Riot Games Bans Amihan Esports For 12 Months
Riot Games released a competitive ruling banning Amihan Esports for 12 months. This came after an investigation concluded that the organization forged Karl Ken “Karlll” Bautista’s age for eligibility.
via Amihan Esports’s Facebook page
After allegations of map hacking and inaccurate player documentation surfaced, Riot launched an investigation immediately which initially cleared Karlll of these allegations.
However, new evidence for the alleged forged documentation prompted Riot to reopen the investigation. Riot found out that the documents were ‘indeed forged to misrepresent his age at the time of registration’ and that Amihan was ‘fully aware of AMI Karlll being underage’.
Riot games banned the Filipino organization for 12 months — effective immediately the competitive ruling was released. Karlll also received a 9-month ban from all Riot Games esports — which began during his last match on June 26, 2021. Former Amihan team manager Christian Villegas received a 12-month ban while Amihan team owner Francis Mariano received an indefinite ban — only being eligible to apply for reinstatement after 2 years.
The team is also required to forfeit their prize winnings from both the SEA Icon Series Philippines Summer Season and the SEA Icon Series Summer Super Cup. The forfeited winnings will be donated to a charity through the Riot Games Social Impact Fund. Their slot for the SEA Icon Series Fall Season will also be vacated and thus PPGL will be announcing a new qualifier to replace them.
Amihan Esports coach Mikey “Ferzerk” Alberto released a statement on his Facebook page enlightening the people of the situation. Ferzerk revealed that he didn’t know about the “illicit plan” but would have opposed it if he had been a stakeholder of the organization during its inception.
“Some period after my onboarding, management disclosed the painted facts of the situation to me. I was honestly surprised. But because I was told that they were already moving to correct the situation, I chose to focus on my work,” Ferzerk revealed in the statement.
He also condemns the targeted harassment towards the team on social media and instead refers them to the official statement by Riot Games. “It’s been very difficult for them to hear and see so much human judgments stemming from misinformation.”
Amihan Esports is no stranger to controversy. Besides the numerous map hacking and cheating allegations, the organization was also infamous for seizing the Visayas qualifier spot for the SEA Icon Series Philippines Summer Season. Countless Visayan fans and esports organizations argued that the qualified team for the Visayas qualifier should have been reserved for Visayan teams.
Amihan has yet to release an official statement as of this article’s writing.
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