**TL;DR:**
- After conducting a thorough review of the Week 4 LCS match between CLG and Immortals Progressive, the LCS will uphold the original result as a Game of Record.
- LCS Officials were unable to find any indication from log files, team communications, or point of view recordings that latency fluctuations had a material impact on the match.
- Friday’s Week 4 LCS match between Evil Geniuses and FlyQuest was rescheduled due to a worsened latency state not present in the CLG/IMT match.
- LCS staff identified a faulty network switch as the source of the latency fluctuations, and were able to resolve the issue prior to Saturday’s matches.
- The LCS regrets that these technical issues occurred and apologize to CLG and Luger for their experience.
On February 25th, 2022, CLG and Immortals Progressive played a game to completion in Week 4 of the 2022 LCS Spring Split, resulting in an IMT victory at 31:15. This game was affected by a number of pauses resulting from technical issues that caused latency fluctuations for CLG players. At all times CLG players reacted exactly as we would expect by pausing the game and alerting referees about the latency issues they were experiencing. As a result of these technical issues, the CLG/IMT game was reviewed by the Competitive Operations staff to determine whether the technical issues had a material impact on the outcome of the game. League Staff reviewed the match for evidence that the latency spikes occurred during team fights or other direct interactions with the opposing team involving the affected players, without judgment on whether, absent the latency spike, the interaction would have had a different result.
Through a combination of game netlog files, team communications, and the individual points of view recorded on each players’ computer on stage, LCS Officials were able to pinpoint each instance of latency above expected levels on stage. LCS Officials determined that each instance of latency fluctuations occurred either: (1) outside of teamfights and in a dead-ball state of the match (resulting in a pause), or (2) during a pause and therefore outside of play altogether.
Specifically, there were six recorded latency spikes during the course of the match:
- At 2:18, four out of five CLG players experienced significant latency fluctuations and immediately paused. After remedial actions on stage, the issue appeared to be solved.
- During an unrelated pause stemming from a perceived bug, logs reveal that Luger’s latency rose above standard levels.
- At 21:33, Luger was in lane and not interacting with the opposing team when he experienced a latency fluctuation. He paused to alert referees.
- During the pause, as league officials attempted to triage the issue, logs reveal another latency fluctuation on Luger’s computer.
- At 22:47, Luger experienced another latency fluctuation and paused the game to alert League staff. Luger was in the CLG fountain after clearing the mid lane wave and recalling.
- During the pause, as league officials attempted to triage the issue, logs reveal a final latency fluctuation on Luger’s computer.
We regret that these technical issues occurred and apologize to CLG and Luger for their experience. However, as we are unable to find any indication from log files, team communications, or point of view recordings that support a finding that the latency fluctuations had a material impact on the match, the LCS will uphold the original result of CLG/IMT as a Game of Record.
Evil Geniuses and FlyQuest took the stage after the completion of the CLG/IMT match. EG members flagged persistent latency fluctuations during their warmup process. Log files indicated to the onsite technical staff that the problems that first manifested during the CLG/IMT match had worsened and that all members of EG were experiencing consistent latency above expected levels - a situation not present in the CLG/IMT match. When several workarounds did not improve the situation, LCS Officials rescheduled the match for a later date.
Overnight, LCS technical staff were able to isolate the issue to a faulty network switch. A new switch was installed and several hours of testing confirmed that the issue had been resolved prior to the next day’s matches. Review of logs from all computers on stage indicate that the latency issues first manifested during the CLG/IMT match.
