Sometimes, you gotta wonder if some folks just don’t learn. A group of players known from Counter-Strike apparently thought it’d be a clever idea to jump into League of Legends with a completely fake pro team in the Rift Legends league, only to get caught rigging their very first match. And nope, they didn’t even get a chance to cover their tracks.
Tier 2 esports leagues have been known to be vulnerable to match fixing for years now. It’s almost as if some teams survive purely because of these shady practices. Earlier this year, a Valorant scandal revealed tier 2 teams betting massive sums on matches. League of Legends has its own dark stories, too, especially in China’s tier 2 scene, where dozens of players got banned for similar offenses.
Fake LoL Team Gets Thrown Out Immediately
Competing in those leagues isn’t exactly a goldmine. Riot even had to cut some rules for LCS (now LTA) teams to keep them afloat, such as no longer requiring them to have mandatory Tier 2 rosters. But some teams try less lawful routes to make quick cash.
One Lithuanian team called MY STAR ditched their entire roster before the Rift Legends 2025 Summer Split, putting together a brand new lineup that looked like they barely knew the game. It didn’t take long for things to unravel. Their first game was a disaster, with players dying repeatedly and playing like they’d never touched League before. Balukos, one of the players, was especially brutal, dying five times in lane before 10 minutes.
Viewers also noticed something fishy about the players’ webcams: their expressions barely changed, and nobody spoke during the matches, which is weird for a professional game where communication is key. Even weirder, the webcam of Balukos looked suspiciously like Lesterik, a former main roster player who was technically on the bench at the time.
Balukos was listed as Luka Glisic, but Lesterik’s real name is Danijel Šego. So either they looped Lesterik’s webcam or Lesterik himself was somehow involved. Either way, these inconsistencies, combined with the obvious match-fixing, led to MY STAR being immediately booted from the league for breaking rules and match-fixing.
To add a twist, two players from the fake team, Kory and LakatosD, have past accusations of match fixing in Counter-Strike, though those were never proven. Kory uses the same name in League, while LakatosD goes by SZLOBESZKOV in CS. The entire affair reeks of a sloppy attempt to capitalize on rigged matches.
So, what’s the takeaway here? Trying to fake your way into pro play and rig games is just dumb, especially when you get caught right away on camera. It’s a shame for the scene, but perhaps it’ll deter some people from trying the same stunt.
