Riot hands former Rogue Warriors player 2-year ban and fines the club

On March 25, Chinese esports organization Rogue Warriors announced the release of League of Legends player, Wang “WeiYan” Xiang for engaging in match-fixing. It then notified the LPL Discipline Committee of the allegations.

WeiYan took to his personal Weibo account to shed more light on the situation. After losing a sizeable amount of money playing poker, he was forced to lend money from an individual who later proposed for WeiYan to fix a match. In a moment of weakness, he initially agreed to do so but changed his mind and took no money from this individual. He went on to accept Rogue Warriors’ decision but denied ever fixing matches.

Following a thorough investigation by the LPL Discipline Committee, WeiYan received a 24-month global ban from competitive League of Legends, beginning March 27. He’s also banned from participating in any League of Legends livestreams during this period on any streaming platform.

His former organization, Rogue Warriors, was also fined ¥3 million ($423,687.50) as a severe warning for not keeping its player in check. Many fans have found the fine too harsh a punishment for the ASUS ROG owned team, considering they had brought the entire situation to the attention of the LPL Discipline Committee in the first place. However, the committee explained that it was the responsibility of the club to prevent its staff and players from breaking any of the LPL’s rules. Failing to do so is why Rogue Warriors received the fine.

The LPL Discipline Committee stated that it would continue to examine the incident and will announce any further discoveries.