Counter Logic Gaming was fined $1250 per player and banned from KeSPA LoL events for two years following a twenty four hour incident in which they used accounts belonging to other individuals.
Riot Games revealed that, during the time Counter Logic Gaming went to South Korea to bootcamp in lieu of attending the final week of the LCS, there was a misunderstanding as to the type of account to which they would have access.
According to Riot policy, competitors visiting Korea who are not invited for the purpose of attending a tournament can be given access to live server accounts, but not to tournament realm accounts. Due to internal miscommunication, Riot employees gave CLG members an incorrect account (the tournament realm instead of a live server account). The situation was corrected over a twenty four hour period, but during this time, CLG used Korean live server accounts belonging to other individuals to play solo queue.
As a result, Austin "Link" Shin, Marcel "dexter" Feldkamp, Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng, Zaqueri "Aphromoo" Black will be punished for breaking the LCS account sharing rules.
Section 10.2.7 of the official LCS ruleset states:
If LCS or Riot determines that a Team Member has violated the Summoner’s Code, the LoL Terms of [Use], or other rules of LoL, LCS officials may assign penalties at their sole discretion.
Both Riot Korea and the North American branch are entitled to take disciplinary action. Riot Games in Santa Monica will fine each player $1250. Riot Korea has decided to ban these four CLG members from competing in KeSPA events, including NLB, Champions, and Masters. This will bar CLG from attempting to compete in OGN during the winter offseason.
This grey area of partial responsibility of Riot Games has raised questions regarding whether or not this punishment is harsh enough. According to the strict definition of elo-boosting, or the use of another person's account in order to increase the rating, this could be a violation subject to punishment under that set of rules. This is because the accounts CLG used were around Platinum rating, and their goal was to raise them to Diamond elo to compete at a higher level.
For Aphromoo, this would be his second offense, and he would be subject to bans from competitive play altogether. If Riot Games is going easy on these players because they feel partially responsible for the offense or if there is some other reasoning, it is yet unclear.
