Professional LoL Player Fined A Month's Salary For In-Game Mistake

With Shenzhen confirmed to be hosting the League of Legends World Championships 2021 Grand Finals, the hope in the city was that their representative team, Victory Five, would be able to climb through the ranks of the LPL and make a surprise run to appear on home soil.

However, the raw talents on show have yet to light up the stage in China, and they sit rock-bottom of the group stages, failing to scratch together a single win so far. With a 0-13 record, Victory Five's woes have now gone from bad to worse.

Facing off against 2020 Worlds runners-up, Suning, Victory Five jungler Peng “pzx” Zhan-Xiang made an almighty blunder that cost them any early advantages and was arguably the main reason they lost the game - despite it happening within the first minute.

The V5 jungler had accidentally opted for a Teleport, rather than a Smite, in the opening exchanges, which meant he was unable to level up from the first set of camps and was forced to retreat to his nexus. Still sat at level 1, with no further items added, his counterpart, Lê "SofM" Quang Duy had reached level four, and was well on his way to dominating the entire round.

The blunder was reportedly a consequence of a solo-queue match that pzx had played, in which he used his tournament account before the official LPL league fixture. As he picked his Champion, Viego, the accident wasn't noticed until it was too late; LPL officials ruled out any restarts, in accordance with the league rules.

pzx Docked A Month's Wages For Huge LPL In-Game Mistake

According to the organisation's post on their website, Victory Five docked a month's wages from the player.

Loosely translated, via Google, the post reads: "After serious discussion, we've decided to deduct the wages of the jungler pzx this month, and made serious criticisms to prevent such mistakes happening again".

The post also adds that "After the game, pzx also apologised to the coaching staff and teammates, and promised that, afterwards, there will be no similar failures. The team will also take a warning to prevent such mistakes."

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Despite the blunder, and having only taken two rounds out of a total 29 played so far in the Summer Split, Victory Five was able to notch up a Game 2 victory over Suning. However, the reigning silver medalists took control in the final round and dealt V5 their 13th consecutive loss.

With just three games left, Shenzhen's hopes of Victory Five appearing on the world stage are impossible fantasies, however, they will still be hopeful that they can break their duck before the season concludes.