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Introduction
Monster Gaming was a virtually unknown team until it recruited Kim “Dosu” Yeon-Woo, a former DotA player notoriously known for his extremely bad-mannered and offensive attitude towards players.
Now, merely ten days after its initial exposure to the public League of Legends scene in Korea, Monster Gaming is at the center of an elo boost controversy that many Korean netizens regard as a potential problem that can rival that of the Brood War match-fixing scandal if left unchecked.
What is the Monster Gaming Elo Boost Controversy?
A suspicion of a connection between Monster Gaming and a well-known elo boost website began when a user of the elo boost website claimed that the contact number of the administrator of the website was that of Kim-Jin, a name shared by the Monster Gaming Head Coach. Another user claimed that the bank account that receives the payment for the boosting service was in fact owned by Kim-Jin.
The suspicion of a connection between the two organizations seemed to die out as it lacked solid evidence until the team’s Jungler, Song “Monster Demeter” Woo Jae, revealed what was happening inside the team.
Demeter exposed that “Monster Gaming is forcing amateur players to elo boost accounts”.
He further revealed that “Monster Gaming contacts pro or amateur players individually to bring them to the team house, then plans an elo boosting schedule for the players to follow. If the players complain, the head coach persuades the players not to leave the team house”.
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To back up his claims, Demeter also posted screenshots of his access to the Elo Boost website as an administrator and also his own League account. Many League of Legends fans were shocked by the pictures.
+ Show Spoiler +
Monster Gaming’s Head Coach Kim-Jin strongly denied that the players were forced to elo boost accounts. The coach reasoned that as someone interested in creating a professional League of Legends team, he would have never done an interview if he was indeed forcing the players. The Head Coach also explained that the owner of the elo boost website is just an acquaintance and that the owner only borrowed the Coach’s name to create a contact and bank account number.
“I have known him for a long time (the owner of the website) and he asked to borrow money for an online shopping mall. Because his credit history was not in a good situation, he used a cell phone and a bank account that was made with my name on it. I later learned that the website was for elo boost and was also contacted by Riot Korea’s legal department. After meeting Riot, I convinced the owner to close down the website”.
Regarding Song “Monster Demeter” Woo Jae’s claims, the head coach responded, “Monster Karner told me that Demeter played Jungler and was player who elo boosted well. The team was rebuilding at the time and so I brought him into the team house. However, he left the team house after being demoted to our B-team and has made no contact with us since. My guess is that he is making these false claims because he was angry about being removed from the main team. I believe he is able to post ‘proofs’ because he has elo boosted in the past. People might think that our current players are also elo-boosting, but that is not possible as our team coach Lee ‘Tatu’ Min-Woo despises elo boosting and did not want to bring Demeter into the team in the first place. From now on, Monster Gaming will strongly respond to anyone who makes false rumours of the team. I have recording of our scrims, records of our solo queue ranked games, and records of our team ranked games to use evidences”.
The mentioned website posted a notice that because it violated Riot’s terms and affected many players, Riot has requested the website be closed by August 20th. However, with the personal connection between the owner of the website and the head coach, it is likely that the elo boost controversy will not easily die out.
In response to the controversy, Riot Korea stated that should the claims be true, the involved parties will be banned from the competitive scene and possibly suffer further consequences.
What Happened Inside the Monster Gaming House?
After much trouble, a contact with Song “Monster Demeter” Woo Jae. He suggested that we meet.
At the promised location, there were three players, Kim “Monster Karner” Dae-Jin, Song “Monster Demeter” Woo Jae, and Lee “Monster Koon” Sung-Jin. The talk was not too long. The other two players agreed with Demeter’s posts regarding the situation. Monster Gaming promised potential for greatness and asked the players to join the team house. In a way it seemed possible as the assembled team was even able to beat TPA and TPS in scrims.
But the problem was the elo boosting. An adequate environment for practice was never guaranteed and players had to elo boost even during practice. The team staff even called practice time as the “Work Time”. The staff persuaded the players that the team needed money and that elo boosting was necessary. In an environment where boosting accounts have become a routine, the players were unable to speak up.
Demeter and Koon left the team house few days ago unlike Karner who was able to finally leave today in the afternoon when the coaches were asleep. During the entire talk, the players’ phones never stopped ringing. Each call was from the team house. The players were scared without a doubt.
In a recording of a phone call with Head Coach Kim-Jin, “We will elo boost until next week and no more” can be heard, strongly suggesting that the players were part of the elo boosting recently.
The players seemed relieved that they were able to share their situation with another and wanted to change their summoner names as soon as possible. When I asked about their future plans, the players’ responses were all the same.
“We will continue to try to become a professional League of Legends player”.
The Interview with Koon, Karner and Demeter.
Did you see Head Coach Kim-Jin’s response to the controversy?
Yes, we did. Most of it is false.
Is it true that the elo boosting occured?
It is true.
There is a lot to talk about. Let’s talk it over one by one. First, the head coach said that he only let his acquaintance borrow the bank account and the phone but the team has nothing to do with the elo boosting website.
You can see that it is an obvious lie as the owner of the elo boosting website Na Yoo-Sun lives in the team house. It is Na Yoo-Sun who prepared the meals for team house. He did not like it when we woke up late and used a whiteboard to divide up the elo boost requests among us and checked to make sure we completed then. The people that worked for the elo boost website also lived in the team house as well. They even put up their business licenses on the wall, but removed them when Inven came to the house for the interview.
Are you telling us that the website and the elo boosting is run from the Monster Gaming team house?
That is true.
Were the three of you elo boosting as well?
We did.
Even recently?
Yes.
How many accounts did you elo boost a day?
We boosted accounts whenever we had time. If we were not scrimming, we had to spend the rest of the time on elo boosting. We said that there was a set time period in which we had to elo boost, but that is wrong. We sometimes had to do it for 10 hours a day. We could not even solo queue and because we were not able to find scrim partners often, the time was spent on elo boosting.
This question is for Demeter. The head coach stated that you come to the team house in the evening and that your claims are false. Since you are currently a student, do you not have to go to school in the morning?
The first part is true. When I come to the team house after school ends it is usually 6 p.m. After I eat, I have to boost accounts immediately. The official practice time ends at 3 a.m. and I have to keep boosting accounts until then. That is why it was difficult for me. My school is far away and I have to wake up at 6 a.m. to get there in time which gives me no time to sleep. I basically sleep at school.
The head coach said that the records of practice can be seen on the stat-tracking website.
(The stat-tracking website mentioned is op.gg)
The dates and times of the games are also shown. If you do the search, you will be able to see that not many actual practice games are played. But some members of the team may have records of games played as when we are not boosting accounts, we have to stream with conditions such as becoming challenger in a month.
Were there no scrims? No team ranked games or in-house?
Team ranked queue takes too long for us to use it to practice. And there is a noticeable skill difference between the main team and B-team so in-houses rarely happened. We either had to solo queue or scrim, but scrim partners were hard to find and we could not solo queue due to pressure. The main team was able to scrim few times, but the B-team players had to spend all their times on elo-boosting.
Elo boosting usually starts from low ranks and does not help you improve. You guys just did it without saying anything?
Of course, it did not make sense for us to elo boost. But elo boosting was a “natural” part of the team atmosphere. Everyone is part of elo boosting and it felt like we had to also do it as well.
Did you know that you would be elo boosting when you were joining the team?
We had no clue. The team management only told us that we had potential, that we would be provided for with full support. Even when we joined, we were not told to boost accounts immediately.
Then how did the elo boosting occur?
The staff told us that in order to acquire sponsor and put out results as a professional team, we needed money immediately. Our dreams are to become professional players and after hearing that, we were convinced that we had no choice and from then on, elo boosting became a natural thing in the team.
In some ways, it can be said that your skills were slowly dropping. Did you enjoy elo boosting?
Of course not.
Then you could have left the team house or were you bound by contracts?
There were no contracts written, but we were unable to leave even if we wanted to. The team staff talked about being part of a gang casually. We were scared. When we tried to leave, the head coach convinced us to stay. Because we are young, it seems that we were persuaded again and again.
If the elo boosting happened at the team house, did other members know about this? Did team coach Lee “Tatu” Min Woo know about this as well?
Everyone knew what was going on. The team management seemed to know each other from playing World of Warcraft together. Coach Min Woo even told us directly to elo boost when we were taking a break.
How did you join the team? What was the approximate time period during which you joined?
Karner: Monster Gaming contacted me saying that the team lacks a top laner for Champions qualifier. We dropped out of the tournament, but the team told me to join the team house. I had no intention of joining at first, but Head Coach Kim-Jin told me that he is a good friend of the KT Coach and that that if I do not join, then he will make sure that I am never able to be part of the competitive scene. That left me no choice, but to join. That happened at the end of June.
Demeter: I joined roughly the same time as Karner.
Koon: I was contacted originally in June and joined then. But the team made me elo boost accounts so I left. I recently went back again after the team contacted me when they saw that I became Challenger.
You said that the team atmosphere forced you to stay. Is there a reason for leaving now?
Originally, the situation did not allow us to say anything in regards to leaving the team house. But, we learned that the players all shared the hate for elo boosting. That we were able to confirm each other’s thoughts was a big part in leaving.
You all left the team in different ways.
Koon: The team contacted me again to come, but I was asked to elo boost again. So I told the head coach that I am leaving and left.
Demeter: I knew my skill was lacking in the main team. The new jungler played better than me without a doubt. But my goal was to becoming a professional player and I felt that through practice I can improve my skills. But playing on elo-boosting accounts everyday did nothing to improve my skills. After being demoted to the B-team, I kept thinking that boosting accounts were not going to help me at all. The B-team has to only focus on elo-boosting and I could not handle the thought of only boosting accounts during my summer break. I said I was going home and left the team house.
This question is for Karner. Did you leave the team house after seeing yesterday’s articles on the controversy?
That is true. I read the articles on Inven and the head coach’s response as well. After the head coach posted his response, I had a conversation with him. I asked what he was going to do and he told me that he had a scenario planned as he talked with Riot already. I could not trust him anymore after a response like that and left the team house this afternoon.
How are you feeling?
We are scared that people may bad-mouth us. We also worry about the elo boosting.
What worries you?
It is true that we did elo boost. Riot stated that players who boost accounts will be banned from tournaments and we worry that we will really be banned. We did not even ask for payments for the elo boosting that we hated to do. We never thought of elo boosting when we were joining the team and did not want to do it.
Do you have plans for the future?
We honestly do not know. Our team members were really good. We won all of our scrims against TPA and TPS. We are just disappointed that things have turned out like this.
Do you still have the dream of becoming a professional player?
We did everything we did to try to become a professional player. But, we do not know how the situation turned out like this. It has only been a short period of time, but it definitely felt long and difficult. We will continue to move on forward with our dream of becoming a professional player.
Edit:
KT Coach Lee Ji-Hoon’s response to the controversy
“ I have never met and did not know the name of the head coach mentioned in the articles until now. To have my name even mentioned in such a controversy is an extremely unpleasant circumstance for me. I do not know why my name was mentioned by the head coach of Monster Gaming, but if it is true that the head coach used my name to the players, he must apologize”.
Source: http://www.inven.co.kr/webzine/news/?news=61286&iskin=esports
Source: http://www.inven.co.kr/webzine/news/?news=61285&iskin=esports
Source: http://www.inven.co.kr/webzine/news/?news=61305&iskin=esports
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Korea (South)11232 Posts
Hi,
Frost is our new addition to the TL LoL Staff. He will make sure to bring you the latest news, gossip and netizens reactions from the Korean LoL scene. I hope you will like the new content and stay tuned for more translated news from the best LoL Scene in the world.
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so they basically made a labourcamp for teenagers, abusing their hopes and dreams.
Thats really messed up.
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Better nip this in the bud now before it becomes like the match-fixing scandal of BW.
I don't know how long eloboosting has been going on in general in Korea (from what I hear, at least a few months), but there must be regulation to stop this (and damn Riot Korea if it continues to ignore this issue).
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Oh my god I love korean esports drama. The good thing about this controversy is the fact that the public doesn't accept this kind of practice (which is bad for the game and especially the players). I don't care much about the details, but it's a good thing mean stuff gets exposed.
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On July 29 2013 01:54 jpak wrote:
Better nip this in the bud now before it becomes like the match-fixing scandal of BW.
I don't know how long eloboosting has been going on in general in Korea (from what I hear, at least a few months), but there must be regulation to stop this (and damn Riot Korea if it continues to ignore this issue).
Elo boosting in Korea existed since the server was released, but ever since the League system was introduced it has become a really serious issue because of the no demotion back down to a previous tier thing. I know for certain that some non-Kespa pros participate in elo boosting. Riot Korea has the tool to make it stop, it is just not doing it.
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is awesome32269 Posts
Thanks Frost! 
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Wow this is heavy shit. Thank god it's now public and hopefully will be dealt with accordingly. I really hope this will all get sorted out and won't be as bad as the ol' matchfixing scandal from BW.
On the bright side, Frost seems like an excellent addition to the TL LoL staff. I'm really looking forward to the content to come.
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Well this sounds really fucking messed up.
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What fucking scumbags. Hope all the players are alright and get out of that shithole.
"Team staff talked about being members of a gang casually" - I can only imagine they were making shit up about being part of a serious gang to scare teenagers / children.
How fucking pathetic.
Its pretty well-known that asian gangs actually are involved with labour camps for gold farming and shit, eloboosting isnt far off the mark
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I don't really care about elo boosting, but forcing people into doing it just plain wrong...
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elo boosting exists everywhere, but ripping off progamers who are minors for monetary purpose should be punishable.
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WTF that's so messed up...I wonder what kind of repercussions there will be for this. Just sounds disgusting.
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Posts by the players involved in the scandal.
Dosoo: http://www.inven.co.kr/board/powerbbs.php?come_idx=2653&l=4883593
Karthus Karner: http://gall.dcinside.com/list.php?id=leagueoflegends1&page=&keyword=&no=2902822&k_type=&search_pos
In summary,
1. A couple of guys with a shady past from the World of Warcraft scene becomes involved in a ELO boosting business, and start up a team called Monster Gaming.
2. They gather young, inexperienced players under the premise of giving them a chance to become professional League of Legends players (Karner was contacted by Longdary, a fellow amateur player).
3. They force Karner to join the team by threatening him with blackmail; they claim that they are well connected, and refusing their proposal to join their team will basically be the death of his dream to join the professional scene (the manager of KT Rolster Bullets, the guy mentioned in the rumours, denied any connection at all, and it seems like it was mostly a bluff).
4. Other players are tricked hoaxed in a similar fashion, and are provided with food, shelter, and a scrim schedule, but are denied any sources of income at all.
5. After a day of scrimming session against CTU (where they got smashed), the players are provided with a list of IDs that they have to ELO boost, and are forced to do so.
6. They are provided a scrim sessions maybe once or twice a week against a couple of foreign teams and mostly amateur teams, but for the rest of their day are forced to ELO boost.
7. The players try to protest against it, but are bullied into ELO boosting, and can't even eat during ELO boosting hours, even if they woke up late and missed their free-time period. Karner once woke up late, and tried to eat during ELO boosting hours, but his food was taken away and he had to ELO boost on an empty stomach.
8. The players escape the training house in secret, or by lying about personal emergencies, and expose Monster Gaming through various means. Monster Gaming tries to cover up the scandal in vain.
The thing that surprised me the most was the fact that the player involved in this scandal, Longdary, backed up Monster Gaming in his posts, claiming that the players that ran away did so mainly because of trivial misunderstandings. I'm not sure whether he is brainwashed, or abused his personal relationship with the players to trick them into joining a cancerous organization. I used to watch his streams a lot, and while he did whine about his financial difficulties, he genuinely seemed like a good person, and it's so perplexing why he would betray the trust of players that were in the rough situations to begin with, and in a lot of ways, mirroring his own personal difficult situation as a person that failed to mark his own spot in the professional League of Legends scene.
If Longdary did indeed play the part of the middleman with these scumbags, it'll be so sad to confirm my belief that money can, and does corrupt anyone.
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Korea (South)11232 Posts
dont forget former lg-im player Tatu is the coach of this team
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On July 29 2013 03:51 Chexx wrote:
dont forget former lg-im player Tatu is the coach of this team
He is, and always was a piece of shit. I really didn't expect Longdary to be in the same wavelength as him. He is one of the main reasons why I got into the League of Legends scene, but now I don't know what became of him.
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Wow, I am at a loss for words. I wonder if there are still more guys in the back not yet revealed.
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On July 29 2013 03:47 Letmelose wrote:Posts by the players involved in the scandal. Dosoo: http://www.inven.co.kr/board/powerbbs.php?come_idx=2653&l=4883593Karthus Karner: http://gall.dcinside.com/list.php?id=leagueoflegends1&page=&keyword=&no=2902822&k_type=&search_posIn summary, 1. A couple of guys with a shady past from the World of Warcraft scene becomes involved in a ELO boosting business, and start up a team called Monster Gaming. 2. They gather young, inexperienced players under the premise of giving them a chance to become professional League of Legends players (Karner was contacted by Longdary, a fellow amateur player). 3. They force Karner to join the team by threatening him with blackmail; they claim that they are well connected, and refusing their proposal to join their team will basically be the death of his dream to join the professional scene (the manager of KT Rolster Bullets, the guy mentioned in the rumours, denied any connection at all, and it seems like it was mostly a bluff). 4. Other players are tricked hoaxed in a similar fashion, and are provided with food, shelter, and a scrim schedule, but are denied any sources of income at all. 5. After a day of scrimming session against CTU (where they got smashed), the players are provided with a list of IDs that they have to ELO boost, and are forced to do so. 6. They are provided a scrim sessions maybe once or twice a week against a couple of foreign teams and mostly amateur teams, but for the rest of their day are forced to ELO boost. 7. The players try to protest against it, but are bullied into ELO boosting, and can't even eat during ELO boosting hours, even if they woke up late and missed their free-time period. Karner once woke up late, and tried to eat during ELO boosting hours, but his food was taken away and he had to ELO boost on an empty stomach. 8. The players escape the training house in secret, or by lying about personal emergencies, and expose Monster Gaming through various means. Monster Gaming tries to cover up the scandal in vain. The thing that surprised me the most was the fact that the player involved in this scandal, Longdary, backed up Monster Gaming in his posts, claiming that the players that ran away did so mainly because of trivial misunderstandings. I'm not sure whether he is brainwashed, or abused his personal relationship with the players to trick them into joining a cancerous organization. I used to watch his streams a lot, and while he did whine about his financial difficulties, he genuinely seemed like a good person, and it's so perplexing why he would betray the trust of players that were in the rough situations to begin with, and in a lot of ways, mirroring his own personal difficult situation as a person that failed to mark his own spot in the professional League of Legends scene. If Longdary did indeed play the part of the middleman with these scumbags, it'll be so sad to confirm my belief that money can, and does corrupt anyone.
Demeter actually defended Longdary and called him a victim as well, but Longdary pretty much refused the kindness and called BS on Demeter's post.
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thanks frost for bringing us this
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On July 29 2013 03:36 anemoneya wrote:
elo boosting exists everywhere, but ripping off progamers who are minors for monetary purpose should be punishable.
What about progamers ripping off lower-league players? I know of at least 2 players who steals money from people under the guise of offering boosting/coaching & once they get their money they never deliver.
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Unfortunately, things like this will probably happen more often as LoL continues to grow in popularity. As I said in the MRN discussion, Riot needs to implement an accreditation system for team management like, yesterday. An independent division of Riot tasked with handling pro and amateur player issues and concerns (aka a whistleblower dropbox or some such thing) would be a good start.
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On July 29 2013 02:00 Frost wrote:Show nested quote +On July 29 2013 01:54 jpak wrote:
Better nip this in the bud now before it becomes like the match-fixing scandal of BW.
I don't know how long eloboosting has been going on in general in Korea (from what I hear, at least a few months), but there must be regulation to stop this (and damn Riot Korea if it continues to ignore this issue). Elo boosting in Korea existed since the server was released, but ever since the League system was introduced it has become a really serious issue because of the no demotion back down to a previous tier thing. I know for certain that some non-Kespa pros participate in elo boosting. Riot Korea has the tool to make it stop, it is just not doing it.
Now this has been bring to light In a big way hopefully they pull their finger out
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This is some heavy stuff. Very sad that these younger players are getting exploited for trying to achieve their dreams. Very surprising that something like this would occur. Hopefully these younger players can actually bounce back, but it seems it will probably be very difficult for them.
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This shouldn't surprise anyone. Elo boosting services bring in a ton of money in Korea/China. Riot needs to step up and start immediately banning more accounts tied to elo boosting. Riot Korea needs to step up and shut down the "official" elo boosting websites. It's easy to blame monster gaming for this, but the root of the problem is with Riot and its inaction.
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that's why you should have a manager that you have some level of trust in but not enough to blindly follow them into whatever.
pretty sure the players in the interview didn't even know that guy before he contacted him about joining a teamhouse to play.
if you're reading this, and you're trying to get into the scene (as a player or a manager or something else) - be smart- don't end up playing for an M5 or an Azubu and getting caught in something you didn't know about (or knew but didn't care about).
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On July 29 2013 08:46 nojitosunrise wrote:
This shouldn't surprise anyone. Elo boosting services bring in a ton of money in Korea/China. Riot needs to step up and start immediately banning more accounts tied to elo boosting. Riot Korea needs to step up and shut down the "official" elo boosting websites. It's easy to blame monster gaming for this, but the root of the problem is with Riot and its inaction.
The fact that it's a to-become-pro team that is forcing younger players is the surprising part. Of course, elo boosting has been around for a long while. You can't really stop it. It's impossible. The idea that they are exploiting people to achieve their boosting is the problem rather than the elo boosting itself.
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On July 29 2013 09:46 ketchup wrote:Show nested quote +On July 29 2013 08:46 nojitosunrise wrote:
This shouldn't surprise anyone. Elo boosting services bring in a ton of money in Korea/China. Riot needs to step up and start immediately banning more accounts tied to elo boosting. Riot Korea needs to step up and shut down the "official" elo boosting websites. It's easy to blame monster gaming for this, but the root of the problem is with Riot and its inaction. The fact that it's a to-become-pro team that is forcing younger players is the surprising part. Of course, elo boosting has been around for a long while. You can't really stop it. It's impossible. The idea that they are exploiting people to achieve their boosting is the problem rather than the elo boosting itself.
"teams" did the same thing for WoW. To solve this problem you have to go to the source...which is RIot. Everything else is a bandaid solution.
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United States23455 Posts
This is pretty bad, but I'd still rank it under the Match Fix Scandal and the GundamWerra/finale Scandal in Korean e-sport's drama. But I would put it ahead Woong's team cheating during a recent qualifier.
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United Kingdom50293 Posts
On July 29 2013 10:15 Fionn wrote:
This is pretty bad, but I'd still rank it under the Match Fix Scandal and the GundamWerra/finale Scandal in Korean e-sport's drama. But I would put it ahead Woong's team cheating during a recent qualifier.
To quickly recap the thing for people who weren't around or don't watch SC2, the werra scandal was basically that at the release of SC2 there were only four proper pro teams (TSL/StarTale/IM/ogs), the rest of the players were split up amongst various clans those being NEX/Zenith/Prime/Fou/werra (Fou would go on to become FXO, prime became a proper team with links to the clan and nex and zenith merged their best players to become zenex). Werra however disbanded after it emerged that finale (Whom was previous loveripwerra) was invited by gundam to his house to watch GSL. That was when gundam reportedly tried to violate him which resulted in finale noping the fuck out of there and being by large a bit on the traumatised side. Needless to say it was such a big deal so cella announced that werra was to disband in light of this. Here's the thread on it
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=163268
On a brighter note though finale went on to join team MVP where he made GSL code S, been strong in team leagues and is in the RO16 for WCS Europe atm as duckdeok.
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Forgive my ignorance, but what is accomplished by paying to have your ELO boosted?
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On July 29 2013 10:39 Swissm wrote:
Forgive my ignorance, but what is accomplished by paying to have your ELO boosted?
Because you can't get demoted, you get to say OH I'm in league XXXX. despite playing with people many divisions lower.
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51373 Posts
I had no intention of joining at first, but Head Coach Kim-Jin told me that he is a good friend of the KT Coach and that that if I do not join, then he will make sure that I am never able to be part of the competitive scene. That left me no choice, but to join. That happened at the end of June.
wow, this is gundamwerra/savior level of scumbagginess there.
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ELO boosting is far from BW's match fixing scandal but it does have negative effects.
Aside from League's server problems in Korea, ELO boosting is driving gamers to switch to Nexon's Dota 2.
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On July 29 2013 10:39 Swissm wrote:
Forgive my ignorance, but what is accomplished by paying to have your ELO boosted?
And this is in Korea, where if you don't have the latest phone or the dopest gear in MMORPGs you get made fun of in school.
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United States47024 Posts
I think it speaks to our expectations of Riot when we consider player treatment by a team an issue for Riot Korea to resolve.
It makes sense in NA/EU for Riot to officiate player/team interactions because of the lack of an organization to manage them. But these organizations exist already in CN and KR. Why does it fall to Riot to officiate this business when players/teams should be making use of the infrastructure that already exists to protect their interests? Especially since LoL is now officially KESPA-supported, the teams should move to make this mean something.
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Korea (South)11232 Posts
On July 29 2013 13:52 TheYango wrote:
I think it speaks to our expectations of Riot when we consider player treatment by a team an issue for Riot Korea to resolve.
It makes sense in NA/EU for Riot to officiate player/team interactions because of the lack of an organization to manage them. But these organizations exist already in CN and KR. Why does it fall to Riot to officiate this business when players/teams should be making use of the infrastructure that already exists to protect their interests? Especially since LoL is now officially KESPA-supported, the teams should move to make this mean something.
Iam not sure how much KESPA cares about non KESPA Amateur teams.
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Thank you Frost,
This story gave me Savior BW Scandal vibes. Is there going to be legal punishment? This is seriously slavery in its own kind. 10 hours of boosting and you have have no choice damn.
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On July 29 2013 13:33 RTSDealer wrote:
ELO boosting is far from BW's match fixing scandal but it does have negative effects.
Aside from League's server problems in Korea, ELO boosting is driving gamers to switch to Nexon's Dota 2.
ya...no it's not lol
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51373 Posts
Also, is Monster Gaming the same team as VTG Monsters (the team ran by Drakedog)?
Because there's an awful alot of talk about how the head honchos knew each other from WoW, and Drakedog was a renowned Korean PvP Warlock.
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On July 29 2013 14:25 nojitosunrise wrote:Show nested quote +On July 29 2013 13:33 RTSDealer wrote:
ELO boosting is far from BW's match fixing scandal but it does have negative effects.
Aside from League's server problems in Korea, ELO boosting is driving gamers to switch to Nexon's Dota 2.
ya...no it's not lol
Actually a lot of koreans are complaining about elo boosting koreas 2nd class status as a server to riot, and all the server failures and a large amount of them are flocking to dota 2 since nexon cleverly promised a fix to literally every issue korean netizens bitch about league.
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On July 29 2013 14:49 GTR wrote:
Also, is Monster Gaming the same team as VTG Monsters (the team ran by Drakedog)?
Because there's an awful alot of talk about how the head honchos knew each other from WoW, and Drakedog was a renowned Korean PvP Warlock.
Drakedog...from the World of Roguecraft videos?
THAT Korean Warlock?
looooooooooool, it's a small world.
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On July 29 2013 10:39 Swissm wrote:
Forgive my ignorance, but what is accomplished by paying to have your ELO boosted?
Virtually nothing beyond hindering your team during your initial games playing out of your Elo. Your hidden rating will rank rapidly and you'll get matched with the same people you were before, just you'll stay at the bottom of your league (e.g. Gold V) since you can't drop back down to Silver). The fact that you will stop at the bottom of a division is really the only incentive to do it (you can say "look how good I am, I'm Diamond").
The issue here is really just the ethics of allegedly forcing players into doing the boosting since there's basically no effect to the competitive scene and largely not even to solo queue in general.
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On July 29 2013 17:14 krndandaman wrote:
why is this compared to the matchfixing scandal in BW? I don't think it's anything near that. You'd have to have like Madlife taking money to throw matches or something to be at least similar.
Either way, very sad that this happened. Good thing it got exposed before they went any further.
Well it hasn't really been "exposed" just now. Koreans have been complaining about it and Riot's inability to do anything about it for a couple months now, but it's not really an easy problem to approach.
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I understand not all Korean gaming houses are like that, but this kind of reinforces the image I have of them. Damn gaming sweatshops.
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Slavery = scandal, yes D:
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On July 29 2013 17:14 krndandaman wrote:
why is this compared to the matchfixing scandal in BW? I don't think it's anything near that. You'd have to have like Madlife taking money to throw matches or something to be at least similar.
Either way, very sad that this happened. Good thing it got exposed before they went any further.
madlife matchfixing!! always win!!!
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On July 29 2013 14:49 GTR wrote:
Also, is Monster Gaming the same team as VTG Monsters (the team ran by Drakedog)?
Because there's an awful alot of talk about how the head honchos knew each other from WoW, and Drakedog was a renowned Korean PvP Warlock.
No, these two are different teams
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On July 29 2013 13:33 GTR wrote:Show nested quote +I had no intention of joining at first, but Head Coach Kim-Jin told me that he is a good friend of the KT Coach and that that if I do not join, then he will make sure that I am never able to be part of the competitive scene. That left me no choice, but to join. That happened at the end of June. wow, this is gundamwerra/savior level of scumbagginess there.
To be fair though, savior of sc:bw didn't really understood the implications of match fixing in televised matches and its potential impact on the scene. He was one of those "oh this is easy money" kind of guys but really didn't mean to damage the scene at heart. Parties involved were from multiple teams and were considered good players in the sc;bw progaming scene and did it in televised matches, hence its impact.
In this situation, the coach is coercing people into working for him. Its a newly established team, and even members themselves understand this is bad practice. They need to make excuses to escape or do it in a manner in which they cannot be seen. However, this really won't have much of an impact on the LoL scene other then giving the team itself a bad rep with a potential ban from riot games. Maybe even jail time/fine depending on how serious it is.
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Thx a lot for this news. Sadly to read this, but this is real world. Hope korean scene will grow up and became more popular.
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Canada13379 Posts
I think this is similar to the scbw matchfixibg scandal in so far as the ethical issues it presents to Korean scene. Keep in mind how harmful the savior scandal was. Wounds like that don't ever really heal. Couple it alongside the growing concerns regarding riot Korea's approach to the game and netizen reactions and we see how the concern is amplified to the level of scandal and not just outrage.
You have coaches making claims about prominent kespa figures (KT head coach). You have young kids being tricked (disillusionment for young kids who want to keep at LoL). Couple this with RIOT Korea being seen as ineffective at dealing with boosting concerns, and if monster can do it, are other teams doing it? Then the shadow of savior returns - how deep does or can this go?
These all turn this situation into a huge boondocle
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No way is this sAviOr level.
Not only was sAviOr a legend in the making and pivotal to a golden age of BW, but his actions directly affected the integrity of the game by duping the audience. This caused fans to question players when they made a poor play as to whether they were matchfixing or not, and what fun is watching a competitive game when it's not even competitive to begin with?
That said, this is a pretty serious issue of exploitation.
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Korea (South)11232 Posts
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i41.tinypic.com/scx92x.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i42.tinypic.com/28k0v7n.jpg)
