compelling enough evidence to immediately dismiss the case.
The tournament organizer escalated this claim to through the NZ Esports Disciplinary Process and a special review panel was convened to rule on this incident.
Once the special review panel was named a submission window opened for all parties to submit supporting evidence.
Korean Mafia submitted an acknowledgement that they learned after the fact, the account named Stylish Guy was being used by HTC Somnus GuaPi, but not to the knowledge of the wider team. This admission and cooperation was taken into consideration by the special review panel when recommending a final ruling.
Relevant Rules
MATCH-FIXING & COMPETITION MANIPULATION
6.1. A Participant must not make any intentional arrangement, act or omission aimed at an improper alteration of the result, or the course of a sports competition, in order to remove all or part of the unpredictable nature of the match/competition.
Ruling
“The special review panel acknowledge that all evidence and circumstances have been taken into account and the decision is made that the Korean Mafia team were likely aware what was happening and should be collectively held responsible for their actions.
- Our ruling and recommendation:
- NZEHL: One season ban for all parties involved from the Korean Mafia Team
- HSEL: To match the consequences, we recommend a season ban from HSEL as the majority of this roster also compete in the High School Esports League for Rangitoto College.”