Riot Games investigating Vega Squadron for win trading in LCL

William Davis Published 25/03/2020

Riot Games is launching an official investigation after Rolandas “Optimas” Vincalovičius accused Vega Squadron of win trading during the 2020 LCL Open Cup.

Russian organization Vega Squadron is in hot water. The team was accused by former member Optimas of win trading. The incident took place during the 2020 LCL Open Cup, a competition that runs in parallel with the 2020 LCL Spring Split. In the Open Cup, eight teams from the LCL face eight teams from open qualifiers.

Vega Squadron finished the group stage with a favorable score, and even if they dropped the final two matches, the team would make playoffs. In the second to last game, Vega was supposed to face a rookie team called Funny Yellow Dog. Considering the difference in experience, the odds favored Vega by a massive 15:1.

LCL team Vega accused of throwing two games

According to Optimas, head coach Kirill “JamesPeke” Katashov brought up the situation and started talking about a possible win trade. JamesPeke would be subbing in for jungler Yaroslav “MightyDragon” Svistun, who had to miss the game for unrelated reasons, so Vega could potentially justify dropping the game. Optimas made it clear to the organization that he wouldn’t let the situation taint his reputation. Vega reassured him that everything would proceed as normal and Optimas accepted to play.

What happened next was nothing short of a disaster.

Throughout the match, it’s obvious that Vega is boldly engaging and dying on purpose. Funny Yellow Dog didn’t do anything to get their kills, they just had to wait for Vega to go into them. Vega proceeded to forfeit the final game against M19. The team then played two tiebreakers and completely destroyed the remaining competition.

Optimas was released from the team days later and the player shared the reasons for the change in social media. Vega immediately denied the allegations and said the there’s no proof of any bets being placed. According to Optimas, JamesPeke and top laner Оleg “Charger” Zhuravlyov are constantly betting, so it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for either of them.

The accusations caught the attention of Riot Games, who have since launched an investigation. If Riot finds proof that a member of the team placed bets on the match, they’re likely to be suspended and the organization could itself face consequences.

Right now, Vega is sixth place in the LCL and out of the spring playoffs.

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