The news dropped like a bomb in China. Condi, LGD Gaming's jungler, was suspended by the LPL authorities after suspicions of cheating held since 2018. Accused of having undermined his performances on several occasions, the 22-year-old was condemned to eighteen months of suspension. It comes without even saying that this sanction could put an end to the career of the Chinese jungler.
After investigations, the LoL Pro League claims in an official statement that it has become aware of the recurrence of anti-competitive infringements within LGD Gaming. Within the eye of the cyclone, Condi is targeted by investigators for "violation of fair play, influence for unfair competition and attempt to influence the game or results bypassing established rules." The suspension of the former resident of Team WE takes effect immediately and runs until December 2020.
The team's manager, Xiang "Hesitate" Ren-Jie, is banned for life from the competitive circuit for "participating in the misconduct that affected the unfair competition and for attempting to use his position to influence the matches or the results of the matches ". Two other members of LGD, a reserve team player and a staff member, are also named in the results of the investigation and are suspended for 10 months each.
LGD at the heart of the scandal
The team reacted to the accusations that affected several of its members via a press release. For LGD Gaming, repeated violations of the regulations early in the spring segment are isolated acts. The structure was keen to apologize to the organizers and "to all esport fans in China". The team, which finished in eleventh place at the Spring Split, added that "the club will continue to strengthen its self-examination, the supervision of the majority of players, improve the club's supervision and management system and will definitively put an end to such incidents."
LGD Gaming will "assume all responsibilities in the management of the aforementioned staff" and announced the termination of the contracts of all members of the team implicated by the league.
After the regrets, it's time for the big confession. Condi briefly confided on his punishment from his social networks, where he compromises his manager, Hesitate. The Chinese player acknowledges breaking the rules only once on his own and denies that he ever wanted to skew the results of an LPL match.
Condi claims to be the victim of an attempt by his manager to blackmail him for ordering him to voluntarily lose several games. An attitude that the veteran jungler has not hesitated to denounce to the officials of the league despite the penalty incurred for cheating.
At the age of 22, Condi is best known in China for having been for three years the jungler of Team WE and the team's epic actor in 2017. Champion of Spring Split two years ago and fourth at MSI this year there, Team WE had managed to snatch his qualification to the Worlds at the end of the season, three to two against Invictus Gaming.
The big family of banished
The sentence inflicted on Condi is exemplary. With eighteen months of deprivation of competition, the heavy penalty applied to the LGD jungler recalls that imposed on Li "Vasilii" Wei-Jun, in November 2017. In a completely different way, the former Chinese carry-ad Vici Gaming had Eighty weeks of suspension after physically assaulting his girlfriend, requiring the intervention of police on site.
The ethical policy of the organizers, all leagues combined, has always been uncompromising vis-à-vis the players on the behavior to adopt in-game but also on the place given to the respect in the competition. In December 2017, Kim "Khan" Dong-ha, then topple Longzhu in LCK, was sentenced to a suspension match and a million won ($ 920) for having claimed ion his stream that "four Chinese together could not win." For the anecdote, being very affected the current toplaner SKT T1 had been up to shave his hair as an act of contrition.
In March 2018, the DragonX KINGZONE toplaner, Kim "Rascal" Kwang-hee, was ransacked by Riot Games indefinitely after making a dark joke about the tragic fate of former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun. The player, aged 20 at the time, had to make a public apology.
"The LGD case" does not finish to present some similarities with the case "Dragon Gate". The name of this Taiwanese team, banned from the LMS circuit last April, made headlines after admitting match-fixing practices and illegal betting.
Written by Alexandre "Lovesic" Chabaux. Translated from French by Millenium.us.org
Moojin was punished by the organization for having harassed underage fans.
