Report Alleges That G2 Esports and Perkz Engaged In Player Poaching
By Zac Cameron ·
The former kings of Europe are under the microscope as a new report alleges they have broken several rules revolving around player poaching in the EU LCS.
Update 7th December: Riot Games has responded to the allegations surrounding Perkz and G2 Esports, with a statement to PCGamesN:
“At this time the League Office has not received any formal complaints from any LEC teams. A single complaint was voiced towards the League by another party, but it concerns events that occurred well outside the respective limitation period. The Limitation Period of a rule violation determines how long an offence is punishable and therefore is subject to a formal League investigation. Regarding Caps, Fnatic have signed an Availability Declaration Form (blank form can be found attached to the Rulebook as Exhibit C) allowing him to talk to all teams since the 9th of November.”
Original article published December 3rd as follows.
G2 Esports and star player Luka “Perkz” Perković have come under fire today, after a report emerged from VP Esports that alleged that multiple organization from the LEC would be submitting formal complaints to Riot Games regarding apparent player poaching.
The report alleges that both Perks and G2 Esports have engaged in player poaching over the past few years in the EU LCS, violating several rules set in place by Riot Games. The complaints date back to 2016 and allege that Perkz was the initial vehicle through which these poaching allegations took place. Allegedly, Perkz would approach the players he desired to play with on Skype, Discord, Facebook, and through the League of Legends client, then G2 Esports would “close the deal”.
The complaints themselves center around the acquisition of Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen and Alfonso “Mithy” Aguirre back when they were playing for Origen, alleging that Perkz was warned informally by Riot Games for his part in the players decision to leave the organization and sign on with G2 Esports. Additionally, the report alleges that Perkz approached Andrei “Odoamne” Pascu at a swimming pool at the 2016 World Championships to discuss the possibility of him joining the roster.
A further complaint alleges that Kim “Wadid” Bae-in and Petter “Hjarnan” Freyschuss were both approached by Perkz before their free agency kicked in, before the players agreed to join G2 Esports. Sam Matthews, founder of longtime EU LCS rival Fnatic, tweeted on November 23rd “one of the perkz of my job is I don’t poach.” Which was possibly a reference to the later announcement that Fnatic’s star mid laner Rasmus “Caps” Winther was improperly approached before his decision to join G2 Esports for the 2019 season. If these allegations prove to be true, the penalties handed down by Riot Games could prove to be quite severe, with former penalties including a $10,000 fine shared between Counter Logic Gaming and William “Scarra” Li, and the suspension of Noh “Ninja” Geon-woo for two months for the role he played in contacting Lee “Fury” Jin-yong on behalf of Team Dragon Knights, despite Fury being under contract with Samsung Galaxy at the time.