When two teams or players lock horns in a competitive setting there will always be rules. Even the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which billed itself as a tournament where there “are no rules,” has added safety measures and defined illegal actions to make sure the integrity of the sport is maintained.





For the most part, it’s relatively difficult to cheat or bend the rules in professional League of Legends. There are ways to score what could be considered an "underhanded" win, including cheese strategies and odd-ball champion picks, but even these are widely accepted by many viewers around the world.





A recent and rather controversial unit collision controversy is the latest of these underhanded strategies. In a game against ﻿Clutch Gaming﻿, LCS team ﻿100 Thieves﻿ manipulated the pathing of the first minion wave in an attempt to alter the flow of the lane. It sparked drama and discourse throughout the competitive League scene, and it brought one very important question to mind. Does professional competitive League need a global governing body with a standardized ruleset across all regions?





After a series of differing decisions based around wave management in leagues across the world, it appears the answer is yes. With abundant confusion across social media, esports organizations, and the regional leagues, now would be the perfect time for Riot Games to form a unified legislative body that rules over the status of all bugs, strategies, and illegalities within competitive League.

While competitive scenes across the world would still retain their league commissioners for many decisions, one combined ruleset and legislature that acts as unbreakable law can bring every league into line as League esports continue to grow.





100 Thieves spark wave-management controversy









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The best recent example of the need for unified laws undoubtedly came after Jun-sik “﻿Bang﻿” Bae and Zaqueri “﻿Aphromoo﻿” Black infamously employed this early-game wave management strategy against Clutch Gaming.









﻿Misfits﻿ head coach Hussain “Moose” Moosvi took to Twitter after the game in question, sharing a clip from 100 Thieves’ victory and claiming the team had “essentially cheated and got away with it.” The LEC personality also added teams had been informed not to employ the strategy, and that 100T’s bot lane had intentionally affected the minions.

















There was further confusion added when 100 Thieves coach Neil “pr0lly” Hammad revealed Riot officials had confirmed his team’s actions in their game against Clutch Gaming were allowed.









That left many other coaches, including Clutch Gaming’s Brendan “mcscrag” McGee and ﻿Origen﻿’s André “Guilhoto” Guilhoto, scratching their heads about the rulings. Guilhoto weighed in that he believed the decision was “actually weird,” backing up his statement by telling those on social media that his team had received a series of clips that “included showing both manipulations (blocking one minion at turret or just delaying/blocking the wave).”





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Days later, LEC’s operation lead Maximilian Peter Schmidt came out with a clearly defined ruleset for the European competition in regards to early game wave management, and confirmed the decisions would “only affect the LEC.”









Schmidt confirmed teams were “prohibited from intentionally interfering with the fire wave at all in that 28-second timeframe,” with the decision based around making sure the “viewing experience” and “relatability of the broadcast” was kept intact.





International problems on the horizon





These decisions, both the unrevealed LCS choices and Schmidt’s open policy on LEC’s stance, leave two of Riot Games’ biggest competitions potentially playing under different rules. Now, North American and European teams are barreling toward the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational with wildly different ideas about what is okay to bring out in a competitive game. Even worse, the Riot-hosted event has at least $1 million USD in prize money on the line.





If standings remain the same, G2 Esports may enter the Ho Chi Minh City leg of the international tournament understanding they cannot block early wave minions. Conversely, potential LCS champions Team Liquid may believe affecting the creeps before 28 seconds without tower pinning is a legal strategy.













Riot Games now has a potentially explosive situation on its hands, especially if it results in a small advantage for one team snowballing into a massive victory in the group stage or beyond.









Beyond just the confusion for organizations, the use and misuse of bugs changing across competitions for viewers can be confusing. For multi-league fans, it can even make following the pro scene difficult.





The solution to ever-changing rules













While an international and independent body ruling over laws would help with the confusion League fans have seen in recent weeks, it would also bring fairness and equality worldwide. Each region's best teams head to international tournaments at least twice a year. A governing body would give organisations a clear and vital picture of what they are and aren’t allowed to do on Summoner’s Rift.





This is especially important for tournaments like the previously-mentioned MSI event, as well as the end-of-year World Championship, both of which boast millions of dollars in prize money for the best teams. As esports continues to grow as a global phenomenon, and with League at the helm of that growth, Riot Games must make sure it continues to safeguard the integrity of their developing competitions.