The Twitch streamer Tyler “Tyler1” Steinkamp is the most successful streamer for League of Legends, but is also known as an uncontrollable hothead who regularly has outbursts and flames wildly. As the legendary LoL team T1 now announces the separation, Tyler1 hastily assures: It was not because he poses such a high risk for any advertising partner.
This is Tyler1:
- The 26-year-old American is by far the biggest streamer for League of Legends. He plays the role of a raging musclebound character in front of the camera, who believes he is 2 meters tall, even though he apparently stands below 1.70 meters.
- Tyler1 is known for his fits of rage on camera. He likes to type in “All Caps” and reminds all teammates that they are far inferior to him and actually quite stupid. Due to his toxic nature, Tyler1 was banned from LoL for a long time; since a Riot employee wished him testicular cancer and was subsequently fired, Tyler1 is back in the game and can pretty much do anything.
- In the last 14 months, Tyler1 had a partnership with T1, the huge LoL team from South Korea. Since the “marriage” of Faker from 2013 to 2016, when they became world champions three times, T1 is considered the “biggest team” in LoL – albeit these golden years are already quite a while ago.
T1 announced: On February 1st, T1 announced that Tyler1 is leaving the “T1” family. They thank him for the great time and wish him all the best.
Fans speculated: Tyler1 had been fired
This was the rumor: Quickly, the idea arose among LoL fans that T1 had thrown Tyler1 out because they no longer wanted to take the risk of having such a walking time bomb in their ranks.
T1 is, after all, a reputable team with numerous lucrative advertising deals, and Tyler1 is considered a walking “Brand-Risk”; the kind that can damage a brand single-handedly.
It is then said that T1’s wording of thanking for the shared time is just “corporate talk” meant to cover up the truth.
The people in the chat laughed:
- “Tyler1 was fired on his day off”
- Tyler1 was “canceled”
This is what Tyler1 says: But Tyler1 does not want to leave it like that. In a stream, he says:
So it’s officially… we are out at T1. It’s a sad day, guys, a sad day. It’s amicable. – There’s no specific reason.
“Doesn’t that sound like corporate talk?” No, I am not a brand risk! That’s really not it. I’m not a damn brand risk!
What’s behind it: The idea behind the deal was probably:
- for T1 to establish itself more strongly in the US market as a South Korean team and build a relationship with the current LoL scene in the USA to sell more merchandise
- for Tyler1 to gain even more “credibility” by having contact with the big names
But both sides probably realized that the effects of such a partnership weren’t that significant after all. Aside from occasional hugs with Faker when meeting at an event once a year, not much happened. The worlds of an explosive Twitch streamer in the US and a South Korean professional team seem just too far apart.
Therefore, it seems the deal has simply run its course.
Even without the deal, Tyler1 will likely not be starving; he is fully occupied with his “You have to play 200 hours of LoL per month” deal with Twitch:
LoL: Twitch streamer employs his mother as a cook – pays her handsomely
