Gambit cannot catch a break. Their ADC Konstantinos ‘Forg1ven’ Tzortziou was just suspended for four games due to “toxic behavior”. That’s bad enough but if you look at a calendar, you’ll see that the LCS season only has 2 more games. And Gambit are locked in a three-way tie for fifth place, and only one game above the relegation cut-line.
This is the worst possible timing for this suspension. BY FAR.
This is not exactly a stunning turn of events, given that FORG1VEN has had brushes with Riot’s disciplinary process before. Last year he got a slap on the wrist for verbal abuse and harassment. He’s also known for being one of the most intense and volcanic players in League of Legends, and generally a difficult person to maintain a good relationship with. This spring he helped lead SK to one of their best seasons in years… only to leave immediately after.
It sounds like Tzortziou has not been on his best behavior of late. In their ruling, Riot cite their rules dealing with both discrimination and denigration and hate speech.
“In the last 30 days, he was reported in over 70% of his games, with 92% of reports received being for verbal abuse, offensive language and negative attitude – this put him in the top 1.5% of toxic players during this time period. After investigating his chat logs we were able to confirm the trend the reports indicated,” Riot explain.
Still, top 1.5%. It just shows FORG1VEN’s commitment to excelling at everything he puts his hand to.
It’s another tough break for Gambit, a team that’s had its share of bad breaks. Last year, visa issues prevented them from sending their team to Wembley, and now the FORG1VEN suspension has likely doomed them at a critical moment in the EU LCS.
Or perhaps they doomed themselves. Team Manager Dmitry “Moo” Sukhanov explained what happened in a blog post, Gambit discovered that FORG1VEN was under investigation one day before the deadline for signing new players. By his own admission, Gambit were told to prepare for a worst-case scenario and get a sub.
“We [were] informed about the final verdict on Tuesday, July 21st at 01:00 AM, when we were certain that we [had] already avoided the worst-case scenario. Nevertheless, you are aware of the verdict. It’s a harsh decision, when there are only two days left until the ninth week of LCS EU Summer.”
WHY DID YOU THINK THAT?! When someone tells you, “Hey, something is about to happen and there could be a lot of outcomes, but here’s what you should absolutely do right now” that is what’s known as a hint. What possible reason did Gambit have for thinking, “Nah, it’ll probably be fine.”
Still, Gambit are fuming. Sukhanov writes, “This kind of punishment harms remaining players and our organization even more than a player in question, especially given the circumstances.
Having said that, I wish you a joyful viewing experience of the 9th week of LCS, where teams will clash on an equal footing to determine, who will claim 4th-6th place in the standings and will qualify for playoffs and consequently Worlds!”
I dunno, man. I think I’d have just hired an AD Carry.