League of Legends Challenger side Cloud9 Tempest will be missing one of its star players as it gears up for its biggest match of the year.
Cloud9 Tempest mid laner David “Yusui” Bloomquist has been permabanned across all active botted accounts as well as barred from competitive play for four weeks by game developer Riot Games, sources close to the player tell the Daily Dot. In preparation for their upcoming matches against Counter Logic Gaming Black, the squad has added former Cloud9 starting mid laner Hai “Hai” Du Lam and former Coast player Justin “Jintae” Dinh to its active roster and plan on using Dinh in its matches on June 10.
Bloomquist allegedly purchased dozens level 30 accounts from third-party websites, sources tell the Daily Dot, something firmly against Riot’s Terms of Use. He has since started a new account, with which he intends to grind from level one to Challenger on in the next 30 days.
(Sorry, this embed was not found.)This won’t be the first time Cloud9 Tempest—hailed as one of the best Challenger squads in the scene—has fallen afoul of Riot. On Feb. 16, the team was
banned for the remainder of the Spring Split from the North American Challenger Series after using a ringer in place of support Ritchie “Fade” Ngo. The organization decided to stick with the players, making only one change: Jamie “
Sheep” Gallagher was brought in to take over for Ngo as the team attempted to qualify for the Summer Challenger Series.
Cloud9 Tempest’s opponent in June 10’s NACS qualifier finals is Counter Logic Gaming Black. Headlined by new mid laner and LCS legend William “Scarra” Li, it’s another team that’s found itself stung by a Riot competitive ruling in recent weeks. On June 4, marksman Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes was suspended from competitive play for two weeks due to alleged “toxic in-game behavior” on his secondary account.
With both teams suffering from sudden roster gaffs, don’t expect to see top-tier performances from either teams tomorrow night.
Cloud9 and Riot Games have yet to respond to a request for comment on this story.
Update Jun 15, 3pm CT: Riot Games has issued its official ruling on Bloomquist. This article has been changed to reflect this new information. Additionally, only Bloomquist’s botted accounts were permabanned, which conflicted with the information in our original report. We regret the error.
Images via Riot Games and Tom Smith/Behance | Remix by Jacob Wolf
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