Nukeduck, Mithy unbanned after ‘significant improvement’

Riot Games has lifted the bans on two professional League of Legends players suspended for toxic behavior

Riot Games has lifted the bans on two professional League of Legends players suspended for toxic behavior.

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Erlend “Nukeduck” Holm and Alfonso “Mithy” Aguirre Rodriguez are now free to compete in the upcoming Spring Split of the 2015 League Championship Series.

Holm and Aguirre Rodriguez teamed together on Ninjas in Pyjamas, the top team in the European Challenger scene. Ninjas in Pyjamas had high hopes for returning to the LCS until a Feb. 6 ban leveled against both players. According to the report, both Rodriguez and Holm showed a history of “toxic” behavior, reported in over 30 percent of their games.

Each player’s suspension was up for review this winter. Holm showed a “very significant improvement,” while Aguierre Rodriguez’s progress was labelled “significant.”

That’s contrary to a report the Daily Dot published the day before, which indicated Rodriguez’s behavior had not improved enough to warrant reinstatement. A source close to the decision had told the Daily Dot that Riot had listed “AFK related toxicity” and “bot activity” as reasons to keep Aguirre Rodriguez suspended. 

As for Aguirre Rodriguez’s part, he’s happy about his reinstatement, and admits it was a struggle for him to change ingrained behavior.

“It wasn’t as easy as just turning a switch on and off for me,” Aguirre Rodriguez admits in a heartfelt post to Twitter

“Looking back at the start of my suspension I feel I have been getting better and better as every month went by. And it is a fact that I still have a lot of work to do because even though no one is perfect, as a professional people have very high expectations of me and that is something that took me a long time to realise.

“I want to stop being over hyped or called toxic just because of who I was months ago. When you see me playing in January please forget who I was before and just look at the present, I will work my ass off to not disappoint everyone but I don’t promise there will be no bumps along the road because there will definitely be.”

Holm and Rodriguez are so skilled it shouldn’t take long for them to find League Championship Series caliber teams. Holm has been rumored for weeks to take over the mid lane spot for LCS contender ROCCAT, while many peg the Spaniard Aguirre Rodriguez for a spot on Enrique “xPeke” Cedeño-Martinez’s new team, Origen.

Whatever teams the two end up joining, it’s safe to say the European talent pool just got quite an infusion—at least, assuming the pair stays on their best behavior. As always, Riot Games will be watching. 

Image via Riot Games


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