Doing their best to control it all.

The third day of League of Legends' World Playoffs were a bit of a disaster, and that's putting it lightly. After a successful first and second day, the second game of the day - pitting Counter Logic Gaming Europe against Asian Team World Elite - went completely wrong. The game disconnected multiple times, most notably ending a hour-long, drawn-out stalemate between the two teams with no victor and forcing yet another game remake. Then, after Riot called it a day, players watching the videos noticed a lot of suspicious activities from an earlier Team Solo Mid and Azubu Frost game. Several players looked at the overhead map, giving them full vision of the enemy team. 

Riot has finally issued a statement about the event, brought forward by RedBeard, the eSports VP. Primarily, he said the disconnects were due to two internet connectivity issues and one power failure, and that Riot is going to be making preparations for Season 3 to deal with these better. Among these, a LAN option for tournament games (which it currently lacks, which is why a lost internet connection disconnected the game from Riot's servers, rendering it unplayable). 

Furthermore, Riot had referees on stage at the time of the cheating incidents, and the early pause was due to a headset issue from Team Azubu Frost. During that time, both teams were looking around, and were issued warnings, but the game was restarted anyway. No comment yet on the other controversial TSM/AZF game where pings at TSM's top lane for almost no reason, but RedBeard has said they are investigating it. And, lastly, they said they had made the decision to not include booths because they felt they could catch any full 90 degree turns to the teams. But he added "even the possibility of unfair play was simply unacceptable. We're taking steps to ensure the minimap screens are not visible to players." Lastly, the conclusion of Day 3 is going to take place tomorrow, Wednesday the 10th, and CLG.eu has confirmed that date. 

I feel like Riot made a lot of mistakes here, but many of them - including the cheating - were things they had plans for. Sometimes things happen. I'm sure Riot will not make this mistake twice. 

Julian "Mirai" Williams