He doesn’t believe it.

At 46:16, Diogo “Shini” Rogê jumps onto CNB e-Sports Club’s Thiago “TinOwns” Sartori. TinOwns is 13/2/4 on LeBlanc. He’s spent the better part of the game making INTZ e-Sports’ lives miserable since scoring First Blood onto Shini five minutes into the game.

INTZ AD carry Micael “micaO” Rodrigues kills TinOwns five seconds later. The assist gives Shini a positive scoreline for the first time all game. The INTZ jungler was down 0/4/0 in the midgame, when CNB had all but won.

Falling at 47:31, Shini is the last of his team to die. A second later, INTZ e-Sports take the Nexus. They win, still down 4.8K gold.

Beside him, mid laner Bruno “Envy” Farias tears off his headset, springing up from his chair and screaming. To his right, top laner Marcelo “Ayel” Mello erupts into cheers. He shouts into the crowd while Shini runs his hands through his hair, tugging at it almost violently.

He still doesn’t believe it. After a small pause, Shini shakes Envy’s hand in disbelief. Envy pulls him into a hug, smiling at the in-studio cameras. The INTZ e-Sports logo appears.

“INTZ e-Sports VITÓRIA.”

Ayel is on the floor, laughing and slapping his knee repeatedly while the rest of the team gathers him to shake hands with CNB. Shini is last in line, quiet compared to his more boisterous teammates, one hand over his stomach as if he’s about to be ill.

It isn’t a good game for either team, particularly INTZ.

“You shouldn’t congratulate me,” Shini says after the win. “We don’t deserve it.”

“Everyone was like, ‘Okay, we got three points but we definitely got lucky and didn’t deserve the win.’ But it’s good. Kinda like a small wake-up call early on.”

This second game against CNB e-Sports Club marks the auspicious professional debut of Diogo “Shini” Rogê, the 20 year-old jungler more famously known on his home server as “Brazilian Apdo.”

View photos INTZ top laner Marcelo “Ayel” Mello hugs Shini after their 2-0 sweep of CNB in Week 1 of 2017 CBLoL Winter (Riot Games Brazil/lolesportsbr) More

Small punishments are handed down fairly regularly in professional League of Legends — inappropriate clothing or not putting on makeup before going onstage are a few of the more humorous infractions documented by China’s L.ACE.

Every competitive split, KeSPA fines or docks points from teams for showing up to the studio late or players for logging out prior to the game’s completion, which is seen as bad-mannered or poor sportsmanship. In 2016 CBLoL Winter, Brazil’s own Big Gods — a team now trying to make their way through the North American Challenger Series — were docked 16 points prior to the season’s start for failing to submit their roster on time.

More noteworthy individual offenses include solo queue toxicity and Elo boosting (as it’s also known in Brazil, the Elojob), or boosting another person’s League of Legends account for money. Both of these are against the League of Legends terms of service. While not as severe as fixing a match, boosting accounts is generally frowned-upon by the community for corrupting the integrity of the solo queue ladder.

Elo boosting can also be exceptionally profitable.

The most infamous Elo booster of them all is Korea’s Jeong “Apdo” Sang-gil. A bright, charismatic, and good-looking player, Apdo burst onto the scene in Season 2 thanks to his solo queue exploits. His notoriety only grew throughout Season 3 when he reached Rank 1 on the Korean server — something that immediately garners attention from teams and other players, professional or no — and began boosting accounts for money.

In Korea, the expectation is that great players want to become professionals. The path is as follows: reach a high rank on the solo queue ladder, earn a tryout or a spot on a team. Apdo broke tradition, declaring that he could make more money through Elo boosting than he ever could on a professional team. Although many of his accounts were banned, he continued to boost, even streaming his exploits. Contrary to the statement that he would never play professionally, he joined 양러왔습니다, which later renamed to Team Dark, for the 2013-14 Champions Winter Qualifier.

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