Counter-Strike players create fake pro LoL team to rig matches & get caught immediately
A group of alleged Counter-Strike matchfixers decided to make a sudden swap to League of Legends pro play, resulting in a “fake” pro team that got caught after their very first series.
It’s increasingly common for tier 2 esports leagues to be a hotbed for matchfixing and rigged matches, to the point that it’s been alleged matchfixing is the only reason teams in those leagues stay afloat.
A Valorant scandal hit earlier this year that alleged tier 2 teams were betting hundreds of thousands of dollars on matches, and similar scandals have come to pass in League of Legends over the years. China’s tier 2 league is particularly notorious for this, with one bust resulting in almost 40 players getting banned.
However, one Lithuanian esports team in the Rift Legends league was so bad at hiding it that they got caught after their first match and were thrown out of the league.
LoL team immediately banned for creating fake team to matchfix
It’s no secret that competing in tier 2 esports leagues isn’t the most profitable venture out there. The cost of maintaining a team is so high that Riot Games had to exempt teams in the LCS (now LTA) from fielding a mandatory tier 2 roster so that orgs in the league could stay afloat.
But, while there aren’t many ways to make money off of fielding esports teams in this league, some less than legal means are out there for teams to make a quick buck.
A team called MY STAR dumped its entire roster ahead of the Rift Legends 2025 Summer Split and fielded an entirely new one, with none of the players from the prior team having anything lined up.
MY STAR completely threw the first game, with some players looking like they’d never touched League of Legends in their lives. Balukos in particular had it rough, with him dying 5 times in lane by the 10 minute mark.
This is on top of kory and LakatosD being accused of matchfixing in Counter-Strike, though they’re both still allowed to compete as the allegations were never proven. kory’s LoL name is the same, whereas LakatosD goes by SZLOBESZKOV in Counter-Strike.
Viewers also noticed that the players’ expressions in the webcams rarely changed and that none of them talked for the entire duration of both matches, a bizarre occurrence for a pro game.
What’s more, the webcam for the player labeled as Balukos matches the appearance of Lesterik, a former main roster player who had been moved to “substitute”.
Balukos’ name is listed as Luka Glisic, whereas Lesterik’s name is Danijel Šego, making it impossible to tell if they really did get a new player and just looped their former player’s webcam or if the real Lesterik was actively playing for the team.
Either way, due to these inconsistencies and several spots where the team appeared to be purposely throwing the match (especially in game 1), the entire org has been booted from the league effective immediately for matchfixing and breaking several parts of the league’s code of conduct.
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