CLG fined, banned from Korean competition

North American hopefuls Counter Logic Gaming have hit some turbulence following their “boot camp” in Korea.

Austin” Link” Shin, Marcel “dexter” Feldkamp, Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng and Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black have been fined $1,250 each and banned for two years from any OGN and Korean Esports Association tournaments.

The penalties come after Counter Logic Gaming skipped week 11 of the League Championship Series to train against top Korean opposition for the North American playoffs later this month. According to Riot Games, once in Korea the team engaged in “account sharing”—using another player’s account—a practice that is against the game’s rules.

On July 31, the day CLG departed for Korea, the team requested accounts on the Korean server, which they’d need in order to play against Korean opponents. Riot informed CLG that, per standard policy, they could only receive an account on a special server, called “Tournament Realm,” which is used exclusively for professional and amateur players competing in Riot sanctioned events.

This was actually incorrect, as Riot later admitted: The standard policy for teams visiting Korea for non-tournament purposes is that they should receive accounts on the regular server.

Shortly after the team landed, however, Riot provided CLG with provisional Tournament Realm accounts. But despite these legitimate accounts, the team still traded for additional accounts to play on the live server. It’s not clear why the team needed these. The players may have simply wanted to play outside of scrimmages in Korea’s highly competitive online ladder. CLG has yet to release a statement on the matter.

According to Riot, however, CLG were well aware that account sharing was against the rules.

Following proper procedure, CLG were granted official live accounts and their provisional Tournament Realm accounts were revoked.

Riot says that its own error was a factor when it assessed penalties. But account sharing is a clear violation of the League of Legends terms of use.

Shin, Feldkamp, Peng and Black are now barred from competing in Korea’s major League of Legends competitions: OGN Champions, OGN Masters and NiceGameTV’s NLB tournament, as well as any other OGN and KeSPA owned tournament.

Counter Logic Gaming General Manager Kelby May, CLG coach Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles and Riot Games league operation manager Nick Allen did not respond to a request for comment at press time.