Saurnament 2024's controversial emote disqualification

The no-emote rule in the tournament, as well as the emote that resulted in disqualification.

On June 1, 2024, during the Saurnament 2024 League of Legends (LoL) Philippine tournament, West Point Esports Academy was disqualified after one of its players automatically triggered an emote against Viridis Arcus Esports' member Defile. The tournament has a rule that forbids the use of emotes. The incident became controversial in both the Philippine League of Legends and Wild Rift communities.

Defile was not playing under Viridis Arcus at the tournament but was rather competing under a team called Daedalus.

The controversy went viral internationally after it was posted on the subreddit /r/leagueoflegends, and after Marc Robert "Caedrel" Lamont, a former professional UK LoL player and an active streamer for Fnatic, reacted to the incident.

All dates and times in this article are in Philippine time (UTC+8).

Saurnament is a League of Legends Philippine community tournament sanctioned by Riot Games and has a prize pool of ₱50,000. It is one of the first official LoL tournaments in the Philippines since Riot Games took over publishing the game from Garena Philippines in 2023.

The tournament was organized by Rumble Royale's ambassador Suzzane Ezra "Suzzysaur" Gubatan.

League of Legends has an emote system where an icon would appear on top of the player's character. Emotes can be triggered manually or automatically (as reaction emotes).

Reaction emotes are triggered automatically by in-game events. At the time of the tournament, reactions are triggered by the following events: Start Game, First Blood, Ace (team wipe), and Victory. These reaction emotes can be disabled in the settings.

Saurnament has a no-emote rule as the organizers had perceived the act of emoting as equivalent to trash-talking. According to the rules, emoting "may result to disqualification". It further states that "it is required by the Tournament Marshals to have all badges and emotes to be disabled, including those that pops automatically in certain situations" (referencing reaction emotes).

As the rule states that emoting "may" result in disqualification, this implies that the rule is not black-and-white and that offenses could be handled on a case-by-case basis with disqualification as the most severe punishment. However, the tournament implemented the rule strictly, as Suzzysaur later revealed that 3 out of 64 teams were disqualified due to emotes.

This rule and its heavy punishment gained massive scrutiny and ridicule, as other major LoL tournaments allow emotes. The "non-toxic" nature of the enforcement was also questioned, as Daedalus had a player with the IGN "jackol" (Filipino for "masturbate").

Ryan "Defile" Villanueva is an active player in Viridis Arcus Esports. During the tournament, he was playing for the team Daedalus under the IGN "VA Defile". Viridis Arcus did not participate in the tournament and only two of its players, Defile and Eternal, competed on their own under Daedalus.

According to Suzzysaur's apology video, the rulebook of the tournament was posted days earlier and the organizers had communicated properly with the team leaders in regards to the rules.

Discord messages during the controversy.

On June 1, 2024, at around 4 PM, match 33 of Saurnament started with West Point Esports Academy facing off against Daedalus. West Point's Joshua "Devoured" Escucharo managed to kill Daedalus' Ryan "Defile" Villanueva in the top lane. This triggered Devoured's First Blood reaction emote, which he did not turn off. A few seconds later, the game was paused and Defile contacted the game marshals on Discord and reported on the incident with a screenshot.

The game marshals left the decision to continue to Daedalus, which the team refused. This resulted in West Point being disqualified for breaking the no-emote rule.

The incident spread to the Philippine communities of League of Legends and Wild Rift. It went viral internationally after the details were posted on the subreddit /r/leagueoflegends on June 1 at around 9:41 PM. The post had garnered 8 thousand upvotes and reached the first page of the subreddit.

Marc Robert "Caedrel" Lamont, a popular League of Legends streamer, reacted to the incident. He insulted the tournament organizer for implementing the rule and insulted Defile for reporting the incident to the marshals.

There were ultimately 3 parties that faced criticism, mockery, and harassment from the community.

Suzzysaur, as the tournament organizer and the face of the tournament, was ultimately responsible for the implementation of the rules and the selection and training of the game marshals. She was targeted partly because the no-emote rule and the incident had put the League of Legends Philippine esports scene in a bad light in the international community.

Suzzysaur's husband, Eric "Exosen" Gubatan, was also criticized and harassed after he defended Suzzysaur and how she handled the tournament. He later apologized for his behavior.

The game marshals did not ensure the players' emotes were disabled, as the rule states that the marshals were required to have them disabled.

When the incident occurred, the marshals did not escalate the issue to a higher authority or issue their own judgment. Instead, they left the decision to Daedalus, who was already behind one kill, on whether or not to continue the game. The marshals essentially created a situation where they asked a losing team if they wanted a free win.

While both the tournament organizer's and the game marshals' mistakes could be attributed to incompetence and inexperience, Defile's actions had malicious intentions by abusing a technicality. Both Defile and Daedalus took advantage of a rule that was meant to encourage respect and sportsmanship and exploited it in order to win in an unsportsmanlike manner.

Due to his actions, Defile was labeled by the community as "iyakin" (crybaby) and "bonjing". Defile took the brunt of the harassment, with some in the community resorting to homophobic insults.

The following parties responded to the situation:

On June 1 at 8 PM, West Point Esports responded on its Facebook page. The organization stated that it respected the ruling of the tournament. However, it criticized the no-emote rule, arguing that Filipino tournaments should align themselves with international standards. This includes allowing emotes to be used.

West Point claimed that there were instances where the opponents emoted during the tournament, but the team chose not to report it. West Point claimed that it "will always choose the honorable path in winning, and that is by playing the game itself".^[1]

On June 2 past midnight, Suzzysaur posted an apology video on her Facebook page. She stood by Defile's decision to report the emote to the game marshals, however, she admitted that the marshals acted poorly by asking Daedalus for the final decision. She also stated that 3 teams in the tournament got disqualified due to emotes. She promised to take all the criticisms and feedback to improve on future events.

Viridis Arcus Esports' response to the incident.

Viridis Arcus Esports was dragged into the controversy by association with Defile. On June 4, the organization responded on its Facebook page. It stated its non-involvement in the tournament, claiming that only two of its players participated in Daedalus.

However, like Suzzysaur, the organization stood by Defile's actions to report the emote.^{[note 1]} Viridis Arcus also does not condone any form of harassment towards members of its community.^[2]

On June 5, the official League of Legends Facebook page announced the registration opening of Liga Republika 2024 open qualifiers. It also announced that it made amendments to the Liga Republika 2024 ruleset to prevent possible mishaps that were made apparent in Saurnament.

The League of Legends page also commented that "emotes are a built-in mechanic into the game and are allowed in Liga Republika. [Riot Games has] aligned this ruleset with other creators and their tournament organizers to make sure emotes are not taken out for future tournaments."^[3]

1. Any person or organization who understands the facts of this incident and chooses to stand by the actions of Defile is against the integrity and spirit of sportsmanship.

1. West Point Esports Facebook page post on June 1, 2024. June 1 at 5:06 AM (UTC+8). West Point Esports, Ael. West Point Esports Facebook page. Retrieved on 2024-06-11.
2. Viridis Arcus Esports Facebook post on June 4, 2024. June 4, 2024 at 6:25 AM (UTC+8). Viridis Arcus Esports team. Viridis Arcus Esports Facebook page. Retrieved on 2024-06-11.
3. League of Legends Facebook post on June 5, 2024. June 5, 2024 at 3:01 AM. League of Legends team. League of Legends Facebook page. Retrieved on 2024-06-11.