While most of the world’s best League of Legends players are preparing for the games at the World Championships in October, SK Gaming are already dealing with problems outside the tournament.
Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen was outed by Taiwanese news site Apple Daily this morning for using a racist username on the Taiwan game servers. The tag, “Taipeichingchong,” drew fire on the region’s League of Legends forums for its obvious racist connotations.
A representative from Riot Games Taiwan informed Apple Daily that it had been made aware of the issue and requested that Johnsen apologize publicly. Johnsen tweeted his apology shortly thereafter.
Hey TW community im sorry about my acc name i changed it back immediately after i realized i overstepped a border, Im really sorry.
— Svenskeren (@TheSvenskeren) September 16, 2014
This is not Johnsen’s first incident of so-called “toxic” behavior. A Reddit thread from several months ago highlighted his negativity and use of racial slurs during games on public game servers. Since then, Johnsen has managed to avoid any recorded incidents of malfeasance until the revelations this morning.
Riot is discussing any further actions or punishments for Johnsen’s actions, though the nature of these actions remains difficult to predict. Team manager Andy “Reginald” Dinh was fined $2,000 for violating league rules when he announced a new player acquisition prior to league approval. Player Nicolaj “Incarnati0n” Jensen, now SK Gaming’s coach, was permanently banned from competition (and, more recently, the World Championships) but only after a protracted period of verbal abuse and DDOS attacks.
While Johnsen’s final punishment is still pending, the negative PR is certainly an unwelcome distraction at a time when the competitive stakes could not be higher. Until the games begin at least, it appears that SK Gaming’s most pressing task is reigning in any additional hits to their public perception.
Photo via Riot Games/lolesports
