After an intense weekend of competition, fans around the world and in Raleigh, NC crowded around the League of Legends finals expecting to see a professionally played game full of those moments of tension and excitement that only finals can bring. What they got instead was Curse and Dignitas conducting an All Random All Mid game, in which everyone picks random characters and goes to slug it out in the middle lane. Which was… odd to say the least. Though humorous to watch the commentators try to make sense of what was happening, this was an extremely unprofessional start to the finals.
This, of course, led MLG to start questioning people as to what was going on.Various sources within MLG revealed that it was a widely known fact that Curse and Dignitas had collaborated before hand and decided that no matter who won (which explains why they even bothered with the ARAM), they would just split the prize money since it did not change their position on Riot's Season 2 Championship Leaderboard. So, as a result of this, MLG and Riot have agreed that no 1st or 2nd place prizes will be awarded, and the same with the Circuit points for Riot's system. Rather, the $40,000 for first place will be split between the 3rd-6th place teams.
Personally, I think that was in extremely bad taste for the teams to even consider doing and gives eSports (especially League of Legends eSports) a bad name. Especially with all the effort Riot is putting in to make their game a legitimate way to make a living, this is just a slap in the face. For shame Curse and Dignitas. For shame.
This echoes earlier scandals that have happened in the eSports world when StarCraft: Brood War matches were fixed in Korea, and started that game's slow decent into inner league turmoil that plagued its existance for the last two years before StarCraft II was released.
Both teams have issued apologies for the All Random All Mid in game one of the finals, however, both parties involved are awfully quiet about the collusion (aka Match Fixing) issue. Hopefully both teams are adequately embarrassed of their own behavior, and will think twice next time before conducting themselves in such a manner. I applaud MLG and Riot for making a decision like this on the spot and not deliberating for too long, despite needing to conduct a thorough investigation.
Update: State of the League Host Travis Gafford has released a YouTube video going a bit more in depth on the situation. Check it out here.
Dustin Steiner is GameZone's eSports Correspondent! Follow him on Twitter @VGHC_Deitis and check out Video Gaming Hard Corps, where he is a local tournament organizer for the S. FL. Fighting Game Community.
