Gestern wurde bekannt, dass Counter Logic Gaming erst kürzlich versuchte William 'Scarra' Li von Team Dignitas abzuwerben. Der Besitzer von Team CLG, George 'HotshotGG' Georgallidis, kontaktierte den zu dem Zeitpunkt vertraglich gebundenen Ersatzspieler. Riot hat jedoch Regeln gegen solche Vorgehen und setzt nun eine Geldstrafe und Teilsperrung durch.
10.000 US-Dollar muss die Organisation nun zahlen. Außerdem ist ihnen zunächst untersagt, Scarra als Teammitglied für den Spring Split aufzulisten. Stattdessen sind sie verpflichtet für die ersten drei Wochen einen anderen Hauptcoach vorzuweisen. Dies demonstriert, dass solche Vergehen in der LCS nicht einfach mit einer Geldstrafe abgetan werden und soll der Prävention dienen. Für einige mag diese Strafe sehr hart aussehen, aber Riot hat diese Entscheidung ausführlich überdacht und begründet.
Das Problem ist folgendes: Scarra war für den letzten 2014 Split bei Team Dignitas als Ersatzspieler fest unter Vetrag. In der LCS durfte er also nur für sie spielen. Dennoch setzte sich bereits zu dem Zeitpunkt Geoge Georgallidis mit ihm in Verbindung, um ihn als Coach für sein Team zu gewinnen.
Das hätte man vielleicht noch unter den Teppich kehren können, wäre nicht mindestens einer der Spieler von CLG über dieses Unterfangen unterrichtet worden. Der Spieler trat darauf hin mit Scarra in Verbindung um sich mit ihm über die mögliche Position als Coach zu unterhalten, mit dem Wissen des Management über diese Aktion.
Etwa Mitte Oktober wurde die Leitung der LCS darauf aufmerksam gemacht, dass CLG versuchte Scarra abzuwerben. In einem Versuch die Situation aufzuklären kontaktierte die LCS-Leitung Georgallidis, welcher bekräftigte, dass weder er, noch die Spieler in Kontakt mit Scarra getreten seien.
Riot erkennt an, dass die Strafe sehr streng ist, begründet dies aber eindringlich. So wurde in Betracht gezogen, dass Georgallidis zunächst versuchte die Tatsachen zu verschleiern. Außerdem sei es wichtig, dass nicht die Spieler, sondern der Besitzer, welcher eindeutige Kenntnis des Regelwerkes hat, sich über die Regeln der LCS hinweggesetzt hat. Sowohl Georgallidis als auch Scarra gaben zu diesem Vorfall ein Statement ab:
+ Statement von George „HotshotGG“ Georgallidis
„At PAX Prime, after the event was over, Scarra casually mentioned he’d be looking to coach next season. I told him we were also looking for coaches, and nothing more came out of that exchange. It was very brief and informal. Some time later, Scarra messaged me on Skype and the same topic came up again. I was more interested this time because I personally believed in Scarra’s abilities, especially after we narrowly escaped relegations. We started to talk more with details about our involvement together.
I knew the rules, and it was very disrespectful of me to not abide by them. It was not what I should have been doing, and it’s not what eSports needs to grow and gain mainstream legitimacy. This is not what CLG is about, but I’m not a perfect person and I’ll admit it. CLG’s results have not been satisfactory as of late and I was trying to fix that, but I went about doing it the wrong way. I have learned my lesson and completely understand and accept Riot’s ruling. I denied the allegations initially, because I was scared of the consequences, but that made things worse. I should have been honest, and it will not happen again. I extend my sincerest apologies to Odee, Dignitas, the guys at CLG, and the community for my actions.“
+ Statement von William „Scarra“ Li
„This is just to clarify the recent ruling against CLG. First thing I want to clear up is that nobody had any communication with each other before the end of the competitive season (after the games at PAX). At PAX, I was unsure about my future plans whether or not I was really going to stay on the team or not until next season due to various reasons I can’t go into. Because PAX was a huge aggregation of friends and players that I tend to talk to and respect a lot, I spent a lot of time talking to players after the Dignitas games ended up finishing. One of the people I approached was Hotshot which never went past the phase of initial interest at the event.
At the time, I did not know I was restricted to talk to people about my situation due to a variety of factors:
Riot Games had not officially recognized coaches at that time.
I had limitations placed on me due to the fact that I was officially a substitute player of the Dignitas roster at the time. I actually did not know this was the case. I became a substitute player in the off chance that one of the players became sick and had no plans to return to playing on the starting roster at the time.
Additionally I was exploring options with CLG only in the realm of a coaching position (I talked with other people about exploring options as a player/streamer/caster/etc) which I thought was fine under the first point listed above. Both of these factors ended up creating an environment that I was not fully knowledgeable about going into the following weeks. After PAX, I approached CLG management about the situation and management (Mattcom in particular) specifically told me that I should not have talked to George due to the fact that I was still considered a player who was under contract. Mattcom stopped any and all communication from there until after my contract expired. I later found that he had previously tried to talk to Odee for clarification about my situation but that no response was given. At this moment I had no idea what on earth was happening, but that I might have made a very big mistake and gone behind regulation when I was asking people for advice about figuring out my future plans.
This wasn’t some malicious attempt at acquisition by Hotshot, nor was it an attempt by me to circumvent the correct procedure to try to move away from my old organization, Dignitas. I made a big mistake and walked into a situation before I was absolutely sure about the details. I’m sorry for people affected by the situation, especially Odee and Dignitas organization. This definitely won’t happen again.“