League of Legends developers Riot have permabanned two pro players competing for places in the European Championship Series. Both were condemned for “verbal abuse, insults and offensive behavior”, and will be ineligible for the Series in Season 3. The pair have prompted Riot to launch a wider investigation into the sportsmanship of other Series contenders.
“We hope that these players will make better decisions in the future,” said Senior eSports Mananger Whalen Rozelle.
A majority of LoL’s player Tribunal voted that Ilyas ‘mouz enVision’ Hartsema and Damien ‘aAa Linak’ Lorthios be subject to one-year bans. The rulings were upheld by Riot, who wrote that pro players have “a regular opportunity to lead the community by example”, and noted that both players had violated the “letter and spirit” of the Summoner’s Code in a “systematic and unrepentant fashion”.
Both perps have enjoyed permabans before, and Riot have pulled up some impressively antisocial statistics, like the proverbial bike from the muddy lake. enVision has been reported in 29% of his matches, a rate six times greater than the average EU player. An earlier account belonging to Hartsema, JungleReject, racked up 436 reports in 135 games. And both players’ ‘peak harassment scores’ placed them among the worst 0.06% of all EU accounts in January.
“To be clear, the actions taken today are the result of the players’ recent misbehavior,” clarified Rozelle. “Their past actions on previous accounts provided historical context and helped to inform our decisions regarding the appropriate actions to take.
“We’re now taking action in order to help ensure that players seeking to compete in the LCS represent the principles of good sportsmanship and clean play,” he added.
The bans follow that of Team Dignitas’ IWillDominate last month, who had earned himself the dubious title of “most toxic” pro player in North America. He’ll also be missing out on the Championship Series festivities, which quietly kicked off a week ago with the technically preseason League of Legends Championship Series NA qualifiers.