South Korea bans LOL accounts from Chinese mainland

World
Europe

Multiple Chinese professional players in the League of Legends Pro League (LPL) found that their accounts hosted by a South Korean server had been banned, reported People's Daily on Friday.

Fenfen, member of Team SNG posted on Weibo: "I just lost my two-year-old ROK-server account." ZZR, former member of Team Snake said the same happened to his account. Meanwhile, netizens started to comment about more accounts with IPs from the Chinese mainland being banned.

The ban did not stop with professional players but also hit LOL livestreaming players. According to many netizens, all LOL accounts that have been logged in with IPs from Chinese mainland have been banned on the South Korean server with only professional South Korea players in LPL as exceptions, reported People's Daily.

ZZR, former member of Team Snake found that his LOL account at South Korean server was banned. /Screenshot from Weibo

Though there are indeed rules forbidding LOL players from competing for ranking outside the servers they belong to, the timing of the ban could easily lead people to connect it with South Korea's loss at the LOL final at the 2018 Asian Games.

The introduction of eSports at the 2018 Asian Games was the first time that video games joined a formal international sports event. South Korea for years has dominated both the professional leagues and tournaments of LOL and thus wanted to bag home first gold medal of the game at the Asian Games. However, they lost to China 1-3 in the final, the team that they beat twice at the group stage.

Chinese netizens clearly are not happy with the ban, commented under the posts of banned players criticizing South Korea for being "narrow-minded" and called their team "a sore loser."

(Top picture: Comments about South Korea banning LOL accounts with Chinese mainland IPs at South Korean server /Screenshot from Weibo)