A League of Legends tournament in the Philippines has been marred in controversy after a frontrunning team was disqualified immediately after a match began due to a player breaking a rule regarding emote use. The problem is that they did not emote in the first place; the game did.
During a League of Legends tournament hosted by Filipino streamer Suzzysaur, West Point Esports’ academy team was disqualified due to jungler Joshua “Devoured” Escucharo’s unintentional first-blood emote, which violated tournament rules and resulted in an instant ban. Devoured, on the other hand, did not even emote manually, as the champion who lands first blood emotes automatically after earning the game’s first kill.
West End’s Academy squad was disqualified for using the automatic first-blood emote after killing Viridis Arcus’ top laner during the SAURNAMENT, which took place in the Philippines and ended yesterday, June 2. According to a video of the match posted on the League subreddit, the game was paused, and the team was disqualified.
You may be wondering why this would result in an immediate disqualification considering Riot Games permits trash-talking and emoting during regional and international tournaments. According to information shared by one player in the Reddit thread and confirmed by WPE in their official statement about the disqualification on Facebook, emotes—even automatic ones—are prohibited under the tournament’s rules.
Understandably, reducing toxicity is always crucial in League; but, as WPE described it, this was a “unintentional” first-blood emote. Fans are blasting the tournament for what many believe is a “stupid ass rule,” but what has baffled most observers was the Game Marshal leaving the decision to ban WPE to the other team. “The whole tournament was a complete mess,” one fan said.
It’s one thing for League fans to call this tournament and its rules a mess, but well-known ex-pro League player, caster, and analyst Caedre even ripped in, appalled by the tournament and its rules in a June 2 YouTube video.
Caedrel described it as “the most nasty, stupid, trashy-ass, fucking dog crap tournament organizer I have ever heard of in my life,” adding that the organizers were “a disservice to League esports.” However, he could not tell who he should be angry with: the official who agreed to the disqualification or the other side that hesitated and objected.
Unfortunately, this tournament will be remembered for a long time—and not because it was enjoyable.