In July 2023, a concerning situation occurred in League of Legends: A professional player from the Japanese team DetonatioN FocusMe fled from the gaming house. He stated on Twitter that he feared for his life. Now, Riot Games has investigated the incident and banned 2 professional coaches in LoL. The 20-year-old has not played since the incident.
What was the incident?
- In July 2023, the 20-year-old top laner Harubi “Tol2” Shibata fled from his team’s gaming house. He said he feared for his life.
- The young man claimed that his coaches had repeatedly verbally abused him: Head Coach Kazu and Assistant Coach Ceros had him in their sights and were harassing him because he did not play as strong as the previous top laner who was considered the star of the team.
- An attempt to seek help in the league failed and only brought him more trouble.
Here was the reaction: Just one day after the professional player ran away, the team immediately fired both of its coaches.
They admitted that the coaches had said things that could be understood as threats.
LoL bans 2 coaches for 6 months, CEO must undergo training
This is now the consequence: Riot Games and the Japanese LoL league LJL have now investigated the incident for a month and made the following decision:
- The former coaches of the team Kyohei “Ceros” Yoshida and Kazuta “Kazu” Suzuki will be banned for 6 months.
- The CEO of the team, LGraN, must undergo training to increase his sensitivity regarding “harassment allegations”.
- Additionally, the team will receive a fine of 2 million yen (12,656 €).
The investigation found that two violations of harassment had occurred and that “unethical behavior” had been observed over a prolonged period.
Team played without the professional player, continued to win without him
How is the player doing? Tol2 has not found his way back into the team after the incident. It was said that his situation had “not improved significantly, he is still unfit both physically and mentally”.
As a result, the bot laner switched to the top lane on July 9 and a new bot laner was brought into the team.
DetonatioN FocusMe continues to dominate the Japanese league and stands in the finals of the playoffs.
Tol2 has officially left the team on August 16. By mutual agreement with the team, his contract was terminated. He currently has no new club.
The often young players of a professional team in e-sports live together in so-called “gaming houses” during the season. The worst case of how a situation can end occurred in Brazil:
Professional player from CS:GO dies at 19 – team denies responsibility, must pay €72,000 to family
