Riot Games have issued a competitive ruling fining OPL team Tainted Minds $7,000 AUD and putting them on a six-month competitive probation after a multi-week investigation into the circumstances that led their former roster to leave the team and declare their contracts breached. Should they breach their probation any time over the next six months, Tainted Minds will be expelled from the OPL. A breach of probation entails ‘any further rulings regarding any material contractual violations with players or other team staff.” According to Riot, after interviews with the players and management as well as combing through over 250 chat logs, investigators found that Tainted Minds had failed to pay its players for Weeks 3 and 4 within the required time frame. Riot also found that the org also did not live up to its contractual obligation to provide the roster’s coach and manager with computers. While much of the former roster’s issues with the org stemmed from the inadequate conditions of their team house, including sporadic internet and electricity, Riot Games says that because the property was rented, the failure to deal with the issues was primarily the landlord’s, not Tainted Minds. “We reviewed emails from representatives of Tainted Minds to its landlord’s representatives throughout December, January and February, including multiple emails seeking permission for improvements made to the house at the team’s expense,” the competitive ruling said. “At no point do we believe that the players’ safety was in jeopardy. We have heard directly from the players involved they did not feel unsafe or at risk in the house, and communications between players and Riot OCE team members at the time confirmed the same.” Riot does point out however that Tainted Minds’ communications with the roster regarding their attempts to deal with the housing issues were “unprofessional” and did factor into the decision to place the org on probation. “We ultimately believe that teams should be responsible for effectively communicating with and addressing their team’s needs, within reason,” the ruling said. “This failure in communication/team management weighed into our decision to place the team on probation.” While the roster’s former coach, Nick “Inero” Smith, accused Riot OCE’s Daniel Ringland of showing bias to Tainted Minds during the team’s mediation with the players due to a relationship with Tainted Minds investor John McCrae regarding a high school League of Legends program, Riot says they found no evidence of conflict of interest. “We found no evidence that Tainted Minds was treated differently than any other organization would have been in the same position, and no business relationship existed—public or otherwise—between companies affiliated with Tainted Minds’ owners and Riot team members or Riot,” the competitive ruling said. “Specifically, the amateur high school tournament run by a company affiliated with an owner of Tainted Minds is supported by Riot through the same program as all high school competition in the region and run by a completely separate department in the OCE office.” The ruling also says that Riot will be taking additional measures to prevent a similar situation in the future, including instituting a dedicated email address for any pro player can use to reach Riot’s home office directly with a guaranteed 24-hour response. They will also work towards a standard investigative process that will be applied to all regions and clarifying the staff roles within OPL teams. Though Tainted Minds refused to acknowledge that they had breached their contracts with their players, keeping them on their roster in Riot’s contract database, the org has settled with the majority of players over the past several weeks. They requested the release of the final two members of the roster, Tristan “Cake” Côté-Lalumière and Andrew “Rosey” Rose, on April 4. In response to Riot’s competitive ruling, Cake released a Twitlonger expressing disappointment in how they handled the investigation. “Let’s be real, without going public nothing would’ve happened, the only reason Riot central even investigated the whole issue was because I went public and because it hit front page of reddit,” he wrote. “Nick went public in February, 3 weeks before I did, and nothing happened on Riot OCE or Riot Central’s side. I am choosing to not violate my most recent NDA, but I had no choice but to violate my previous ones If I wanted to be able to play next split.”