Day 3 of League of Legends Season 2 World Playoffs plagued by cheating allegations and connection issues

By: Muhammad Qasim Hassan

  |   October 10th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

After smooth sailing during the first-two days of the League of Legends Season 2 World Playoffs, the biggest eSports tournament taking place in Los Angeles, America, was plagued by cheating allegations and connection issues on the third day, i.e. October 6, 2012.

A couple of games taking place on day 3 of the playoffs did not live up to the expectations of the organisers as far as the experience on offer was concerned.

The game between TSM and Azubu was something that the fans had been really looking forward to since both the teams had been phenomenal over the last couple of days.

What was expected to be a real thriller turned out to be a rather disappointment match. While the action was intense, there were a number of incidents that kept the action from running smoothly.

Azubu Frost ended up facing a communication problem because of some issue with the microphone during the early moments of the game, causing the action to pause a few minutes after it kicked-off.

During the pause, it was noticed by the referee that some players of both the teams were shifting their bodies, allegedly trying to sneak a look at the mini-map on the big screen to get some idea of where their enemies were. Both the teams received warnings.

The game was restarted on account of possible screen looking during the pause and also because of the headphone issues faced by Azubu.

While the game managed to run smoothly after that, the troubles did not stop right there for Riot and referees.

The game between Team We and CLG.eu also got plagued by a possible incident of screen looking after a player from Team WE was found facing away from the screen momentarily after the game’s third and final restart.

VP of eSports for Riot Dustin Beck noted on the game’s official forum that after taking a look at the footage and taking the first-hand experience of on-stage referees into account, it was concluded that the the Team WE player had turned his head away from the screen in response to the cheering of the crowd and a loud vuvuzela and that he had not attempted to steal a glance at the mini-map on the big screen.

He went on to acknowledge mini-map screens for players as a mistake that was going to be taken care of as soon as possible.

“In hindsight, the potential visibility of minimap screens for players was a mistake,” Beck wrote. “Despite on-site referees, close monitoring of player cams backstage, and stage design that ensured players would have to turn more than 90 degrees to be able to catch a glimpse of the minimaps, even the possibility of unfair play was simply unacceptable. We’re taking steps to ensure the minimap screens are not visible to players.”

The connection issues were also addressed by Beck in his forum entry, with him assuring the fans that they would dive deep into the roots of the problem to ensure that such issues do not surface again.