Mentioned in this article Games: League of Legends

Today, INTZ published on Twitter the results of Riot Games’ investigation regarding the poaching of Red Canids’ player Gustavo “Sacy” Rossi. In tandem, the Brazilian esports team union, ABCDE, has released its president, Lucas Almeida—the president and owner of INTZ—as a result of the poaching attempt. INTZ, despite maintaining that there was no poaching attempt, has agreed to go along with both punishments.

Riot’s ruling

Riot’s investigation found INTZ guilty, fined the team for R$5,000 (~$1,500), and banned one of INTZ’s owners, Rogério Rodrigues de Almeida, for ten months. Almeida, however, explained that Rossi came to his gaming house for unrelated reasons. He understands, though, that “the mere contact with athletes from other clubs without the knowledge of the club with whom they have a link is punishable.”

“INTZ do not think it attempted to poach, but respects Riot’s way to administrate the CBLoL, and it will fully respect the punishment,” he said.

ABCDE’s ruling

Riot’s decision comes a day following a similar one from ABCDE, who, after an assembly of its members, published on its facebook page that Almeida was to be released as the organization’s president. ABCDE has replaced Almeida with Carlos Fonseca from CNB. Almeida responded that he would comply with ABCDE’s judgment, especially as the anti-poaching rules were put into place under his direction.

In addition, the post said that ABCDE would double any penalty that Riot Games Brazil levied against INTZ in the poaching case.

Resulting fallout

Almeida, however, still maintains INTZ’ innocence. He thinks there’s a better solution, and said that INTZ will, together with ABCDE, “submit proposals to Riot for changes to certain aspects of the rules, in order to make the esports scene less subjective and open to interpretation, providing greater stability and coexistence between athletes, clubs, and Riot itself.”

That said, the poaching attempt has already weakened the team union, as Red Canids have subsequently decided to leave ABCDE.

Riot Games’ decisions regarding poaching has been a subject of discontent from the teams’ perspectives for a long time now. One of the most tense points in Brazilian League of Legends was certainly earlier this year when PaiN Gaming decided to sue Riot after a similar punishment regarding poaching. PaiN’s case is still in process and waiting for a ruling.