‘League Of Legends’ Team Immunity Banned For Two Years For Not Paying Players

Riot Games, publisher of League Of Legends, the world’s most popular online game, has issued a two-year ban for Australia’s eSports Team Immunity for failure to pay their players over the past two years, Tech Times reports.

Team Immunity, billed as “Australia’s premier multi-gaming eSports team” and based in Melbourne, was founded in 2003 and currently competes in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Battlefield 4, Team Fortress 2, League of Legends and Defense of the Ancients 2, with six active members. Team Immunity has also accepted sponsorships from Intel, Red Bull, SteelSeries, Gigabyte, BenQ, GeiL, and Antec; sponsors who are likely steaming in the wake of the League of Legends ban. Team Immunity has been participating in Oceanic League Of Legends tournaments since 2012.

According to Riot Games, which pays out tournament winnings in the Oceanic region via the terms of the OPL (Oceanic Pro League) Team Agreement, Team Immunity “failed to meet the requirements of their OPL Team Agreement by not paying minimum match payments to their players.”

Following an investigation, Riot proceeded to ban Team Immunity from competing in OPL League Of Legends tournaments for the next two years. As Kotaku notes, Riot is only banning Team Immunity itself – specifically, “the owners [and] the organisation,” and will still grant the players “their earned slot” in Oceanic tournaments, so long as they compete under another organization.

Daniel Ringland, head of eSports and competitive play at Riot Oceania, indicated his own frustration over the situation even as he formally announced the judgment.

It’s a crying shame that this would happen to Immunity of all teams. They’ve been the cornerstone and one of the shining lights in Australian eSports for over a decade. The move will undoubtedly bring their League of Legends presence to a shuddering halt.

Team Immunity, meanwhile, is “in talks” with Riot, stating their belief that Riot is mistaken about their failure to pay their League Of Legends players appropriately and on time.

“We are currently in discussions with Riot management as we believe a mistake has been made. We will issue a further statement in due course.”

In Riot’s decision against Immunity, they noted that the OPL Team Agreement requires teams to remit payment for Split 1 of the 2015 season within 30 days, and for Split 2 within 21 days. The decision states that “multiple reports from players alleged that Team Immunity failed to pay them their owed match payments within a reasonable margin of time” and that Riot’s investigation bore this out.

Team Immunity may be in talks with Riot to resolve the situation, but as things stand, it’s unlikely that they’ll be returning to League Of Legends. Not before two years have passed, and probably not ever.

[Image courtesy of Riot Games]