UPDATE (11pm):
After this article was published, Laatch admitted in a tweet his team did not field the required number of UK players.
I take the full response for “here for fun” and that we didn’t show up with atleast 3 brittish players.
— Laatch (@LaatchLoL) June 6, 2017
Laatch admitted he played in the qualifiers, and added: “I would like to apologize to the orgs that we beat in the qualifier.”
Now we wait to see what UK Masters’ response is.
Original article (published 10:48pm):
A League of Legends team who took part in this week’s UK Masters qualifiers have been accused of not fielding enough UK players.
UK Masters rules currently state that ‘at least three players must be UK residents in-game at all times’.
The team in question, known as ‘here for fun’, fielded the following roster:
- down syndrome ad
- ralph 69
- merlinthewiz
- remexxx v2
- nillenalley
UK top-laner Raikouu wrote this on Twitter, claiming the team didn’t field any UK players:
@DigWarGG @MannimalGG ahhh the team you lost to didn’t even have UK players thats cool @UKMasters 🙂
— Raikouu (@Raikouu_EUW) June 6, 2017
Digital Warfare were one of the teams knocked out by ‘here for fun’ this evening, and obviously weren’t happy about the potential rule break.
“I am aware and the matter is under investigation, I currently don’t have a comment beyond that.”
Jon Kelly, UK Masters
Digital Warfare Artemis manager Sam Newbould told Esports News UK: “We played ‘here for fun’ and lost the game to later find out through contacts in the community that the team wasn’t abiding the rules.
“A formal complaint was made to UK Masters tournament staff and nothing has been done – we think the team should have been removed from the tournament.
“It was known across the community that the ‘just for fun’ team was in fact Laatch’s.”
did not play for real
— Laatch (@LaatchLoL) June 5, 2017
UK Masters tournament organiser Multiplay say the matter is currently under investigation.
Jon Kelly, esports league operator for UK Masters, told Esports News UK: “I am aware and the matter is under investigation, I currently don’t have a comment beyond that.”
ENUK understands that Multiplay does have systems in place to confirm the residency of teams.
We approached Laatch for comment, who said: “I don’t have anything to comment on this statement.”
We’ll have to wait for UK Masters to finish investigating before the matter is resolved.
Elsewhere this evening, Randoms and Free Money qualified for the UK Masters, and both teams are now looking for orgs to bring them on board:
RÄÄÄNDOMS V3 and Free Money qualify for the LoL @UKMasters, joining exceL Esports, Sippin the Purp, Radix Esports and NerdRage Pro.
— Esports News UK (@Esports_News_UK) June 6, 2017
As im the captain for FREE MONEY and have no org behind my team, im looking for orgs to contract with, dm me on twitter
RTS APPRECIATED— Skude (@RangeExpire) June 6, 2017
As im the captain for RÄÄÄNDOMS V3 and have no org behind my team, im looking for orgs to contract with, dm me on twitter
RTS APPRECIATED— kerberos (@kerberos_lol) June 6, 2017
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
