RIP (Reform in Progress): Tyler1
When you look up “indefinite ban League of Legends” on Google, what results would you expect to see? Veigodx aka incarnati0n and XJ9 probably come to mind, as well as the titular character in this piece, Tyler1. What you might not expect is what actually pops up, so go ahead and run that search. Shocked? Probably not, but likely at least a little surprised.
Of the 10 links on Google’s first page of results, eight are about Tyler1. The remaining two are: a post on the League of Legends forums titled “Indefinite Ban?” about a 14-day ban a player received back in March and a LoLKing result for a player with summoner ID ‘indefinite ban 37840’. Everything else is about The Most Toxic Player in League of Legends, the #1 Draven World, Tyler1.
His story is one even a Jedi would tell, one of toxicity and flaming teammates, of deliberately suiciding into the enemy team repeatedly, and, ironically enough, of never giving up. Tyler1 was indefinitely banned from the game in April 2016 after years of ungodly amounts of trash-talking teammates and toxic in-game behavior. Incidentally, the ban resulted in Tyler1 continuing to play League, just to a wider audience than ever before as a result of his infamy. He stopped streaming his League gameplay, because Riot Games would very easily ban his account, but he played off-stream. “Spectate Tyler1” channels on Twitch.tv would pop up once people figured out his new account name, and every time he brought a new account up to the high echelons of ranked play, he was smote down, only for him to get another account and repeat the cycle again and again.
The story changes however.
In October, while he was streaming, Tyler1 made a big announcement. Riot will reevaluate his ban on January 1, 2018. He’ll have to submit all account names that he’s played on recently, but if they all come up clean, he will be allowed to play League publicly. Since then, the only real news to come out of Tyler1 and League is his recent announcement of the Tyler1 Championship Series, which began today.
16 teams, consisting of mostly Challenger-level players, play in a best-of-1, single-elimination tournament bracket with the winner taking $10,000. The finals will be next week, the only match to be best-of-3. As of the writing of this article, Stream Dream Team, the team of ex-pros Voyboy, Dyrus, Shiphtur, Imaqtpie, and Scarra, have made it to the finals as the Group A representative. Group B play is underway.
Personally, I very much disliked Tyler1’s toxic personality. Raging and flaming teammates have no place in a game, and I agreed with Riot’s indefinite ban. I believe that people can change, however, so I eagerly await January 1 to see the results of his reevaluation. If it turns out he has been successful in redeeming himself, watch out for a Draven one-trick in a soloQ near you.
’Til next time.
