Captain Flowers to miss LCS broadcast after suspension from Riot

Olivia Richman Published 20/02/2020

League of Legends fans won’t see Clayton “Captain Flowers” Raines on the LCS broadcast this weekend.

Riot is punishing the popular caster for over-sleeping and missing call time for this week’s episode of “This or That.”

“Today I streamed til way too early in the morning and didn’t wake up for my call time for This or That. This week’s episode doesn’t include me (clearly) and I won’t be on the LCS this week as an additional consequence. I apologize to y’all I’ve disappointed. I should be better,” CaptainFlowers tweeted last night.

When some fans stood up for Captain Flowers by calling out Riot for having “the worst management,” Captain Flowers was quick to respond that he “fully agrees” with the League of Legends developer’s decision to take him off the LCS desk.

Another fan said he would not be watching the LCS this weekend because of Captain Flowers’ absence.

“No you should absolutely watch. It’s gonna be a banger of a week, bro. I fucked up and actions have consequences,” he tweeted back.

As a Reddit post about his punishment started to gain traction, Captain Flowers left a comment to further defend Riot’s actions. He stated that he “100% agrees” with the decision to not have him on the show this week and only made the tweet to explain why he won’t be there.

“Some people on Twitter seem to be mad at Riot and that’s just not the play here. There’s one singular person responsible for fucking up. Me. I’m still excited to see what happens in Week 5 and I’ll be more ready than ever to get back into things next week,” he said. “Thanks for the support. I’ll be back next week like normal and I’ll be better.”

Even though Captain Flowers continued to defend Riot, League of Legends fans seemed disturbed by the company’s reaction to the caster’s oversleeping incident. One person said that suspending their “best caster” was “stupid,” while others pointed out how harsh the punishment was for Captain Flower’s one mistake.

“I don’t know how NA workplaces are, but here in Sweden, for example, this isn’t reasonable punishment. An employee that has been there for a while and has a history of doing his job and keeping schedule oversleeps one time and you suspend him for a week? Seems completely unreasonable to me to be honest,” one Reddit user said, calling Riot’s punishment “petty.”

Some fans defended Riot, saying that makeup, production, and a film crew were waiting on him. This made Captain Flower’s mistake inexcusable in his given line of work, they argued.

No matter if the punishment is just or not, most League of Legends viewers are in agreement that it just won’t be the same this weekend without Captain Flowers being at the LCS Arena.

Olivia Richman

About Olivia Richman

Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.

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