After a few days of controversy and tension, Riot Games finally decided to impose a sanction on the Forsaken and Bushido Wildcats teams. This punishment is due to the conduct of certain players and the clubs themselves before the match between the two teams during the EMEA Masters.

To put the events into context, the two teams were tied at 3-3 in the EMEA Masters and had to play one final match to determine which of the two would advance to the round of sixteen next week. The day before the match, the Turkish team posted a video on X, taken from a stream of one of the Forsaken players.

It shows the Polish team's players lowering their pants and making obscene gestures in front of the camera after a play-in victory against Rich Gang. Bushido Wildcats mentions Riot Games, deeming this kind of behavior unacceptable and then accuses the players of having made racist slurs on the stream of Oguzhan "Oguzkhan" Delihasanoğlu, Turkish player for Rich Gang.

An escalation of bad behavior up to the match

The situation did not stop there, and it also caused Forsaken as well as the fans of both teams involved to react. The Polish team returned the accusation, claiming that the insults came first from the Rich Gang player. Many insults were exchanged between fans, even spilling over into racism several times. Forsaken's toplaner, Dawid "Melonik" Ślęczka, himself posted a video on his X account where he hurled insults in Turkish under the guise of jokes.

With such a tense context, the match promised to be electric. It was ultimately Forsaken who emerged victoriously from the clash. With a 2-1 win, they secured their qualification for the next stage of the tournament. The match was played in front of 83,571 viewers according to Esports Charts, making it the fourth most-watched encounter of the tournament so far. Another proof that the taste of blood always tends to attract more people.

Firm sanctions from Riot Games

Faced with such shocking attitudes from both sides, Riot Games decided to crack down and hand out the sanctions. Forsaken and Bushido Wildcats both received warnings for violating their general obligations and vulgar and provocative behavior according to the code of conduct. In addition to the warning, Melonik also received a two matches suspension to be served immediately for his overall attitude during the controversy. Ziyad Misali, CEO of the Misa Esports team, also received a warning for a tweet posted before the match where he hurled insults at Forsaken and their players.

Forsaken apparently does not agree with the suspension of their toplaner and has responded with the hashtag #FreeMelonik, while the CEO of Misa Esports has deemed his sanction irrelevant. It may not be over yet, as Forsaken will meet Misa Esports again in the round of 16 of the EMEA Masters. With a warning issued, the teams should, however, be calmer before the match this time.