Riot has announced that they will be deferring the competitive ruling on the former Head Coach for Griffin/current Head Coach for DragonX, Kim ‘cvMax’ Dae-ho. After their announcement on the initial competitive ruling on the former director of Griffin, Cho Gyu-nam, cvMax, and Team Griffin, there was much uproar in the community, with regards to how the punishment for coercion and unfair contracting of a minor is the same as cursing and ‘pinching a player very hard’, and that it’s retaliation for whistleblowing. The ruling on cvMax even led to a government petition, which has over 200,000 online signatures.

The following are the details of Riot’s statement regarding the retraction of cvMax’s initial competitive ruling.

Deferment on cvMax’s competitive ruling and requesting a 3rd party agency for re-investigation.

On the 20th, the LCK Operation Committee has indefinitely banned cvMax from all Riot-affiliated competitive events for verbal and physical violence towards the players.

At the time, the committee has issued such a ruling with detailed evidence at hand, but because of how explicit the content was, and we felt that revealing the information could lead to more damage towards not only cvMax, but also towards the players as well. We deeply apologize for not giving a thorough explanation about the ruling, and for the many misunderstandings that we’ve caused.

The committee accepts the fact that we did not earn the users’ trust, so we’ve decided to postpone our ruling on cvMax until further notice. Regarding this matter, we will also be inquiring a re-investigation to a 3rd party agency. We will be inquiring to an agency that has judicial authority, but public confidence as well. Not only will the investigation process will be transparent, we will be issuing a final competitive ruling by taking both sides of the story into much consideration. Finally, during the investigation process, we will be taking appropriate measures to make sure that there will be as little conflict as possible between all parties.

Furthermore, in the FAQ section of Riot Korea's announcement, they've answered some questions with regards to cvMax. The following are the details of the FAQ section regarding cvMax.

Will cvMax be able to carry out his duties as Head Coach?

As our initial competitive ruling of 'indefinite ban from all Riot-affiliated events' has been deferred, he will be able to carry out his duties as Head Coach.

Before cvMax's ruling, was he investigated by the LCK Operation Committee? Did he have a chance for an appeal after the ruling?

A day before our announcement of the final investigation report, he has testified face to face at the KeSPA office for 90 minutes.

After the announcement was made, he filed many appeals regarding the competitive ruling, and the contents of the matter will be shared with the 3rd party agency.

What were the standards behind your ruling on cvMax?

According to the 2019 League of Legends Champions Korea official rulebook, it states that a ruling on an individual will be based on the GPI (Global Penalty Index), and on a team, it'll be based off the rulebook.

The committee, based on the GPI's "Extreme Misconduct" rule, we've announced the indefinite ban based on our right of being able to change the amount of time on the suspension, if additional punishment was needed.

According to the GPI, even one case of extreme misconduct can land an individual 3 to 10 months of suspension, but since it was confirmed that such misconduct took place multiple times, and based on the evidence that the committee has gathered, we've made such a decision.

How does the committee feel about the government petition?

We're taking the 200,000 signatures on that petition as a very serious warning to Riot Games and KeSPA.

We'll make sure to be as cooperative as possible with the outside agency to keep the investigation process as transparent and fair as possible.