When the former LoL employee insulted the streamer, he had already had a few whiskeys. He understands his employer’s decision and wants to go to a rehab clinic.
Last week, an employee of Riot was fired for publicly speaking derogatorily about a player. In an interview, the former employee explains that he was drunk at the time and now wants to sign up for a rehab clinic. There he wants to get to the bottom of his drinking habits.
He can fully understand his former employer’s decision to fire him. He would have done the same.
Had “a few too many whiskeys”
In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Aaron Rutledge explains that he respects Riot’s decision. Rutledge was the lead designer for League of Legends and recently drew particularly negative attention from the community. On a Discord server, he expressed extreme disdain towards the streamer “Tyler1”.
At Riot Games, Rutledge worked on major projects like the new Honor system, the new champion selection, or the client update. But how did this “slip-up” towards Tyler1 occur?
On that fateful day, Rutledge was gaming with his friends. “I had a few too many whiskeys and decided to check which chat rooms were still active. Then a discussion started about Tyler1, and I fired that off.”
Tyler1 referred to himself until recently as the most toxic player in the North American “League of Legends” scene. He became known for his provocative, insulting behavior towards other players in LoL. Over 20 of his accounts have already been banned from the LoL servers.
Rutledge had dealt with the community in his job and therefore knew Tyler1. He used a Discord server connected to the “League of Legends” subreddit and let his feelings run free. Among other things, he wrote:
“He’ll die of a cocaine overdose or testicular cancer from all those steroids anyway.” Or: “Do you even know how much bullshit I’ve had to endure because of him? I had to spend several hours of my workday dealing with his bullshit.”
The termination was no surprise
His comments from the Discord server quickly drew attention on Reddit. “My drunk self decided that I should defend myself. And in a particularly stupid way. When I woke up the next morning, I could hardly remember what I had even said. Then I wrote my apology.”
He directed his apology to Reddit, LoL players, and Tyler1 personally. From the bottom of his heart, he wants to apologize for his misstep. The comments were inappropriate, and no one deserves to hear such things (especially from a Riot employee), wrote Rutledge.
Tyler1 reacted positively to his apology: Shit Happens.
On Sunday, Rutledge spoke with his manager and the communication teams at Riot. It was stated that the problem would be addressed internally. “Not surprisingly, and deservedly, my termination came on Monday morning,” he explains.
Now wants to take care of his alcohol problems
Rutledge noticed that alcohol made him arrogant and inappropriate. The positive aspect is that now he wants to get help for his drinking problem. He wants to work on himself.
“I will sign up for a rehab clinic and find out how my drinking could lead to this.” When he is back home, he wants to work as a freelancer for a while. However, his big goal is to work in the gaming industry again.
