- Philippines Wild Rift team Amihan Esports were accused of forging documents
- They did so to bypass the age restriction as one of their members was too young
- As the whole team was aware of the fraud, it was banned from playing in Riot-sponsored events
Amihan Esports, a League of Legends: Wild Rift team from the Philippines, falsified the documents of a young player in order to bypass the age restriction. Riot wasn’t happy about it.
Amihan Esports Gets Banned for Breaking the Rules
Philippines-based League of Legends: Wild Rift team Amihan Esports will be receiving a year-long ban from participating in any official esports events. This comes in the wake of the team being accused of falsifying one of their members' documents to bypass the age restriction.
The team made the fraudulent documents in order to get Karl “AMI Karlll” Ken Bautista in the Wild Rift SEA icon Series. However, the member did not meet the event’s requirements, stating that all members should be at least 17 years old.
As soon as Riot Games heard of this, it took action and got the team in trouble. The game company has been long trying its best to combat all kinds of fraud in its games and couldn’t permit itself to be lenient when penalizing any misconduct.
Therefore Riot banned the whole Amihan Esport organization for a year, including the owner, as he was well-aware of the forged documents. The ban will forbid Amihan Esports to participate in any Wild Rift competitive events.
Some of the participants in the fraud have received additional penalties that vary in length. For Karlll it will be nine months before he could play in a Riot-sponsored event once again. Christian Villegas, the team’s manager, received a twelve-month ban. The owner, Francis Mariano, got the worst of it as he was indefinitely suspended from participating in Riot Games esports events. In two years, he will be able to apply for reinstatement.
The team will receive a $26,358 fine for breaking the rules. The money will be donated to a charity of Riot’s choice.
A Blow to Philippines Esports
Amihan’s ban is a huge hit to the local esports scene as the team was one of the most promising esports teams in the region. Amihan Esports notably won the Philippines Pro Gaming League 2021.
Yet, this isn’t the only time Amihan Esports has been accused of engaging in fraud – recently, the team got involved in allegations of hacking and falsifying documents. And while the former was never proven, once the latter was confirmed, it resulted in the aforementioned penalties.
Riot reminded in a statement that all teams are expected to follow the rules and play fair. The company emphasized that violations are never tolerable.
Amihan Esports released their own statement where they apologized and admitted their wrongdoing. The statement added that the organization has not participated in any other fraudulent activities and is proud of its players’ skills.
An additional qualifier will be held for the SEA Icon Series to fill the slot left by Amihan Esports’ ban.
