Sexist remarks in a League of Legends Ranked game have cost an LFL player his job.
Toxic behaviour is almost the norm in LoL. If you overdo it, you can risk a ban and be banned for a short time – but there are usually no long-term consequences. Unless, of course, you earn money with League of Legends and have to make sexist comments to a colleague at work.
If professional players violate the Summoner’s Code in the solo cue, they usually only get reprimands or fines. However, MS Company has gone a step further and kicked their jungler “Nikolaiy” off the team.
How did the comments come about
In a private solo cue round on 15 January, LFL player “Nikolaiy” from MS Company got teamed up with fellow LoL Esports player “Caltys” from G2 Hel. But already at the beginning of the match, the opponents invaded the jungle of the two professionals and “Caltys” failed to dodge the opponent’s tresh hook with Zeri.
This was followed by nothing but insults from “Nikolaiy“.
So far so normal for League, but Nikolaiy’s comments in the chat only referred to Calty’s gender. Repeatedly, Nicoliay pointed out that Caltys was a woman, and used this as an explanation for her poor play.
The end of his career
Following the match, Calty shared some screenshots from the chat.
yes it turns out even “proplayers” can be sexist @MScompanyoff @nicolaiy3 pic.twitter.com/8VgkJHOiia
– G2 Caltys (@Caltyss) January 15, 2023
The tweet triggered many reactions and Nicolaiy himself also responded to the feedback from the community. For now, he defended himself against the sexism accusation and defended his statements.
After shaking for 12 hours, our brave hero reactivated Twitter, undauntingly assuming none of his critics can actually read the very public chatlogs, and fearlessly taking on the evil fascist queer icon. https://t.co/siElo8Jq6A pic.twitter.com/1yTErcdyGR
– Veteran (@VeteranEU) January 16, 2023
MS Company also responded to the criticism of their player. The Esports organisation apologised to Caltys and announced the ejection of Nicolaiy from the team.
MS Company explicitly pointed out that Nicolaiy was not acting on behalf of the company and distanced itself from the statements made by its former young player.
“These words have no place in esport and in our society “
Communiqué Officiel / Official statement pic.twitter.com/KAz2neUkUf
– MS Company (@MScompanyoff) January 15, 2023
After Nicolaiy was sacked by the team, the 17-year-old eventually posted an apology himself, but his Twitter account was deleted shortly afterwards.
What happens next for the 17-year-old is not clear. In the future, however, he should think twice about what statements he makes and what consequences they can have.
