The MPL-Philippines Operating Committee dropped the hammer on both Nexplay EVOS and Omega Esports on Tuesday night.
Both squads, who closed a competitive MPL Philippines Season Eight regular season by tarnishing the league’s integrity, were handed a $3,000 (P152,544) for their actions in the controversial series last Sunday.
Omega Esports and Nexplay EVOS violated 12.1.1.2 Competitive Integrity and 12.1.5 Professional Manner of the MPL Philippines rulebook.
“During games 1 and 2 of NXPE VS OMG in Week 7 Day 3, issues surrounding the competitive integrity of both teams occurred. This led to a bad influence between the community, hurting the league and all eight teams included,” opened the league’s statement.
Nexplay EVOS opened the series with a five-man Flameshot composition with players such as Tristan “Yawi” Cabrera (Claude), Renejay “RENEJAY” BARCARSE (Grock), and Jeniel “Haze” Bata-anon playing out of their respective roles.
The debuting Setsuna “Akosi Dogie” Ignacio also did his part in the fiasco, using the marksman emblem Weakness Finder on Estes. Both squads figured in non-stop clashes in the middle lane which produced a 39-4 scoreline for Omega Esports.
The SMART-backed squad then went on a feeding spree in Game Two with Robbie “Hito” Candoy playing Diggie and Billy “Z4pnu” Alfonso handling Angela. Nexplay EVOS went on to win Game Two with a total of 61 kills in the match which lasted for just 15 minutes and 40 seconds.
Nexplay EVOS eventually won the series with rookie Sanford “Sanford” Vinuya stealing the show.
Dogie also received a $500 (P25,424) fine for violating league rules 12.2.1 Making a prohibited pose.
Meanwhile, Omega Esports’ Hito, Dean “Raizen” Sumagui, Dian “Dian” Cruz, Romiere “Allidap” Padilla, and Billy “Z4pnu” Alfonso, and Nexplay EVOS’ Yawi, RENEJAY, YellyHaze, Dogie, and H2wo are all no longer eligible to receive individual awards in Season Eight.
“We want to reinforce that competitive integrity is one of our core values as a league. Any team or player is subject to the rulebook and guidelines as stipulated within, and they must take full ownership and accountability of what they’ve done,” the statement continued.
“We will continuously strive towards becoming one of, if not the best, MOBA esports leagues and we will not let these incidents dampen the joy of competing.”
