TL;DR

• On the evening of Friday July 27, 2018, Mingyi “Spica” Lu, Tristan “Cake” Côté-Lalumière, and Joshua “Mabrey” Mabrey were griefing teammates during champion select of a ranked game by target banning their own teammates who are publicly known to “one trick” specific champions, which was captured through screenshots (from in-game and Twitter) that were posted to Reddit.
• While banning champions that a teammate wants to play is not necessarily griefing in every circumstance, Cake screenshotted lobby and loading screen and posted them on Twitter, taunting the “one trick ponies” he was playing with. This action illustrates that the griefing was intentional, targeted, and coordinated.
• In addition, Cake and Mabrey changed their in-game Summoner Names to that of known League of Legends streamers to either disguise their identities or grief those players.
• All of the above are in violation of the NA LCS and Academy Rules and The Summoner’s Code.
• Spica is being issued warnings for their single instances of griefing.
• Mabrey is being fined $500 for his behavior, which included two specific acts of griefing.
• Cake is being fined $1,000 for his behavior, which included three specific acts of griefing.
• All three players are being placed on heightened review and will have their active Summoner Names regularly checked for toxic behavior.
• Any additional violations of NA LCS and Academy rules in the next twelve calendar months for any of these players will result in a ban from competitive games.
• Echo Fox as an organization is being issued a warning about the toxic behavior of players on its roster, and must submit a plan within 45 days to the League on how they intend to educate their players and staff to foster a non-toxic team environment.

CONTEXT

Mingyi “Spica” Lu, Tristan “Cake” Côté-Lalumière, and Joshua “Mabrey” Mabrey were all recently signed by Echo Fox. During our routine toxicity checks on their accounts, all of them were cleared without significant incident. Unless a pro player is on probation, pro player accounts are only reviewed at the beginning of the Spring Split, when a player is signed as a free agent (if not at the start of the season) or when potentially toxic behavior is brought to our attention through a direct referral, social media or Reddit.

Late on Friday, July 28, 2018, a Reddit thread appeared that provided a number of screenshots from a game lobby in which these three players, Spica, Cake, and Mabrey, were preparing to enter a game. The other two players on their team are relatively well known in the high-elo community as maining (or “one-tricking”) particular champions. During the ban phase of champion select, Cake, Mabrey, and Spica banned Draven, Udyr, and Quinn, the main (and primary backup) champions associated with these two players.

Banning a champion that a teammate is hovering or is known to play is not normally something for which we would sanction a professional player. In this particular circumstance, Cake took a screenshot of both the lobby and the load-in screen and posted them on Twitter with the note “promoting one trick ponies to expanding their champion pool to make sure they are eligible for scouting grounds.” This act of taunting made clear that the purpose of the targeted bans was to grief their teammates. This is a violation of NA LCS and Academy Rules and The Summoner’s Code, and is unacceptable conduct for professional players.

In addition, both Cake and Mabrey changed their in-game Summoner Names to names that are very similar to those of known League of Legends streamers. Whether their motive was to hide their actions (which is unlikely considering Cake’s public tweets) or grief and harass other players, there is no credible reason for impersonating another player. These actions are also a violation of NA LCS and Academy Rules and The Summoner’s’ Code.

Four different Echo Fox players have been cited for toxic behavior over the course of the last three months. Whether that is an issue with player acquisition or the culture of the team, it is a trend that cannot continue. As such, we are also placing Echo Fox as an organization on notice and they must submit a plan within 45 days to the League on how they intend to educate their players and staff to foster a non-toxic team environment.

We have notified both Echo Fox and the NA LCS Players’ Association about the substance of this competitive ruling.

RELEVANT RULES

14.1.1    Profanity and Hate Speech.

A Team Member may not use language that is obscene, foul, vulgar, insulting, threatening, abusive, libelous, slanderous, defamatory or otherwise offensive or objectionable; … A Team Member may not use this type of language on social media or during any public facing events such as streaming.

14.2.2    Harassment.

Harassment is forbidden. Harassment is defined as systematic, hostile and repeated acts taking place over a considerable period of time, or a singular egregious instance, which is/are intended to isolate or ostracize a person and/or affect the dignity of the person.

14.2.7     Player Behavior Investigation.

If LCS or Riot determines that a Team or Team Member has violated the Summoner’s Code, the LoL Terms of Use, or other rules of LoL, League officials may assign penalties at their sole discretion. …

RULING

Spica and Mabrey have violated rules 14.2.2 and 14.2.7 of the NA LCS and Academy ruleset.

Cake has violated rules 14.1.1, 14.2.2 and 14.2.7 of the NA LCS and Academy ruleset.

Pursuant to the NA LCS Penalty Index, Spica is officially warned, Mabrey is being fined $500, and Cake is being fined $1,000. All three players are also being placed on a one-year probation. Under the terms of probation:

• Each of Spica, Mabrey, and Cake will have their accounts regularly checked for toxicity;
• Each of Spica, Mabrey, and Cake will be denied the professional player personal account unlock normally granted to professional players;
• Any violation of LCS rules during the probation period will draw an enhanced punishment as a second offense, which will include an automatic ban from competitive play for a period to be determined at that time.

Additionally, Echo Fox is being issued a warning on toxic behavior by their players and must submit a plan within 45 days to the League on how they intend to educate their players and staff to foster a non-toxic team environment.