An entire region's Spring Split is being shut down indefinitely due to a breach of competitive integrity. Gambling has now reached the big leagues.
An entire League of Legends region is being put on ice after an investigation revealed that there had been match tampering during the Spring Split. This difficult decision to suspend the current VCS (Vietnam Championship Series) Spring Split will have dire consequences on the rest of the league.
This announcement comes right after it was revealed that matches from Week 8 of the VCS were postponed due to "unexpected reasons that could affect the matches". Well, those reasons look to be more dire than initially thought.
League of Legends VCS Postponed Spring Split Indefinitely
The VCS is in trouble right now. According to the official social media of the league, the entire Spring Split is being postponed indefinitely. This comes after a match fixing scandal of monumental scale has taken hold of the league. According to an initial report on the matter, two to three players on every team could be involved in the scandal.
The VCS has now revealed a list of 32 players and staff members that are currently being investigated. Everyone on this list will be temporarily suspended during the investigation.
More info about VCS officials' statement can be found below here.NOTE: this is not the definitive list of suspension, as they had clearly stated all 32 individuals are under "temporarily suspend" for the purpose of the investigations.#VCS #VCSEnglish pic.twitter.com/5JLkTpbk1p
— VCS English (@vcs_english) March 28, 2024
This scandal would even shrink the huge LDL and LPL match fixing scandals of 2021 and 2022.
According to the Vietnam Esports Express blog on Facebook, the game between Team Whales and MGN Blue Esports had clear signs of match fixing, with MBE getting an ace by minute 28, but not finishing right away, instead elongating the game, which made fans watching, as well as the caster suspicious.
[NEWS]VCS Spring 2024 to be postpone indefinitely due to a possible breach of competitive integrity.- All remaining matches/results of Week 8 are canceled.- Week 7 standings as the definitive team ranking.- The Finals/Playoffs will also be postponed.#VCS #VCSEnglish pic.twitter.com/BMfFQ8jBb9
— VCS English (@vcs_english) March 18, 2024
One Redditor explained:
It was "Game duration Under/Over 30 mins" and "Total Drake Under/Over 4.5" for that match, literally everyone include caster watch it live feel there are something wrong [sic].
Match fixing is not anything new in esports. As mentioned, the LPL and LDL have had their fair share of match fixing scandals, but these date back even more, with professional Star Craft players already having participated in organized match fixing back in 2015.
VCS to postpone 2024 Spring Split indefinitely to investigate a possible breach of competitive integrity. The remaining group stage games will be canceled. by u/_asstronaut_ in leagueoflegends
Many players worry for the future of the VCS. With the league being popular at international tournaments, it will be a shame to see them potentially excluded from events in 2024. Some fans also believe that this could spell out the end for the league.
Right now, the VCS is going to postpone its Spring Finals until further notice and the group stage rankings will be calculated based on the results until the end of Week 7 (March 10). The investigation is currently still ongoing though and more information is going to be revealed soon. For now, most of what we know stems from rumors, so we will have to keep looking until Riot confirms or denies what truly happened.