Riot Games handed reigning League of Legends: Wild Rift Philippine champion Amihan Esports a series of penalties including a 12-month ban from competing in all its tournaments for forging documents, the game developer announced on Saturday, July 17.
After conducting investigations, Riot discovered that Amihan's baron laner Karl Ken "KARLLL" Bautista is a minor and Amihan forged documents to make him eligible to play in the Southeast Asian Icon Series.
Riot's Rule 2.3 states that no player shall be considered eligible to participate in any Icon Series-affiliated match before their 17th birthday, defined as having lived 17 full years.
"As an organisation, Amihan Esports has violated Rule 2.3 (Age) of the Wild Rift SEA Icon Series Philippines Competition Policy and will be banned from all Riot Games esports for 12 months, effective immediately. The ban will be lifted in July 2022," Riot said in its ruling.
Riot also handed down harsh individual punishments.
KARLLL has been banned from all Riot esports for nine months, with the decision considered to have begun as of the date of his last match back in June 26.
Former team manager Christian "Ciiyan" Villegas got a 12-month ban while team owner Francis Mariano was slapped with an indefinite ban and can only apply for reinstatement after two years.
Besides the multiple bans, Amihan also had to forfeit its prize winnings from both the SEA Icon Series Philippines Summer Season and the SEA Icon Series Summer Super Cup.
Amihan won a total P950,000 for conquering the Visayas group stage and emerging as the national champion in the SEA Icon Series PH while it bagged $8,500 (almost P430,000) for finishing at the 5th-8th place in the Summer Super Cup.
Riot started to launch an investigation after allegations of map hacking and inaccurate player documentation for KARLLL were made. Initial findings showed that his gameplay was clean and his birth certificate was legitimate.
However, Riot got new evidence regarding KARLLL being a minor and received admissions that his documents were indeed forged to misrepresent his age at the time of registration, with Amihan fully aware of this.
"Maintaining the competitive integrity of all our esports tournaments as well as the safety and well-being of pro teams are Riot’s top priorities, and we take such violations extremely seriously," Riot said.
"All our participating teams are expected to abide by the rules of fair play, agreed upon prior to participation in the tournaments. Violations of the rules of fair play will not be tolerated."
Amihan has yet to issue an statement regarding Riot's ruling.