MLG League of Legends Summer Championship winners disqualified for 'collusion'
Major League Gaming announced late last night that the first and second place winners of the Summer Championship League of Legends Event have been disqualified for conspiring to not play a match to win.
"We have determined that there was collusion between the two final teams, Curse NA and Team Dignitas," MLG wrote in a statement. "This is in clear violation of both the letter and spirit of MLG's Official Pro Circuit Conduct Rules: 'competitors may not intentionally Forfeit a Game or conspire to manipulate Rankings or Brackets.' As such, both teams have been disqualified, and no placements or prize money will be awarded."
Curse NA put out a video stating the issue surrounds agreeing with Team Dignitas that the first round of the match should be an "ARAM," but that no other agreements were made. The acronym stands for "all random all middle," meaning both teams picked champions at random and played only the middle lane. It's a player-created match style, like if two major sports teams agreed to play baseball with one base or basketball using half the court.
Senior Vice President Lee Chen of Major League Gaming denies the defense, writing on Twitter: "To be clear here folks, the collusion had nothing to do with the ARAM. CRS/DIG conspired to split prize money."
The third and fourth place teams will receive the prize money for the event. MLG states although there is contention over the exact nature of the violation, that "both teams, as well as MLG and [League of Legends developer] Riot" agree that not playing a tournament match to win warrants disqualification.
