League of Legends: Fired Riot Employee Discusses Tyler1 Incident, Checks Himself Into Rehab
The Riot Games employee who was terminated after making derogatory comments about a well-known [...]
The Riot Games employee who was terminated after making derogatory comments about a well-known League of Legends streamer has opened up about the situation and announced that he's checking into rehab to receive some help.
Aaron Rutledge, better known by his former employee name, Riot Sanjuro, spoke to Glixel about the turmoil that unfolded after comments he made about Tyler1, League's most infamous streamer who's soon having his ban appealed, received attention on Reddit and other outlets. While taking part in a Discord conversation where Rutledge's Riot Games tag preceded his name to denote his employment status, he referred to Tyler1 as a "damn homunculus" in reference to the streamer's muscular appearance. He then went on to suggest that the streamer would "die from a coke overdose or testicular cancer from all the steroids … then we'll be gucci."
Rutledge initially defended his statements by citing the numerous problems the streamer caused for him personally despite his position not directly dealing with toxic players, but he now says that he completely agrees with Riot's decision to fire him.
"I fully respect the decision to terminate me," Rutledge told Glixel, "and if this was one of my former direct reports I'd probably have done the same."
He's no longer defending his inappropriate statements made about Tyler1, but he did say that alcohol played a part in the comments.
"After a long night of some terrible games with friends, I had a couple too many whiskeys and decided to pop in some chat rooms to see who was awake," he said. "Some discussion started about Tyler1 and I let it rip."
Adding fuel to the fire, he took the conversation to Reddit when his comments were publicized and continued to defend himself.
"As my comments gained visibility on Reddit, my drunk mind decided that I should try and defend myself, in a spectacularly stupid fashion," he said. "Once I woke up in the morning I barely could recall the original things I even said, and that's when I wrote my apology."
His apology consisted of him saying he'd be taking time away from community conversations to reflect on his actions that he said were unbecoming of a Riot employee, but that didn't stop incensed readers from doxxing and threatening the former Rioter.
After being told that the incident would be handled internally and ultimately being terminated soon after the incident, he called his actions, "arrogant and inappropriate" and said that he's planning on entering rehab and hopes to work on himself.
"I'm checking into a rehab center to try and figure out how my drinking led to this happening," he said. "Once I'm back home I'll look for some freelance work for a bit but ultimately I'd like to get back to making games. Riot is a fantastic company - the best I've ever worked for - and I'll continue playing and watching League."
