Riot Games Oceanic esports division has issued a statement defending itself against accusations of bias and inaction, in the latest twist surrounding the troubled Oceanic Pro League (OPL).
Former Tainted Mind players Tristan “Cake” Côté-Lalumière and Aaron “ChuChuZ” Bland, who still find themselves in a legal dispute with their former organization over serious breaches of contract, released statements describing their experience with the org. In it, they made a number of accusations towards Riot’s head of Oceanic esports, Daniel Ringland.
In short, Côté-Lalumière accused Ringland of heavy bias towards Tainted Minds investor John Mcrae which prevented Ringland from satisfactory and fairly resolving the situation—something Ringland strongly rejects in this new Riot statement.
“All our relationships within the league are on a professional level and of equal footing,” Ringland said in the statement on Riot’s OCE website. “We want the best for all those who take part, so it is of great importance to us that we give every faction equal amounts of respect and attention.”
Côté-Lalumière claimed that a mediation meeting between Tainted Minds, its former players, and Ringland acting as the mediator, had been postponed multiple times “so that John [Mcrae] could try and fix stuff and look better in the eyes of Riot at the meeting.”
Ringland says the meeting was moved twice, but not to benefit Mcrae alone. The first time it was postponed in order to encourage the parties to “reach a mutually beneficial result.” The second postponement, according to Ringland, was simply because not all parties were available.
Ringland was also forced to explain why Tainted Minds had been allowed to add players to Riot’s contracts database while still listing the players who had served them with notice of termination. This left Tainted Minds with 13 players listed under contract, more than the rules allow.
Côté-Lalumière believes that when he and his fellow players raised the issue, the database was edited but the date of the last edit was not, in an effort to “trick” them that the database had never been incorrect. However Ringland says that this was simply an error.
The only thing that comes close to an admission of fault in the statement is an admission that Riot’s has not been “as proactive with our communication as we should have been.” For his part, Côté-Lalumière already announced a response and called Ringland’s statement “lies.”
