DSG vs EST and fiasco at the LTA Promotion tournament

You might not be following, but the LTA North Promotion Tournament has been going on in the last days leading up to the World Championship. It’s the tournament deciding which team will get to play in the 2026 LCS as the guest slot.

The match between Disguised and Estral Esports set a new record in terms of competitive integrity – only, in the wrong direction.

The LTA North Promotion tournament

The LTA North Promotion tournament is a partially double-elimination tournament opposing the guest team from the 2025 LTA North (Disguised), the top two teams from the NACL, and the top two teams from the LRN – the Latin America North challenger league.

The winner among these five teams will become the guest team at the re-branded (or de-branded?) LCS, returning in 2026. One match is being played each day between the 4th and the 9th of October, and all matches are played online until the finals, held in Mexico on the 12th of October.

The pauses of Disguised vs Estral Esports

On Oct. 6, the 3rd match from the tournament was played between DSG and EST in round 1 of the upper bracket. At the same time, the Riot servers were under DDOS attacks, and both NA and EU were highly unstable.

Remember when I said that the matches were played online? The first game went without issues and Disguised comfortably claimed a victory. Game 2, however, was paused at 11:10. The game resumed 4 minutes later, before a second quick pause followed at 16:50.

But then, at 19:40, the match was paused for the third time immediately after a teamfight, due to connectivity issues. Connectivity issues that stemmed from an ongoing server fail. As a result, the game could only resume an entire two hours later.  It concluded smoothly in an Estral win, as casters wondered if they could ride the momentum from there.

Ride the momentum? Unfortunately, said momentum would soon break as game 3, too, entered a pause. Just like the previous one, game 3 ended up being interrupted for one hour, before it resumed and swiftly ended.

The cheating and Summit’s suspension

During part of the game 3 pause, the broadcast showed the players’ cams. And viewers as well as the caster were quick to point out that Summit was watching a VOD on YouTube.

Presumably, the stream of the very game he was playing. Which would allow him to gain information he would not have access to as a player.

Image Source: LTA North Official Broadcast

Any action that is outside the realm of what a player is supposed to do during a game is prohibited by tournament rules. Additionally, he was also spotted writing on Discord during another pause, which is banned just as well. Players use other tools to communicate with Riot officials, as Discord could supposedly be used to also talk to people who could give misbegotten information – such as their coaches.

As such, the LTA North officials have issued a statement (seen below) to “provisionally suspend Summit from competing pending the outcome of a full investigation”. Estral Esports is allowed to field a substitute player from their existing roster to fill his spot in the meantime.

Image Source: LTA North’s Twitter/X account

The postponed games

After the end of game 3, the casters informed the viewers that the series could not continue as the servers remained unstable. Therefore, the remaining games were instead played on Oct. 7.

Every following match in the tournament will also be pushed back by one day to accommodate this disruption, with the loser’s bracket finals taking place on the 10th of October instead of the 9th. Being played in a venue, the finals will remain on the 12th.

Image Source : LTA North Twitter/X account

This means that the teams will have to play their match on the 10th, fly to Mexico on the 11th, and play their finals on the 12th. Considering that this match will decide whether they have a job in a tier 1 league next year, the conditions are far from optimal.

With the postponement, it’s also unclear whether Summit’s suspension has already taken effect or not. As of yet, it has not been clarified whether Summit will be allowed to play the remainder of the series, or if Estral Esports must field a substitute mid-series.

The competitive integrity of DSG vs EST

This match has been a disaster, and a masterclass in everything that could go wrong.

All technical pauses are an unfortunate experience, since they affect the players’ focus. They create a situation that isn’t authentic to real League of Legends pro play. You don’t go back into a game after two hours with that same ability to keep track of what was going on two hours ago.

Next up, the major pauses, for connectivity issues, were held right after game-defining teamfights. It’s very likely that lag and short disconnections were already happening during the teamfight. 

That fact was overlooked because the other problems were too massive, but it has an impact too.

Estral Esports’ response

Following the LTA North officials’ statement and Summit’s suspension, EST issued a response as well. They apologized on his behalf, while also stating that the situation must be taken into account. Summit did wrong, but this was caused by an unsustainable situation and he acted without bad faith.

Image Source: Estral Esports Twitter/X account

The servers have been having problems regularly for 15 years, and it’s always been swept under the rug. And now, this series’ problems stem directly come from this ongoing server situation.

Having to deal with a 5-hour series, containing one hour thirty minutes of gameplay and three hours thirty minutes of just waiting in a room, is not optimal to pro play.

Wrapping up the Disguised vs Estral Esports fiasco

That’s all for Disguised vs Estral Esports, for now at least. The series resumes on October 8. With what has been experienced so fat, there’s no telling we’re in the clear yet.

In other news, LoL Worlds starts in a few days. Check out the 2025 Worlds schedule here and stick around for coverage of the event.

Featured image Source: LTA North Official Broadcast