Over the course of the 2013 and 2014 Seasons, we have reminded LCS teams multiple times not to announce players before they are approved by the League. All players must go through extensive behavior checks before receiving approval, and our paramount concern is that a player would be announced by a team only to be declined by the League. We want to avoid false expectations, or an assumption that a toxic player has been accepted into the League.
On July 20, the LCS was notified that TSM desired to bring Lustboy onto their roster. We immediately and explicitly instructed TSM not to announce the acquisition until they have received League approval. On July 22, TSM announced Lustboy as their starting support player without submitting proper paperwork or LCS approval. They went against direct instructions of an LCS official which is against the LCS rules. They are being fined for this rule violation (10.2.14). A ruling will be released later today.
To address some of Reginald's comments:
The main reason we want League approval before players are announced is to manage expectations not because "it would help the league ops team prepare for the changes."
We're confused on why an owner would think the roster change process is optional especially after clear, direct instructions were communicated to Reginald around this announcement.
As for sponsors, I want to clarify that we have two classifications of sponsorships:
1) Permitted, which require teams to notify the League that they have acquired the sponsor, but does not require approval. Examples of these sponsors are mostly gaming related such as keyboards, mice, headphones, etc.
2) Restricted which could potentially be controversial so it's why they requires League approval. These sponsors include food and drink, non-gaming websites, etc.
The LCS only governs the sponsors that directly affect the LCS team and players. Organizations are free to do whatever they want with their rosters and sponsors for their teams in other games.