Maximilian Peter Schmidt, Riot Games’ head of esports in Europe, has clarified that former G2 Esports owner Carlos Rodriguez was not forced to give up ownership of G2 Esports by the game developer.
Esportmaniacos claimed earlier today that the former owner was forced by Riot to sell his ownership shares in G2 Esports and was subsequently blacklisted from participating in any Riot-sponsored events.
Rodriguez resigned from G2 on Friday, Sept. 23 following a controversy in which he was seen associating with known misogynist and alleged human trafficker Andrew Tate.
Schmidt has confirmed that the claims by Esportmaniacos are not true and that Riot is still investigating the situation at hand surrounding Rodriguez.
“The LEC has not requested Carlos to resign from G2 nor divest his ownership,” Schmidt said on Twitter. “We opened an investigation last week per our LEC rules, which is still ongoing.”
Schmidt also cited the LEC Rulebook as Riot’s main reasoning for launching an investigation into Rodriguez and G2. According to rule 9.2.7 of the 2022 LEC Rulebook, team managers and members are subject to investigation should they break “the Summoner’s Code, the League of Legends Terms of Use, or other rules of League of Legends.”
Investigations are also in order for team members and managers who break common laws of society. Schmidt confirmed in a separate tweet today that Rodriguez was not forcibly removed from G2 by either Riot or the LEC’s governing body.
Last week, it was reported that the controversy surrounding Rodriguez led Riot to make the decision to decline G2’s application to any partnered VALORANT leagues—an 11th-hour choice that was ultimately swayed by Rodriguez’s association with Tate and his further comments regarding the matter.
Rodriguez has not announced any future plans at this time.
