Underdog League of Legends esports scene rocked by massive match-fixing allegations impacting two-thirds of players: "the stench of this will never leave"

The League of Legends esports scene has been rocked by an alleged match-fixing scandal so large that it has affected every team in a regional league.

Last week, organizers of League of Legends' Vietnam Championship Series (VCS) announced that matches would be postponed while they investigated participating teams, delaying playoff and final dates. Organizers noted the impact on the tournament but pledged their commitment to competitive integrity.

Later that day, Vietnamese esports site ithethao reported (translated via Google) that over two days, all eight teams in the competition were summoned to the VCS broadcast studio by Riot Games, as the developer investigated reports of match-fixing. At the time, neither Riot or the tournament organizers had used the term 'match-fixing', but in a new statement, issued earlier today, the Organizing Committee announced the temporary suspension of 32 players across all eight teams in the VCS pending further investigation.

Traditionally, League of Legends teams are made up of five players, and in a league of eight teams, that could mean as many as 80% of players are being investigated. That's not strictly the case, as some teams employ multiple substitutes, so the figure reportedly comes down to around 65%, but with all eight teams under investigation, it's clear that the competitive integrity of the VCS is in serious doubt.

While the VCS isn't one of LoL's four major regions (Korea, China, North America, and Europe), it's cemented itself as one of the bigger players in the game's global esports scene. Over the years, the region's representatives at international tournaments have tended to punch above their weight, earning the league additional slots in recent world championships.

The response to the investigation in Western leagues has been mixed. Esports manager Chris Smith, who was also a regular on NA broadcasts for many years, said the scandal was "shocking" and that "the stench of this will never leave the Vietnamese Esports scene." His former broadcast colleague, Isaac Cummings Bentley, however, suggested that pay issues within the region are likely to have led to match-fixing: "If their salaries aren't making ends meet, they'll inevitably turn to other means. There's a reason that match-fixing, boosting, etc. is extremely prevalent in games & leagues where there's no $$$."

Within the wider community, plenty are speculating what this might mean for one of the more substantial presences within the global esports scene. Some have suggested the League will be filled with substitute players unable to compete at the same level as the players they're replacing. Others have wondered whether Riot will simply absorb the series into another region, in a manner similar to the Oceanian league's combination with the NA LCS. European pro and analyst Erik Wessén summed up sentiments with a simple message - "Salute to VCS which has fallen." 

Elsewhere within Riot, the League of Legends MMO has been "reset," and the devs are going dark.