Professional League of Legends Players Suspended
Riot Games have seen fit to suspend two professional players, Alfonso ‘Mithy’ Aquirre Rodriquez and Erlend ‘NukeDuck’ Holm, due to toxic and abusive behaviour.
aBhorsen, Riot’s eSports coordinator, posted the decision to the official forums yesterday. In this post it was noted that the offences included verbal abuse, offensive language, racial slurs and leaving games prematurely. Mithy was described as having a harassment score within the top 1% of abusive players on the EUW servers. Both players had been punished and warned for their behaviour before, with Mithy receiving a chat restriction and fines for abusive language.
Chat restriction is a softer punishment initially placed upon regularly reported players which results in them only being able to use in-game chat a few times per match, with this restriction lasting for differing lengths of time depending on the initial offences.
Both players have been released from their eSports team, Ninjas in Pyjamas, due to the suspension. As detailed in a public statement issued on the team’s Facebook page,
“This is a highly regrettable situation that the players can only blame themselves for. Ninjas in Pyjamas do not condone this kind of behaviour and we hope that the players take the time to learn from this incident and come back to competitive play in the future with a refreshed attitude. But for now, we will unfortunately have to say goodbye to Alfonso and Erlend, who have been exceptional and loyal players of NiP for the last 9 months.”
This is not an ethical call from the team’s management, but also a business one. The suspension, which lasts until the end of the year would mean that neither player could take part in a professional tournament. It is interesting to note that NukeDuck’s Leaguepedia page has already been edited to show him being a ‘former professional midlaner’. It is difficult to tell whether or not they will be able to easily return to the professional scene, as the long term effects of this suspension on both players is yet to be seen.
This is not the first time that Riot has resorted to public naming and shaming alongside bans and suspensions. Christian ‘IWillDominate’ Rivera was suspended for a year due to his toxic behaviour.
League of Legends has a reputation for bringing out the worst in people, and having a rather uninviting and obnoxiously abusive player base. Riot Games want to be seen as taking their Tribunal and abuse reports seriously. Showing that even the bigger names in the community and eSports scene are not exempt from suspension for being vile is a good illustration of them acting on this information. However, the effect of higher-profile suspensions on the community as a whole is likely to be minimal.
What do you think about the suspension? Do you think that banning high-profile players will help clean up the the attitude of the community? Leave you thoughts in the comments section.