LGD Gaming mid laner Chen “Jay” Bo has been banned indefinitely from the LPL and all League of Legends competitions for match-fixing in Riot Games’ franchised Chinese league.
Allegations surfaced following the leak of several alleged text messages sent between LGD mid laner Jay and an unknown party in which Jay negotiates to throw a fight against Top Esports in order to fix bets. LGD and Riot Games have come down hard on the mid laner, who has been banned indefinitely from any and all Riot Games-associated events and leagues.
Jay’s ban from any event or league associated with Riot Games, which is most of the professional competitions in the world of League of Legends, is essentially a death sentence for his career as a pro player. It’s clear that both LGD and Riot Games found sufficient evidence of tampering to justify banning the mid laner for the indefinite future. The ban comes mere days after the leaked text messages surfaced and LGD announced it had launched an internal investigation into Jay’s actions
The announcement was made by the LPL on its Weibo page, saying that Jay’s ban applied not only to competing professionally in League of Legends, but also to being able to stream the game. Riot Games takes allegations of match-fixing very seriously given the massive value of its esports leagues, and Jay was clearly in violation of the company’s competitive integrity requirements.
The texts showed a clear effort to negotiate financial compensation for intentionally losing a fight around the Rift Herald. This is one of the more serious allegations of tampering with competitive integrity in a major leaguer, and both LGD and the LPL were quick to root out the guilty parties once the texts surfaced. Jay being made persona non-grata from even streaming Riot Games’ massive MOBA will likely mean that an embarrassing 16th-place finish and match-fixing will be the final legacy of the mid laner in the professional League of Legends scene.
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