LCK Issues Clarity on Controversial Pause Between T1 vs DK

The League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) released a statement explaining the long game pause during the second match of the series between T1 and Damwon Kia (DK) on 23rd Feb. Following technical issues with T1’s mid-laner Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, the team requested a pause to sort it out. However, even upon the request of the player and the team, the referee refused to go through with the pause initially.

While the situation was being reassessed as the players were in-game, Faker had mistakenly burnt his summoner spell Flash, following which the game was eventually paused. The Korean league decided to Chronobreak the match just before the summoner spell was used. This move caught the audience and the players of Damwon Kia by surprise.

LCK’s statement on the issue

The LCK stated that during the drafting phase of the second game of the series, Faker reported an issue with the team’s voice communication audio and had the headset replaced during the loading screen. However, Faker continued to check the audio of the new headset and asked for a pause. The referee did not accept the pause because he had already raised the audio issue during the checklist process earlier before game one.

The LCK elucidated further that the audio could tend to cut off depending on the decibel of the player’s voice. Since the issue was regarded to be one of this nature, the pause was not granted. But, after confirming that one side of the headset was experiencing technical problems, the referee granted the pause request.

Amidst all this, Faker had mistakenly used his flash and the LCK authorities decided to opt for a Chronobreak. “As a result, the decision to grant the Chronobreak to the time before the use of Flash was made, deeming that the use of Flash was the result of the referee and league operations actions rather than the player,” clarified the LCK.

The league further elaborated that explaining the turn of events to DK required more time and later, both the teams accepted the Chronobreak.

The LCK apologized to the teams for the issue in operations and also to the fans and spectators. Regarding the referee, the league stated that it was planning to request a disciplinary review from the Referee Committee of the Korea e-Sports Association (KeSPA).

LCK releases video and audio of the pause issue

The Korean league wrote on Twitter, “In order to prevent misguided criticism of the referee in question, an exception was made to release the video and audio of the pause issue from Match 52,” and linked a Youtube clip from the match.

The community weighed in on the situation and pointed out that Faker’s new headset could have been tested before starting the match. A majority of the fans urged the LCK to handle such peripheral issues better in the future.

Nevertheless, the community appreciated the LCK for being transparent and for being more communicative with its fans.