Banditos players will be allowed to play in EU CS Qualifiers despite Renegades ban

Renegades have been banned from taking part in any official Riot Games leagues including the North American LCS.
Despite this, their European team and ESL UK Premiership winners – the Banditos – will still be allowed to participate in the upcoming EU Challenger Series Qualifiers. But the players will not be able to represent Renegades, so they will first have to play under new branding or find new owners.
Renegades has been banned after their management has been found to have “knowingly violated the competitive ban against [Renegades co-owner] Chris Badawi, misrepresented their relationship with TDK, and compromised player welfare and safety”.
Full details can be found on the League of Legends eSports website.
Riot Games director of eSports Whalen “Magus” Rozelle said: “Banditos will not be allowed to participate under this ownership group.
“CS ownership, however, is not defined or granted to organizations until entry into the Challenger Series, which has not yet occurred for Banditos.
“Therefore we will continue to work with the Banditos players as the owners of the CS opportunity and help them either find new owners and branding or set up the necessary structure to participate in the EU CS, if they qualify.”
Badawi has also been permanently banned from association or affiliation with any team or organisation participating in a Riot-sanctioned league.
In addition, Renegades co-owner and caster Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles has been banned for one year from holding any Riot-sanctioned position within a competing organisation.
Riot has withheld some of the evidence surrounding the offenses because it says it has “an obligation to protect the parties involved”.
Banditos team manager Ali “Alicus” Saba said on Twitter:

riot claim to protect ppl by not disclosing evidence. they’re wrong. theories will exist.

they’re protecting their evidence from dispute.
— Alicus (@AlicusOfficial) May 9, 2016

MonteCristo added on Twitter: “To my knowledge there was never any misconduct regarding player, nor have any of my players ever alerted me of any problems.
“Needless to say, all of Riot’s accusations are baseless. We made an approved trade with TDK and followed all league rules.
“I was never presented evidence by Riot for these claims, nor did I know most of them existed. I was also told of my ban 30 minutes before the post. I was given no time to respond or present any information.”
TDK has also been banned from playing in Riot leagues in the future.
Riot has given Renegades a grace period for them to sell all rights and legal claim to their LCS slot by May 19th.
 

Dom Sacco

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.