League of Legends developers Riot have banned the accounts of two players set to compete in the LoL Championship Series European qualifier this weekend in Warsaw. A third has been suspended from the Series. All three belong to Team Solo Mebdi, who will subsequently be disqualified from the tournament.
One player, Khaled ‘StunnedandSlayed’ Abusagr, had displayed a “consistent pattern of in-game verbal abuse, racism, anti-Semitism and threatening behavior”. The others, Nicolaj ‘Veigodx’ Jensen and Simon ‘Rayt3ch’ Näslund, were punished for repeated “in-game verbal abuse, offensive behavior and negative attitude”.
Abusagr has previously been permabanned on three different accounts, one of which bore the highest harassment score ever recorded on LoL’s EU West server. “No player, before or since, has matched this degree of negative behaviour,” said Riot Senior eSports Manager Whalen Rozelle.
Abusagr racked up 1,000 reports in 375 matches between February and April last year. He had threatened to physically injure other players in-game, including a Riot employee.
Riot ruled that Abusagr’s behavior represented the “extreme edge of violations of the letter and spirit” of the Summoner’s Code.
“The persistence and ferocity of his abusiveness and aggressiveness are the antithesis of acceptable conduct for the League of Legends community,” wrote Rozelle.
Jensen, meanwhile, has been permabanned on two previous occasions, and has in the past “publicly and unapologetically” admitted to driving series of DDOS attacks against high-Elo players. Elo is a system which calculates the relative skill level of players.
Abusagr and Jensen have been issued lifetime bans, which apply to all future accounts. Both players will be ineligible to compete in any Riot-affiliated events indefinitely. Previously banned pros have typically been given year-long bans.
Näslund’s harassment score is among the worst 0.01% of all European players. He will be ineligible for the Championship Series for a year.
“Of course, nobody wants to take actions like these so close to a tournament event, but it takes time to carefully investigate, review and uncover all of the relevant historical facts of players (especially when they’ve operated under multiple banned accounts), and we never make decisions like these lightly,” explained Riot Senior eSports Manager Whalen Rozelle.
“As always, one of our top goals is to ensure that players seeking to compete in the LCS represent the principles of good sportsmanship and clean play.”
Riot permabanned two Championship Series contenders earlier this week. Their rulings followed that of Team Dignitas’ IWillDominate last month, who had earned the unwanted crown of “most toxic” pro player in North America.