Immediately after the match between C9 and GG in the recent LCS (North America) tournament, commentator Riot Phreak had to receive criticism from the community for his inappropriate statements.
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David Turley aka Riot Phreak is one of the oldest commentators of League of Legends in general, as well as the North American LCS League of Legends Championship in particular. He joined Riot Games since 2009, so far, he has been trying to stick with League of Legends for nearly 13 years. However, recently, Riot Phreak was involved in an unpleasant incident related to the statement, greatly affecting his reputation in the League of Legends fan community.
Kobe and Phreak commented on the match GG vs C9
Cause of the incident:
The incident started at the 21:51 minute. When the match was just over 3 minutes old, C9 Top laner Fudge (Kayle) had a 1v1 fight with Licorice (Sejuani). However, maybe because he forgot that the opponent had Burn, Fudge rushed to decide to “dry blood” with Sejuani and was defeated very early.
First victory for Licorice from the 3rd minute
This is a very confusing and game-breaking decision for Fudge. When commenting on this situation, commentator Phreak had to say: “Fudge, he has ignite. Press Tab you idiot!!” (rough translation: “Fudge, Licorice has Burned. Turn on the Tab and see this idiot!!”). Then there were some sarcastic comments from Fudge through the confident and somewhat foolish statements of C9 players before the match. Phreak’s spontaneous and somewhat unprofessional use of words caused co-host Kobe to have to “apologise” to Fudge and the audience on behalf of Phreak. The international fan community immediately after that, there was a controversy, including many mixed opinions about Phreak’s use of words. While some thought that he was just joking, and wanted to imply that Fudge’s teamfight was wrong rather than disparaging the player, others were more assertive, saying that Phreak was behaving very unprofessionally. right on live broadcast even as a veteran Riot commentator. Here are the reactions of fans and colleagues about Riot Phreak’s blasphemy:
“No one should get upset when Phreak says that, because it’s actually a very stupid teamfight that a pro can create. You don’t often see pro players miscalculate like that, especially on champions who don’t have early 1v1 teamfights (here referring to Kayle) with any other champion.”
“People can complain and be offended by Phreak, but I love the way he says what we viewers are thinking. Phreak is quite entertaining but a bit rough, which is why I like his comment. Fans should stop taking things so seriously, don’t take offense LOL.”
“Really professional commentators shouldn’t make personal insults to players like that. Phreak deserves credit for pointing out blunders, but I hope that insulting players doesn’t become his new style of commentary.”
“Honestly, it was a rather unprofessional act by Phreak. Half of the people here welcome him calling players an idiot on the air. Nobody cares.”
Riot Phrak corrected:
Immediately afterwards, Phreak himself explained his comments during the match as follows:
Riot Phrak speaks out
“It may not matter but what I said at the time was just a joke. I’ve always had great respect for Fudge as a player but it was a very sloppy hit from him. Should I choose a different wording? I’m not sure either but I personally hope people can laugh at that joke instead of creating fake hatred like Phreak hates Fudge.”
Conclude:
Although it may not be intentional, the use of words by a veteran commentator like Phreak right on the live broadcast really shouldn’t be at all. As a public figure, your every action and word will always be closely watched and just one word will immediately create aversion to the audience. I hope Phreak himself as well as all other commentators will learn from their experience so as not to repeat cases like the above, to avoid affecting their reputation in particular and the League of Legends community in general.
Riot Phrak at Riot Games office
More information for readers: In addition to BLV work, Riot Phreak also undertakes content related to League of Legends update videos or official champion highlights announced by Riot Games. Right from the first season of playing League of Legends, he achieved the elo level corresponding to the Platinum rank (the first season of the ranked mode in elo points) and went to Diamond for 5 consecutive seasons, before stopping at Gold rank from season 10. Thanks to his deep experience with League of Legends, at first his articles and videos on the forum for the North American League of Legends community gained a lot of support.
