At Schalke 04, the 2020 season in the League of Legends seems to be sinking into chaos. They signed 27-year-old Konstantinos-Napoleon “FORG1VEN” Tzortziou before the season as a star player. But after 6 consecutive losses, that was it for Schalke. He is stepping back.
Who was the beacon? FORG1VEN is an ADC who had his prime time in LoL in 2016. Back then, FORG1VEN was an outstanding player who could dominate the bot lane in LoL by constantly pressuring the enemy ADC. However, the star was considered quite toxic, receiving multiple penalties from Riot Games.
FORG1VEN’s career was abruptly interrupted: the Greek military called him up, and he had to serve his compulsory military service.
But by then, he had already earned a status as a “legend.”
Before the 2020 season, Schalke signed the now 27-year-old and celebrated him on social media as “Godg1ven,” a miraculous beacon whose glow was supposed to shine at Schalke.
Some fans dismissed the 27-year-old as an “eSports retiree,” but the confident ADC had only scorn for that. They should better hide under the tower. He would come for them.
In LoL, some are considered “old and ripe for retirement” at just 23, making a 27-year-old an exotic case.
Schalke loses all games with new team
How it went: Pretty badly. Schalke lost all games in the European LoL league LEC. It was clear: something was wrong with the team, which had changed in 3 positions. Communication was poor, there were individual mistakes, it simply wasn’t enough:
- After the first 2 losses, people thought: Well, those were close ones, that can happen
- After 4 losses in a row, gallows humor broke out
- After 6 consecutive losses, something had to change
Schalke replaces star with rookie player
What Schalke did: Yesterday afternoon at 16:10, Schalke announced that they wanted to test the 20-year-old Bulgarian Nihat “Innaxe” Aliev from their own Academy team with the professionals. He had played well and deserved this chance.
Innaxe is an ADC, playing in the position of the 27-year-old star that Schalke hyped before the season.
Schalke stated in the tweet that they continued to rely on FORG1VEN in the split and emphasized how much Kostas had contributed.
FORG1VEN quits immediately: Schalke too bad
How the beacon reacted: About an hour later, FORG1VEN tweeted a statement that Schalke currently has a roster with which one cannot win and that he did not want to change that. He couldn’t deal with it.
Therefore, Schalke and he mutually agreed that FORG1VEN would step back. He is stepping back until Schalke is ready to change the roster.
On a Twitter account, FORG1VEN shared a tweet and responded to another. The reactions paint an interesting picture:
- One says that Schalke’s poor performance is not due to FORG1VEN. Rather, Mid, Jungle, or Support had completely failed in the games – FORG1VEN seems to support this opinion.
- On the other hand, it is said that FORG1VEN should have proven himself as a full professional at Schalke. He should have improved his teammates and raised them to a new level. This way, FORG1VEN could have earned the opportunity to switch to a stronger team – to the tweet, FORG1VEN says he behaved perfectly in the 3 months and was not toxic at all.
Particularly bitter for Schalke: their former ADC Elias “Upset” Lipp (20) left them for Origen before the season. They are currently shining in the LEC with a 4-2 record, standing in 2nd place. Upset is now considered one of the best ADCs in Europe. But Schalke apparently couldn’t keep him.
