CDE vs. Dignitas controversy hits World Cyber Games League of Legends competitive scene

Update 5: The WCG has posted a full explanation that should help clear up some confusion over the rule changes and Jatt's team eligibility.

Update 4: Riot has confirmed with us that Matt Marcou “at no point suggested a rule change,” and that “All decisions were made by the WCG."

Update 2: Since posting we talked with Michael O'Dell, the Managing Director and Team Manager of Team Dignitas, about the controversy. He gave us a brief look into their side of the story, saying, “Basically from our point of view we have done nothing wrong at all. Jatt was cleared to play in the qualifier by WCG USA and we were told by WCG USA that it was best of 3 double elimination after we enquired about that...,” O'Dell said. “Really its WCG USA who should clear that up officially not us.”

But should they have? That’s the question that’s even more troubling competitive League of Legends fans. Because World Cyber Games doesn’t have a representative in each country and there are no standardized guidelines, each country’s qualifying tournament had a different set of rules. WCG Australia, for instance, was single elimination for all of the qualifying rounds, and then best of three for the final, whereas the US and Canadian tournaments switch to best of three at the semi-final levels.

Once the competition got to the finals, WCG posted rules that stated that the winner of the upper bracket would have a one game advantage over the winner of the loser bracket. This means that in order to win, CDE needed to win two games, and Dignitas had to win once. CDE won the two games they needed to win.

This is where it gets really fishy: the rumor is that Matt Marcou, the e-sports representative from Riot Games, suggested a modification to the rules for the final rounds. It was changed from a best of three game system to a weighted best of three set system. Thus, CDE and Dignitas had to play another set of matches, which Dignitas won. There’s rampant speculation over why this actually took place, with many suggesting that Dignitas complained about the fact that they had to play more matches to win.

There are other bits of dispute spread across the community as well, including some accusations of blatant cheating on Dignitas' part (some say that Jatt paused the game to view the other team's locations by checking out their streaming footage), but we're not able to confirm any of that – it may just be the gossip of angry fans.

We’ve reached out to Riot Games for a comment, and to find out how much of these stories are true, and how much can be chalked up to exaggerations on the part of the community. We'll also update this as we get more news. Stay tuned!