Amihan Esports Receives 12-month Ban from Riot Games for Violation of Age Rule

Philippine League of Legends: Wild Rift organization, Amihan Esports, received sanctions from Riot Games Southeast Asia (SEA) Esports due to submitting inaccurate documentation for its team roster. The penalties were imposed on Saturday, 17th July 2021, giving Amihan Esports a 12-month ban from all official Riot Games tournaments. According to Riot Games SEA Esports’ blog post, Karl “AMI Karlll” Ken Bautista, received a 9-month ban from all Riot Games esports, former Amihan Esports team manager, Christian Villegas received a 12-month ban, and Francis Mariano, the team owner of Amihan Esports, received an indefinite ban from all official Riot Games esports tournaments. Mariano will be eligible to apply for reinstatement after two years from the date of this announcement.

Amihan Esports Receives Penalty for Inaccurate Documentation

According to Riot Games’ official blog post, the issue started when Karl “AMI Karlll” Ken Bautista was accused of map hacking and providing inaccurate player documentation for the SEA Icon Series Philippines Summer Season back in June 2021. Riot Games SEA Esports investigated the matter and found the pro player's gameplay to be clean and his submitted birth certificate to be legitimate.

However, new evidence about AMI Karlll’s inaccurate documentation was received by Riot in July 2021 which reopened the investigations. Despite the pro player being proven clean of any map hacking accusations, Riot Games received admissions and evidence that his documents were indeed forged.

The PPGL 2021 Summer Season champions, Amihan Esports, received a series of sanctions imposed by Riot Games SEA Esports including a 12-month ban from competing in all official Riot Games tournaments for breaching Rule 2.3 (Age) of the Wild Rift SEA Icon Series Philippines Competition Policy, for presenting forged documents that misrepresented the actual age of one of its players, AMI Karlll.

Rule 2.3 (Age) states that no player is allowed to participate in any Icon Series-affiliated match before their 17th birthday, defined as having lived 17 full years.

The members who were involved in the issue received a series of penalties, effective immediately.

• Karl “AMI Karlll” Ken Bautista received a 9-month ban from all official Riot Games esports tournaments.

• Christian Villegas, former team manager, received a 12-month ban from all official Riot Games esports tournaments.

• Francis Mariano, team owner, received an indefinite ban from official Riot Games esports tournaments. He will be eligible to apply for reinstatement after 2 years from the date of this announcement (17th July 2021).

Additionally, Amihan Esports will have to forfeit its prize winnings from both the SEA Icon Series Philippines Summer Season and the SEA Icon Series Summer Super Cup. The forfeited winnings will then be donated to a charity chosen by Riot Games, through its Social Impact Fund.

Amihan Esports will also have to give up its slot in the SEA Icon Series Fall Season. A new team will fill their spot which will be announced at a later date.

“Maintaining the competitive integrity of all our esports tournaments, as well as the safety and well-being of pro teams, are Riot’s top priorities, and we take such violations extremely seriously,” stated Riot Games.

At the time of writing this, Amihan Esports has not made an official announcement about the incident. AFK Gaming is independently investigating the matter and will publish a detailed story as soon as we verify the information sent to us.