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The UK Esports League (UKEL) has issued a one-split playing suspension to Belfast Storm’s League of Legends coach Sama.
Sama will still be allowed to coach the team, but no longer allowed to stand in as a player/emergency substitute for one season.
Belfast Storm’s recent win over Rize Gaming in 4 Nations Division 1 has also since been nullified, with the win going over to Rize instead.
The penalties were issued following a UKEL investigation (and a Riot recommendation), which found that account sharing had taken place on Sama’s League of Legends game account. This type of account sharing activity breaks the game’s terms of service (TOS).
The incident happened after Belfast Storm had requested Sama to stand in as an emergency substitute on January 27th, due to UK jungler Dunlosi suffering internet issues before the match against Rize.
Belfast Storm posted a statement, saying they did not try to gain a competitive advantage and that they will have an active sub on the roster going forward.
The org said:
“Dunlosi had internet issues right before an official, this was unexpected and we had to make a decision immediately so we could play, or we would forfeit the game. Due to having no active subs on the roster, the decision was made to sub in our coach, Sama. One of Sama’s accounts, with all champions, was used. “
Belfast Storm
“We ultimately ended up winning. But it was brought to our attention after, that the account used by Sama was previously used by his friend – which as stated below, is against TOS. Sama was the person playing during the official but the issue is the previous log ins.
“At no point did we try to gain competitive advantage. It was a simple mistake made under time pressure to play the official. We appreciate the UKEL’s understanding.”
You can see Belfast Storm’s post and the UKEL’s League Ruling below:
The UKEL also said Belfast Storm were ‘open and apologetic throughout the procedure’.
The news comes after a recent UKEL 4 Nations 2025 update, with teams, casters, format, new staff and more confirmed for the Winter season in Division 1 and 2.
The UKEL 4 Nations is the UK national league that sits below the UK/Nordics Northern League of Legends Championship (NLC).
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.
