Echo Fox’s “Demonte” Suspended From Competitive Play
It was announced at 3 P.M. via Riot’s North American website that Echo Fox’s substitute mid-laner “Demonte” would be suspended from the first five NA LCS matches of the summer split, along with the first five matches of the NA LACS.
It comes as a surprise that so much attention was given to a substitute player of minimal value compared to what would normally be treatment reserved for starters of a pro-team, which begs the question: What crime did Demonte commit?
As it happens, the professional mid-laner was given his somewhat light sentence after he exhibited repeated toxic behavior on the Korean LoL servers. Him and his team, Echo Fox, were given special access to the servers with their own summoner names reserved so that they could participate in a Korean bootcamp in preparation for the Summer Split.
The access to the servers was given on the condition that Echo Fox players would “refrain from any toxic behavior on the Korea server” and that an account agreement was signed by all participants, including Demonte.
While the specifications of what the mid laner said or did were not given, it’s clear that Rito are pretty upset about the situation, though its nothing new. In fact, this happening might only be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
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A history of toxicity
Demonte and toxic behavior are two things that seem to know each other pretty well. At the beginning of the year, it was made known that Riot had flagged Demonte for activity that they describe as “unbecoming of a professional player, but below the threshold for which he should be fined or suspended”
Again, the vague nature of this accusation leaves a lot to the imagination, but it can be assumed that Demonte was exhibiting light to moderate amount of verbal toxicity on his accounts of the ranked ladder.
After being given the warning in January, Demonte’s accounts were monitored extensively and didn’t raise any more red flags until the incident in Korea, which is what he is being punished for.
It’s not clear whether or not he would be facing the short ban if he hadn’t been exhibiting signs of toxicity earlier on in the year, but the question still remains: Will Echo Fox suffer without him?
Short answer: No.
Demonte spent some time playing in for an under performing Fenix towards the end of the spring split, and not any other time, really.
His effect on the games he played in were lackluster, to say the very least, and its clear Echo Fox were trying to shake things up as a means of improving their play which, lately, had been poor.
That doesn’t mean he can’t be or isn’t a good player, that just means his limited experience was only due to circumstance and not his own skill. In short, Echo Fox will be just fine with Fenix in the mid lane.
It is funny to think about what this situation would have seemed like 6 months ago. With the addition of Dardoch and Huni to the team, most thought internal battles would spawn from one of those two players. Especially Dardoch, who was known for being an extremely toxic player.
Its a bit out of left field to see that the first news of toxicity from the team is coming from a substitute that no one knew existed before the end of the spring split.
Here’s to the /mute all function. Cheers.
-GLHF