On the first day of LEC play, Vitality mid-laner Perkz flouts a ban in League of Legends and still gets away with a fine.
The first matchday of the LEC Winter Split 2023 took place on 21 January. But one pro seems not to have fully awoken from his hibernation yet. Because directly in his first game Perkz commits a big mistake and picks a forbidden rune. His team has to pay for this carelessness.
Banned combo exploited
The first match between Team Vitality and Fnatic was decided with a win for Vitality. But mid-laner Luka “Perkz” Perković used a rune that was not allowed by the rules.
It is the rune “watercourse”. With the help of this rune, the champion in the river receives 25 additional running speed, as well as additional damage scaling to the level. But when this rune is applied to Ryze, a bug arises that has been circulating in League of Legends for a long time.
Ryze’s passive gives him a higher maximum of mana, which scales with his Ability Power. He also deals more damage with the bonus mana.
If a Ryze repeatedly enters the river with the rune and then leaves it again, the mana regenerates much faster than predicted.
The bug is often used to eliminate Minion waves faster in the laning phase. For this reason, the combination of Ryze and Water Run is banned in tournaments.
Team must pay for mistakes
Perkz was lucky and Vitality only has to pay a fine as there would have been “no significant advantage” in the game as a result.
This is how LoL Esports Director for EMEA, Maximilian Peter Schmidt, explained it on Twitter:
LEC Update:
You may have noticed that Perkz picked Waterwalking on Ryze yesterday which is currently prohibited in pro play.
Our Competitive Operations team assessed Perkz did not gain a significant advantage via the rune.
Vitality will be fined in line with past precedent.
– Maximilian Peter Schmidt (@RiotMAXtheX) January 22, 2023
Community sees fault with Riot
The LoL community, however, shows no understanding and blames Riot for the mistake. Because this bug has been in the game for years and has not been fixed yet.
Furthermore, in such a case, Riot should make it possible to deactivate faulty runes or other things in tournaments instead of fining the player or the team.
By the way, the new league system for the LEC now includes a Winter, Spring and Summer split, with the results from Summer weighing more heavily in the points distribution.
WE ARE BACK:
THE LEC WINTER SPLIT IS LIVE!
📺 https://t.co/n8Ev4bMoua https://t.co/4ackm4iezb
– LEC (@LEC) January 21, 2023
