Swifte dramatically withdraws from Twitch Rivals during draft

Challenger support player Johnny “Swifte” Ngo has backed out of the upcoming Twitch Rivals League of Legends tournament after being drafted by streamer and team captain Tim “Trick2G” Foley to support a Diamond 4 ADC. 

The drama unfolded during the tournament’s draft process, where captains pick players from a pool to join their five-man squads. Trick2G selected Swifte to join his team, but not long after, the captain also added one of his friends, Horsey, into the ADC role. Horsey is ranked as a Diamond IV player on the North American ranked ladder and that didn’t seem adequate to Swifte, who immediately tweeted that he was withdrawing from the tournament.

Related: Streamer teams are set up for Twitch Rivals League of Legends Draft Showdown II

Despite being posited as a “for fun” tournament, Swifte refused to play in Twitch Rivals with Horsey as his lane partner. Trick2G was forced to pick another player in the draft as this drama unfolded, while the rest of the teams were busy selecting players.

Julian “Tarzaned” Farokhian mentioned the “for fun” aspect of the tournament in a tweet, but Swifte simply responded by saying “I won’t have fun therefore I made the right decision.”

Swifte quickly deleted the tweets in question but both his withdrawal from the tournament and the many screengrabs of the now-infamous tweets still remain. Many participants in the Twitch Rivals tournament proceeded to call him out on social media, including 100 Thieves streamer Moe “Yassuo” Abdalrhman, who Swifte has clashed with in the past. 

Swifte has some professional experience, spending time as a substitute on Dignitas in the first half of 2017 before switching to another sub role on TSM for the second half of the year. He’s more likely known to League fans as an extremely skilled Thresh player in high Challenger. Although he streams, he’s often seen on other channels, like that of Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng as a duo partner.

Twitch Rivals League Draft Showdown II will take place from Jan. 21 to 23 and feature a $75,000 prize pool.