Olleh says illegal betting could ruin solo queue, points to Faker

William Davis Published 08/12/2020

A new type of illegal betting in League of Legends is being scrutinized in China, and it may reach even farther than that.

According to former Team Liquid support Kim “Olleh” Joo-sung, it’s possible to bet on solo queue games through illegal betting sites in China. These sites allow people to place bets on professional players’ solo queue games and whether the players involved will win or lose. This has reportedly resulted in games being thrown on purpose so that people can profit.

In China , there is illegal betting on pro’s solo Q and abusers who intend to throw games to make money.
I think it should be on Reddit to discuss.
Especially Faker is the biggest victim among streamers.
who knows NA/EU solo Q have the same thing? pic.twitter.com/bgItShHP3X
— Olleh (@Olleh) December 7, 2020

It seems that Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok is the biggest victim of these betting sites, with a lot of people betting on the results of his games. Since Faker is the biggest name in the League of Legends community and regularly streams his games, he is an easy target for people who want to earn money based on his solo queue battles.

It’s unknown exactly who manipulates these games, but according to Olleh, there are “abusers who intend to throw games to make money.” This gives Riot Games another problem when it comes to getting rid of trolls and intentional feeders who ruin solo queue games on a regular basis. For now, these sorts of betting sites have only been acknowledged in China, but Olleh opens up the question of whether this is happening in European and North American solo queue as well.

Olleh claims solo games thrown for bets

After the post went viral on social media, Olleh explained further why he wanted the western community to know about the issue. The former support player is afraid that this is just the tip of the iceberg and that it will have an effect on streaming and the professional scene.

“If this happens again and again, 1. streamers will not stream often,” Olleh said. “Before this stuff becomes bigger, it should be handled.”

Fans instantly went to look further into the case, with Faker as the most obvious example. Since Faker has reportedly been affected by this, some fans quickly realized that the T1 mid laner has been intentionally trolled in solo queue recently. These observations are still based on speculation, and no official comment has yet been made by Riot Games.

Who is Olleh in LoL?

Olleh is a former support player from South Korea. He started his career on KT Rolster Academy back in 2013 before being promoted to the main team for a few months. After that, Olleh left Korea and has since then played in Brazil, the LMS, and North America. He is mostly known for his time with Immortals and Team Liquid. He went to Worlds twice and won two LCS trophies with Liquid.

What team is Olleh on?

Olleh is currently not on any pro team. The last time Olleh played actively was in May 2020, when he played for Dignitas Academy. He has since then been a positional coach at Golden Guardians, but hasn’t been actively been with an organization since June 2020.

What happened to Olleh?

After leaving Team Liquid in November 2018, Olleh has not been able to find the form needed to be a top professional player. Even though he got to play a whole year for Golden Guardians, it wasn’t enough for him to keep a starting spot in the LCS. His journey in Academy wasn’t enough for him to find a new team in 2021, as it currently stands.

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