Riot Games, the developers of massively popular multiplayer online battle arena League of Legends, has been pushing to clean up the notion that the game is filled with abusive players.
In its effort to improve the image of League of Legends, Riot Games has permanently banned Tyler1, a streamer of the game that became popular due to his toxic behavior.
Tyler1 was previously a lesser-known streamer on Twitch, but he quickly rose up in popularity last month as word got around that his videos contained non-stop trolling, including foul language and intentionally feeding opponents.
Thousands of Twitch visitors have started watching his streams, with Tyler1 continuing his actions as there is apparently a receptive audience for such an attitude. However, his claim to fame has now abruptly ended, with Riot Games banning Tyler1 indefinitely.
In a post on the official League of Legends forums, Riot Games noted that while the Instant Feedback system of the game allows it to catch the most unsportsmanlike players, some players seemingly go out of their way to ruin the games being played in the community.
According to Riot Games, it will indefinitely not be allowing Tyler1 to own a League of Legends account, due to his abusive and toxic attitude. Among the trolling behavior that has been documented of Tyler1, in addition to the aforementioned foul language and intentional feeding, are evasion of sportsmanship systems, account sharing and purchasing, and player harassment.
Once Riot Games is able to definitively associate a League of Legends account to Tyler1, it will immediately ban the new accounts as well.
Reactions of the League of Legends community, however, have surprisingly been a mixed one. There are some that have been trying to justify that Tyler1's actions did not warrant a permanent ban from the game, though these are likely Tyler1's supporters that are also trolls themselves.
The Reddit subthread on the topic makes more sense, with players stating that Tyler1's ban was expected due to his unwarranted behavior.
The permanent ban will not force Tyler1 to stop playing League of Legends. He has stated that he would still play the game, but he will have to take his trolling off-stream and hope that Riot Games does not catch him, or his account will once again be banned.
