League of Legends playoffs soured by allegations of cheating

We posted earlier about some of the aggressive strategies being employed by League of Legends players during the weekend's World Championship playoffs, but the competition has taken a darker turn with accusations of cheating levelled at teams World Elite and Azubu Frost.

As PCGamesN explain , the complaints revolve around a couple of giant minimaps that had been placed at the front of the stage for the benefit of the LA audience. By simply craning their necks around, players would be able to view a fog-of-war-free map of the battlefield, giving them a notable tactical advantage over the other team. According to spectators, and Azubu Frost rivals Team SoloMid , that's exactly what happened during the event.

The above photo, courtesy of Reddit , appears to confirm these suspicions, apparently showing an Azubu Frost member twisting his neck to look at the minimap, before pinging a warning to his teammates. Similar accusations have been made against World Elite in their match against CLG EU. To be fair to Riot, they did restart both games when players' wayward eyes were noticed, but it's possible that some illegal looking may have slipped the net. Riot are investigating both claims at the moment, admitting that "in hindsight, the potential visibility of minimap screens for players was a mistake". They're taking steps to avoid this in the future, so hopefully that should be the end of it.

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.

Latest in MOBA
League of Legends promo image - huge dude in a huge suit of armor holding a huge axe
Riot walks back unpopular League of Legends changes: Hextech Chests are coming back, and the Blue Essence cost for new champions will be cut in half
A triptych of views from Deadlock's improved map, showing a suspension bridge backlit by a setting sun, a triumphal arch with buildings in the background, and a leafy park overlooked by distant skyscrapers.
Deadlock gets a massive map overhaul that shrinks its map from four lanes to three: 'This has a large range of accompanying map-wide changes'
Three monsters holding clubs in Dota 2.
As a lapsed 4,500 hour veteran of Dota 2, the big new Wandering Waters update has lured me back—but despite the changes, the game still feels stuck in its ways
Sahn-Uzal Mordekaiser revealed in silhouette against a white moon and a blood-red sky.
League of Legends is getting a hotly anticipated skin for its lich necromancer Mordekaiser, but fans' joy has been 'obliterated' because it's 'stuck in a $200 fomo gacha store'
Smite 2 art
Hi-Rez will only be giving 'minor updates' to Smite and Paladins now it's laying off around 70 employees, but don't worry, Smite 2 is the 'primary focus of the newly streamlined operations'
LoL summoner art
It's high time League of Legends got full voice chat
Latest in News
Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders
Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders is getting a new mountain next month and a whole bunch more throughout the year, including a game editor
Lady smiling with the sun in her face
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's director was 'starving for new turn-based RPGs,' and figured if he wanted them, there would be others out there who'd want to play his game
farcana
'The Middle East's answer to Marvel Rivals' is an 'AI-powered', crypto-infused hero shooter that looks like hot garbage
A monster made of glowing skulls has a brinrevolver aimed at it in Abyssus.
Wield a brinerevolver as a brinehunter in Abyssus, the briniest ‘brinepunk’ shooter this side of the Mariana Trench
Two airships fire broadsides into each other's hull in Echoes of Elysium.
In this airship-building survival game, I faced an enemy worth punching trees over: 'The hubris of man'
Onimusha 2 cover art
If you were worried Onimusha 2 won’t be hard enough, I have great news: Hell mode is here to ruin your life