League of Legends world champion arrested for drug trafficking
According to reports from Taiwanese news sources, former League of Legends world champion Kurtis Lau “Toyz” Wai-kin has been arrested on drug trafficking charges. Toyz is best known for being a member of Season 2 World Championship team Taipei Assassins. Toyz had a long and storied career in esports, having coached Fnatic and serving as a founding member of Hong Kong Esports.
The Taichung District Prosecutor’s Office announced that it had conducted a search of the 29-year-old’s home. According to reports, Toyz was brought in for questioning and was drug tested. Police are said to have petitioned for him to be detained overnight on suspicion of trafficking a Class 2 drug, marijuana.
Toyz’s time in esports before this wasn’t without its own ups and downs. After becoming world champion, Toyz retired for the first time in 2013 due to escalating carpal tunnel syndrome. He returned in 2015 to create Hong Kong Esports, but it wouldn’t be for long.
Later that same year, Toyz left Hong Kong Esports after accusing team CEO Derek Chung of compromising the sqaud’s competitive integrity through match fixing. In 2016, Toyz founded Raise Gaming in the LMS’ promotional league. Toyz would lead Raise to a successful promotion to the LMS. Toyz stayed on as a coach after a rebrand to G-Rex.
Toyz arrested after YouTube transition
Since his final retirement, Toyz has become a successful YouTuber. At the time of writing, he has nearly 700 000 subscribers on YouTube. The specifics of the circumstances around the charges, or why a retired video game coach and YouTuber would involve himself in drug trafficking, are unclear.
Both Taiwan and China maintain stringent marijuana enforcement laws. This means that the charges brought against Toyz could be quite serious, should he be found guilty of the allegations.
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.
View full profile