Hong Kong-based team Dragon Gate, who finished in last place in the 2019 LMS Spring Split with a 2-12 record, have been permanently removed from the LMS after a league investigation found cases of match-fixing and betting on professional games.
Team owner Hu Wei-Jie was also banned from being affiliated with a team in a Riot-sanctioned tournament, while jungler Liu “JGY” Yang has been suspended for 18 months. Coach Fan “yoga” Jiang-Peng and manager Li “xiaoyu” Xin-Yu have been suspended for 12 months.
Dragon Gate’s top laner, Huang “2188” Jin-Long released a statement on Facebook about the match fixing. He alleged that Liu “Soul” Kai, the team’s AD carry, was asked to intentionally throw matches for $750 a match. After declining, Soul was replaced by substitute AD carry Jiang “YuLun” Yu-Lun for the final three weeks of the season.
2188 also said that he took the team owner out for dinner with Soul, recording their conversation. Wei-Jie mentioned at the dinner that JGY had accepted the deal to match-fix, which 2188 said contributed to JGY’s poor performance and attitude.
The team’s head coach, yoga, also forced Dragon Gate to draft champions they had never practiced in scrims against Alpha Esports and ahq in the final week of LMS, according to 2188. 2188 played Kennen in game two against ahq, which was a champion he wasn’t comfortable with.
According to a post on Taiwanese website ptt, the owners of Dragon Gate are suing Garena and Riot over the suspension.
Dragon Gate were set to play in the 2019 LMS Summer Promotion tournament, but have been disqualified as a result of the investigation. Taiwanese team SuperEsports will be replacing Dragon Gate for the 2019 Summer Split.
