League of Legends (LoL) has always struggled with the reputation of being a game with an extremely toxic community. Over the weekend, even one of Riot’s employees reinforced this image.
Update October 3, 4:20 PM: The LoL designer Aaron “Sanjuro” Rutledge seems to no longer work for Riot after he insulted the streamer loltyler1 on Discord. “The streamer would die from a cocaine overdose and testicular cancer anyway.”
The British site PCGamesn reports that a Facebook screenshot surfaced, which could confirm the termination of his collaboration with Riot. Rutledge wrote on his personal Facebook account a status announcing that he no longer works for Riot. Additionally, Rutledge’s LinkedIn profile also states that he ended his employment with Riot in October 2017.
It seems that Riot wants the incident to fade away. Several Reddit and forum postings about the incident have been deleted. The summoner name “RiotSanjuro” has also disappeared from the North American servers. Rutledge has deleted his Twitter and Reddit accounts.
Original report:
Aaron “Sanjuro” Rutledge is the Lead Experience Designer at Riot Games, the company behind LoL. He vented in the Discord channel of the LoL subreddit about the streamer loltyler1.
The streamer appointed himself as the most toxic player in North America and made it his trademark. Loltyler1 received a permanent ban from Riot for his toxic behavior in League of Legends.
In the meantime, loltyler1 swears he has turned over a new leaf and has given up his toxic behavior. Riot then restored the streamer’s right to create accounts for League of Legends.
The lead designer Sanjuro, however, still seems to hold a grudge against loltyler1.
On the communication platform Discord, Sanjuro insulted the streamer with harsh words: “It’s okay, he’ll die from a cocaine overdose or testicular cancer from all the steroids anyway … then we’re Gucci.”
Other users reacted to this statement with disapproval and found the behavior of the Riot employee inappropriate. Sanjuro initially felt justified. Loltyler1 had caused him so much trouble in the past that he spent many hours of his workdays occupied only with the streamer. Screenshots of Sanjuro’s statements can be found on Imgur.
Later, he came to the realization. On Reddit, Sanjuro stated that his comments were personal in nature and that he should never have posted them with a Riot tag. Furthermore, he asked the community not to take a live chat out of context.
Ultimately, Sanjuro issued an apology:
“Last night I showed poor judgment and want to sincerely apologize for my comments. They crossed a line and none of you deserve to hear such things, especially not from a Rioter. I will take a break from Reddit, Discord, and game chat to reflect on how I communicate with players.”
Riot expressed their anger over Sanjuro’s behavior on Reddit and also apologized to loltyler1 and the community. Such behavior is not okay, and internal measures would be taken. In the meantime, Sanjuro’s Reddit account has been deleted.
Too toxic, too much boosting – Riot bans 16 LoL professionals
