Riot suspends 14 LoL players for match-fixing in Academy League

Riot Games has issued a competitive ruling against 14 players from the Turkish Academy League for match-fixing with some players receiving years-long suspensions from professional League of Legends.

Riot has suspended Efehan ‘361efe’ Ordulu, Ahmet Ömer ‘chr1sz’ Mutlu, Eyüp ‘Crasia’ Oğur, Serhat Kaan ‘CrawL’ Hitay, Eren ‘Dellal’ Tanrıkulu, Oğuzhan ‘Oguzkhan’ Delihasanoğlu, Alperen ‘Poguee’ Sakallı, Enes ‘Secondate’ Çelik, Ali ‘SunShine’ Aslan, Bedirhan ‘Cape’ Çalışkan, Bedirhan ‘Joexy’ Kalkan, Muhammet ‘Momer’ Omer, Yigit ‘Lenom’ Kantar, Cengizhan ‘Merciless’ Teker for their involvement in the match-fixing scheme.

The developer cited rules from the Turkish Championship League rulebook in its suspension of each player, including rules about Ringing, reporting suspicious activity, match-fixing and gambling.

The longest bans include 361efe who received a five-year ban, chr1sz and Poguee have been suspended for four years and Crasia, CrawL and Oguzkhan have all been banned for three years from competitive play.

Some players have only been suspended for a few months, or for time served while Riot investigated the allegations.

Riot Games gives insight into match-fixing investigation

Riot Games detailed the timeline of its investigation into the matter starting after the TAL 2022 spring split in which the developer was alerted that “potential suspicious betting activities” were taking place in the league.

Riot identified the players involved, in conjunction with its integrity partner Sportradar, and provisionally suspended the players involved on May 30, 2022.

The developer claims it found substantial evidence that multiple players were involved in a broad betting manipulation plot to profit from bets made on match results and other in-game events like the first kill, among other schemes like bringing in a Ringer for some matches.

The developer said it has also referred the situation to the “relevant authorities” in Turkey for them to hand down their own punishment if they see fit.

The TAL and the TCL will not exist in their current form in 2023 as Riot has folded the league into its EMEA Regional League circuit. The league will join other tier-2 regional competitions like the French and Spanish leagues. Turkey will also lose its League of Legends World Championship slot.