Riot Games fines Team Solomid owner Andy Dinh for announcing TSM Lustboy too early
Andy 'Reginald' Dinh, the owner of the successful North American League of Legends team, Team Solomid, has been fined $2,000 for announcing the acquisition of their newest support player Jang-sik 'Lustboy' Ham before obtaining approval from the League of Legends Championship Series.
In an announcement posted on the lolesports website, Riot Games stated that they "have reminded LCS teams multiple times that they are not permitted to announce the addition of new players to their team before said players have been approved by the League." Riot states the reasoning for this rule is because "premature announcements can upset fans and set false expectations that ineligible or toxic players will be permitted to play in the League."
This fine is the second fine that Riot has issued this week. Earlier, on the 12th of August Riot Games fined the North American team Counter Logic Gaming for account sharing violations that the team engaged in while they were bootcamping in South Korea.
The news of the fine was first broken by Dinh himself in a twitter post, seen below:
Today I learned that I'm being fined for announcing Lustboy without approval. I guess I have to start watching what I do on social media too
— Andy Dinh (@TSMReginald) August 14, 2014
This comment generated a fair bit of controversy on Reddit, with many expressing a disapproval of the fine, while others stating that the fine was reasonable. Dinh also posted the following comment when queried for a full description about the incident.
In the past they've told me that I should let them know before I make a roster swap because It would help the league ops team prepare for the changes. I thought that it would be optional and I didn't want to share our changes with Riot because of personal reasons. I was not informed that I could be fined for such things, but apparently I could be fined for pretty much anything. This morning they told me that I was being fined for $2,000 for announcing Lustboy without approval because it could hurt the league image if he was potentially a " Drug dealer, criminal or for whatever reason not allowed to play". I was also told that I couldn't announce any sponsors or players without league approval even though we're an eSports team that have huge personalities in several games; Smite, Hearthstone, and LoL. I've expressed that I was really upset about this and I think that the fine is completely bullshit. I was told that they didn't want to announce this . Overall, the fine is what it is and I was told that I can't do anything about it.
Riot Game's Nick Allen responded in the following post:
Over the course of the 2013 and 2014 Seasons, we have reminded LCS teams multiple times not to announce players before they are approved by the League. All players must go through extensive behavior checks before receiving approval, and our paramount concern is that a player would be announced by a team only to be declined by the League. We want to avoid false expectations, or an assumption that a toxic player has been accepted into the League.
On July 20, the LCS was notified that TSM desired to bring Lustboy onto their roster. We immediately and explicitly instructed TSM not to announce the acquisition until they have received League approval. On July 22, TSM announced Lustboy as their starting support player without submitting proper paperwork or LCS approval. They went against direct instructions of an LCS official which is against the LCS rules. They are being fined for this rule violation (10.2.14). A ruling will be released later today.
To address some of Reginald's comments:
The LCS only governs the sponsors that directly affect the LCS team and players. Organizations are free to do whatever they want with their rosters and sponsors for their teams in other games.
But Dinh states that he didn't violate any specific rule in the rulebook:
I was notified to not make announcements without their approval. But was not told it was something I am required to do. Announcing players without approval is no where within the rules. I'm basically getting fined because I didn't listen to an LCS Official, not because its in the rules.
Section 10.2.14 of the official LCS ruleset states: No Team Member may refuse or fail to apply the instructions or decisions of LCS officials.
In an statement on his Facebook page, Dinh stated that he wanted to bring this situation to light due to the unfairness of the incident.
This morning I posted that I was being fined by Riot on Twitter and people are upset that I was being unprofessional. So I want to explain my reasoning behind this whole incident. I decided to make the post because I was told that Riot would not announce the fine . I wanted to bring this situation to light because of how unfair this incident is. I was informed by Riot to notify them of changes around our roster, but was never told it was against the rules. Riot could have told me at any point or even given me a warning that what I did was against the rules, but they did not. I've read the rules several times and they've twisted the rules into basically " If you don't listen to everything we say, you may be punished" .
Moving forward, I will try my best to work with Riot and abide to all rules and instructions. My intentions are not to give Riot a hard time, but really to stand up for myself when I see that something is unfair. The reason why I announced Lustboy early was because it was common knowledge and the announcement was already leaked.
EDIT: Also for clairty, the result of not having paperwork on time and approval by the league means that you can't use the player. It does not mean you get fined. Submitting the paperwork before announcing the player is not a RULE.
Here is Riot's reason of fining me:
Section 10.2.14 of the official LCS ruleset states:
No Team Member may refuse or fail to apply the instructions or decisions of LCS officials.
This story is still developing, please check back on onGamers.com for updated details.
Update: Dinh has released a video calling on Riot to release logs that he was notified.
Image credits : Team Solomid
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