There’s been a rippling in the e-sports pond that’s increasingly resembling an ocean. Games resellers G2A published ads for a third-party site pushing League of Legends accounts and elo boosters, leading LoL custodians Riot to ban G2A from sponsoring professional teams – affecting World Championship sides Cloud9, Counter Logic Gaming, H2K, and paiN Gaming.
Riot developer relations manager J Eckert said that the ban came into effect on September 18th after the company failed to find a resolution with G2A after weeks of conversation. G2A’s response, in a press release this morning, condemns Riot for “heavy handed and potentially damaging” behaviour.
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G2A say the League of Legends developers have “launched an aggressive attack directed towards the entire global e-sports community in a failed attempt to dominate and control the industry”. They suggested that Riot’s email on September 18th brought news that “has the ability to impact negatively on e-sporters, especially during this fabulous time when hopes are so high for great e-sports events”.
G2A claim they tried to find “many friendly ways” to meet and work with Riot on a solution, but that their efforts were met with “more and more demands”. They point out that they’ve invested more than $6 million in e-sports sponsorship since last year, and call for fans to talk on their social media channels about the impact of Riot’s decision.
“This is Riot’s final word [for Worlds 2015] and it is so unfair for the e-sport community worldwide,” G2A write.
Two days ago, Eckert told LoL Redditors that the ban was “NOT a decision we made lightly”.
“We do not at all enjoy affecting the income of the teams, but the LCS rules include guidelines specifically against this sort of thing,” he said. “We did however keep teams in the loop during the process in an attempt to avoid any surprises.”