TL;DR

Konstantinos ‘Forg1ven’ Tzortziou, current ADC for EU LCS team Gambit Gaming, has shown a pattern of negative in-game behaviour and toxicity in the past month. After receiving a fine for a similar offence in 2014 and warnings by LCS officials, his toxic behaviour has continued and he has failed to meet the behaviour standard outlined in the LCS ruleset. As a result, he will be suspended from the next four games his team plays starting immediately.

CONTEXT

On July 9th, LCS officials were delivered screenshots revealing targeted harassment and the use of discriminatory language towards a fellow player by Konstantinos ‘Forg1ven’ Tzortziou. These screenshots triggered a behavior investigation into the recent account history of Forg1ven. That investigation revealed that over the past month, he has shown a pattern of negative behaviour including verbal abuse and discrimination on his multiple League of Legends accounts. On July 13th, we notified Gambit that an investigation was underway around the player and his behavior, and that this investigation could result in the player being suspended.

In the last 30 days, he was reported in over 70% of his games, with 92% of reports received being for verbal abuse, offensive language and negative attitude – this put him in the top 1.5% of toxic players during this time period. After investigating his chat logs we were able to confirm the trend the reports indicated.

We expect pro players to lead the way as role models and set good examples of in-game behaviour. No player should be made to feel singled out, harassed or discriminated against in game, and Forg1ven’s recent behaviour is unacceptable.

RULING

In the most recent case of in-game toxicity, another player was suspended for two weeks for frequent in-game harassment and verbal abuse found in his alternate account. In regular LCS show weeks, a two week suspension is the equivalent of four games. To maintain consistency within LCS rulings, we will be issuing a suspension of similar length for Forg1ven, and with the close proximity to playoffs, we have decided to use games rather than weeks to maintain parity across punishments.

Forg1ven is suspended from playing in the LCS for the next four games his team plays starting immediately.

RELEVANT RULES

10.2.4 Discrimination and Denigration

• Team Members may not offend the dignity or integrity of a country, private person or group of people through contemptuous, discriminatory or denigratory words or actions on account of race, skin color, ethnic, national or social origin, gender, language, religion, political opinion or any other opinion, financial status, birth or any other status, sexual orientation or any other reason.

10.1.2 Profanity and Hate Speech

• A Team Member may not use language that is obscene, foul, vulgar, insulting, threatening, abusive, libelous, slanderous, defamatory or otherwise offensive or objectionable; or promote or incite hatred or discriminatory conduct, in or near the match area, at any time. A Team Member may not use any facilities, services or equipment provided or made available by LCS or its contractors to post, transmit, disseminate or otherwise make available any such prohibited communications. A Team Member may not use this type of language on social media or during any public facing events such as streaming.

Q&A

If you have found previous reports, why is he only banned now?

It takes time to complete a full LCS investigation once receiving a report. Investigations involve multiple teams within Riot to verify the information that is presented to us, locating alternate accounts, and manually scraping chat logs to ensure accuracy. We want to be as thorough and accurate as possible.

Why is Forg1ven being suspended?

We have seen an unfortunate trend of negative behaviour and this is his second formal offence. He was issued a fine on April 12th 2014 for continued negative behaviour. The fact that his behaviour is an issue has also been brought to his attention several times, most recently when he  participated in LCS training on expectations of pro player in-game behaviour and avoiding toxicity.  

What did he say that was so bad?

One of our goals with competitive rulings is to protect the sources that provide information leading to punishments. Out of respect for the individuals affected by the discriminatory language, we won’t be providing screen shots or chat logs of the incidents. With that in mind, Forg1ven has repeatedly used negative language in game that ranges from harassment and verbal abuse to discrimination. Discrimination can occur in various different forms, but all have the same aim of making the target feel singled out and uncomfortable, which no player should be made to feel.

This hurts Gambit’s chances at a playoff run – do you take this into account?

We are aware of how this might impact Gambit as a team, which is why we alerted the team of the investigation early in the process on Monday July 13th. Harassment of fellow players is conduct unbecoming of an LCS player, and while it is regrettable that his team will be affected by his absence, the choice to verbally abuse fellow players was made by Forg1ven alone.