One of League of Legends esports’ most recognizable voices won’t be around for the 2021 World Championship.
Clayton “CaptainFlowers” Raines announced that he will not be making the trip to Berlin to be a part of the Worlds 2021 broadcast team. The LCS commentator announced that he will instead be remaining at home to deal with mental health troubles that have been dogging him for some time. He revealed the news in a post on Twitter.
“I’ve been pretty open these past few years about how poorly I’ve been doing overall. My physical and mental health are both a long way from where I’d like them to be. I still never get enough sleep, and I haven’t been able to motivate myself back into the gym since everything first shut down last year,” CaptainFlowers said.
CaptainFlowers stated he’s been struggling with motivation to create content, stay in shape, or do much of anything that he deems productive. Given that Worlds is a five-week event that dominates one’s entire schedule, he’d rather take that time to bring structure back into his personal life and focus on himself.
He also stressed that this decision wasn’t made at the behest of Riot Games or anyone else. According to CaptainFlowers, Riot Games was planning to have him on the Worlds 2021 broadcast team. He also noted that the surprising decision to move Worlds 2021 from China to Europe was not part of the decision, as the off-site broadcast team was going to be headquartered in Berlin regardless.
But this doesn’t mean that CaptainFlowers is going to be stepping away from League of Legends, or even away from Worlds 2021.
“I’ll keep streaming and making my own content and being a part of other projects…I won’t be watching any of Worlds live. My plan is to wake up at normal NA hours, ignore social media and game results, then stream back the previous day’s games as a rebroadcast show for everyone who can’t easily catch it live,” CaptainFlowers said.
Who is casting at Worlds 2021?
No details on the Worlds 2021 broadcast team have been revealed as of this writing, but it’s not hard to predict most of the names that will be appearing at the event.
Eefje “Sjokz” Depoortere and James “Dash” Patterson will likely be working the desk, and David “Phreak” Turley has been a steady presence at international LoL esports events that will almost certainly be among the top casters in attendance. The bigger question at the moment is whether travel restrictions will force changes to the lineup and push out some familiar faces.
These questions will likely be answered in the near future as the event approaches. An exact date for Worlds 2021 hasn’t yet been announced, but it’s expected to take place in October.
