38 LPL & LDL players, coaches banned after historic LoL matchfixing scandal

38 players, coaches, and managers across the Chinese LPL and LDL leagues have been banned after a historic League of Legends match-fixing investigation. The instances of match-fixing happened across the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

A two-month investigation into widespread match-fixing in Chinese League of Legends has ended with over three dozens bans, and many more fines being handed down.

Three current LPL players, including FPX’s Zhou ‘Bo’ Yang-Bo and ThunderTalk Gaming’s Wang ‘Teeen’ Yao-Ji and Xiang ‘bless’ Yi-Tong, were caught up in the scandal.

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Bo was promoted to the LPL to cover for FPX’s Gao ‘Tian’ Tian-Ling during LPL Spring 2021.

“In the past two months, the LPL has launched anti-counterfeit gambling education and one-on-one investigations with all players, coaches, and training management of the 17 LPL teams,” Riot said in an April 22 statement.

The investigation launched in February 2021 after Bo reported himself to league officials for an instance of match-fixing in 2020 while he was on eStar Young.

The 19-year-old said he was coerced into the scheme by his coaches.

Numerous other players stepped forward to help Riot China with their investigation.

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In total, 12 lifetime bans were handed down to six players, three coaches, and three managers. The rest of the suspensions varied from three months to 24 months.

An undisclosed number of fines and warnings were given out to other players and coaches.

The findings are the biggest in League of Legends history. Riot is now implementing new measures to help stem systemic match-fixing problems in China, putting the LDL on hold to do so.

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The LPL is expected to continue as normal, after Royal Never Give Up won the Spring 2021 season to qualify for the Mid-Season Invitational 2021.

A full list of suspensions can be found below.