The player is implicated in gambling and scrim info leaks

Beyond Gaming Mid Laner Maoan Banned from Worlds

Esports 09-10-2021 16:12

Just hours after Beyond Gaming's reverse sweep of Galatasaray Esports, the team's mid laner Chien "Maoan" Mao-An is in the middle of a huge online scandal and has been suspended by Riot Gaming for the duration of Worlds for association with gambling.

Pacific Championship Series runner-up Beyond Gaming has had a difficult time in the play-in groups at Worlds. After ending in fourth place with a 1-3 record and having to play a tiebreaker against Unicorns of Love for the spot in the direct eliminations, the PCS runner-up went to all five games against Galatasaray Esports on Saturday for a chance to take on LCK's Hanwha Life Esports. A Best of five series against the Korean team was never going to be easy - and as a result of a big unexpected scandal, it's now going to be a lot harder.

Summary [1/4]:
1. a screenshot of maoan's chat got leaked, with him saying "Sylas and Orianna, but dont buy too much it's just a high chance"
2. the person who posted the screenshot deleted their account
3. BYG's boss Dinter says on stream that he asked Maoan if it's true
— Reirachu (@Reirachuu) October 8, 2021

The storm started when Jenny "Reirachu" Lee, caster and host for the PCS, posted a series of tweets about developments at Beyond Gaming. Apparently, while streaming team owner Xue "DinTer" Hong-Wei announced that Maoan had admitted he was involved in leaking information about the team's scrims. DinTer stated that he has submitted the information to Riot and was waiting for a ruling.

Competitive Ruling: Chien "Maoan" Mao-An pic.twitter.com/x4c8Lhw5n7
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) October 8, 2021

Riot's answer came last night as Director of Operations Tim Martell confirmed that Maoan had violated a rule in the World Championship ruleset, prohibiting association with gambling. As a result, the player was immediately banned for the rest of the event. The Riot investigation is still ongoing and it is very likely that there will be additional penalties involved.

This is one of the biggest scandals in recent pro League of Legends. While Maoan is far from the first player being banned, the severity of the issue and it happening at Worlds makes this one of the biggest black eyes for the PCS' reputation - and, indirectly, to Riot's - in recent years. The tweets that started this scandal indicate that Maoan might not be the only person involved and we hope Riot - or the internet - will get to the bottom of this.

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Beyond Gaming, meanwhile, play with Hanwha Life Esports today. For more information about the fight for the last two Worlds Main Event spots, check out our coverage and make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook!