It’s been a nightmare Summer Split for Copenhagen Wolves. The team suffered a mass exodus of players after it emerged that the organization had plans to replace them after the split, which in turn ensured the team fell into the automatic relegation spot. Now, to round off its disastrous split, the organization has been fined $3,000 for failing to place two of its starting players on eligible contracts.
Riot has been investigating the case since July and discovered that Karim “Airwaks” Benghalia and Joey “YoungBuck” Steltenpool did not have valid contracts
Copenhagen Wolves owner Jakob Lund Kristensen admitted to the issue during the investigation. He also proved that, despite the contracts not being valid, the organization still fulfilled all of their obligations. The players were still put at risk while playing with invalid contract, however.
Copenhagen Wolves were also fined on Oct 29, 2014 for a similar incident when Paweł “Woolite” Pruski and again Benghalia played on the League Championship Series stage without signing contracts. This means the team will face a heavier fine this time around, according to Riot. “Having valid contracts protects both players and the team and is not something that can be neglected by team owners,” the company wrote in its ruling on the fine.
It is still unclear whether the Copenhagen Wolves organization will continue to operate in League of Legends. After the relegation of its LCS side, the organization’s only choice is to pursue the Challenger Series, as section 3.1 of the LCS ruleset dictates that no organization relegated from the league will be permitted to purchase an LCS team until a full split has passed.
Photo via Riot Games/Flickr
