Report: Match-fixing scandal leads to suicide attempt in Korea's pro League of Legends scene

Reports are swirling in the Korean League of Legends community that, if true, could rock the esports world to its core.

Former AHQ Korea ADC Cheon “Promise” Min-ki has posted on several web forums that his former team, which competed at the highest level in South Korea’s professional League of Legends circuit, was involved in match-fixing. Specifically, Promise alleges that the team was created primarily so the team’s manager Noh Dae Chul could place bets on matches, and he specifically instructed his players to lose games on purpose. (The players were told that these instructions came from OGN, the Korean league, but that was a lie).

One player, Hoon, apparently refused to intentionally throw matches, but the other players (including Promise) went along with it for a while. Promise specifically mentions two 2-1 losses (one to CJ Entus Frost and one to KT Rolster Bullets) that the team intentionally threw, and implies that there were other games as well. He also suggests that Noh Dae Chul abused team members, and even tried to make him break up with his girlfriend.

The team disbanded after players discovered that the true reason for their being asked to lose games was that the manager was betting on the team. Having looked into the teams finances and discovered that Taiwanese sponsor AHQ only provided material assistance (computers and peripherals), and that the company had no one in Korea overseeing the team.

In his posts, Promise said that for a number of reasons, he would be committing suicide within minutes of making the posts public. According to Korean LoL reporter insideKLOL, Promise jumped off a 12-story building, and is currently in the hospital. He has apparently already woken from a coma and is able to hear, but is still in very poor shape.

Obviously this story is developing quickly, and at the moment pretty much all of this is impossible to verify. But we’ll be watching this story closely and will update this post or publish new articles on the subject as more information about this terrible tragedy comes to light and as the facts become more clear.

(via reddit)