Everything behind the Fnatic Reptile drama
Last week, Fnatic’s REL team, Fnatic TQ, announced that it had parted ways with jungler Reptile over an inappropriate account name. Here’s what went down in the Fnatic Reptile drama.
Fnatic Reptile was the AD Carry player for Fnatic TQ, Fnatic’s REL team in the Spanish region. He was decently well-known in the community for his presence on Reddit and other social media platforms for meta-related posts and discussion.
During a stream, he logged into a smurf account, a lower-ranked account used for alternate-ranked play, and revealed an incredibly inappropriate nickname making reference to Adolf Hitler. This led to immediate action by Fnatic, who severed all ties with their former Academy ADC.
Who is Fnatic Reptile?
Fnatic TQ’s ex-ADC player is Jona “Reptile” Fritz, a German ADC player who has been competing in regional and semi-professional League of Legends since 2020. He began on Playing Ducks, a now-defunct German amateur team. From there he played with Flayn Esports, mYinsanity, Unicorns of Love Sexy Edition, Riddle Esports, and finally Fnatic TQ.
Peaking at fourth in the LVP 2023 Spring Playoffs, Fnatic TQ and Reptile fell to a ninth-place finish in Summer and a lackluster split. Up until the off-season, still ongoing, Reptile wasn’t a household name in League of Legends. This would change during one fateful Twitch stream.
Fnatic Reptile smurf account named after Hitler
During a Twitch stream, Reptile decided to log into one of his smurf accounts. For those not in the know, smurf accounts are alternate game accounts that players will use as secondary profiles to play on. In professional and semi-professional League of Legends, these are most commonly lower-ranked accounts that the player will use to have a less stressful or easier gameplay experience.
When Reptile logged into the account, the profile in the top right displayed the name “H1tler199.” To most anybody, logging into an account to find a directly antisemitic reference would be cause for alarm. However, Reptile didn’t seem to react much at all.
The fans watching the stream, however, weren’t quite as unphased. Fans quickly screen-captured and clipped the account and began to spread the news on social media. A Reddit post chronicling the incident made its way to the top of the r/LeagueofLegends subreddit.
Reptile fired from Fnatic TQ
Fnatic quickly came out with an official statement on Reptile’s account. The organization took to social media to let fans know that Reptile would no longer be serving as a player on Fnatic TQ. The team was founded in partnership with Team Queso, and both partners agreed that a player with an account referencing a genocidal dictator was far removed from the standard they held as a team.
The official statement made it clear that Fnatic TQ wanted no more to do with the player.
The official statement said: “Reptile ceases to be a part of Fnatic TQ. Today’s event o this stream demonstrates that he doesn’t represent the values of both Team Queso and Fnatic, and he doesn’t meet the standard of exemplarity that anyone who is part of either of the two entities must show at all times, both within and outside of the competition. For this reason we have proceeded to terminate his contract.”
There was no room to be misunderstood, Fnatic would have no part in Reptile’s behaviour, but the story was just beginning to unfold.
Reptile’s excuse: “My friend did it”
As the drama was unfolding, an unexpected party stepped forward to attempt to take credit for the name of the account. Scriptless, a friend of Reptile, stepped forwards to say that he logged into the account which he and Reptile had shared previously, and changed the name as a joke on Reptile.
Supposedly, it was a reference to a copypasta about North American streamer Tarzaned’s reputation for having a toxic stream. Scriptless attached a picture of the copypasta to the post where he took credit, but this excuse didn’t measure up.
There were some serious problems with this alibi, however. Fans online began to look into the account’s match history and found discrepancies that made it seem like this was a lie. Firstly, the keys used by the players on the account for their activated items matched Reptile’s regular account, not Scriptless.’
Not only that, but the player on the account who had used Reptile’s key bindings had played since the account had had its name changed.
Name change history debunks excuse
Fans were able to check exactly when the account had had its name changed the offensive one causing the outrage, and all of the ones before that. The account has had its name changed four times. The first time was on Saturday, October 2, 2021, when its name was changed to cleansethis.
Then, that same month, on Friday, October 29, it was changed to tempbxdaoikeidao. On December 16, 2021, it was changed to LSClicks. Finally, its name was changed to H1TLER199 on Saturday, February 11, 2023.
This, combined with the match history of the account gave strong evidence that Reptile not only knew the account was named the way it was, but actively played on it. Having such a flagrantly anti-semitic name would be a problem from default, but Reptile is German, where laws surrounding Nazi references and hate speech are tightly regulated.
In the eyes of the community, it was clear the Reptile had known about the account name and considered it nothing more than a joke. That is until he got caught.
What happens to Reptile now?
Reptile has been fully severed from Fnatic TQ, and it seems incredibly unlikely that he’ll find another ERL or European amateur team to play with. This incident has left a black mark on his reputation in a tightknit developmental scene where the opinions of your colleagues can be all that matters. The young ADC has attempted to pivot back into social content and streaming in the days since the incident, but seems to have lost the attention of much of the League of Legends scene.
Fnatic TQ will be forced to find a replacement for Reptile in the offseason, and the ERL will move on without him. Reptile isn’t the first pro player to face consequences for hateful or inappropriate behavior, but his case is one of the more involved and memorable instances of a username being the downfall of a professional player.
As the Spanish SuperLiga isn’t technically Riot’s responsibility, it didn’t come to a Competitive Ruling from Riot Games, as those don’t apply to ERLs most of the time.
Nicholas James is a gaming writer with a passion for all things geekdom, as well as live theater. Nicholas is best known for covering League of Legends and other top MOBA titles, but his expertise covers numerous games across multiple genres. When not watching the LCS or playing the latest new release, Nicholas can be found doing some tabletop gaming and painting his favorite miniatures. Nicholas has also published with Hotspawn, TheGamer, Dexerto, Esports.gg and other industry outlets.
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