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The League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) is currently in the fifth week of play in the 2022 Summer Split and the standings in the league are shaping up pretty steadily. On 13th July, T1 and Hanwha Life Esports (HLE) went head-to-head in the first series of the day and T1 came out on top by defeating HLE with a 2-1 score. However, the series was arduous and taxing for both the squads since it was plagued by pauses and a chronobreak. One of the bugs resulted in a near half-hour pause, leading to T1’s jungler Mun "Oner" Hyeon-jun issuing a clarification after the series, explaining what actually happened in the game.
Game pauses in the series between T1 and HLE
The first game was a standard win for T1 which ran a team composition with two enchanter supports. As soon as the carries bought their core items, T1 was able to run its opponents over in a convincing fashion and win the first match.
The second game of the series was when the hiccups began. T1 paused the second game of the series at the four-minute mark in response to Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong’s request. The casters stated that they did not want to confirm anything without an official update and said that it was a "rune issue" on Gumayusi's end. However, since the game was already four minutes in, it was unpaused and the players continued to play. Eventually, HLE won the second game and equaled the series.
The third match of the series was the longest one. T1 looked strong and Gumayusi on Kalista picked up five quick kills within eight minutes in the game. However, soon after this, the match was paused for 26 minutes because of a Smite bug on Oner’s Xin Zhao. Minutes after the pause, the casters realized that it was not requested by either team but was from the match referee. Later, the broadcast played a clip that showed Oner using his Smite summoner spell an extra time because of a cooldown bug. He reportedly used Smite thrice when he should have been able to use the spell only twice.
The casters also stated that the bug could occur when a jungler invades the enemy jungler. The referees called for a chronobreak and the game was reset back to when Oner invaded HLE’s jungle.
As a result, T1 lost its gargantuan lead on the bottom side and had to start the third game again at 3-minutes without any kills in its pocket. However, this setback did not affect T1 as it came out with guns blazing after the chronobreak and won the series.
Oner talks about what happened in-game
Without a proper clarification from the league and Riot Games officials, the onus was on Oner to explain that he was not exploiting any bug and that he was not at fault. The player posted an Instagram story which was later translated into English by Ashley Kang.
Oner wrote, “I did not abuse a bug during game three. I was focused on playing the match, then around the 4-5 minute mark, I saw I had an extra Smite. I thought it was strange and told the Referee around twice. But they did not say anything, so I continued.”
Defending Oner, T1’s CEO stated that this horrible situation where the player had to defend himself could have been avoided if the league issued a statement on what actually happened. “We support Oner 1000% and I hope the community will as well. @T1LoL will fight for Hyeon-jun!,” said Marsh.
Marsh also stated that they were unhappy with the way the pauses were handled by Riot Games and the LCK. He assured that he and head coach Choi "Polt" Seong-hun will continue to discuss the matter privately before escalating it to the league.
According to Ashely Kang, in the post-game interview, Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok talked about encountering in-game bugs. He reportedly said, “As a professional player, I've been experiencing uncomfortable situations due to [in-game bugs] the last several years. It's 'regretful' that Riot does not resolve this area. I was disappointed throughout today's series." Faker also hoped that Riot Games would resolve these issues and provide quality games for the fans in the future.
