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RGL Competitive Integrity & Match Throwing/Fixing Ruling Updates

   exa   - 8/10/2020
In Recent Events Regarding Div-2 Playoffs, we discuss a match-fixing incident that occurred where 1-512-PLUMPWENCH had intentionally thrown their match against BEAST MODE to deny Cat Posse from making playoffs during the regular season. 1-512-PLUMPWENCH has since been disqualified from Season 3 of Traditional 6s as a direct result of this match-fixing. The details for how the team concluded how the event folded out are discussed in that article. A summary of the evidence include:

  • Intentional feeding by players
  • Intentional usage of suboptimal classes/weapons
  • Intentionally wasting ubers
  • Offclassing their main Medic to Soldier, and proceeding to ring an IM level medic as a replacement
  • Verified reports from community members

This also came with a note of the earlier match performances that 1-512-PLUMPWENCH had which indicated that they intentionally fixed their match to deliberately restrict Cat Posse (a team which had defeated Plump earlier in the regular season) would be knocked out of contention for playoffs for a team that they defeated convincingly in the regular season.

NOTE: You can view the full article about the event here.

In the same article, we discuss that we are in the process of evaluating game player bans as a direct result of this match-fixing incident. This would allow the division administrators to carefully watch the POVs of the players to only penalize the players that took a hand in throwing and violating the [1008.13] - Match Throwing / League Fixing guidelines. We are ready to make those decisions now.

1-512-PLUMPWENCH Ruling


After a thorough investigation, the following players in the match were found to have violated [1008.13] - Match Throwing / League Fixing. Due to undermining competitive integrity by match-fixing/throwing, they will receive suspensions, as well as be placed onto probation.


The remaining players that participated in the match were found to not have violated RGL's throwing guidelines, and as such, will not be penalized.


Updates to RGL Competitive Integrity


As it stands, the RGL Global Rules are not updated to reflect past cases, as well as future match throwing or fixing cases. There are a variety of incidents that may occur and the particular penalities for how the RGL team would address such cases are not yet clearly defined in the rules. We will be doing this here, as well as update past cases to be transparent to the community on how this is handled.

The RGL team considers match-fixing to be more severe than a match throwing incident, as match-fixing is a deliberate act to improperly affect the standings of the teams in a division. This is not to say that match throwing is a completely innocent action either, as this is a compromise of competitive integrity by wasting and undermining the value of the match for the other opponent, as well as potential viewers. This distinction needs to be made clear, as this will lead to how we will be addressing the lengths for either case.

As such, we want to enlist clear lengths and penalities in our rulebook for match throwing and fixing, so players can better understand how this process is done.

  • Match Throwing
  • - Regular Season: Major Penalty and 20% of winnings removed
    - * Playoffs: Removed from playoffs / Lost of all winnings / 4-week suspension (5-weeks for Invite) (Delayed to start at the next season). Plus probation.
    - * Grand Finals - Removed from playoffs / Lost of all winnings / 1-season suspension; 2-season suspension for the team leader (2-seasons for players with 3 for the leader for Invite). Plus probation.

  • Match-fixing * - Removed from the league / Lost of all winnings / 2-season suspension for the players fixing/throwing the match; 3-season suspension for the team leader fixing/throwing (3-seasons for players with 4 for the leader for Invite). Plus probation.

* = Players that are penalized are in violation of [1008.13] - Match Throwing / League Fixing. Repeat offenders for the following will double their ban length for each new offense.


We will also be updating the lengths of the players that were involved in this match throw to reflect the above lengths. This will be from the 1-year minimum sentence decreased to 2-seasons. All the players found to violate the match throwing guidelines will have their suspensions intact. Upon further review with the team, we will be completely removing chad420's discipline history and probation status, as there does not remain sufficient evidence that the player violated [1008.13] - Match Throwing / League Fixing. The player's gameplay during the match can be excused as their experience being primarily in lower divisions. Furthermore, the player being dragged into such an environment that they were in was no fault of their own. This decision was a mistake on the side of the admin team that handled the case and will be reverted.

Our handling of these cases has not always been to the degree of quality that we expect. When these rules were initially added to the RGL Global Rules, there were no clear defined lengths and penalities to be enforced for players and teams. Instead, we envisioned the cases to act as a precedent for how future cases would be treated. However, this had the implications of particular edge cases that would pop up in recent seasons that the rules did not encompass clearly. It did not make sense for the RGL team to penalize these other throwing incidents, because of this uncertainty.

We want to continue to make our rules clearer to the community to remove any ambiguity that may exist. We fully understand that we are not perfect, but considering this is a community-driven league, we want to do what is best for our community in the fairest way possible, while upholding the RGL standards and views that the league promotes. It is with your help and support that allows us to continue to do this, so we appreciate it.