G2 accused of tampering by MAD Lions, LEC owners call for revision of global rules

Ahead of Worlds 2021 and prior to the transfer period, it seems G2 Esports is already being involved in controversy, after being accused of tampering by MAD Lions.

According to a report released by Jacob Wolf for Dot Esports, Carlos “Ocelote” Rodríguez's squad would have sought to attract certain players from the back-to-back LEC champions, in order to rebuild themselves for 2022 after a disappointing season, where they couldn’t qualify for the World Championship.

What is tampering and how it impacts teams and players?

For those unfamiliar with this term, tampering is a term to describe organisations look to disrupt another roster by negotiating terms with a player, often without permission from the team their currently a part of.

Although this is often frowned upon by many teams, it wasn’t seen by Riot as serious as poaching, which is directly contacting a player under contract and trying to agree to a signing, something that is strictly prohibited in the esports industry.

This is not the first time the European multi-champion squad have been accused of this, as in both 2016 and 2018, Perkz poached Zven and Mithy and persuaded Odoamne, Hjarnan, Upset and Wadid to join G2, respectively.

In any case, after this recurring activity by Ocelote’s org, on 2nd and 3rd September, the owners of all the LEC teams met to vote for a review of the global tampering and poaching rules, with the vote ending with an 8-2 in favour.

Only G2 and Team Vitality voted against this, with the latter arguing that “the current ruleset is not being properly enforced, and amendments or changes should only come after proper enforcement of the existing poaching and tampering rules”.

So far, none of the squads has said anything publicly on the matter, while Riot confirmed to Dot Esports that no official complaint has been filed for tampering, however, it seems it will be a matter of time to know its final decision regarding these practices.

• Read more: How to watch Worlds 2021: All qualified teams, format, venues, prize pool, and more

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Header image via Riot Games.