We may now be getting into "Danger, Will Robinson!" territory with the Warriors...

I can't say anything directly happened (YET!) in that fourth quarter to create a 13-point reversal of fortune in the one good quarter Golden State had in Oklahoma this series.

That said, there is this:

From Yardbarker:  Game 6 drew a 7.9 on TNT -- on a Saturday night on cable.

Fourth highest rated NBA game in the history of cable.

2012 Heat-Celtics Games 6 and 7 are #1 and #3, Game 7 of Pacers-Heat (the Floyd Mayweather flier, if you recall) is #2.

Game 5 of the series ranks #7 at a 7.6.  One has to wonder what Game 7 might draw.

A Death Which Might Set The NBA Dialogue Back A Long Time

As Golden State attempts to survive tonight in a must-win Game 6 in Oklahoma, much of the NBA's attention is turned elsewhere.

Reports came in this morning and early afternoon that Bryce Dejean-Jones was killed this morning with a gunshot wound to the abdomen in Texas.

Dejean-Jones played for the New Orleans Pelicans as he worked his way from being an undrafted free agent to his dream in the NBA, even if it was only as a bit player.

Problem is, it sounds like none of this should've happened, and his conduct may well have contributed to his death.

There was a reason he was undrafted.  First, he left USC after being involved in a physical altercation and punching a player.  He transferred to UNLV, and, after ending one season there, got in another physical altercation with a player Dejean-Jones claims told him he wanted to shoot him to his face!  A stint at Iowa State, where he got noticed enough and stood out enough to get to the Pelicans, was marked with a noise complaint and an arrest for the use of marijuana.

This had all the earmarks for a tragedy and boo-hoo for the player, until the Dallas Morning News came in with more details...

It was 3:20 AM, and Dejean-Jones attempted to kick in his estranged girlfriend's apartment front door.

The second problem is that it wasn't his girlfriend's apartment -- the guy inside shot him and killed him.

Dejean-Jones had just signed a three-year contract in February.

Thanks, Mr. Dejean-Jones.  You have just given the NFL Football Nation America more ammo that the NFL is only a "few bad apples" and the NBA is full of thugs.

And this, today, may be only one way the NBA Dialogue gets set back a long time in favor of our Lord And Master, Roger Goodell.

The second may be forthcoming in about 30 minutes -- last I checked, Oklahoma State had a small lead in the 3rd quarter.  They win tonight, and 73-9 don't mean a damn thing!!!

E-Sports: I'll Give You The Good News First

... and then double up on the other side of the equation.

• Riot Games scored, quite literally, a Hollywood coup with the ownership group of Phoenix1.

Thursday night, the veil was finally lifted on the mysterious tenth North American LCS team, Phoenix1 -- and boy, what was found behind it.

Not only did the team announce a 7-man roster (three of which came from the team it replaced, Team Impulse (reports vary on whether Team Impulse actually sold the team or whether Riot seized it and this is who came forward)), but listen to the ownership group:

1. Rob Moore, the vice-chairman of Paramount Pictures.
2. His son Michael, who will act as the team's managing partner.
3. And Hollywood director Jack Giarraputo.  You may recognize the name from a lot of the hit Adam Sandler movies.

That's a big move.  A HUGE move.  The team may or may not gel in time to actually do much in the Summer Split, but it's clear someone wanted to make a move.

Unfortunately, now, two pieces of bad news:

• First, the sublime.  For the second consecutive split in a row, Team Liquid (one of the few stable franchises in the North American LCS) has had to suspend and submit for release (AKA "FIRE") one of it's starting players for insubordination.

Some background on the first one:  About a month after last year's World Championships, Team Liquid starting top laner (usual position is the top of three lanes on the map) Diego Ruiz, named "Quas", was suspended for an apparent mental health incident at the headquarters of Team Liquid.  He sat out the spring split, was fired by Team Liquid, temporarily retired from the sport, and has now signed with fellow LCS team NRG Gaming.

Now, you can add their jungler (between the lanes of the map in the middle of the map is a large jungle -- it is one player's responsibility to control that jungle and provide vision for the team to see the other team's movements and kill monsters in the jungle to buff the team up) to the mix.

On Friday, Team Liquid announced a similar suspension to Joshua Hartnett, "Dardoch".  Hartnett was named Rookie of the Split for the Spring Split and had promise in front of him to become a major American star in League of Legends...

Well, let his coach Yoonsup "Locodoco" Choi tell you what happened next:

"We have decided to suspend Dardoch due to his insubordinate behavior. It may come as a surprise to our fans that we're starting the season this way. Yet as a coach, I believe that League of Legends is fundamentally a team game and a player who can't see eye to eye with that and can't put the team before oneself regardless of his skill will only stunt the team in the long run. We believe that 5 players under a single vision, putting everything we have to improve as a unit and working selflessly, is the best way to a healthy and a successful team environment. While this is a big change, we are moving closer to that environment with the suspension. We're going to succeed through our teamwork and effort, not individual players, and I still remain confident that we have a bright Summer Split ahead of us."

Fair to say, Dardoch is in serious trouble -- not only with Team Liquid, who will cut him at first opportunity, but with Riot Games, who may add significant further sanctions (or, like with  Quas, let the sanctions Team Liquid imposed stand).

Dardoch is in trouble for a number of offenses, including conduct unbecoming a professional player (which is a suspension offense on it's own).

His most serious possibilities, however, come as a function of violations of the core rules of cooperative and competitive play of League of Legends, The Summoner's Code.

The Code, in short, lists the core principles players of League of Legends must abide by:

1. Support your team.
2. Drive constructive feedback.
3. Facilitate civil discussion.
4. Enjoy yourself, but not at anyone else's expense.
5. Build Relationships.
6. Show humility in victory, grace in defeat.
7. Be resolute, not indignant.
8. Leave no newbie behind.
9. Lead by example.

By Locodoco's throwing under the bus (this isn't just a "statement", he chucked Dardoch under the bus here), Dardoch appears to be in violation of every one of these which does not involve direct competition on the Rift (the first five).

And, in having to suspend two players, Team Liquid themselves may be beginning the process toward endangering their future in the NA LCS and Challenger Series.  No one will confuse that Team Liquid has not been forthright with their actions (unlike the example I am about to give), but one more of these, and Riot Games may have to consider sanctions against the team for the actions of the players, not unlike when the Oceanic Pro League threw out, mid-season, Rich Gang for three suspensions within about a three-week period.

• Now to the ridiculous.  One of the most ambitious announcements of the 2015 Game Awards was Turner Networks and "ELEAGUE".  A 24-team Counterstrike:  Global Offensive tournament, ELEAGUE is the largest move of a major television player in the United States into e-sports.

Too bad there may not be 24 teams much longer.  (One team was already replaced due to visa issues -- this can happen and is not what I'm talking about.)

The same night as the first airing of the $1,400,000 per season league, controversy shook the league when ESPN reported one of the weirdest tampering stories I've heard in a LONG TIME.

SK Gaming and Luminosity Gaming are two of the 24 teams in the league.  On the same night Luminosity Gaming won the first season's Group A (each team plays a round-robin of the other teams in their group over the course of a single week, with the finals of that group culminating on TBS on Friday night), Jacob Wolf reports that SK Gaming believes it has contracts with not just one member of Luminosity Gaming, but their entire roster, plus the manager and coach!

The dispute charges that SK Gaming has poached the entire Luminosity team for this tournament - lock, stock, and barrel!!!  The contracts would go into effect July 1 (which would impact Luminosity's ability to complete the tournament -- the bracket for the prize money takes place in July), and ESPN states that SK Gaming believes it has a proper chain of communication going back to February.

But here's the kicker:  Under current professional Counterstrike: Global Offensive rules, there is NO APPARENT RULE similar to the League of Legends rules to prevent tampering!!!

This entire ELEAGUE situation (which also involves significant online presence) could go up in flames quite quickly!!!

Stay tuned.

Berman leaving, but getting the big sendoff? Pardon me while I retch.

I probably would get stoned for using his home run call to do it, but there are many reports out there saying that Chris Berman will join the growing list of parties leaving ESPN.

Berman's agent is denying all reports (and states that the reports are being circulated by parties with an agenda -- and that can be both ESPN and other parties!), but I just had to bring up this one thing and prepare the barf bags.

The current story is that Berman will leave at the end of his current contract after the NFL season.  No problems there.

The problem is that Berman, who has been at the network since effectively Day One, will get a "Farewell Tour" send-off, according to reports such as this one on Sports Media Watch.

NHL, once again, proves why it is NOT a major league...

Another week, another shitting of the bed by the National Hockey League.

Dateline:  Tampa.  The NHL forced Tampa Bay to cancel last night's viewing party for Game 7 in Pittsburgh (which Tampa lost 2-1 -- Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals is in Pittsburgh when they face San Jose Saturday night).  A similar party for Game 5 was held, and drew 8,000 fans to a similar event last year.

The Lightning Twitter account seemed to indicate it was quite well attended.

Get loud, #Bolts fans. Let's get back in this. #PITvsTBL pic.twitter.com/lNJXJfN5YC

— #GoBolts (@TBLightning) May 23, 2016

The NHL told Tampa that they could only hold one event per series.  The NHL threatened to fine the Lightning (and it probably would've been a significant enough amount to get them to stop.

The NHL... is full of shit, according to the Deadspin report on the matter.

The NBC networks, all SIX OF THEM, are testing out their Olympic formula by doing two things:

1) By making sure every playoff game is somewhere on national cable, the NHL cannot create a playoff package like it's more-than-acceptable NHL GameCenter to actually grow the sport and have people who have cut the cord actually *gasp!* pay to watch the games!!!  (Much like their Olympic coverage, which now requires a cable subscription to get ANY live feeds.)

2) Hopscotching people all over the place to watch games, including their new NBC Sports Network, on which last night's game was aired.

And, you know what?  They're getting the middle finger, and so is the NHL!

The ratings for the conference finals are getting annihilated, according to Sports Media Watch.

And is it any wonder this is happening, and several reasons can be given:

• Obviously, Football Nation America.
• The aforementioned lack of a US package.  (Canadian fans can still use their analogue of GameCenter through Rogers Cable.)
• Here's a comparison:  Even though the two packages are offered by the same Internet media company:  If a Major League Baseball game is blacked out for one reason or another, it is available on the Internet package 90 minutes after the game ends.  NHL?  FORTY-EIGHT HOURS!
• Gary Bettman being Gary Bettman in general -- in talking with this with a friend, my friend posited that Bettman's prior ties to the NBA might indicate that the NHL Commissioner is trying to kill his league.  There's little to indicate (with strikingly-few franchises in actual hockey botbeds) that my friend is patently wrong.

And there are many others.  But, once again, the NHL shows why it, at best, is the #5 professional sport in the United States right now (and that's only because soccer hasn't caught on with the English-speaking country sans Flag Waving Time and Tiger Woods is not playing in the PGA right now).

Edit to add:  In comparison, the first of three needed season-saving wins for the Warriors last night got the highest overnight NBA ratings since 2002, tied with several other games -- the last series to actually get higher ratings...

The Greatest Tragedy in Sports...  The destruction of the Sacramento Kings by David $tern and the Lakers.

Baylor: Still Not Enough

You can now add the football coach to the list of people being reported fired at Baylor University for the rape scandal.

This should've been the first one, to be blunt -- you have a prima facie case against him, he is responsible for the conduct of his players.  I am so sick and tired of "What do they have to do?  Babysit them??"  If you're going to actually employ or have as a player such an animal, frankly, YES YOU DO.  You have a responsibility to your team, whatever "franchise" it is, and (especially in this case) the safety of everyone else around to take whatever steps become necessary to ensure that these people don't literally become menaces to society (such that this is possible in the Sport of Brain Damage and CTE).

When you have a half a dozen football players who are basically either already in prison, headed there, or being covered up to prevent the first two, the coaching staff should go with them under the crime of "accessory" or "aiding and abetting".  At some point, when you have a pattern of this kind of behavior, it is clear that it's not just "a few bad apples".

A large-scale investigation was handed to Baylor's remaining staff today (current word is that Ken Starr will be "reassigned").  The report is published, you can find the PDF file here:

1. The investigating party found "a fundamental failure by Baylor to implement Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization
   Act of 2013 (VAWA)."  
2. Baylor's responses to reports of this violence "were slow, ad hoc, and hindered by a lack of institutional support and engagement by senior leadership."
3. And there was no recourse under student conduct:  The report "found that the University’s student conduct processes were wholly inadequeate to consistently provide a prompt and equitable response under Title IX".

The document then goes into detail into almost 15 pages of charges against just the football program regarding conduct which could get the University fundamentally shut down with respect to it's disrespect of female students under Title IX.

You really need to read this document.  You need to for several reasons, but I'll give one more just for the obvious:  As people well know, Baylor is one of the few colleges that has actually been able to crack into a more successful program in the only two relevant college sports.

Well, we now know why.

Baylor University (like several cautionary tales before them) created an environment that the athletes were inmates that basically ran the asylum.  As such, their success on the field (and on the court as well) can be tied to a systematic pattern of student and administrator misconduct, and it all basically needs to be nullified.

I found a second .PDF file giving the recommendations to Baylor as to what it needs to do, and most of it is dry stuff:  "Hey guys, follow Title IX" and all that shit.

I like the "apologies and appropriate remedies" one.  This includes financial, probably to the tune of at least eight figures against the victims.

But I have one "appropriate remedy", and there is only one in this case.  THE COMPLETE ABOLITION OF THE BAYLOR ATHLETIC PROGRAM.

This goes back almost 15 years.  Baylor had been an also-ran for many years in the relevant college sports.  In 2003, Patrick Dennehy disappeared and was found murdered by a Baylor teammate.  Further research into Dennehy's presence on the team indicated that Baylor University was engaged in a myriad of violations:

• Dennehy and another player were illegally paid their tuition by the coach (he "resigned").
• The coach was engaged in a series of lies about Dennehy, ranging from posing as his father to portraying Dennehy as a drug dealer!!
• The murderer's wife exposed a massive situation of drug use within the program.  Players routinely failed drug tests for marijuana, but this was never reported.
• The coach was tied to further violations at SMU when the football program was killed by the NCAA (this was the only reason further sanctions weren't given).
• Meals were paid for by coaches.
• Numerous other smaller violations were found.

Basically, by this point, you had cause to shut down the Baylor basketball program -- but The Show Must Go On.  The team probably would've been Death Penaltied for 2005-2006 (and was eligible), but the damage to the monetary worth of their conference meant that Baylor was forced to play conference games only for that season.  Baylor had been to the NCAA tournament once in a half-century.

While we're here, let's add the women's basketball program to the mix.

In 2012, days after the women's team made history and won forty games undefeated to win the national championship, the NCAA found over 1,200 impermissible phone calls within the men's and women's basketball program.  Lesser penalties were imposed.

About the same time the men's program was beginning to get into trouble, the women's program had reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a quarter century.

And then let's circle back to the football and show how devastating some of this garbage is.

The scandal, at the very least, covers the 2009-2016 time period.

From the moment it joined the Big XII in 1996 until this reign of terror began, Baylor was a 1-4 win team.  All of a sudden, about the same time this rape spree and coverup began, the team has gone to six consecutive bowls, winning three, and having their most successful years in four of the last five seasons.

It's time to shut down the Baylor athletic program.  Not just the football.  The university is completely fucking incapable of running an honorable dog show, much less an NCAA athletic program.

It's time to seriously consider shutting down Baylor University, period.  With this pattern of complete lack of regard of human life, dignity, and decency, on at least two different occasions now (if not more! -- I'm lumping this entire 2009-2016 fiasco into one.), we're getting near Penn State levels at this point.

Since the NCAA has no fucking spine, I fully expect about as far as this will go is maybe a two-year bowl-ban and other restrictions.  But the NCAA has no business adjudicating college sports anymore in the first damned place.

Another case for the complete abolishing of football...

I saw this headline three or four times today and I don't even want to have clicked it.

Dateline:  Dietrich, ID  October 23, 2015.  Source:  Today's Washington Post.

An African-American player holds out his hands, thinking he is about to get hugged.

Instead, three Caucasian teammates raped him with a coat hanger.  At least one held him, others performed the act.

Did I mention the player was mentally disabled?

The player is an adult, so is at least one of the attackers.  The accused now face life in prison under state law, while the school district, the families of the accused, and at least 11 employees face an eight-figure Federal lawsuit.

This was not a one-time situation, but MONTHS of allowed abuse that finally ended with the vicious attack.

The accused ringleader of the attack is claimed to be a harassive figure in such a heavy posture that he was basically moved from Texas to Idaho to allow him to actually graduate high school.

Talking about the ringleader, the attacked player's family basically writes a standard charge against the sport of football in high schools across this nation:

“Mr. Howard is a large and aggressive male who had been sent to live with his relatives in Idaho due to his inability to keep out of trouble in Texas,” the lawsuit says. “Mr. Howard is a relative of prominent individuals in the community and, at least in part due to his athletic ability and community connections, the Defendants ignored or were deliberately indifferent to the behavior of Mr. Howard which included aggression, taunting and bullying of The Plaintiff and other students in the District. With deliberate indifference, the Defendants did nothing to curb the vicious acts of Mr. Howard who brought with him from Texas a culture of racial hatred towards the Plaintiff.”

That, save the part of about basically being expelled from Texas (where he now again resides) to get him out of trouble, is football in this nation, people.

Other students at the school were alleged to have stripped the victim naked and taken pictures of him on other occasions.

What the fuck, Idaho?  You want somebody to come up there and burn that fucking school to the goddamned ground???  Is that what it's going to take to wake some of you up?  $10 million basically comes out of your insurance -- at which point you basically drive the entire African-American population of your school district out!!!

In much more important sports news: An NFL GM admits the truth...

Someone is about to get fired with gravest prejudice...

Doug Whaley is about to no longer be the GM of the Buffalo Bills -- either that or the NFL has even less conscience than we thought AND that he has none.

ESPN reports that Whaley, today on WGR Radio:

"This is the game of football," he told WGR 550 radio. "Injuries are part of it. It's a violent game that I personally don't think humans are supposed to play."

THEN QUIT.  SHOW SOME GODDAMN SPINE.

E-Sports Update: The Phoenix Rises, But Whose? And College E-Sports??

Couple of stories today as the summer seasons go into full swing in the Eastern Hemisphere...

• As I reported last night, the tenth team to the North American LCS, the former slot of Team Impulse, was announced as "Phoenix1".  There is, however, no roster, no coach, no apparent owner as of this point.  Until otherwise found, I will assume this is a Riot Games "contingency plan" to ensure "The Show Must Go On" -- something Riot has shown to be very good at, to the detriment of e-sports (which see three different situations which coalesced with the May 8 rulings.)
• UPDATE 6:15 PDT:  There is an apparent roster circulating Reddit, but it has not been confirmed on Riot's LCS website as of yet. At least one slot appears to be a former member of Team Impulse.
• And now word from the Pac-12:  The Pac-12 will become the first college conference to sanction e-sports, and will broadcast them on their conference network.  No word on which or how many games may be involved.  A number of companies, including Riot and others, hold collegiate championships for their games.

And in other "water is wet" news: NFL rewards new stadiums with Super Bowls...

So, let's see here...

• Super Bowl 50/Up R Bowel/Oops:  Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara, CA.  NFL Seasons at time of game:  2
• Super Bowl LI:  Reliant Stadium, Houston, TX.  NFL Seasons at time of game:  15.  It will be the second Super Bowl hosted here, and a rarity on this list.
• Super Bowl LII:  US Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN, the new stadium for the Vikings scheduled to open this year.  If it does, NFL Seasons at the time of the game:  2.
• Super Bowl LIII:  Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, GA, the Space Station new stadium that is rumored to have rumble seats which will shake at the press of a button to simulate the hits.  Scheduled to open in 2017.  If it does, NFL Seasons at the time of the game:  2.
• Super Bowl LIV:  Miami, formerly Sun Life Stadium.  This would be the sixth Super Bowl held there, and the stadium will have hosted 33 NFL seasons at the time of the 2020 contest.  HOWEVER:  The NFL, after the stadium's last Super Bowl in 2010, threatened never to consider the stadium again without significant renovations, including canopies to protect the fans from the Florida rains.  That renovation is to complete (and a new stadium naming-rights deal announced) before this season, a half-billion dollars in renovations was part of the package to get the Super Bowl back to Miami, awarded today along with Atlanta and...
• Super Bowl LV:  ... in the least surprising move in the history of the National Football League, less than three months after the relocation of the Los Angeles Rams and a year or so before either San Diego or Oakland probably joins them, the new Los Angeles stadium (provisionally named at the moment, according to Wikipedia, "City of Champions" Stadium).  Scheduled to open in 2019.  If it does, notice a pattern here!  NFL Seasons at the time of the game:  2.

This means that, of Super Bowls 50-55, four new stadiums ending their second year of usage, one "old" stadium, and one "very old" stadium which the NFL jawboned a half-billion dollars (at least it is reported that it was privately funded) for renovations.

Gee, you don't think that's being used as another stick against potential cities like Oakland?  So should we pencil Super Bowl LVI at MGM Grand Stadium in Las Vegas, NV?

This is a name I haven't heard in a while...

But why the Hell would I be surprised that he's mixed up in THIS...

Ken Starr, who was the "prosecutor" of Bill Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky case, has been fired, per reports, as President of Baylor University as a sex scandal of football players at Baylor threatens to swamp the University.

Baylor has denied the reports, per The Washington Post, but two college sports sites and a reporter from KCEN, the NBC affiliate in Killeen, TX have reported Baylor has fired Starr.

The University, in a statement, has said that they expect an announcement by June 3.

The scandal involves at least six female students and rapes or sexual assaults the University refused to deal with over the last seven years.  At least eight Baylor football players have been accused of such acts and similar over the last eight years, and the inaction, according to the reports, has been blamed more on the University than the football program.

One victim, whose Baylor football rapist was convicted and is serving 20 years, had her parents told, according to a lawsuit she filed that "even if a plane falls on your daughter, there's nothing we can do to help you".

Football Nation America strikes again.

And, OH THAT'S RIGHT:  Same Ken Starr that wanted to nullify legal gay marriages in California when the illegal proposition passed.  What's that, Ken?  You afraid your football players might have competition, because both that attitude and the one you have in Baylor come from the same fucking place, shithead.

Yet Another In The Continuing List...

Another NFL Legend whose life was made better by football...

Bubba Smith died with CTE.

Yeah.

NFL: And You Ain't Gonna Do Shit... So Don't Bother.

Deadspin...

In it's continuing effort to kill players on the field through repeated blows to the head and to mollify a populace who wants to see this happen, the National Football League, it has been ruled by Congressional investigators, attempted to influence a National Institutes of Health study that, when the NIH would not kowtow to Emperor Goodell, Goodell promptly yanked $16 million of funding from the study.

The ruling sides with reports from ESPN's Outside the Lines...  They stated this last December (the link is to their report of today's ruling).

And no one is going to do fucking shit about it.

Let's be blunt:  Most fans hate the players as overpaid criminals who deserve to die.  So they would have no problem watching players die weekly and on the field -- and there is no secret this is the NFL's eventual goal.  The NFL has NEGATIVE interest (less than zero!) in protecting head injuries -- it would have to shut down the sport otherwise.

So you ain't gonna do shit, so don't even waste the time....

E-SportsPN: League of Legends to ESPN for $500 million? (UPDATE 6 PM: ESPN says no.)

Knew this day was coming, just was wondering when it might happen and under what circumstances...

Almost ironic that, two weeks after the largest sanctions ever thrown against an ownership group in the history of League of Legends (and sanctions from which the sport has not yet recovered - one LCS spot lays vacant a scant 12 days from the start of the summer season), PvP Live, an e-sports news website, reports that ESPN is preparing a bid for $500 million to broadcast League of Legends matches.

This almost certainly would include the World Championships and the North American LCS, but the unnamed sources do not indicate whether Europe (or maybe even Korea) might be involved.  Nor do they mention the current platforms Riot Games uses and how they would be affected (my guess is they would move to strictly Challenger and lesser-league programming).

I have two thoughts:

First, I always thought the avenue they would go, especially given the harder and harder stance some video game companies have taken against content, would be to plop a billion and a half or so down to Amazon to buy out Twitch and squeeze out the low- and mid-level streamers entirely.

Second, after the May 8 expulsions of three ownership groups (and a larger look at the situation for the summer split), it is clear that, by the end of this World Championship series, there will have to be MAJOR alterations (people at Riot are going to get fired, and major changes to the ownership rules are going to have to be made).

As of the expulsions, there are 14 spots in professional League of Legends going to teams which would be returning from the spring split.  Of those 14, FIVE will feature new management (this does NOT count the team promoted from Challenger to LCS -- that team has correctly won promotion):

• the demoted Dignitas team sold their Challenger slot to Team Apex
• Disqualified Renegades sold their LCS slot to Team Envy
• Disqualified Dragon Knights sold their LCS slot to a co-owner of VexX Gaming
• Disqualified Team Impulse, 4 1/2 days after the deadline and only 12 days before whatever succeeds them plays in the North American LCS, has no confirmed owner
• LATE UPDATE:  6 PM 5/23:  According to the schedule, the slot has finally sold, maybe.  A team named Phoenix1 will be the tenth team in the North American LCS.  According to SB Nation's Rift Herald, as of this update, there is no word as to exactly who has purchased the team.  It is POSSIBLE, and I will look at it, that Riot will run the team themselves until someone buys the slot.
• Team Ember disbanded after the spring split, looking to sell their Challenger slot, no owner.

Riot Games is going to have to buy out all of the owners at the LCS and Challenger levels and take full ownership of the actual franchise slots.  The current situation is not healthy, not good for e-sports, and invites shysters and con artists like Chris Badawi to involve themselves.

One hopes that, should this report be true, this is one of the first things done with the $500 million.


LATE UPDATE #2:  Riot and ESPN both deny the report.  Take that with a grain of salt.

And What the FUCK happened in San Diego last night?

Caught this one on Facebook...

The San Diego Gay Men's Chorus took the field to sing the National Anthem before the Padres hosted the Dodgers.

Or, they were supposed to...

Instead, somebody in San Diego decided to play a recording of a female singer singing the National Anthem -- the gentlemen never got a chance to perform it.

Perfunctory apologies have been given, but there does appear to be some reaching out to the community (and the LGBT Community) over this.

But I'm not buying the "no malice" stuff here, Padres.  This is too geographically close to the idiot who wanted to execute LGBTs and put it on the ballot here to do so!

DO SOMETHING.  NOW.

EDIT 8:30 PM PDT 5/23:  And it appears Major League Baseball will be.  According to my anonymous friend/baseball historian, MLB IS, at the request of the Chorus, investigating the incident.

More John Gibbons. Suspension or Pink Slip better be forthcoming.

(Hat-tip to my anonymous occasional external bullshit detector of a friend.  :) )

John Gibbons is paying a lot of fine money, etc., to Major League Baseball lately.

3rd inning last Sunday:  Ejected, balls and strikes.
8th inning last Sunday:  Commits forfeiture offense by retaking the field during the brawl.
4th inning Monday:  Ejected, balls and strikes.
Tuesday:  Suspended.
Wednesday:  Suspended.
Thursday:  Suspended.
Friday and Saturday:  Goes the full nine.
5th inning today:  Ejected, questioning the intent of the opposing pitcher after his hitter Cadillacs an earlier home run.

Three ejections and three games suspended in an eight-game stretch.  Four ejections this season already.

He either needs another suspension or to be fired by the Blue Jays.  The Blue Jays are in last place in the division, so the latter is quite possible.

Barbarism at Pimlico, and why Sports Illustrated chose Serena...

When Serena Williams was named Sportswoman of the Year, I stated a large part of the reason probably was the fact that people understand horse racing is not a proper sport, in the sense of the barbarism to the animals involved.

We got little but proof of that today on Preakness Saturday at Pimlico Race Course.

Everyone will remember that Exaggerator ended the Triple Crown hopes of his rival Nyquist in a hopelessly-muddy track.

What horse-racing fans will want you to forget, though, is the fates of Homeboykris and Pramedya.

Ten years after Barbaro had to be put down due to a leg injury from breaking through the gate at Pimlico, two more horses have died on Preakness Saturday.  Homeboykris won the first race, and suffered the equine equivalent of a heart attack in the post-race walk.

Pramedya was in the fourth race, fatally injured on a broken leg in the fourth race.

E-Sports/LoL Update Friday 5/20 8 PM (UPDATE 5/21 8 PM)

It is now nearly 48 hours since the imposed deadline.

• Team Envy has signed three members of the old Renegades team, the LCS slot of which they purchased two days ago.  They have been approved, and will be in the summer split of the North American LCS, the top professional level.
• FURTHER UPDATE 2:30 AM PDT 5/21:  However, one player, Crumbz, did not join them.  When Envy refused to take him, he retired from League of Legends.  One has to wonder, now, how many players' careers have ended because of this criminal activity.  (I appear to count at least two.)
• ANOTHER FURTHER UPDATE 8 PM PDT 5/21:  Crumbzz, and I would assume it's the same person, was taken by new team owners Apex Gaming as a coach for their LCS and Challenger teams. 
• The Challenger Series team's banned slot has apparently been announced sold today.  Amro, a co-owner of e-sports outfit VexX Gaming, has purchased the Challenger Series spot, he announced on his Twitter today...

I will be releasing a statement shortly regarding my purchase of TDK and our future

We are looking for investors in the meantime, no staff.

— Amro // noXn (@VexX_noXn) May 20, 2016

• There are still only nine teams in the North American LCS.  (The Challenger Series is now (CORRECTION) up to five -- Apex Gaming, who bought the demoted team dignitas, the above situation, one team finishing as semifinal losers in the Challenger playoffs, and the winners of promotion matches next Wednesday.  One of the semifinal losers broke up their team and is selling their spot.)  As of about 8 PM PDT 5/21 (almost 72 hours since the deadline), the LoL E-Sports website still shows the tenth team as "TBD".  Their first match is supposed to be with Echo Fox, two weeks from today, June 4, at noon PDT.
• There is an unconfirmed report that one Chinese member of Team Impulse (the one remaining slot left to be sold or vacated) bought the rights to the team (and the team only), but the rumor states the price is only $1,400 -- so it is almost certainly a troll situation.
• ESPN has had a legal expert, a representative of several e-sports teams and organizations, writing, as of now, a pair of articles slamming the current administration and discipline structure of e-sports, especially Riot Games and their handling of famous streamer/remote illegal owner of Renegades MonteCristo.

Bryce Blum has every reason to slam Riot on the handling of MonteCristo.  He legally represents Renegades and half the rest of the LCS as a lawyer.

Bryce, WHERE'S THE LAWSUIT?

MonteCristo (by the ruling provided) lied to Riot Games about involvement with and by Chris Badawi, backed by significant testimony from parties within and with contact to the Renegades organization.  That fact alone would've prevented MonteCristo (Christopher Mykles) from any ownership stake in Renegades, and Renegades would've been disqualified and disbanded.

That fact alone ALSO means they don't need to tell MonteCristo a damn thing before they release their findings -- it's useless to do so, because, barring complete conflict of interest or malfeasance on Riot's part, MonteCristo's "defense" cannot be trusted.

That fact alone ALSO means MonteCristo needs to be put in handcuffs.  This constitutes material "grand theft by false pretenses" by California law, Penal Code 532.

532.  (a) Every person who knowingly and designedly, by any false or
fraudulent representation or pretense, defrauds any other person of
money, labor, or property, whether real or personal, or who causes or
procures others to report falsely of his or her wealth or mercantile
character, and by thus imposing upon any person obtains credit, and
thereby fraudulently gets possession of money or property, or obtains
the labor or service of another, is punishable in the same manner
and to the same extent as for larceny of the money or property so
obtained.

When I did the earlier blog post positing what to exactly charge Badawi with by his mere involvement when banned, I didn't remember to include Riot's statement that MonteCristo would never have gained the team if he had been truthful.

Under Penal Code 532, MonteCristo would be charged with felony grand theft by false pretenses.  (In the last line of 532 (a), refer to Penal Code 490 (a), stating theft and larceny are equivalent terms under the California law.)

This is before we get to the player safety stuff, or the dealings with Dragon Knights.

Bryce Blum, WHERE IS THE LAWSUIT?  I don't want to hear slamming of Riot's policies until we find out you're in court to defend MonteCristo.

Because here's the big problem:  The only reason, now, the spring split probably stands and Team Envy is allowed to enter the LCS at all (against the backdrop of possible possession of stolen property!) is...  Mayer vs. Belichick, Patriots, and NFL.

The only reason Riot Games can fairly allow the results of the spring split to stand and to allow Team Envy to play in the summer split is the same law which allows sports leagues to rig their results without compensation to or retribution from any relevant party.  They have the right to do so, and there is no court recourse to that effect.

There will be more to this story.  Stay tuned.

So Now Sports Bettors Are Getting Screwed The Other Way Too!!!

Haven't run across this Gawker side-site too much.  It's a site relating to law and legal matters, Redline:  Above the Law.

Tonight, it reports that the State of Nevada has sued CG Technologies, one of the major operators of sportsbooks on the Strip, proclaiming that the sportsbooks (at places such as the Cosmopolitan, Tropicana, Hard Rock, Silverton, Venetian, and Palms) underpaid winning bettors on more than 20,000 occasions over a four-year period.

It also overpaid in about 10,000 cases.

There's a reason I never have run into this problem.  (Well, two:  I rarely have used any of the sportsbooks in question - I think I've been in the Tropicana's twice!)  It's a complicated series of bets that is causing the problem, which "The Legal Blitz", who posts to Redline about matters of sports law calls "round-robin bets".

It links to Bovada, a prominent offshore Internet betting site (and hence illegal in the USA, but it's often used for odds reference online).

It's a single bet, involving three or more teams (Bovada limits it to eight). The bet allows you to pick a number between two and (at Bovada) six, and a single bet (at the amount of one parlay X the number of relevant combinations) covers all combinations of the parlay, with all winning combinations being paid.

For example, three games, two per parlay, is 3X the parlay bet.

Four games, two per parlay, is 6X.

The maximum such number of combinations is eight games, four per parlay, 70X the parlay bet.

The suit charges that this company and these books failed to properly pay off these round-robin bets -- because every combination that's successful pays off.

For example, if you had that last one, you'd pay $350 at minimum (70 bets, $5 per bet).  Each winning combination would pay $18 (win $13 plus the $5 on that combination).  You can see where someone either not competent, not thinking, or crooked would underpay in that scenario.

This is a bit of a hedge-bet against losing some games in a parlay.  An 8 for 8 on a standard Vegas parlay would pay 150-1.  If you bet $350 on that, you'd be staring over $50,000 in the face.

On a round-robin, the same 8 for 8 in the above scenario would win you a little over $900.

A copy of the lawsuit can be found at the article linked above.

NBA: You Reap What $tern Sows

This one will be shorter, I promise!!

Continuing controversies over calls benefitting Oklahoma City (a supposed travel in Game 1 with the Warriors down 3 with under 20 seconds to go -- but Westbrook might've been calling time out, so there is defense to the referees' non-call) led to me thinking of something to tell Adam Silver.

Adam:  We appreciate the transparency.  That said, this is a direct side-effect of all the bullshit your predecessor pulled on this sport for over 25 years.

Adam Silver, in a means to distance himself from the David $tern era, has ordered published reports on any erroneous calls officials may have made in the last two minutes of contests.  This is one of the reasons the whole debacle which benefitted Oklahoma City against San Antonio came out.

And, at first glance, the night of Game 1 of the Western finals, I began to wonder if the ghosts of Michael Jordan were beginning to enter the mind of Adam Silver...

That said, Steve Kerr (who definitely would know!!!) said that these reports were largely useless and the reports throw the referees under the bus.

Kerr is right.  I do appreciate the transparency -- barring anything really stupid toward slanting the league one way or another, I think Adam Silver is a credit to the NBA.  Just get the calls right (to the best of ability) and we don't have to worry about it.

We had another example of the whole legacy that Silver inherited with the NBA Draft Lottery just held.  Dikembe Mutombo, former Philadelphia 76er, congratulated his old team on winning the first pick, several hours before the lottery was held.

You know it's bad when even an NBA broadcast partner in ESPN talks of a three-year tanking spree coming to fruition:  Philadelphia DID, in fact, win the first pick.

That said, why would there be a conspiracy for Philly?  The conspiracy would be more valid for the team that actually drew sighs in the room when their pick became upper-lottery protected -- the #2 picking Los Angeles Lakers!!

Again, it's not you, Adam -- it's the league you inherited.

Muirfield will no longer host Open.

The Royal and Ancient, the golf body responsible for the (British) Open Championship, has ruled today that, because Muirfield Golf Club will not admit women to it's membership, the course will be disqualified from holding further Open Championships until it does.  Ten other courses in the UK and Northern Ireland (Royal Portrush will host in 2019 for the first time since 1951) are still in the rotation.

The course has hosted the Open 13 times, last in 2013.  The R&A took a lot of criticism for allowing Muirfield to host that Open because of it's "no women members" policy, leading to the decision today after a vote was taken by the membership and the policy affirmed.

This year's host, Royal Troon, has segregated memberships for men and women, but women can be members, unlike at Muirfield.

Someone needs to get with about the 19th century here, Scots...

The Other Side of the Story: Riot Trying To Avoid The Regulation of E-Sports?

The more I read of this situation in League of Legends, the more I become alarmed by it.

I apologize in advance, this is going to be very dry and VERY LONG. For reference, you may wish to reacquaint with the competitive ruling banning Renegades and Dragon Knights, for starters. There is a point in all of this, and, if you don't want to read all the legal mumbo-jumbo, you can go directly to the end of the post and find it.

Let's update to the time of writing: The deadline for the forced sale of LCS team Impulse and Challenger Series team Dragon Knights has passed, with no word from Riot Games as to whether the banned ownership groups have found buyers for either. Impulse has been on the market three or so times in the last year or so, without success. Dragon Knights' ownership groups have been in trouble with Riot Games at least twice in the last 12 months.

There will almost certainly be another article, and probably later today, when Riot Games will probably announce if a buyer has been found for either, or what contingency measures will be invoked. It appears, if the latter, the options are two: Full seizure of the teams, the old owners get nothing – or disqualification and dissolution of the teams, leaving nine teams in the LCS and five Challenger teams. There had been at least one fan discussion of bringing back the one team relegated from the LCS to make ten, but that's illegal under the new ownership of that team, since that ownership now also has a team promoted to the LCS, and no one can own two teams at the same level.

Anyhow, I did quite a bit of thinking since I posted the last article, and I am becoming more and more convinced that Riot Games has fumbled the ball seriously enough that one has to question their motivations and whether they are actually attempting to hide something.

This is not necessarily true with the specific May 8, 2016 expulsions. I'm speaking more in general, and this involves the criminal nature of a number of the parties banned from the sport, and what would happen if they were brought to justice.

Let me state this up front: I believe that all of the banned owners (the Shims, Christopher Mykles, Chris Badawi, and the (now former) owners of Team Impulse) should be arrested for criminal offenses outlined in the May 8 competitive rulings, as well as sued for civil torts.

Since the North American LCS is played in California and Riot Games is run out of Santa Monica, CA, I would assume that, deep in the rulebook, the jurisdiction involved is California law. If someone who knows of the situation can correct me, I will accept such correction.

As such, I will outline the cases for arrest (and lawsuit) of all five parties.

Let's begin with a murky one which applies to both the Dragon Knights and Renegades situations. In both cases, the owner of the team was previously suspended for tampering with other teams' players under contract. In both cases, it appears as if there were efforts to subvert the banishments (by the new Renegades owner laying conditions that the old owner would return, and by apparent actions by the banned owner of Dragon Knights in the new ruling – otherwise, a resuspension would result in a double-jeopardy claim).

It would appear Riot Games could have a criminal case against both Chris Badawi (and possibly Chris Shim), similar to practicing without a license or some form of corporate “trespassing”. I am not clear on the exact California statute involved (there are several possibilities).

A much easier (civil) case against the Shims, Badawi, and Mykles comes from the falsification of documentation regarding their situations between the two teams. The California Civil Code, Section 1770, deals with “unfair methods of (business) competition”.

From the Legislative site of the State of California, relevant sections:

1770.  (a) The following unfair methods of competition and unfair or
deceptive acts or practices undertaken by any person in a
transaction intended to result or which results in the sale or lease
of goods or services to any consumer are unlawful:
(3) Misrepresenting the affiliation, connection, or association
with, or certification by, another.

This could apply to Mykles with respect to Badawi, since he is ruled to have attempted to deliberately misrepresent the lack of affiliation between the two, with respect to the illegal agreement to give Badawi half of Renegades the moment his suspension ended.

This could also apply to Mykles, Badawi, and the Shims, regarding the obfuscation of the relationship between Renegades and Dragon Knights.

This ALSO could apply to the owners of Team Impulse, regarding the lack of required contractual paperwork, and the misrepresentation to Riot Games that contracts actually existed.

(14) Representing that a transaction confers or involves rights,
remedies, or obligations which it does not have or involve, or which
are prohibited by law.

This could apply to the Mykles-Badawi ownership situation as well, since the transaction could not confer the ownership rights to Badawi at any point while he was banned, even if the actual transaction took place afterward.

Under California law, these are all civil torts. In my honest opinion, the nature of these torts should have been sufficient to dissolve the teams outright, but Riot, once again to protect the uninvolved players, attempted to keep the teams together.

However, it would appear Mykles actually did some of this during the vetting process in which he was allowed to take ownership of Renegades, and Riot ruled that Renegades would not have been accepted into the LCS had they known. This would mean that Mykles could be subject to several forms of criminal grand theft (because of the value of an LCS franchise believed to be upwards of a million dollars or more!) under California law, because he misled Riot Games and would never have received the team (and it's monetary value) if he had properly represented his situation.

A much more immediately serious criminal situation comes under the “failure to maintain a safe environment for all players” charge. Take this from someone who knows: That's a harassment/stalking claim.

California has one of the most stringent stalking laws in the country, owing to the number of celebrities living therein, California Penal Code 646.9, reading in part:

(a) Any person who willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly follows or willfully and maliciously harasses another person and who makes a credible threat with the intent to place that person in reasonable fear for his or her safety, or the safety of his or her immediate family is guilty of the crime of stalking, punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year, or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both that fine and imprisonment, or by imprisonment in the state prison.

This is true for any action by any person against any member of Renegades, but this is especially true for any party in the Renegades' employ who did so with the transgender player, Maria Creveling. In fact, any such party would not only be guilty under California state law 646.9, but also the Unruh Civil Rights Act, which specifically prohibits actions against a person's sex, which:

"Sex" also includes, but is not limited to, a person's gender. "Gender" means
sex, and includes a person's gender identity and gender expression.
"Gender expression" means a person's gender-related appearance and
behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person's
assigned sex at birth.

AND federal charges under the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII, as related in this EEOC brief:

The EEOC has held that discrimination against an individual because that person is transgender (also known as gender identity discrimination) is discrimination because of sex and therefore is covered under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. See Macy v. Department of Justice, EEOC Appeal No. 0120120821 (April 20, 2012), http://www.eeoc.gov/decisions/0120120821%20Macy%20v%20DOJ%20ATF.txt. The Commission has also held that discrimination against an individual because of that person's sexual orientation is discrimination because of sex and therefore prohibited under Title VII. See David Baldwin v. Dep't of Transportation, EEOC Appeal No. 120133080 (July 15, 2015), http://www.eeoc.gov/decisions/0120133080.pdf.

So any party, and it appears by the ruling Badawi may have been one, who took any action to make a player on Renegades feel unsafe, is guilty under California stalking and harassment law – and, if it's Creveling, has both State and Federal Civil Rights charges against them as well!

Now to Mykles in this regard. It is clear that he is already guilty of conspiracy with respect to any direct act to give Badawi half-ownership of the team – the penalty under California Law being the same penalty that Badawi would receive for taking part in ownership of the team while banned. (Whatever that law might be.)

The “safe environment” harassment/stalking charges are far more serious, and I would assert that, one some level, Mykles is criminally culpable in this regard. He could, obviously, be a direct actor, having directly committed the acts. This is unknown.

At barest of minimum, his illegal association with Badawi, if Badawi took part (which is similarly unknown, but, as stated above, appears to be the case given the nature of the statement of the competitive ruling), could be considered to have aided and abetted in any of the above actions, which would be considered, at minimum, misdemeanor accessory in the state of California under Penal Code Section 31, one year in jail, $5,000 fine maximum.

If Mykles actually consulted with Badawi and agreed to such actions, that makes it conspiracy, with the same penalty for Mykles which Badawi would receive under Penal Code 646.9, as well as the Unruh Act and possible Federal charges as applicable if the actions were against Creveling.

How ANYONE, in the face of this knowledge, can allow Christopher Mykles to have anything to do with broadcasting League of Legends, or anything else, is beyond me.

And then, as I stated before, there is one new wrinkle: Should e-sports be considered sports, it is clear that such sports constitute “interstate commerce” under Federal law. This would mean that sports bribery laws would apply.

From the Cornell University Law School, US Code Title 18, Part I, Chapter 11, Section 224:

(a) Whoever carries into effect, attempts to carry into effect, or conspires with any other person to carry into effect any scheme in commerce to influence, in any way, by bribery any sporting contest, with knowledge that the purpose of such scheme is to influence by bribery that contest, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

This would appear, should e-sports qualify (and the only question would be if it is considered “sport” under Federal Law), to be cause for investigation of:

• The trade between Dragon Knights and Renegades
• Their subsequent monetary and amenity relationships thereafter
• and their subsequent Promotion Match in the Promotion Playoffs, won by Renegades 3-0.

The obfuscation of the relationship between the two teams, in and of itself, could be considered a scheme or artifice to influence the Spring Split, on top of any direct involvement between the two sides in their above-mentioned match.

So that should take care of Mykles, Badawi, and the Shims.

Let's also go to the Team Impulse decision, and their unnamed owners.

All of the torts under Civil Code Section 1770 apply, as well as the following issues regarding the pay situation, according to the California Department of Industrial Relations:

• Any of the employees of Team Impulse could've filed a Wage Claim with the CDIR for the money they were owed, both in the 2015 Summer Split and the 2016 Spring Split, as well as additional damages.
• Any member of the team could see a record of their wages at any time, and, if the ownership failed to provide such information within 21 days of the request, the player could sue for $750 per violation.
• It is, in fact, a criminal misdemeanor to fail to pay in good funds as agreed upon. It appears that the ownership tried to skirt this law by paying only the minimum wage, and nowhere close to the agreed-upon minimum compensation as agreed to with Riot Games.

So there's criminal charges and civil torts there too – as well as the falsification of documentation, etc.

--

If you lasted this long, thank you. There's a point to all of this.

I have now spent the better part of two blog posts reaming the Hell out of a corrupt bunch of criminal e-sports owners here in the United States.

Now Riot Games gets it.

I have laid out serious criminal and civil actions which should have been taken against Chris Shim, Sean Shim, Christopher Mykles, Chris Badawi, and the unnamed former ownership interests of Team Impulse.

I can only think of one scenario, given the magnitude of these charges and game penalties, why Riot Games has not gone to the authorities with this information, especially the “failure to provide a safe environment for players” charges:

Riot Games knows that if the authorities find out the extent of corruption in e-sports (with these rulings as evidence), they will attempt to legislate and regulate them, and Riot Games may not like the results of such regulation and legislation.

Too bad. Riot Games has a responsibility as a California business to ensure the laws of the state are upheld. If Riot Games is unwilling to see handcuffs on these people, it is an indication they have no desire to do so, and, hence, no right to do business in California or anywhere else.

I want handcuffs, I want them now, and I believe the good of e-sports DEMANDS them.

And E-Sports continues to go up in flames...

This is an American story this time.

High-level American League of Legends was rocked ten days ago when Riot Games (the Chinese-owned creators of the video game League of Legends and the sanctioning body for professional play thereof) threw three high-level ownership groups out of the sport entirely, giving bans from one year to life for varying offenses.  The three ownership groups were given until midnight Pacific time tonight (May 18) to sell and relinquish their rights to professional League of Legends to groups Riot would accept.  As of the writing of this article, six hours before the deadline, only one has succeeded.

This is almost unheard of, especially in one of the higher-profile "major leagues" of the e-sport.

When you get right down to the meat and potatoes of the situation, though, the implications are far, far more disturbing than simply seeing the people thrown out.

First, a very quick primer:  Sixteen teams make up the top two tiers of League of Legends in North America.  The top ten teams form the North American League Championship Series, the NA LCS for short.  The next six teams form the North American Challenger Series, the NA CS.

At the end of each of two "splits" in a yearly season (which culminates in a World Championship in October for the top teams in the top leagues all over the world -- this year to be held in the US.  The group stage for 16 teams will be held in San Francisco, the quarterfinals in Chicago, the semifinals at Madison Square Garden, and the Grand Final October 29 at the Staples Center for a seven-figure prize and The Summoner's Cup), the bottom teams of the LCS face the top teams of the CS in a promotion-relegation series while the top teams of the LCS play in the playoffs for advancement to said World Championship or progress thereto.

The three teams expelled by Riot Games were all involved in this promotion-relegation scenario.  The two teams which fell into this scenario from the LCS, but survived to remain in the LCS for the summer, Renegades and Team Impulse, both have been expelled.  One of the teams from the CS who failed to gain promotion, Team Dragon Knights, was also tossed.

Riot, to protect uninvolved players (these offenses are ruled to have been completely organizational and by people at the organizational level, so the players should be given every opportunity to retain their positions in professional League) did not announce what exactly would happen if one or more of the spots went unsold.

In short, the North American professional League of Legends scene is completely compromised.

How'd we get here?

Let's start with what could invoke an unannounced "contingency plan" should they not sell their top-level spot in the next six hours (as of when I write this):  Team Impulse.  The schedule for the summer split, released today, has a "TBD" spot where Impulse is. 

Their offenses effectively indicate the owner had no interest in fielding a professional team, nor taking care of them.

• This ownership group was a successor, buying the spot and the team from Chinese outfit LMQ, who moved to North America to attempt to capitalize on the far weaker North American professional scene.  Some of the offenses indicate that they may have predated the sale from LMQ as well.
• Riot Games did an audit of the major teams to ensure that all the rules and regulations would be followed.  One of them, Rule 3.2, indicates that the team must have actual contracts with all of their players.  Impulse only provided "summary sheets" and lied on those sheets that full contracts existed.
• This leads to the major beef, a violation of Rule 2.2.  Each player for a League team must be compensated at least $12,500, by rule of Riot Games. This was, apparently, not done for members of Renegades, with one claiming that, after March, the team was paid only about minimum wage.  The ownership had already failed to pay the players as agreed for the entire 2015 summer split, and Riot Games had to step in on that one.  Making one have to ask the question why the banhammer wasn't thrown in the 2015-16 offseason.
• Adding to the suspicion was word that, about three weeks before the bans went into place, the ownership of Impulse was attempting to sell the spot for the team, which would represent the third or so attempt to sell the team and divest out of professional League of Legends.

For these offenses:

• The team was expelled from the NA LCS and broken up.  The ownership interest was given until May 18 at midnight Pacific to divest.  Unless there's something I have not read, it appears they won't.
• The team was also fined $20,000 from it's final payment for the spring split by Riot.
• There is apparently no direct penalty to the owners of the team, whomever they may be.

And that's the SANE situation.

Here's the other situation, regarding the other two teams, a complex arrangement between them, and, frankly, some things I think should result in numerous criminal charges.

Renegades (NA LCS) and Team Dragon Knights (NA CS).

• The first charge was a team ownership issue.  Christopher Mykles, an owner of Renegades, at least in part, was found to have had an arrangement with Chris Badawi that, as of the end of 2016, he would have half ownership of the team.
• This presents a massive illegality:  Badawi was banned from such a position for tampering in June of 2015, after he approached two players under contract to another team.  For this offense, he was banned from any such position (or any such agreement to a position, which Riot declares the same thing) until, at minimum, January 1, 2017.  In fact, Mykles, who is a prominent broadcaster of international League matches (and I'll get to that in a bit!), had to become the owner of the team to prevent disqualification under Badawi's FIRST suspension.
• The second charge was a "Player Safety" charge, and left very murky under the ruling to protect the players involved.  Badawi apparently had significant contact with the team, even while banned from his tampering offense.  Moreover, during this contact, he attempted to breach contracts and payment agreements and was accused of creating an unsafe environment for players on Renegades.
• It's this last charge that may, on top of everything else, be most damning.  Maria "Revelia" Creveling of Renegades was not only the first female player to make it to the major leagues of League of Legends, she was also the first professional League transgender player as well.  (Link provided to indicate this is known information in the e-sports community.)
• She played six matches in the 2016 spring split, but departed the team on March 8, and it is now believed/rumored that bigoted mistreatment of Creveling by Badawi and possibly other parties in Renegades was the cause, and the reference made to player safety in the eventual ruling.
• The third charge may even add additional criminality to the issue, and involves NA CS team The Dragon Knights.  A very mysterious and suspicious trade was made between Renegades and Dragon Knights just before Creveling left the squad -- and it was a trade that many felt was meant to stack Renegades at the expense of the Challenger team.  This prompted Riot to ask many questions of the two teams regarding independence...
• ... which Riot ruled were answered either incompletely or falsely, to hide the relationship between the two teams.  There was also an apparent arrangement that Renegades would continue to house and pay the two members traded to Dragon Knights, another illegality.

For this:

• Chris Badawi is the first person, to my knowledge, in the history of League of Legends to receive a permanent life ban from the sport, in all capacities.  And I don't think this is nearly enough.  He may well have committed criminal offenses simply by his association during his banishment, he probably has committed criminal offenses through his administrative misconduct during his banishment (the contracts and payment agreement breaches), and he certainly has committed criminal offenses if what is rumored having done to Creveling was done, especially by Badawi.  In any event, he needs to be put in handcuffs.  Now.
• Both ownership groups were given until May 18 at midnight PDT to sell their interests and divest, similarly to Impulse.  As of writing, the Renegades spot has been approved sold to Team EnVyUs, who has signed a number of the Renegades.  This was almost-certainly a condition of the sale, however Creveling is not one of them.  She has not reemerged anywhere on the professional scene.  Dragon Knights is not sold as of writing.
• This is not the first rodeo for the ownership of Team Dragon Knights.  Chris Shim was actually already banned from any official position with any team for 2016 and had to sell his stake in Dragon Knights so they could stay in the Challenger Series (about the same penalty Badawi had, and for the same reason (tampering)).  As a result of the further offenses, Chris and (I assume) his brother Sean are both banned from League of Legends entirely until, at minimum, January 1, 2019.  Why is Chris Shim not given the same life ban Badawi got?  Riot claims "possibility of reform", I don't see it.
• Christopher Mykles has the most puzzling of situations, so it has to be explained carefully, and I'll explain why it's bullshit.  Mykles is officially banned one year (start of this summer split to start of next summer split) "from holding any ownership or Riot-recognized position (including GM, team coach or team analyst) with any team in a Riot-sanctioned league."  The banishment specifically does NOT cover his broadcasting work on Korean League tournaments and matches.  And if you believe that's a valid decision, I've got a bridge to sell you somewhere in the Sahara Desert.  I've always held the position that a banned entity has no place representing the game or sport in which he or she is banned in any broadcasting/representative capacity.  Mykles is one of the most well-known casters in the world of League of Legends.  I have no dispute of this.  This is why he needed to have been held in a higher standard than other players and owners -- and, factually, should be permanently fired from any broadcasting position of a Riot-sanctioned league, even after his ban ends.  Any match, tournament, or league he broadcasts is lessened by his presence -- just as any broadcast, podcast, etc. on a game that involves a banned player is similarly lessened.  Riot punted to Mykles' direct employers at OGN in Korea, and no word has been made yet as to his status for the Korean summer split.  That decision should've been Riot's, and as the sanctioning body for the Korean game as well.  Riot had cover to do it, because all one has to state is that a Riot-sanctioned competition broadcaster is, by definition, a "Riot-recognized position".  Do the right thing, OGN -- FIRE HIS ASS!

And two more complications I will give that indicate Riot went nowhere near far enough, and how compromised the professional situation may be now...

1. Will someone explain to me why Mykles is not thrown out of the e-sport for life for associating with Badawi in the first place?  It takes two to tango!  I have to think, at this point, his fame as a broadcaster is the only reason he may even be allowed to remain in the sport in any capacity at all!!!  We're already clear you fouled this up by not life-banning at least one of the Shims as well, but there you go...
2. And this has been accentuated by a story largely buried under the radar (but Brian Tuohy picked it up!!!) ...

Apparently the NGCB doesn't realize that even #esports has had its share of match fixing problems overseas as well. https://t.co/yIRc7JpJ9C

— Brian Tuohy (@TheFixIsInTuohy) May 16, 2016

Two days ago, sports-law expert Darren Heitner reported that, in light of Las Vegas casinos beginning to want to capitalize on e-sports (both on gambling and as e-sports destinations), the head of the Nevada Gaming Control Board has posited nothing in the current law on sportsbooks would make it illegal to gamble on e-sports.

Meaning:  E-sports, at least with respect to the head of the NGCB, IS "sports"!

OK, follow me on this one, because there's another wrinkle to this Renegades-Dragon Knights fiasco.

As I said before, part of the issue was questions on the independence of the two teams, including and up to illegal comingling of funds and of other player amenities.

This is important to the declaration of "Is e-sports 'sports'?" because of a very real fact:  The two teams actually played a promotion match in the 2016 spring-to-summer split promotion.  After last-placed LCS team Dignitas was relegated by third-place CS team Dragon Knights (for which Dignitas was eventually bought out by Apex Gaming, who won promotion later in the tournament to the LCS -- so Apex now has a team in each bracket), Dragon Knights faced Renegades in a match in which the winner would remain/promote to the LCS -- the loser would have to play another match to determine whether they went up or down.

Renegades won, Dragon Knights lost twice.

Now go back to the "independence of teams" issue I raised above, and ask yourself a very real question:

If e-sports is "sports", would this not represent a possible/probable case of Sports Bribery under US Federal law?

Riot, you got more work to do, and it may be "more" more than you think!!!

And while we're talking about the Olympics, an answer on the Russia debacle...

Kinda left this one alone because it had to do with the Homophobe-lympics in Sochi, and I felt it might have infringed on the boycott I was asked to (and agreed to) do.

But word has come out that we may have another answer as to how Russia got to the top of the medal count in those farcical games:  A state-sponsored drug-testing evasion program...  And a documentary is being filmed on it by Bryan Fogel.

About a week ago, reports came out (this one on Gawker site Gizmodo) in the New York Times (paywall, but you are allowed ten free articles per month -- just be careful) stating that Russia had a systematic program of doping and drug-test evasion to inflate it's medal count and win as many medals as possible for Vladimir Putin and his goals of world domination and LGBT dehumanization (and if any idiot wants to claim the latter was not part of the equation -- especially after the USOC tweaked Putin on it with some of the delegation decisions -- I'd like to have a word with you).

According to the article:

• At least 15 medal-winning athletes were involved, including a number of the largest-scale Russian superstars of the Sochi Games.
• Fourteen members of the cross-country skiing team were involved.  Russia won five medals in the event, including a gold medal at 50 kilometers and three silvers (one in the same event, one in a 4x10km relay, and a team sprint event) and a bronze (they swept the 50km event).
• "Two veteran bobsledders who won two golds" are also implicated in the article.  It would appear that the article speaks of Russian double-gold medal winners Alexandr Zubkov and Alexey Voyovoda, who won gold medals in both the two-man event (together) and the four-man event (with Dmitry Trunenkov and Alexey Negodaylo).  Russia swept the gold medals in men's bobsled.
• If we do not implicate the other two bobsledders, this would leave at least a half a dozen unknown medalists among the 33 medals and 15 golds won by the Russians in Sochi.  Two of the three men who swept the 50 km cross-country event were also in the relay (and one of them was in the team sprint), so that would make eight. (Ten if you include the other two of the four-man bobsled.)
• The article proclaims a sophisticated, dark-of-night plot that exchanged dirty samples collected from Russian athletes (up to about 100 of them, it is estimated!) with earlier-collected clean samples.  The group carrying this out also knew how to tamper the collection bottles and not have the tampering be detected.
• One bit of American propaganda I have to call out here:  "None of the athletes were caught doping. More important, Russia won the most medals of the Games, easily surpassing its main rival, the United States, and undermining the integrity of one of the world’s most prestigious sporting events."  Now, that might well be true -- and I might well have covered it with far more precision and depth had the whole LGBT thing not turned me off to the entire competition, but the only difference between Russia and the United States is that, at least to what we know of, the USA doesn't do this at the GOVERNMENTAL level.  This was Vladimir Putin making a statement here.

And the statement continued once the World Anti-Doping Association put the entire Russian sports program on notice:

• The insider, a Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, fled for his life to Los Angeles.  The only WADA accusation he denies is extorting money from athletes.  Rodchenkov received the Order of Friendship for his work, a prestigious medal given in Russia for advancing the Russian Federation in the eyes of it's people.
• Two anti-doping cohorts of Dr. Rodchenkov died within weeks of each other after the report was released.
• In fact, Rodchenkov claims that WADA is wrong on the other way in one important respect.  The WADA report, centering on track and field and resulting in Russian track's expulsion from the Olympic Games, stated hundreds of samples were destroyed.  Rodchenkov claims THOUSANDS from pretty much every meaningful Olympic sport.  The decision to finalize the ban for Russian track and field will be made within the next few weeks.

You really need to read this extensive article, if you can.  The allegations here would basically implode the entire Olympic movement -- not only in Russia, but worldwide.

CANCEL THE RIO GAMES.  They are not clean, and cannot be cleanly run.  Period.

•  

Yep, Manfred wants war on the basepaths and with the umpires...

He botched this so completely, it's not even funny.

• Odor got eight games for the punch.  To which many baseball historians and other people supporting the new rule have to ask:  How much more does he take until he gets carted off?
• Bautista, for his entire involvement:  One game.  ONE.  Toronto has apparently had a number of problems with the new rule, and Joey Bats is definitely becoming one of the hotter heads in the league.  You might as well have declared his late slide legal and not interference, while you were at it!  For starting it with the second hard slide into Odor, ten would've been more a good start.
• Jesse Chavez of the Blue Jays got three games for throwing at Prince Fielder after the warnings.  Given what had happened the inning previously, probably not enough, but fairly standard.
• Elvis Andrus got suspended one game for charging out during the fight.
• Toronto manager John Gibbons (3) and Toronto first-base coach Tim Leiper (1) were both suspended for failure to leave the field after being ejected.  Both were ejected in the THIRD INNING and came out for the fight in the eighth.

In the NHL, that's at least TEN GAMES.  And that's where I would've started the bidding for Bautista and both Gibbons and Leiper.

And, by MLB rules, that can be a fucking forfeit.

Are you motherfuckers out of your mind over there in New York?  Seriously??  The fight's bad enough, but this "return to the field after getting ejected to further involve yourself when you should already be out of the dugout and in the clubhouse" shit is getting old and it's getting old FAST.

That's at least three (and that doesn't count Bryce Harper) in the last ten days.

Cancel the goddamned Rio Olympics. Now.

Don't get to talk too much Olympics, especially about the Homophobe-lympics farce in Sochi, but a comment made recently regarding the Rio Games, scheduled for this summer, finally has put me over the side on whether these Games need to take place.

There's been little secret that many Rio venues are cesspools of germs and the like, impossible to clean up in time for the Rio Games.  (The canoeing venue -- and I'd assume most of the other open-water venues -- are prime discussion targets.)

And now we enter the Zika virus.  Zika is a virus transmitted by mosquitoes which appears to be exploding all over the world.  A Major League Baseball series scheduled for Puerto Rico was scrubbed because of concerns over the virus in Puerto Rico.

It appears to have the most impact in pregnant women, leading to birth defects.  Rarely, it can lead to death, according to the World Health Organization.

Brazil is one major hotbed of concern with respect to Zika. 

So much so that Rivaldo, one of the major recent soccer stars to come out of Brazil, has asked the world to stay away from Rio de Janeiro and the Games.

From CNN, Rivaldo points out Brazil is getting uglier with social unrest, citing a death of a 17 year-old.

More ominously, when asked about the Rio Games, Rivaldo did not mince words (The Guardian):

“I advise everyone with plans to visit Brazil for the Olympics in Rio — to stay home. You’ll be putting your life at risk here. This is without even speaking about the state of public hospitals and all the Brazilian political mess. Only God can change the situation in our Brazil.”

Call it off.  The whole nationalistic circle-jerk.

Call it off, and call it off now.

With the cauldron of events which seem to be circulating in the world, you are inviting a body count if you insist on continuing these Games. 

Manfred, you better get control of your sport...

... and you better damn well do it now.

We had probably the largest-scale base-brawl in many a year on Sunday in Texas when Texas and Toronto wrapped up their season meetings with each other.

This was after last year's situation where bat flips and all sorts of "unwritten rule" bullshit culminated in at least two Blue Jays attempting to take out Ranger second baseman Roughned Odor.

Jose Bautista was the second (in the eighth inning, after he got hit by a pitch), and got literally posterized when Odor, who had enough of his (and the Blue Jays') shit, connected with the cleanest punch in the history of basebrawls.  It was a miracle Bautista wasn't knocked completely the fuck out.

Suspensions are forthcoming today from the league offices.

But I want to raise two issues from this game, pointed right at the Blue Jays, showing how sick and tired I am that the umpires, in the interest of the money-making enterprise of professional sports, do not have the power that is stated in the rule book to end a game that is clearly out of hand.

John Gibbons was tossed in the third inning for balls and strikes.  Tim Leiper, the first-base coach, was tossed earlier in that same third inning.  The bench coach was also tossed when, in retaliation for the fight, Prince Fielder got hit in the leg intentionally to start the bottom of the eighth inning.

I said the same thing after some of Kansas City shenanigans against Oakland.  You start getting through three coaches and three players...  At some point, the umpires just have to throw up the hands and award the game to the other team.  It's about the only weapon they have left after a game has gotten so completely out of control...

But it's something I've now seen twice in the last ten days.  Boston manager John Farrell was ejected for balls and strikes the pitch before David Ortiz got ejected after striking out -- I made a post on this with the understanding that, especially under the rules of baseball, the only reason the umpire would not do the forced ejection on Ortiz was to call him out on strikes and fix the outcome of the game.

As I said then, Farrell had not left the field or the dugout by his ejection -- which could be interpreted as a forfeiture offense in the Rules of Baseball.  Farrell was not even suspended for that act.  Nor were the umpires who should not have let the game continue until it was clear he was gone.  Nor was Ortiz for his ranting -- and many felt Farrell saved Ortiz from a lengthy ban.  (PS:  Strictly personally speaking, I'm sick and tired of the "Did he bump the ump?" being a suspension situation.   Start the bidding at one game when the thumb goes up and go from there.  Bump the ump?  Start it at ten.)

We had another one with the debacle in Texas.  Gibbons came out during the brawl in the eighth inning after being tossed in the third.  That's been reported to the league.

Rob Manfred, get control of your fucking league.  Seriously.

We're going to get a loud message (and myself and a friend of mine who's a baseball historian believes it's not going to be one we like!!!) as to how you want your league run.

Especially with the new rule and everything that happened, I want multiple double-digit suspensions against Blue Jays here.  Bautista definitely, probably Gibbons too. 

I'm sick and tired of the ultimate penalty being taken out of the arsenal (except in extreme cases like Disco Demolition Night or Ball Night gone amok) simply because of the money nature of the game.

You've got some problem children that are going to make this one long, hot summer, Rob Manfred, if you don't get these guys in check.  NOW.

PS:  I'm also looking at you, Perennial Umpire Problem Bryce Harper.  That little expletive you threw after the game you got tossed in, if I were umpiring, would've gotten a call to the league wondering if I could eject you from the next game (since he was already ejected from that game -- but that game had ended before the tirade at the umpire).  He was suspended one game and served it.

When arrogance can turn to a fixed game....

(Blogger's Note:  I am having a lot of trouble with the new Penn State shit.  I don't know when I am going to be able to put a post together which might not get the police involved at my home.  I have a lot of trouble digesting this and not wanting to see the university closed and buildings burnt to the ground as a testament as to how much that community has invested in supporting pedophilia.  (Whether it wishes to admit such or not...)  I'll try to put something together -- I have a first draft that I'm starting up.  We'll see when - OR IF - I post it.)

On a much, MUCH lighter note:

There are some people who have some explaining to do to Rob Manfred and Joe Torre realsoonnow.

It's the seemingly-weekly series between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.

9th inning, bases loaded, two out for Boston, down a run at 3-2.

David Ortiz, "Big Papi" is at the plate, with three balls and one strike on him.

A wicked slider that didn't appear to be close by the time the pitch made the glove was called strike two.

Ortiz went ballistic.

Under the rules in Major League Baseball, umpire Ron Kulpa should've tossed Ortiz then and there.  Manager John Farrell did come out to try to "save" Ortiz, and took the thumb himself.

Keep this in mind.

I can think of only one reason that Kulpa did not eject Ortiz:  That, as long as the final pitch was within a time zone of the strike zone, it was going to be strike three.

That pitch was well low, Ortiz checks up, punched out.  Strike three, two out, Yankees eventually win 3-2.  The second replay showed Ortiz checked up.

Ortiz is still steaming, but at least gets back to the dugout.  Then he starts venting, and gets tossed.

We don't see this very often, but Ortiz came back out and he looked like he wanted blood.  Yes, he stopped short, but there comes a point where being that angry and having to be wrestled off needs to be actionable -- even if you are David Ortiz.

That said, he shouldn't be the only party banned from at least today's game.  One manager and at least one umpire if not two...

John Farrell never left the dugout until after Ortiz' ejection.  Farrell was still in the dugout for strike three, and was part of the SECOND argument as Ortiz was being restrained.

Under the Rules of Baseball, though the relevant Rule (7.03(6), as in this .PDF from MLB) only refers to an ejected PLAYER, it would appear that Farrell has committed no less than a forfeiture offense.  As such, he should be suspended, starting immediately.

But I can think of at least one umpire, if not two, who should go with him, for not applying that rule and forcing Farrell to leave before another pitch is thrown.

Kulpa should be suspended, so should his crew chief if it's somebody else.  Kulpa tossed Farrell on the 3-1 pitch, and the game should not have resumed with him in the dugout.

So there needs to be some immediate action on this one, boys.