Renegades and TDK hit with ban hammer
Substantial drama unfolded this weekend as Riot handed down punishments to multiple teams for rules infractions, resulting in the largest competitive ruling in pro League of Legends history. The first two casualties were Renegades and Team Dragon Knights, who both received bans from participating in Riot sanctioned events. Renegades, who received a permanent ban, have been given until May 18th to sell its LCS spot. TDK received a lesser punishment and will only be banned from participating in the Summer Split.
The bans are the end result of weeks of investigation into the two teams after Riot received multiple reports indicating that the pair were heavily linked, with players often being housed and paid by one team when supposedly playing for the other. Additionally, Riot received reports that Chris Badawi, a former owner of TDK who was banned for attempting to poach players, was a shadow owner of the Renegades team and was also heavily involved with Team Dragon Knights.
Riot’s investigation lead to Badawi receiving a life time ban from participating in Riot sanctioned events. Christopher ‘MonteCristo’ Mykles received a year long ban from Riot sanctioned events for his involvement as owner of Renegades. Both players have been vocal in protesting the rulings, claiming that they had not been informed of any investigation and that Riot had not given them a chance to discuss any of the potential violations and instead were given 30 minutes notice prior to the rulings being made public. To muddy the waters further, Renegades players are coming forward to claim they were never in danger and wouldn’t have stayed on the team had they not felt safe.
The rulings leave a level of uncertainty for both NA LCS and CS. The Renegade/TDK bans, coupled with Team Impulse’s ban, leave two team slots in the NA LCS and one NA Challenger spot that need to be sold prior to the May 18th deadline. Riot has been silent on what would occur should a team not sell within the given time; however, they have said they do have a way to deal with the issue should sales not occur in time. Either way, expect things to shake up dramatically in the coming week.
