A lead experience designer at Riot Games has outraged the League of Legends community, after saying “we’ll be gucci” if former popular LoL streamer Tyler ‘Tyler1’ Steinkamp dies of testicular cancer.
Aaron Rutledge made the comment on the r/LeagueofLegends Discord channel, writing: “Honestly… it’s fine he’ll die from a coke overdose or testicular cancer from all the the steroids… then we’ll be gucci.” Riot Games previously banned Tyler from League of Legends due to his controversial behavior, with him known in the game’s community for his trolling and griefing of other players. However, since the ban Tyler has made efforts to turn his streaming career around — after previously referring to himself as “The Most Toxic Player NA,” his Twitter bio now brands him as the “Most REFORMED Player NA.”
Tyler took to Twitter to respond to Rutledge’s comments, with his level-headed reaction earning him praise among the LoL community:
It really sucks that some people still hold a massive grudge vs old T1 and refuse to acknowledge I’ve changed.
— loltyler1 (@lol_tyler1) October 1, 2017
With that being said I have no hard feelings towards the guy. Shit happens.
— loltyler1 (@lol_tyler1) October 1, 2017
Rutledge later took to the League of Legends subreddit in an effort to explain himself, writing: “Dude cmon. That’s my personal take on the situation. I don’t speak for the company on live chat.. I’m my own person.” After much criticism from other League of Legends players, he posted another comment: “Reddit, League Players, Tyler – I displayed a gross error in judgement last night and whole-heartedly apologize for my comments. They were out of line, and not what any of you deserve to hear, especially from a Rioter. I’ll be taking time away from Reddit, discord and in game chat to reflect on how I communicate with players. Sorry again for the insults and the language.”
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As the drama escalated, Rutledge reappeared in the League of Legends Discord channel, writing: “aight cool.. ya’ll ruined my life. can’t wait.” It’s unclear if Riot Games plan to take any further action against Rutledge, though the company posted a statement clarifying that they did not agree with the designer’s stance. “To be very clear here: what was said is NOT okay, and we take it extremely seriously,” they wrote. “We will be taking action internally to address this (although it would not be appropriate to go into specifics here).”
