The community surrounding popular e-sport (pronounced “video game”) League of Legends is embroiled in a minor scandal after Riot, the developer overseeing the game, banned a popular streamer by the name of Tyler1. And if you don’t think that Tyler Was Permanently Banned From a Video Game is important news, well, check your Facebook trending topics.
“Because of a well-documented history of account bans for verbal abuse, intentional feeding, as well as account sharing/purchasing, evasion of sportsmanship systems, and player harassment, we will not allow Tyler1 to hold a League of Legends account, indefinitely,” a moderator wrote on the official message boards. (Intentional feeding is when a player gets killed repeatedly and intentionally in order to assist the other team.)
The story is, actually, fairly simple: As Kotaku reports, Tyler1 was a popular streamer — meaning that he broadcast his play sessions on Twitch — who “exploded earlier this month after word got out that his streams featured non-stop trolling.”
Riot has a clear incentive to ban Tyler for unsportsmanlike conduct, since League of Legends is infamous for its hostility towards new and less-skilled players, and Riot clearly doesn’t want to encourage that. At the same time, some community members are asking why Tyler received a ban while other reportedly problematic players are left standing. (This kind of “why him and not him?” debate after a harsh sanction against a player should be familiar to fans of, you know, old-fashioned sports.) A post with more than 1,100 upvotes on the forums reads:
Riot don’t be hypocrites…banning Tyler1 whilst you allow Kaceytron and Nicktron continue to ruin the community for so long now. Why don’t you do the same thing for them? Those are bad members (if we can call those two that) of the LoL community. If you are going to show rough Justice on players of this game, be balanced and show it to all.
The community as a whole seems split: some thankful that Riot appears to be paying attention to the troll problems, others angry at the perceived hypocrisy, and, because this is gaming, a large and supportive group cheering Tyler on. If you’re not versed in League of Legends jargon, the discussion over Tyler’s ban can be thrillingly incomprehensible. The impenetrable gibberish and highly developed jargon references tactics — “jungling,” “ganking,” etc. — specific to the MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) genre. You could try to understand it, or you could enjoy the Clockwork Orange-ness of the invented language:
Tributes have been flowing in to Tyler1 on Twitter:
If this video on Tyler1’s YouTube channel is any indication, Tyler is taking his ban in stride, in the true spirit of trolling.
