LFL League of Legends professional player Nicolai “Nicolaiy” Garkov has been kicked from his team for sexism towards
Maya “Caltys” Henkel
in solo queue.
Nicolaiy was previously the jungler for LFL professional team MS Company, before the significant backlash to his actions earlier this week. Screenshots were posted to Caltys’ Twitter after the G2 Hel bot laner had an encounter with the LFL player.
The toxicity occured during a solo queue game on the Europe West server. The tweet rapidly gained millions of views, with the community rallying to support Caltys and push back against Nicolaiy’s behavior. MS Company announced that Nicolaiy had been kicked from the team the very same day, an incredibly quick response from the French organization.
MS Company Nicolaiy sexism controversy
The controversy began when G2 Esports’ bot laner for its Hel team posted pictures of in-game chat logs. These chat logs showed MS Nicolaiy saying, “Nah, you [are] girl, explains a lot” and “I [just] have girl on hypercarry champ. It’s gg.”
Even inside of the solo queue game, Nicolaiy wasn’t able to get away with his sexist actions. Caltys’ teammates and opponents came to her defense at the time. It didn’t take long for Caltys to take the proof of the LFL jungler’s actions to social media. From there, the controversy rapidly grew large enough to get the attention of the organization he was playing for.
MS Company was as perturbed by the jungler’s actions as the community, springing into action. The same day that the screenshots were posted to Twitter, MS Company came out with a public statement.
In the statement, they publicly apologized to G2, Caltys, and the community at large. MS Company made clear that it prides itself on the polar opposite values to Nicolaiy’s behavior.
As G2 Caltys’ post gained rapid traction, MS Company announced Nicolaiy’s permanent departure from the roster.
Many high ELO players confirmed Nicolaiy’s persistent toxicity. At the same time, high profile community members had stepped up to call for action to be taken against the jungler. While many expected action to be taken, a prompt firing within 24 hours of the incident coming to light was met positively.
The jungler had briefly addressed the controversy on his personal Twitter. In it he said, “Snowflakes who comment below the Twitter, FIND a life instead of commenting below Twitter posts.” This was promptly deleted, along with Nicolaiy’s entire Twitter account, and allegedly his League of Legends account as well.
Overall, the community and G2 Caltys seem satisfied with the rapid and appropriate response to Nicolaiy’s actions. MS Company announced that player Romain “Kuroneel” Poilane would be
taking Nicolaiy’s place as the team’s jungler
for their next match on January 17. While the initial incident caused great uproar, it seems to have resolved itself well and to community satisfaction.
Nicholas James
About Nicholas James
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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