Amihan Esports has been handed a one-year ban by Riot Games Southeast Asia for forging the birth certificate of Karl “KARLLL” Bautista for the Wild Rift SEA Icon Series Philippines, Saturday afternoon.
After a thorough investigation, it was concluded that the organization forged the document of KARLLL, who was a minor during the SEA Icon Series PH Summer Season and the Summer Super Cup, which misrepresented his age to qualify for the league’s minimum age requirement.
KARLLL, who was born on March 15, 2004 and is still 17-years-old, violated rule 2.3 (Age) of the league.
“Following investigations that were reopened in light of new evidence against Amihan Esports and the eligibility of their team member, AMI Karlll (Karl Ken Bautista), Riot Games Southeast Asia Esports has ruled that AMI Karlll has violated Rule 2.3 (Age) of the Wild Rift SEA Icon Series Philippines Competition Policy for presenting illegally forged documents that misrepresented his actual age, thereby qualifying for the competition’s minimum age requirement of 17 years,” said Riot in a statement.
With this, the organization was slapped with a one-year ban from all Riot Games esports tournaments, effective immediately.
The 17-year-old Baron laner was given a nine-month ban which officially began last June 26 — the date of his last match against SBTC Esports in the quarterfinals of the Summer Super Cup.
Former team manager Christian Villegas was handed a one-year suspension while team owner Francis Mariano received an indefinite ban from all Riot Games esports tournaments.
As an organization, Amihan Esports has violated Rule 2.3 (Age) of the Wild Rift SEA Icon Series Philippines Competition Policy and will be banned from all Riot Games esports for 12 months, effective immediately. The ban will be lifted in July 2022.
Mariano will be eligible to apply for reinstatement after two years from the date of the announcement.
“Individual team members will also receive penalties for participating in the forgery of player documents and failing to inform tournament officials and Riot Games Southeast Asia Esports. Karl Ken Bautista aka AMI Karlll will be banned from all Riot Games esports for 9 months effective from the date of his last match,” Riot said.
“Christian Villegas, former Team Manager, will be banned from all Riot Games esports for 12 months effective immediately. Francis Mariano, Team Owner, will be banned from all Riot Games esports indefinitely for not cooperating with the Riot Games investigation. Francis will be eligible to apply for reinstatement after 2 years,” the organization added.
The team will also have to surrender their winnings from both the SEA Icon Series and the Summer Super Cup which will be donated to a charity of Riot’s choice.
KARLLL was also investigated for map hacking allegations but was later cleared by the league.
Amihan Esports rose out of nowhere in the SEA Icon Series, winning the PPGL Summer Split after taking down Team Secret via a 3-2 victory in the grand finals.
The team then earned a ticket to the Summer Super Cup and finished at 5th-8th place.
