In recent days, the League of Legends community in China has been stirred up by the news that two players, Leyan from Vici Gaming and Shouthwind from Invictus Gaming, have been penalized for inappropriate behavior towards fans.
Regarding Shouthwind’s case, this player was teased by some fans for being a Support yet getting a lot of kills from the ADC both in tournaments and solo rank. He then reacted to these comments with rather unkind words, and immediately, both Invictus Gaming and the LPL organizers imposed penalties on him, including:
Internal penalty from IG: 50,000 yuan fine + Warning about attitude.
Penalty from Riot China: 30,000 yuan fine for Shouthwind + 20,000 yuan fine for IG + 1 match suspension for this Support player.
However, while the punishment for Shouthwind is quite understandable, in Leyan’s case, the online community found themselves in a situation where they didn’t know whether to laugh or cry over his misfortune, as Leyan was penalized for a mistake he didn’t even commit.
Specifically, right after Leyan turned 18, a streaming platform in China signed a contract with this player, and during a recent stream, he was suggested to duo with another popular League of Legends streamer.
There wouldn’t be much to say, but the issue is that Leyan duoed with that streamer but… didn’t say anything… In simpler terms, he barely interacted with his partner. This led the fan community of that streamer to react, claiming that Leyan was showing an arrogant and haughty attitude.
Of course, Leyan’s fans did not stay silent in front of these accusations, and they “fired back,” turning the stream into a verbal battle with a variety of harsh words. In this incident, Leyan indeed holds some responsibility for letting his fans run wild, and moreover, when playing with that streamer, Leyan also didn’t use honorifics (even though the other player is older and they had previously appeared quite friendly). Therefore, after careful consideration, VG still decided to impose a penalty on the former IG player, including a 1-month salary fine and halting all streaming activities.
From the perspective of the LPL organizers, the penalty for Leyan was also imposed, including a 1-match suspension, a 30,000 yuan fine, and VG also received a 20,000 yuan fine.
In fact, Leyan was not entirely innocent in this situation, and this can be seen as a valuable lesson for professional players about behavior on stream, as well as controlling the “aggressive” tendencies of a segment of fans.