38 League of Legends pro players banned in LPL and LDL match-fixing scandal

After two months of extensive investigation, Riot Games' LPL authorities have finally come to a conclusion in the ubiquitous match-fixing culture in China's League of Legends leagues.

Back at the end of February this year, FunPlus Phoenix's jungler Zhou "Bo" Yang-Bo, confessed his involvement in the 2020 LDL Summer Split match-fixing scandal. Investigation reports confirmed that Bo was “coerced” into participating in unethical practices during his days with eStar Young in the Chinese Academy League.

FPX Bo’s apology for the LDL match-fixing controversy:“I’m sorry. I’ve spent this past period of time regretting and suffering, and not knowing how I should face everyone. But one should never under any circumstances violate the rules. What’s wrong is wrong (..)”(video below) pic.twitter.com/2vbl1mWPPC

— Linda Pro League 🦦 (@iCrystalization) April 22, 2021

The case has been under investigation since then and the recent revelations confirm that the issue was evidently much more prevalent than just Bo or FPX.

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3 LPL players, 35 LDL players, managers, and coaches were found involved in the historic League of Legends scandal

FPX.Bo handed a 4-month suspension after found guilty of match fixing (Image via LPL - League of Legends)

Along with Bo, two other LPL players namely, ThunderTalk Gaming’s support Wang “Teeen” Yao-Ji and jungler Xiang “bless” Yi-Tong have been found guilty of match-fixing during the LPL 2020 season.

Like Bo, Teen was handed a temporary ban for 4 months whereas, bless has received a suspension from competitive play for 1 long year. While Bo was involved in the scandal while he played for LDL side eStar Young, bless and Teen were part of the LPL team TT Gaming.

pic.twitter.com/V2z8MSodXN

— LPL (@lplenglish) March 27, 2020

Meanwhile, a humungous total of 35 people from LDL, inclusive of players, managers, and coaches, have been found guilty of match-fixing during the 2020 season. An "in-depth" investigation by the Chinese League of Legends authorities confirmed that the entire squad of Sheng Jie Gaming was involved with the historic scandal.

Baneo masivo a jugadores en la segunda división de china(LDL)Tras un escándalo de arreglo de partidos, la investigación del caso termina con un total de 38 jugadores baneados, 12 de ellos con ban de por vida, además, el equipo Sheng Jie Gaming ha sido expulsado de la competencia pic.twitter.com/JnewwahNBR

— Noticias LoL Esports (@NLELoL) April 22, 2021

SJ Gaming's top laner Wang "Spunk" Zhi-Peng received a lifetime ban from competitive League of Legends along with 11 other pro players, managers, and coaches from other LDL sides. They are,

• Wang "Spunk" Zhi-Peng - SJ Gaming
• Jiang "Haonan" Dong-Ming - Team Pinnacle
• Chen "L1n" Shi-Lin - All Combo
• Jiang "happygame" Hong-Li - Kaisa Gaming
• Tian "MaiX" Mai - WanZhen Esports Club
• Wang "WeiYan" Xiang - Rogue Warriors
• Dong "Devi1" Zhi-Hao - V5 87 (Manager)
• Fan "Q1uShu1" Xiao-Nan - Bilibili Gaming Junior (Manager)
• Zhang “wxy97” Xuan-Ming - Kaisa Gaming (Manager)
• Jin “JINZHONGBI” Zhong-Bi - Invictus Gaming Young (Manager)
• Yuan Hao-Chen - eStar Young (Manager)
• Wen "Feng" Ming-Feng - Rogue Warriors Shark (Team Assistant)

Apart from these twelve, there are twenty-three other LDL players, trainers, and coaches who received limited-time suspensions for match-fixing. LPL took the matter to micro-blogging website Weibo stating:

“The goal of this large-scale investigation by the league is to more thoroughly understand and rectify the situation of match-fixing in the league, to eliminate the influence of match-fixing in the long run.”

LDL halts indefinitely after tomorrow for internal rectification. pic.twitter.com/sUUehkwUPy

— Ran (@ran_lpl) March 16, 2021

The scandal happens to be one of the biggest ever in pro-play. LPL and LDL authorities have also assured League of Legends fans that they will deal with such issues by stricter standards in the future.