Professional League of Legends player and streamer Reptile has been released by Fnatic after he accidentally revealed that an alternative account of his was named after Hitler.
The German AD Carry, who plays in the bot lane for Fnatic’s academy team, made the blunder while searching for an account that had a Draven skin he wanted.
However, he seemingly ended up logging into the wrong account, revealing the name choice to his viewers.
Fnatic drop Reptile over smurf account named after Hitler
In a clip widely shared on Twitter, Reptile is seen logging into his accounts, trying to find the one with the skin he wanted.
The name of the account he chose, “HITLER199”, was clearly visible in the top right, and Reptile instantly realized his mistake, and closed it down at record speed, saying: “Oh- oh sh*t. That’s the wrong account. Oh, hell nah.”
Although he was quick the close down the League client, it was on screen long enough for viewers to take note of the name of the account.
Another player, named Scriptless, claimed that he had changed the name of the account half a year ago as a joke and that he didn’t realize that this would get Reptile into trouble.
Just hours after the incident blew up on social media, Fnatic and Team Queso announced that the player had been dismissed.
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— Fnatic TQ (@FnaticTQ) July 16, 2023
“Today’s event on this stream demonstrates that he doesn’t represent at all the values of both Team Queso and Fnatic, and he doesn’t meet the criteria of exemplarity that anyone who is part of either of the two entities must show at all times, both within and outside of the competition,” a statement read.
“For this reason, we have proceeded to terminate his contract.”
Reptile responds to smurf account incident
Shortly after Fnatic announced his dismissal, Reptile issued a statement on Twitter to shed more light on the matter. According to him, the account in question was one that he shared “around half a year ago,” which was when the name change happened.
“I was fully unaware of the account being named like this,” he wrote. “It is obviously an unacceptable name, which explains why I logged in on stream as I didn’t realize the name change, I even mentioned that I wanted a Draven skin in the clip, as the person I shared the account with is a Draven player.
“I hope this clears up the situation a bit. Once again, I am terribly at fault and I have to accept the consequences. Thank you all for reading and I hope the people I hurt will be able to forgive me.”
Adressing the situation: I made a big mistake sharing the account with a friend as shown here and I am very sorry to my teammates, Fnatic and all fans as you all don't deserve to be left without an ADC for the rest of the split. While I am taking full responsibility in sharing… pic.twitter.com/hoNp4C8WEp
— Reptile (@Reptile9LoL) July 16, 2023
Reptile said that Fnatic “didn’t talk to me at all” and posted their statement “without a warning”. He also posted a Discord message by Javier ‘Dardo’ Zafra, Fnatic’s Director of League of Legends, saying that “it’s his [Reptile’s] responsibility to make sure he’s not involved in something like this”.
Fnatic TQ, which was formed out of a partnership with Spanish organization Team Queso, is competing in the Summer Split of LVP Superliga, Spain’s top league. Heading into the final week of the regular season, the team is joint-last in the standings, with a 4-12 record.