Various players and figures from esports organisation T1 have criticised League of Legends developer Riot Games and the LCK after the team’s Summer Split series against Hanwha Life was marred by a lengthy pause and controversial Chronobreak.
With the series tied at 1-1, game three began with T1 dominating from the outset. At around seven and a half minutes, with T1 about to secure its sixth kill of the game, the game was paused by the referee. It transpires that jungler Moon ‘Oner’ Hyeon-joon had loaded into the game with an extra Smite. The halt in play lasted for close to half an hour as the referees looked to resolve the issue and determine when the game should be restarted from using a Chronobreak, and the decision was made to go back to the third minute of the match, meaning T1 lost all of its previously-earned kills.
Defending himself after the match on Instagram (and translated into English by journalist Ashley Kang), Oner says: “I did not abuse a bug during game three. I was focused on playing the match, then around the 4-5 minute mark I saw I had an extra Smite. I thought it was strange and told the referee around twice. But they did not say anything, so I continued.”
T1’s CEO, Joe Marsh, has also come to Oner’s defence after the jungler began to receive criticism for playing with the extra Smite.
“It’s horrible that Oner has to defend himself when [the LCK] can easily put a statement out clearly stating that what happened wasn’t his fault and he tried to raise the issue,” he says on Twitter. “We support Oner 1,000% and I hope the community will as well. [T1] will fight for Hyeon-jun!”
It’s horrible that @0nerren0 has to defend himself when @LCK can easily put a statement out clearly stating that what happened wasn’t his fault and he tried to raise the issue. We support Oner 1000% and I hope the community will as well. .@T1LoL will fight for Hyeon-jun!
— Joe (@JoeMar) July 13, 2022
Marsh also says in a separate tweet that he is “unhappy” with how the Chronobreak was dealt with and questions whether there is “a better way to handle breaks”.
There has also been criticism in the post-match press conference, in which legendary midlaner Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok expressed his views on the match and the wider issue of bugs affecting League of Legends esports.
“During the Spring Split, including today, the pause issues are solved way too later than they should be,” Faker says (transcribed and translated by Inven Global). “It’s unfortunate that the game was affected by that. As for today, we had five kills – whatever the reason, we had to do it over. It was bad for myself as an esports player, but I think this is an unfortunate result that lowers esports’ value in the eyes of fans.
“I also feel bad that there have been several other things that are inconvenient as a pro player, yet they [Riot] don’t fix them. I was [very] disappointed about these issues in today’s game. I hope they fix these things as soon as possible for esports fans and for the development of esports.”
Faker also adds that he hopes Riot can “provide a better quality game to the fans” and thanks the LCK supporters that stuck around during the extended pause.
Despite the disruption, T1 closed out the series against Hanwha and remain at the top of the Summer Split group stage table with an 8-1 record.
