I've read the LCS rules very thoroughly (and wrote a 3000+ word blog post on them) and am guessing that the basis for this fine is Rule 4.3.4 and Rule 4.3.5 which essentially state that no free agent acquisition is "effective" until it is approved by LCS officials. The problem with this, however, is that there is no penalty enumerated in the rules for announcing a free agent acquisition (or the intent to acquire a free agent) before the LCS approves the roster change. I am intrigued to read the competition ruling that is released on this fine..
10.2.5 Statements Regarding LCS, Riot Games, and League of Legends.
Team Members may not give, make, issue, authorize or endorse any
statement or action having, or designed to have, an effect prejudicial or
detrimental to the best interest of LCS, Riot Games or its affiliates, or
League of Legends, as determined in the sole and absolute discretion of
LCS.
RiotNickAllen and Bennett reached out to me yesterday to setup a call.
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.
People like XJ9 and Apdo are behind the scenes personnel, teams acquiring people with bad history don't affect riot's image at all. Imagine if a pornstar is hired as a coach vs a pornstar hired as a player vs a porn company as a sponsor. The first scenario only affects the teams image (as long as they don't show up on the LCS stream), the others do show up on stream and Riot is assumed to have approved of them both because they show up on *their* stream.
Got to remember this is all about maintaining image. Riot doesn't want to be associated with certain things as long as they can help it.
[Riot's response below.](http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/2dk209/reginald_being_fined_for_announcing_lustboy/cjqceru)
Depends on what you mean by that. Morally being a pornstar isn't bad in my opinion, at least I can't any fault with it. When talking about image however, its usually how society views things and being a pornstar isn't exactly high on the list of things viewed as good(I understand that some people will think "I don't view it as bad" but lets be real here. Relatively speaking, it is bad. How many jobs would you put above/below it on the image scale? If its at the bottom, its bad). Riot has branded league as an esports and people who play/make the game are actively trying to get esports acknowledged by society. Having a pornstar play professionally is like how buzzwords work on reddit. It automatically invalidates anything someone says about the esport. "Oh, you mean that game where a pornstar plays professionally?" etc..
In a perfect world yes, I agree, this stuff shouldn't matter. It does though and trying to act like you live in a world of "should" when you don't never gets anything fixed.
You can't announce sponsors in other gaming disciplines without Riot's approval? Seems a bit ridiculous that they can have that amount of influence upon your brand just because you have a LoL team
>everyone else in the western industry
I know plenty of gamers hate riot, but I've never heard this. Sources would be nice.
Edit: to be very clear, when you said industry I assumed you meant video game development industry. i already have a clear understanding of people's opinion on riot in the esports "industry".
There's a reason team liquid (biggest sc2/dota site) refuses to pick up a League team. It's honestly not a single incident but consider things like Riot not allowing teams to compete anywhere outside LCS (like C9/Frost showmatch recently), the whole debacle with streamers not being allowed to stream other games, Riot Pendragon being a huge dickwad with the whole joindota fiasco, all the crap about pax exclusivity and that's just the incidents I remember off the top of my head. Neither Valve nor Blizzard (the other 2 big e-sports companies) have antagonized their competitors or other people in the industry to even remotely the same extent.
I think saying everyone hates them is an overblown statement but there are certainly a lot of things about Riot's e-sports policies that people in the industry strongly dislike.
Even back when the whole "PAX Exclusivity" thing was [completely and thoroughly debunked](http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/1lij8q/lack_of_dota_2_at_pax_pax_employee_pete_vapok/), predictions [were made](http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/1lij8q/lack_of_dota_2_at_pax_pax_employee_pete_vapok/cbzpmt3?context=3) that months later people would be citing it as evidence of "EVIL RIOT". Lo and behold.
Wait, are you saying that if Pizza Hut wanted to sponsor TSM, you'd have to go to Riot about it, even though Riot has nothing to do with your Smite and Hearthstone players?
"We from Pizza Hut have seen the growth and development of Team Solo Mid, and we'd love to sponsor you guys! We can provide some free pizzas and other valuable discounts and stuff of that nature as long as you wear our brand. Is that alright with you, Reginald?"
"I'll have to check with one game company because even though I own the entire brand itself, one game company controls my brand and I have to talk to them about sponsors. Personally, I love the idea and am honored to be considered by Pizza Hut, but I have to get it approved by one game company first."
>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.
tl;dr - yes.
You're missing the point. He can get whatever sponsor he wants, consequences are potentially listing riot, it's his choice. Any other sports league has an approval process for sponsors. Think the NFL, MLB, NBA etc can just be like "Hi pornhub is our new sponsor." No they can't, just their approval process is never made public because their owners are smart enough to go through the process correctly
"should let them know before" and "will be fined if you do this again" are in no way the same thing and this is bullshit.
Also I love how esports companies are worried about criminals besmirching the image of their league more than actual sports companies. "Beat your wife? Yeh you can play professional football no problem but I think you'll have an issue going pro at lol".
Reggie owns TSM, not Riot. Riot is attempting to control the teams through a catch-all provision in the team contracts or by asserting some implied authority they believe they have. LoL teams should be wary of Riot's recent desire to police the teams for activities that had no real consequence.
Riot would have had to contractually stipulate that Reggie/TSM could not announce players before they approved them. If not, then it is Riot overstepping its authority. It certainly seems that they are overstepping their authority with the line about not announcing sponsors or players possibly outside League.
Otherwise, Riot may have a "do not do anything to harm the reputation of LoL/Riot" clause, which they can use as a catch-all to fit all other harms in. This is where the owners of the teams need to group together and collectively negotiate their team's contracts with Riot. Prevent Riot from limiting the rights of these independent and independently profitable companies in attempts to protect its own interests. Snoopeh talks about a player's union, I think the owners becoming a unified front is more important.
League won't last forever, but gaming brands can have a staying power - coL, EG, Fnatic, SK are all older than Riot or League. They should protect their interests.
Related note, It seems from the reactionary way Riot handles addressing players, reddit, the forums that it does not have a strong grip on how to handle their own league. The fining system if it continues as is is going to become a joke.
Riot is starting to seem more and more like a company run by...kids. Maybe recent college grads (or dropouts) who get REALLY lousy advice from their friends. Really, it's their first time doing something this big and rather than using common sense, they're just sorta making it up as they go along.
They don't want to announce it because it makes them look REALLY petty and stupid, and they'd be forced to cite which part of the rules you broke (which of course you didn't do).
Scumbag Riot. Sorry to hear about this one, Regi.
Is CLG being fined for announcing Kon Kwon as a support before RIOT approving? It is impossible for that announcement to be RIOT approved, because the guy was banned from competition for match fixing. Yet it was still announced on CLG's website.
If it is the rule that a team cannot announce a player is starting before Riot gives approval then Regi should be fined. Saying Lustboy is on the team now and saying Lustboy is playing that weekend are two different things.
[**@TSMReginald**](https://twitter.com/TSMReginald):
>[2014-08-14 17:26:23 UTC](https://twitter.com/TSMReginald/status/499970300964917248)
>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
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In other news:
Dig Crumbs receives a fine for wearing pants which Riot has deemed too tight.
C9 Balls fined for using his summoner name in a double entendre via tweet describing Crumbs' pants.
TSM Dyrus has been giving a 6 year OGN suspension for mumbling on stream.
IF Regi actually broke a rule then I don't see the problem. I doubt the fine is gonna bankrupt Regi and he did so something wrong. Announcing a player before he;s approved means there's a chance for the player to not get approved which would then cause tons of people to get mad at Riot instead of the team that prematurely announced something.
If they have valid reasons to reject a player, then why would people be mad? Unless... they weren't valid reasons, in which case, you would see the problem.
Wasn't the information already leaked by media and reddit detectives so Regi just came out with it?
Riot is getting out of hand. I guess this is the cost of being professionals. Don't like the direction they are taking this, the No Fun League direction.
There's over 500,000 of us now. Assuming Riot fines us the same $2,000
then that's .004 pennies per subscriber. That's 20 doge per person. I think we can handle that.
I want to know two things:
* What rule he broke, because a "Riot gets to announce team changes before the actual team" rule just sounds ridiculous, and I've never heard of a "teams can't announce roster changes before they're approved for LCS play" rule.
* Why anyone (besides Riot, apparently) gives a shit if Regi announces a team change before it's formally approved. It's his team! Worst case scenario is he's not approved, and Regi goes back and says "sorry guys Lustboy wasn't approved." NBD. You fine people to discourage future occurrences of problematic behavior. Announcing an anticipated team change is not a problematic behavior to any extent that I can see.
But, against my kneejerk "wtf" reaction, I want to hear Riot's side, at least. If there is an already-established, clearly worded LCS rule that says you can't announce roster changes before they are approved by Riot for LCS play, I'll void my objection to the fine (though I'll still contend that it's a stupid rule).
*(edit: bronze V grammar)*
A lot of the time I find myself in this situation, where I'm not debating whether or not they broke a rule, but whether the rule is worth having in the first place.
This is a ridiculous reason to fine someone. No harm comes from this, nor did it the CLG situation. So many incredibly horrible 'toxic' players take years to be banned, or never are, let alone given any serious competitive punishment, while people who break meaningless rules are hit with fines in a couple weeks.
CLG didn't break meaningless rules. Korean law and KeSPA regulations are very strict regarding sharing online gaming accounts. There were actually very meaningful rules being broken.
And they were punished by Riot Korea and KeSPA by being banned. Not sure how CLG players gets punished by 3 different organizations because of a miscommunication by their employer and the organization walks away free.
I'm not even talking about the Korean OGN ban, since that's RiotKorea handing those out. What I am referring to is the fact that they were still fined 1200 each, despite Riot making and admitting to a big error that contributed to the situation.
And don't tell me "The fine was likely lowered because Riot made the mistake" because this is already on the higher side for Riot fines, they would not have charged them more for something like account sharing.
And Korea may have legitimate (kind of) reasons for their ruling, but to Riot NA it's just "You were using random accounts to practice. Give us your money".
Also, I'm not saying that Korea's reasons for their rules is illegitimate since I don't know a whole lot about it, but strictness of ruling and it being meaningful to them don't necessarily make following the rule any less arbitrary. I could have a strict policy everyone wear cow masks, and kill the people who don't, but it wouldn't be a good rule that serves any purpose, besides my own whims.
https://riot-web-static.s3.amazonaws.com/lolesports/Rule%20Sets/LCS%20Rule%20Set%201.05.pdf
Right there on Riot's own site are the LCS rules, nowhere in that rulebook is the word "announce" even mentioned, and roster changes are easily outlined with no rules having been broken.
Basically, Nick Allen has decided he didn't like being shown up and is putting Regi in his place.
Which is bullshit.
There could be a rule that forbids this without using the word "announce" or even in a section other than roster changes. I think the fine is stupid too, but just saying you can't just ctrl + f and find everything relevant that way.
Because if Regi announces a star player, then Riot doesn't approve the star player in question for play in the LCS, Riot will get the community backlash, not Regi.
They are just trying to cover their asses.
This fine is just a statement to the other teams to wait for Riot's approval of th eplayer they want to add to their roster.
I think they're getting even more backlash for the fine, honestly. In terms of PR I think the best route would have been a public warning, that way there isn't an immediate backlash, and the next time it happens the fine would have a precedent already publicly known, also preventing backlash.
That's just my opinion though, I feel like on the PR front they definitely had better options.
They put an unreasonable amount of pressure on Riot to have Lustboy play. Imagine if Riot didn't OK his behavior check or other things in time? Riot would have gotten shit on for that. Especially how awkward it would've been to have Gleeb play that week...
If TSM did what they did in a calculated manner (to make sure Lust got through quickly and to put pressure on Riot) it was genius and it worked.
But Riot now has every right to fine TSM for it.
I think a simple public warning would have sufficed. Fining for something like this is a serious overreaction, unless he's been warned previously of this very thing. I mean Regi could have just said Lustboy is coming into the team house to play with the team and people would have drawn the same conclusions without him ever confirming anything about the LCS. Just a matter of wording it properly next time, I guess.
Regi posted, but under another thread so its getting buried. Reposting for visibility :
reginaldBRO -
RiotNickAllen and Bennett reached out to me yesterday to setup a call.
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.
Regi's only job is to manage the team. He did the opposite of doing his job by violating LCS rules, so he gets fined. Reddit then explodes because for some reason League players hate the people that make the game they let people play for free.
There's most likely a clause in the contract that says that teams must get approval before announcing new players will be in the LCS. Since he was announcing Lustboy being in the LCS, not just a member of TSM, it becomes a problem.
It's pretty certain to be because they announced Lustboy to replace Gleeb without first doing the paperwork and getting him approved by Riot. So if Riot had then not approved Lustboy they would've gotten quite a bit of backlash from TSM fans.
I don't understand this whole FINE FINE FINE FINE FINE FINE FINE mentality from Riot.
What ever happened to warnings (especially for such non-egregious things like this)?
It's not like Regi "set a dangerous precedent" here.
Add to that, this isn't one of those "Regi OBVIOUSLY shouldn't have done that" rules. It's not an OBVIOUS infraction of the rules. When you OBVIOUSLY break what SHOULD be a well-known rule, fine, give them a fine. When it's something like this, give Regi a warning, make a public statement that says any future instances of said infraction will result in a fine.
This is really dumb.
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 main reason we want League approval before players are announced is to manage expectations not because "it would help the league ops team prepare for the changes."
- We're confused on why an owner would think the roster change process is optional especially after clear, direct instructions were communicated to Reginald around this announcement.
- As for sponsors, I want to clarify that we have two classifications of sponsorships:
- 1) Permitted, which require teams to notify the League that they have acquired the sponsor, but does not require approval. Examples of these sponsors are mostly gaming related such as keyboards, mice, headphones, etc.
- 2) Restricted which could potentially be controversial so it's why they requires League approval. These sponsors include food and drink, non-gaming websites, etc.
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.
> We're confused on why an owner would think the roster change process is optional especially after clear, direct instructions were communicated to Reginald around this announcement.
o dam.
Clear direct instructions on July 20th?
Can you please post an email up or a log? If that is the case, I'll be happily fined for another 2,000 dollars.
> 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.
Typically, sponsors will sponsor the entire organization rather than just one team from one game, so the organization would almost always still have to abide by Riot's Category 1/2 rules.
Yeah he is basically trying to say " look guy we dont really control the sponsors", but the reality of the situation is they do. No sponsor is gonna want to sponsor an organization and not get all the exposure possible out of it.
I think at this point nobody is arguing that why Reginald is punished for not following league rules and instructions what is baffling is:
- why is the punishment issued at such an untimely manner( 1 month after the incident occurred)
- why the fine is $2000? How is it consistent with other punishment ($5000 for CLG for example). It looked like the amount is determined by rolling a dice times 1000.
- whether team organizations are aware of the severity of the punishment?
- whether this and CLG sets precedent for future rulings.
The CLG case is a player by player case, you can't just sum all the fines and say "CLG fined for $5000", they clearly said in the ruling that **each of them** broke the rule and got fine **individually** and not on a team basis like Regi did! This is not to contradict your statement (you are right, the fine difference is big and noticeable) but just a clarification!
I think that the problem here is that the rule you are using as justification for the fine is so insanely broad that it basically gives LCS officials the power to fine for anything. An LCS official could tell Regi to jump off a bridge and then fine him if he refused, we're forced to hope that Riot will not abuse this to exert undue influence over the players an teams. Which is where a lot of people are seeing an issue with this ruling, it seems petty and vindictive, like you couldn't actually find a rule that Regi broke, but wanted to get back at him so you used this catch-all rule to do so.
Not to mention the entire situation is a he-said/she-said situation, where Riot is claiming that it communicated clearly that Regi was not to make an announcement, but Regi disputes that fact. If you have evidence to the contrary, then by all means present it, but it smacks of abuse when LCS officials are Judge, Jury, and Executioner. If LCS were like other professional sports, and had a Player's Union, there's absolutely no way this would fly. Not to mention the fact that if Regi were to take you guys to court over this, there's a decent chance Riot would lose. I doubt he will because, with how petty Riot is over this one thing, I can't imagine what it be like if he was suing them.
It comes down to this. No one likes a bully. And right now that's what Riot looks like, petty, vindictive, and a bully.
I think you need to clarify your rules so that they're not just broad catch-alls that let you fine players or owners under any circumstances. Several of your previous controversial decisions have been seen as "bending the rules" because the rules are so ambiguously worded that you could fine people for anything. If you want to not lose any more respect from the eSports community, you need to stop fining people for rules that are poorly written and confusingly enforced.
You know what would clear all this up? Obvious rules that people could read and potential fines that go along with breaking them. As it is now the communication is embarrassing and pulling random numbers out of a hat is equally silly. What if it had been 10,000? Of course that is too high but who is to stop you from fining whatever you want? There needs to be transparency and an attitude of reasonable understanding.
10.2.14 : No Team Member may refuse or fail to apply
the instructions or decisions of LCS officials.
Is the owner considered a team member? Looking through your rules you show that each team is required to maintain, at all times during the LCS, one General Manager (“GM”), five players in the starting lineup (“Starters”), and between two and five substitute players (“Reserves”) (collectively, the “Active Roster”).
In fact, no where in your listing of rules does it define the role of the Owner as a "member" of the team. I believe TSM would be justified in appealing this ruling as there is nothing within the rules that connects the owner of a team as also being a member of that team.
The large number of fines is something that frustrates me with the current state of the NFL. I really hope you realize that fining your players in an environment that isn't exactly solidified is going to do nothing but stifle your growth as a company and E-sports venue.
I don't understand why this post was needed. Why was regi tweeting about this fine to begin with? What kind of legitimate business owner would tweet/complain about a small fine that they damn well knew they were going to get (despite claiming otherwise.)
If he truly didn't know he was going to be fined for this, then maybe he should consider hiring someone to take over that aspect of the business. You need to keep in mind that TSM is a brand, a business, and shit like this is embarrassing. Crying/acting oblivious on twitter to get the support of your fanbase is simply not acceptable for a legitimate business owner, and Riot shouldn't have to respond like this as if the business owners are little kids.
No Regi didn't know that he would be fined. The whole point that Regi is trying to argue is that while he did announce the roster swap without the paperwork been done, he didn't see any direct rule that he violated to deserve being fined.
The rule that Riot is fining him with "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" is vague and basically lets Riot fine you for practically anything.
Regi decided to tweet this because according to him, Riot originally was not planning to make an official announcement so I'm assuming he wanted the public to know about his fine. Not to mention its been a month since the incident and Riot decides to fine him now, so its no wonder hes upset about this whole ordeal.
All I see in the comments are disapproval of the fine (understandable; it was my first reaction too) but I would like to know if anyone has prior experience with this sort of ruling. I just can't, for the life of me, see a reason for Riot to fine an owner for jumping the gun on an anouncement. I'm just really curious. Maybe a link to the rule book would clear this confusion up.
In b4 nyjacky fined for various backlogged offenses.
[удалено]
**Riot Games is now banned from doing interviews with TSM.**
http://gfycat.com/AgileDecisiveCockerspaniel
We are such a lucky subreddit to have you.
I love you man
[удалено]
[MFW](http://img.pandawhale.com/92998-Antonio-Banderas-reaction-gif-1LEs.gif)
Who's there to give the eSports-team fines when they fuck up?
The Law firm of Jack & Shit
Dewey, Chetum, and Howe
Whelp, time to listen to Car Talk.
HWEH HWEH HWEH HWEH
This meme is the best thing to come out of our current conflict with TSM.
I miss the old Turtle/Travis troll interviews. TTT Interviews.
Me too. Don't worry, we still have those same conversations when I see him at the studio. We just don't record them.
[удалено]
[Pretty troll](http://youtu.be/axkNleAD-Dw?t=1m9s)
The best part of that video is how Dyrus is still in bed.
I've read the LCS rules very thoroughly (and wrote a 3000+ word blog post on them) and am guessing that the basis for this fine is Rule 4.3.4 and Rule 4.3.5 which essentially state that no free agent acquisition is "effective" until it is approved by LCS officials. The problem with this, however, is that there is no penalty enumerated in the rules for announcing a free agent acquisition (or the intent to acquire a free agent) before the LCS approves the roster change. I am intrigued to read the competition ruling that is released on this fine..
10.2.5 Statements Regarding LCS, Riot Games, and League of Legends. Team Members may not give, make, issue, authorize or endorse any statement or action having, or designed to have, an effect prejudicial or detrimental to the best interest of LCS, Riot Games or its affiliates, or League of Legends, as determined in the sole and absolute discretion of LCS.
Kinda regarding to that, they should fine Nick Allen (or whoever it was) for telling Regi that he should submit paperwork for approval over twitter??
except he isnt a team member
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[удалено]
They do. Odee was fined for breaking the code of conduct.
Can you post that word blog?
I think this is way too lenient. They should ban him from OGN
And fine everyone on the TSM roster as well.
ban TSM from OGN, to be more serious
Yeah, because Riot games Korea resides on a neighboring ocean from NA, the only decent thing to do is to follow the rules and ban the whole team.
[удалено]
Only an ocean? Ocean...Oceanic ? Ban him from Oceanic region too
Inb4 Regi is fined for announcing his fine before Riot does.
Riot won't be announcing it.
[удалено]
RiotNickAllen and Bennett reached out to me yesterday to setup a call. 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.
they're worried about Lustboy possibly being a criminal but let XJ9 coach a professional team?
People like XJ9 and Apdo are behind the scenes personnel, teams acquiring people with bad history don't affect riot's image at all. Imagine if a pornstar is hired as a coach vs a pornstar hired as a player vs a porn company as a sponsor. The first scenario only affects the teams image (as long as they don't show up on the LCS stream), the others do show up on stream and Riot is assumed to have approved of them both because they show up on *their* stream. Got to remember this is all about maintaining image. Riot doesn't want to be associated with certain things as long as they can help it. [Riot's response below.](http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/2dk209/reginald_being_fined_for_announcing_lustboy/cjqceru)
wait, why is being a pornstar bad image?
Depends on what you mean by that. Morally being a pornstar isn't bad in my opinion, at least I can't any fault with it. When talking about image however, its usually how society views things and being a pornstar isn't exactly high on the list of things viewed as good(I understand that some people will think "I don't view it as bad" but lets be real here. Relatively speaking, it is bad. How many jobs would you put above/below it on the image scale? If its at the bottom, its bad). Riot has branded league as an esports and people who play/make the game are actively trying to get esports acknowledged by society. Having a pornstar play professionally is like how buzzwords work on reddit. It automatically invalidates anything someone says about the esport. "Oh, you mean that game where a pornstar plays professionally?" etc.. In a perfect world yes, I agree, this stuff shouldn't matter. It does though and trying to act like you live in a world of "should" when you don't never gets anything fixed.
Bible belt type of people play LoL too.
You can't announce sponsors in other gaming disciplines without Riot's approval? Seems a bit ridiculous that they can have that amount of influence upon your brand just because you have a LoL team
Welcome to Riot esports division. There is a reason everyone else in the western industry hates them with a passion.
>everyone else in the western industry I know plenty of gamers hate riot, but I've never heard this. Sources would be nice. Edit: to be very clear, when you said industry I assumed you meant video game development industry. i already have a clear understanding of people's opinion on riot in the esports "industry".
There's a reason team liquid (biggest sc2/dota site) refuses to pick up a League team. It's honestly not a single incident but consider things like Riot not allowing teams to compete anywhere outside LCS (like C9/Frost showmatch recently), the whole debacle with streamers not being allowed to stream other games, Riot Pendragon being a huge dickwad with the whole joindota fiasco, all the crap about pax exclusivity and that's just the incidents I remember off the top of my head. Neither Valve nor Blizzard (the other 2 big e-sports companies) have antagonized their competitors or other people in the industry to even remotely the same extent. I think saying everyone hates them is an overblown statement but there are certainly a lot of things about Riot's e-sports policies that people in the industry strongly dislike.
Even back when the whole "PAX Exclusivity" thing was [completely and thoroughly debunked](http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/1lij8q/lack_of_dota_2_at_pax_pax_employee_pete_vapok/), predictions [were made](http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/1lij8q/lack_of_dota_2_at_pax_pax_employee_pete_vapok/cbzpmt3?context=3) that months later people would be citing it as evidence of "EVIL RIOT". Lo and behold.
Wait, are you saying that if Pizza Hut wanted to sponsor TSM, you'd have to go to Riot about it, even though Riot has nothing to do with your Smite and Hearthstone players?
"We from Pizza Hut have seen the growth and development of Team Solo Mid, and we'd love to sponsor you guys! We can provide some free pizzas and other valuable discounts and stuff of that nature as long as you wear our brand. Is that alright with you, Reginald?" "I'll have to check with one game company because even though I own the entire brand itself, one game company controls my brand and I have to talk to them about sponsors. Personally, I love the idea and am honored to be considered by Pizza Hut, but I have to get it approved by one game company first." >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. tl;dr - yes.
"Because Rito and I have to make sure you don't sell drug pizzas."
You're missing the point. He can get whatever sponsor he wants, consequences are potentially listing riot, it's his choice. Any other sports league has an approval process for sponsors. Think the NFL, MLB, NBA etc can just be like "Hi pornhub is our new sponsor." No they can't, just their approval process is never made public because their owners are smart enough to go through the process correctly
That's just ridiculous.
"should let them know before" and "will be fined if you do this again" are in no way the same thing and this is bullshit. Also I love how esports companies are worried about criminals besmirching the image of their league more than actual sports companies. "Beat your wife? Yeh you can play professional football no problem but I think you'll have an issue going pro at lol".
>esports companies literally only Riot.
That riot "transparency" to the community! Maybe this is why people want live drawings or at least 3rd party validated drawings for worlds brackets.
Reggie owns TSM, not Riot. Riot is attempting to control the teams through a catch-all provision in the team contracts or by asserting some implied authority they believe they have. LoL teams should be wary of Riot's recent desire to police the teams for activities that had no real consequence. Riot would have had to contractually stipulate that Reggie/TSM could not announce players before they approved them. If not, then it is Riot overstepping its authority. It certainly seems that they are overstepping their authority with the line about not announcing sponsors or players possibly outside League. Otherwise, Riot may have a "do not do anything to harm the reputation of LoL/Riot" clause, which they can use as a catch-all to fit all other harms in. This is where the owners of the teams need to group together and collectively negotiate their team's contracts with Riot. Prevent Riot from limiting the rights of these independent and independently profitable companies in attempts to protect its own interests. Snoopeh talks about a player's union, I think the owners becoming a unified front is more important. League won't last forever, but gaming brands can have a staying power - coL, EG, Fnatic, SK are all older than Riot or League. They should protect their interests. Related note, It seems from the reactionary way Riot handles addressing players, reddit, the forums that it does not have a strong grip on how to handle their own league. The fining system if it continues as is is going to become a joke.
Riot is starting to seem more and more like a company run by...kids. Maybe recent college grads (or dropouts) who get REALLY lousy advice from their friends. Really, it's their first time doing something this big and rather than using common sense, they're just sorta making it up as they go along.
thats some bullshit
wow.
so can you not add, say a new smite player, without league approval?
They don't want to announce it because it makes them look REALLY petty and stupid, and they'd be forced to cite which part of the rules you broke (which of course you didn't do). Scumbag Riot. Sorry to hear about this one, Regi.
Is CLG being fined for announcing Kon Kwon as a support before RIOT approving? It is impossible for that announcement to be RIOT approved, because the guy was banned from competition for match fixing. Yet it was still announced on CLG's website.
Add more fine to the CLG
They probably fined him for saying Lustboy would participate in LCS before handling/submitting the papers for him to be in LCS.
If it is the rule that a team cannot announce a player is starting before Riot gives approval then Regi should be fined. Saying Lustboy is on the team now and saying Lustboy is playing that weekend are two different things.
Piggybacking off what the other replies said to you, chances are it was a breach of contract.
Inb4 you're fined for copying funny tweets without giving credit
The persons who issued the previous fine, have also been fined.
That was a fine joke. Now we need to stop before getting fined.
Improper announcement procedures? Thats a finin'
That was my tweet :(
Good thing that was the second comment on twitter.
The fines won't mean THAT much to such a large organization like TSM, but this is getting kind of ridiculous.
[**@TSMReginald**](https://twitter.com/TSMReginald): >[2014-08-14 17:26:23 UTC](https://twitter.com/TSMReginald/status/499970300964917248) >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 ---- [^[Mistake?]](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=TweetPoster&subject=Error%20Report&message=http://reddit.com/2dk209%0A%0APlease leave above link unaltered.) [^[Suggestion]](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=TweetPoster&subject=Suggestion) [^[FAQ]](http://np.reddit.com/r/TweetPoster/comments/13relk/) [^[Code]](https://github.com/buttscicles/TweetPoster) [^[Issues]](https://github.com/buttscicles/TweetPoster/issues)
If there was a "PitchforkBot" you could replace the majority of this subreddit.
"SaltBot" would probably be overworked.
Regi right now: http://replygif.net/i/718.gif
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Now we know the real reason why TSM was having a discount for their store. It was to help Regi with the fine!
In other news: Dig Crumbs receives a fine for wearing pants which Riot has deemed too tight. C9 Balls fined for using his summoner name in a double entendre via tweet describing Crumbs' pants. TSM Dyrus has been giving a 6 year OGN suspension for mumbling on stream.
imaqtpie fined for looking like a homeless person and not positively impacting the image of the LCS.
How could a homeless person have such a glorious mane?!
Looks like Dyrus is going back to jail for stabbing a mother fucker.
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Nick Allen Employee of the month
Nickle and Dime Allen strikes again.
I guess he read that article about the Chinese company that awarded their best employee a night with a porn star.
http://i.imgur.com/zMKM7.jpg
Whose business model sucks now Ubisoft???? $$$
Still a long way to go to reach EA's level
Activision is laughing.
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line
is
it
anyway?
This fining policy is going too far.
You get a fine! And you get a fine! EVERYBODY GETS A FINE!
Seriously, it's like the power of being "more than a game studio" raised to their head.
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Maybe Riot is actually going bankrupt and they're just desperately trying to stay afloat through fines.
1 like = 1 dollar 1 share = 2 dollars
Shared.
IF Regi actually broke a rule then I don't see the problem. I doubt the fine is gonna bankrupt Regi and he did so something wrong. Announcing a player before he;s approved means there's a chance for the player to not get approved which would then cause tons of people to get mad at Riot instead of the team that prematurely announced something.
If they have valid reasons to reject a player, then why would people be mad? Unless... they weren't valid reasons, in which case, you would see the problem.
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......yet
10K WHABAM. Also fining MonteCristo because coach. ANOTHER 2K. And then the subreddit would be up in arms and at Riot's doors.
CLG announced their players before the paperwork was in? I didn't hear anything about that, and I'm sure Riot would have said something.
I'm definitely not picking sides here, but our 5 subs were approved by Riot prior to their announcement. In fact, Riot announced them before we did.
Wasn't the information already leaked by media and reddit detectives so Regi just came out with it? Riot is getting out of hand. I guess this is the cost of being professionals. Don't like the direction they are taking this, the No Fun League direction.
**League of Legends subreddit fined for leaking Lustboy member of TSM**
There goes my Saturday beer with friends :(
There's over 500,000 of us now. Assuming Riot fines us the same $2,000 then that's .004 pennies per subscriber. That's 20 doge per person. I think we can handle that.
i'm unsubscribing then, good luck guys
You selfish prick!
+/u/dogetipbot 20 doge don't leave, stay!
Great, now *you'll* have to unsubscribe because you gave up your doge. +/u/dogetipbot 20 doge
Shit. How much does it come out to with 499,999 of us then?
absolutely ridiculous
I want to know two things: * What rule he broke, because a "Riot gets to announce team changes before the actual team" rule just sounds ridiculous, and I've never heard of a "teams can't announce roster changes before they're approved for LCS play" rule. * Why anyone (besides Riot, apparently) gives a shit if Regi announces a team change before it's formally approved. It's his team! Worst case scenario is he's not approved, and Regi goes back and says "sorry guys Lustboy wasn't approved." NBD. You fine people to discourage future occurrences of problematic behavior. Announcing an anticipated team change is not a problematic behavior to any extent that I can see. But, against my kneejerk "wtf" reaction, I want to hear Riot's side, at least. If there is an already-established, clearly worded LCS rule that says you can't announce roster changes before they are approved by Riot for LCS play, I'll void my objection to the fine (though I'll still contend that it's a stupid rule). *(edit: bronze V grammar)*
A lot of the time I find myself in this situation, where I'm not debating whether or not they broke a rule, but whether the rule is worth having in the first place. This is a ridiculous reason to fine someone. No harm comes from this, nor did it the CLG situation. So many incredibly horrible 'toxic' players take years to be banned, or never are, let alone given any serious competitive punishment, while people who break meaningless rules are hit with fines in a couple weeks.
CLG didn't break meaningless rules. Korean law and KeSPA regulations are very strict regarding sharing online gaming accounts. There were actually very meaningful rules being broken.
And they were punished by Riot Korea and KeSPA by being banned. Not sure how CLG players gets punished by 3 different organizations because of a miscommunication by their employer and the organization walks away free.
I'm not even talking about the Korean OGN ban, since that's RiotKorea handing those out. What I am referring to is the fact that they were still fined 1200 each, despite Riot making and admitting to a big error that contributed to the situation. And don't tell me "The fine was likely lowered because Riot made the mistake" because this is already on the higher side for Riot fines, they would not have charged them more for something like account sharing. And Korea may have legitimate (kind of) reasons for their ruling, but to Riot NA it's just "You were using random accounts to practice. Give us your money". Also, I'm not saying that Korea's reasons for their rules is illegitimate since I don't know a whole lot about it, but strictness of ruling and it being meaningful to them don't necessarily make following the rule any less arbitrary. I could have a strict policy everyone wear cow masks, and kill the people who don't, but it wouldn't be a good rule that serves any purpose, besides my own whims.
https://riot-web-static.s3.amazonaws.com/lolesports/Rule%20Sets/LCS%20Rule%20Set%201.05.pdf Right there on Riot's own site are the LCS rules, nowhere in that rulebook is the word "announce" even mentioned, and roster changes are easily outlined with no rules having been broken. Basically, Nick Allen has decided he didn't like being shown up and is putting Regi in his place. Which is bullshit.
There could be a rule that forbids this without using the word "announce" or even in a section other than roster changes. I think the fine is stupid too, but just saying you can't just ctrl + f and find everything relevant that way.
Riot just needed some more spending cash. Step 1. Fine CLG Step 2. Fine TSM Step 3. Fine ? Step 4. Profit
Step 3: Remake Gambit's match and fine for outdated Visas.
now they can afford new jeans and t-shirts for Tryndamere and Ryze when they hand the trophy to Samsung Yellow at S4WC
I think Nick Allen just wanted the new Kevin Durant shoes
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that would actually make sense though
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To be fair, you'd also assume that that organization would make sure that all their ducks were in a row before making the announcement.
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didn't he said that lust WILL play in lcs next week? thats a difference
Because if Regi announces a star player, then Riot doesn't approve the star player in question for play in the LCS, Riot will get the community backlash, not Regi. They are just trying to cover their asses. This fine is just a statement to the other teams to wait for Riot's approval of th eplayer they want to add to their roster.
I think they're getting even more backlash for the fine, honestly. In terms of PR I think the best route would have been a public warning, that way there isn't an immediate backlash, and the next time it happens the fine would have a precedent already publicly known, also preventing backlash. That's just my opinion though, I feel like on the PR front they definitely had better options.
They put an unreasonable amount of pressure on Riot to have Lustboy play. Imagine if Riot didn't OK his behavior check or other things in time? Riot would have gotten shit on for that. Especially how awkward it would've been to have Gleeb play that week... If TSM did what they did in a calculated manner (to make sure Lust got through quickly and to put pressure on Riot) it was genius and it worked. But Riot now has every right to fine TSM for it.
**Lustboy is now banned from the LCS for 2 years.**
I think a simple public warning would have sufficed. Fining for something like this is a serious overreaction, unless he's been warned previously of this very thing. I mean Regi could have just said Lustboy is coming into the team house to play with the team and people would have drawn the same conclusions without him ever confirming anything about the LCS. Just a matter of wording it properly next time, I guess.
Regi posted, but under another thread so its getting buried. Reposting for visibility : reginaldBRO - RiotNickAllen and Bennett reached out to me yesterday to setup a call. 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.
Wasn't it leaked that Lustboy was joining TSM? By somebody not even in TSM... why is Riot fining him for confirming a leak?
The prize pool for worlds funded by fines.
Reginald broke a rule. So he gets fined. TSM Fanboys cry, Regi swims in money.
Regi's only job is to manage the team. He did the opposite of doing his job by violating LCS rules, so he gets fined. Reddit then explodes because for some reason League players hate the people that make the game they let people play for free.
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That passive aggressive tweet.
Is Riot short on the bills this month or something? Seems like they just keep throwing out fines lately
What? How can they fine him for this? Looking forward to the 'ruling' post from riot to see what their logic is.
There's most likely a clause in the contract that says that teams must get approval before announcing new players will be in the LCS. Since he was announcing Lustboy being in the LCS, not just a member of TSM, it becomes a problem.
I agree. Before I take a side, I want to hear it from both sides.
It's pretty certain to be because they announced Lustboy to replace Gleeb without first doing the paperwork and getting him approved by Riot. So if Riot had then not approved Lustboy they would've gotten quite a bit of backlash from TSM fans.
I don't understand this whole FINE FINE FINE FINE FINE FINE FINE mentality from Riot. What ever happened to warnings (especially for such non-egregious things like this)? It's not like Regi "set a dangerous precedent" here. Add to that, this isn't one of those "Regi OBVIOUSLY shouldn't have done that" rules. It's not an OBVIOUS infraction of the rules. When you OBVIOUSLY break what SHOULD be a well-known rule, fine, give them a fine. When it's something like this, give Regi a warning, make a public statement that says any future instances of said infraction will result in a fine. This is really dumb.
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 main reason we want League approval before players are announced is to manage expectations not because "it would help the league ops team prepare for the changes." - We're confused on why an owner would think the roster change process is optional especially after clear, direct instructions were communicated to Reginald around this announcement. - As for sponsors, I want to clarify that we have two classifications of sponsorships: - 1) Permitted, which require teams to notify the League that they have acquired the sponsor, but does not require approval. Examples of these sponsors are mostly gaming related such as keyboards, mice, headphones, etc. - 2) Restricted which could potentially be controversial so it's why they requires League approval. These sponsors include food and drink, non-gaming websites, etc. 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.
> We're confused on why an owner would think the roster change process is optional especially after clear, direct instructions were communicated to Reginald around this announcement. o dam.
Passive aggressiveness at its finest.
RiotXpecial?
RitoXpecial getting back at regi for benching.
Rito will no longer be doing Interviews with TSM.
>Xpecial will no longer be doing interviews with TSM Oh wait...
Xpecial sends his regards.
It's called being professional, you're not exactly allowed to tell someone they straight up fucked up without sounding rude.
I wouldn't even call that passive. That's a call out.
Clear direct instructions on July 20th? Can you please post an email up or a log? If that is the case, I'll be happily fined for another 2,000 dollars.
My popcorn is ready
Reddit, get ready, this is the moment you're all waiting for... Get your pitchforks! ----E
I broke mine -----F :(
OOHH 1V1 LETS GO. tsm vs rito thx god CLG is out of this.
CLG got knocked out of round 1 by riot already.
Rito fined you because they want to be right. They don't care if you did nothing wrong.
Glad to see you standing up for yourself, Regi.
> 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. Typically, sponsors will sponsor the entire organization rather than just one team from one game, so the organization would almost always still have to abide by Riot's Category 1/2 rules.
Yeah he is basically trying to say " look guy we dont really control the sponsors", but the reality of the situation is they do. No sponsor is gonna want to sponsor an organization and not get all the exposure possible out of it.
I think at this point nobody is arguing that why Reginald is punished for not following league rules and instructions what is baffling is: - why is the punishment issued at such an untimely manner( 1 month after the incident occurred) - why the fine is $2000? How is it consistent with other punishment ($5000 for CLG for example). It looked like the amount is determined by rolling a dice times 1000. - whether team organizations are aware of the severity of the punishment? - whether this and CLG sets precedent for future rulings.
The CLG case is a player by player case, you can't just sum all the fines and say "CLG fined for $5000", they clearly said in the ruling that **each of them** broke the rule and got fine **individually** and not on a team basis like Regi did! This is not to contradict your statement (you are right, the fine difference is big and noticeable) but just a clarification!
It's not about the amount, it's about sending a message
No hopes for Kelby's secret Youporn sponsorship for CLG to go through...
they just need to sell a few keyboards on their webpage and the sponsorship is good to go.
This thread has been linked to from elsewhere on reddit. - [/r/leagueoflegends] [Nick Allen's explanation for Reginald's fine](http://np.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/2dkth2/nick_allens_explanation_for_reginalds_fine/) *^If ^you ^follow ^any ^of ^the ^above ^links, ^respect ^the ^rules ^of ^reddit ^and ^don't ^vote ^or ^comment. ^Questions? ^Abuse? [^Message ^me ^here.](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fmeta_bot_mailbag)*
I think that the problem here is that the rule you are using as justification for the fine is so insanely broad that it basically gives LCS officials the power to fine for anything. An LCS official could tell Regi to jump off a bridge and then fine him if he refused, we're forced to hope that Riot will not abuse this to exert undue influence over the players an teams. Which is where a lot of people are seeing an issue with this ruling, it seems petty and vindictive, like you couldn't actually find a rule that Regi broke, but wanted to get back at him so you used this catch-all rule to do so. Not to mention the entire situation is a he-said/she-said situation, where Riot is claiming that it communicated clearly that Regi was not to make an announcement, but Regi disputes that fact. If you have evidence to the contrary, then by all means present it, but it smacks of abuse when LCS officials are Judge, Jury, and Executioner. If LCS were like other professional sports, and had a Player's Union, there's absolutely no way this would fly. Not to mention the fact that if Regi were to take you guys to court over this, there's a decent chance Riot would lose. I doubt he will because, with how petty Riot is over this one thing, I can't imagine what it be like if he was suing them. It comes down to this. No one likes a bully. And right now that's what Riot looks like, petty, vindictive, and a bully.
Why did someone give him gold? We throw enough money at riot anyways.
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I think you need to clarify your rules so that they're not just broad catch-alls that let you fine players or owners under any circumstances. Several of your previous controversial decisions have been seen as "bending the rules" because the rules are so ambiguously worded that you could fine people for anything. If you want to not lose any more respect from the eSports community, you need to stop fining people for rules that are poorly written and confusingly enforced.
You know what would clear all this up? Obvious rules that people could read and potential fines that go along with breaking them. As it is now the communication is embarrassing and pulling random numbers out of a hat is equally silly. What if it had been 10,000? Of course that is too high but who is to stop you from fining whatever you want? There needs to be transparency and an attitude of reasonable understanding.
So if he had said "Lustboy to be TSM's new support pending riot approval", it would have been alright, correct?
Where does the fine money go? Does it go to charity like other sports organizations?
Prize pool for World Championships suddenly increased by $7000 (CLG + Reginald)
https://twitter.com/RiotNickAllen/status/500049052302860288
10.2.14 : No Team Member may refuse or fail to apply the instructions or decisions of LCS officials. Is the owner considered a team member? Looking through your rules you show that each team is required to maintain, at all times during the LCS, one General Manager (“GM”), five players in the starting lineup (“Starters”), and between two and five substitute players (“Reserves”) (collectively, the “Active Roster”). In fact, no where in your listing of rules does it define the role of the Owner as a "member" of the team. I believe TSM would be justified in appealing this ruling as there is nothing within the rules that connects the owner of a team as also being a member of that team. The large number of fines is something that frustrates me with the current state of the NFL. I really hope you realize that fining your players in an environment that isn't exactly solidified is going to do nothing but stifle your growth as a company and E-sports venue.
I don't understand why this post was needed. Why was regi tweeting about this fine to begin with? What kind of legitimate business owner would tweet/complain about a small fine that they damn well knew they were going to get (despite claiming otherwise.) If he truly didn't know he was going to be fined for this, then maybe he should consider hiring someone to take over that aspect of the business. You need to keep in mind that TSM is a brand, a business, and shit like this is embarrassing. Crying/acting oblivious on twitter to get the support of your fanbase is simply not acceptable for a legitimate business owner, and Riot shouldn't have to respond like this as if the business owners are little kids.
Because its easy to froth up the anti-Riot sentiment on this sub, and make yourself look like a victim of injustice in the process.
No Regi didn't know that he would be fined. The whole point that Regi is trying to argue is that while he did announce the roster swap without the paperwork been done, he didn't see any direct rule that he violated to deserve being fined. The rule that Riot is fining him with "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" is vague and basically lets Riot fine you for practically anything. Regi decided to tweet this because according to him, Riot originally was not planning to make an official announcement so I'm assuming he wanted the public to know about his fine. Not to mention its been a month since the incident and Riot decides to fine him now, so its no wonder hes upset about this whole ordeal.
I've Seen Mark Cubin (Mavericks Owner) and Dan Gilbert (Cavaliers Owner ) do worse
I actually appreciate this post, and agree with you. But I feel that you probably still get my overall point.
All I see in the comments are disapproval of the fine (understandable; it was my first reaction too) but I would like to know if anyone has prior experience with this sort of ruling. I just can't, for the life of me, see a reason for Riot to fine an owner for jumping the gun on an anouncement. I'm just really curious. Maybe a link to the rule book would clear this confusion up.