LCS week 7 to promote Active Minds’ mental health awareness campaign

The LCS is entering into a partnership with Active Minds for week seven of the 2020 LCS Spring Split. The news was announced on the Riot Games’ official Twitter account.

Active Minds is a US-based nonprofit organization focusing on mental health awareness and education. In its partnership with the LCS, Active Minds will be presenting the mental health stories of League of Legends professionals between games during week seven.

The LCS is hoping to encourage better mental health practices in gaming.

In 2019, Active Minds conducted a research survey with the North American playerbase. At the highest of all the categories, they found that 41.87% of players believe personal health and mental wellbeing to be highly important to them. This ranked higher than issues such as climate change at 28.46%, and poverty at 21.95%.

Unfortunately, multiplayer games are renowned for being a consistently toxic experience for many. Losing a single game can tilt a player into underperforming, or worse. Active Minds and the LCS pros suggest many things that might seem obvious, but are easily neglected.

“You gotta’ take a break from the game, obviously,” said Yuri “Keith” Jew, support for Golden Guardians. “Get away from the game. Go out with some friends.”

Troubles with mental health isn’t a new phenomenon for League of Legends professionals. Lee “Crown” Min-ho, a LoL World Champion, was heavily scrutinized by the community for a passive playstyle, despite the fact it even led him to victory over T1 superstar Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok.

“Winning through fights. That’s what they wanted to see and that’s why they cursed me so much. So that was the start. Complete mental breakdown,” Crown said.

Professionals are placed under incredible pressure, which leads to incredible stress. But professionals and casuals alike all deal with the strains of competitive gaming. Active Minds and the LCS both recognize the importance of staying healthy in-game and out.