The Untold Truth Of Tyler1
Every sport has its "bad boy" of sorts. Once upon a time, Mike Tyson made headlines both in the boxing ring and out of it. Former Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel spent more time in clubs after being drafted than he did on the football field. Ron Artest got into a legitimate fistfight with fans at an NBA game. The competitive arena is chock full of stories like these: players who are gifted at what they do but make a name for themselves because they can't seem to stay out of trouble.
For League of Legends, that player has been Tyler Steinkamp, better known as Tyler1.
If you're a fan of Tyler1, you're likely nodding your head in agreement. You're familiar with his past fits of rage during matches, which his followers routinely turn into smaller, bite-sized clips on Twitch and YouTube. And you probably know that, these days, Tyler1's taken it down a notch and chilled out a bit so he can keep doing what he does best: play League.
We've decided to dig a bit into Tyler1's life and give you some little-known facts about one of the more talented LoL players in the world. Once you're through, you'll get a sense of why Tyler1 is so popular, and what made him such a controversial figure in the gaming space.
Enjoy.
He played football at Central Methodist University
Had the dice rolled a different way, there's a chance that we wouldn't know Tyler1 the streamer, but instead, Tyler Steinkamp the running back.
Tyler1 attended Central Methodist University in Missouri, where he played running back on the team during the 2014 and 2015 seasons. In his first year on the field, he ended with 703 yards rushing and 4 touchdowns. His stats dropped off dramatically the next year, however — he ended the 2015 season with 431 yards and 1 touchdown.
Now for a few fun facts about Tyler1's time at Central Methodist University. His teammates apparently called him "Waterbug," which is a common nickname for a running back. He also wasn't the "dumb jock" type while attending, as evidence suggests he made the Dean's List at the university in Fall 2015. And what was Tyler1's major, you ask? Computer science.
Perhaps when he hangs up his headset and moves on from streaming, he can go work for EA and make Madden games.
He reached 13th-best in solo-ranked LoL in 2014
There's a character in League of Legends named Draven. He's not what you'd call a standout character. There are plenty of characters that are better than Draven is, and for that reason, he's not often seen as a threat to opposing players. Most might see someone using Draven and think, "That person must be new. Nothing to worry about."
Tyler1, however, plays exclusively with Draven. Despite that decision putting him at a disadvantage every game, he remains faithful to his favorite character.
And he routinely blows the door off of his opponents.
Tyler1, at one point, was the 13th-ranked player in League of Legends solo play, bewildering his enemies by being really, really good with Draven. It's a testament to his skill, and one has to wonder how good he would have been — and what rank he could have reached — had he played to the meta like most do in the game.
His attachment to Draven did have some downsides, though.
He was banned from League of Legends for nearly two years
There's a metaphor sometimes used to describe someone who becomes uncooperative because they aren't getting their way. It's said that they're "taking their ball and going home," essentially ending the fun for everyone else because they're mad.
Tyler1 used to get mad. A lot. And most of the time, it was because he couldn't use Draven in his ranked matches. When another team would "ban" Draven from being used during play — usually because they saw Tyler1 was on the other team — Tyler would throw a tantrum and throw the match.
Over the course of his time playing League of Legends, Tyler1 became quite the legend himself. He built a rap sheet a mile long for, in the words of Riot Games, "verbal abuse, intentional feeding, as well as account sharing/purchasing, evasion of sportsmanship systems, and player harassment." He'd swear, die purposely, get banned, create a new account, get banned again, and basically do everything he could to be a nuisance inside League when he wasn't happy.
Finally, Riot Games had enough, and in 2016, the company banned Tyler1 permanently.
While banned, he ran his own League of Legends tournament
Tyler1 may have been banned from his favorite game, but he wasn't about to exit the scene entirely. He still found ways to be involved in the League of Legends community, and in 2017, he put on a League tournament with a grand prize of $10,000. And he did it not in a fancy arena or studio, but in front of the green screen at his home.
The Tyler1 Championship Series pitted two rather legitimate League of Legends teams against one another: the Stream Dream Team and Team MLGB. And the production quality, while pretty subpar compared to more polished efforts from larger organizations, was good enough to draw over 200,000 viewers. Team MLGB eventually ruled the day, taking home the championship. And Tyler1 showed that he could still hang around the League world and make a contribution that was positive for a change.
Tyler1 has stated that the tournament will be an annual event going forward; good news for League players who want to show off their skills on a less-official stage.
A Riot Games employee was fired after saying Tyler1 would die of an overdose
We now live in the internet age, where we're all provided a giant loudspeaker that we can use to either help ourselves or hurt ourselves. And there's no shortage of people and companies that have opted for the latter. In the case of Riot Games, which makes League of Legends, the company certainly had understandable reasons for banning Tyler1 from its game. Sure, some people argued that he was banned while others weren't, but the company had the moral high ground in Tyler1's very specific case.
And then a game designer said something colossally stupid.
On the Riot Games Discord server, an employee named Aaron Rutledge decided to vent his frustrations about Tyler1, a player he felt had caused him a whole lot of stress and unhappiness. "Honestly... it's fine he'll die from a coke overdose or testicular cancer from all the steroids... then we'll be gucci," Rutledge said in Discord. "I've spent many many hours dealing with his bulls***."
As you can imagine, the League community did not take kindly to someone from Riot attacking one of their own. Rutledge was let go from the company, though to his credit, he put the blame squarely on his own shoulders for acting in such an unprofessional manner.
His first stream post-ban broke a Twitch record
At some point, Riot Games decided that Tyler1 had paid his dues and done his time, and that the "permanent" ban on the streamer would not be so permanent after all. Tyler1 was unbanned and put on a probation, of sorts, free to go back to League of Legends and stream his gameplay for fans.
And wow, were they ready for him to return. His first stream back broke Twitch records for concurrent views, attracting over 386,000 viewers to watch him log back in to his favorite game without worrying about a ban. Not only that, but the team he was playing against in his first game banned Draven — something that would have sent him off the deep end a few years ago. Tyler1 remained calm, though. He picked a different character and wound up winning the match.
All in all, Tyler1's ban lasted a total of 613 days. Based on his return and his behavior, it appears the ban did him some good.
He streamed a 45-minute movie starring himself on April Fools' Day
Streamers in general have to learn how to entertain, even if it means they become an exaggerated version of themselves. In Tyler1's case, he's always had a reputation for being a bit over the top. He's loud. He yells. He gets a bit too excited sometimes. And he's a little weird.
On April Fools' Day 2018, Tyler1 embraced the weird and did something so incredibly bizarre that you almost have to watch it for yourself to fully appreciate it. He filmed and produced a strange, disjointed 45-minute film starring himself, a green screen, movie footage, and memes galore.
According to Tyler1, the project took a few weekends to put together. He took off from streaming during that time, promising that the end result would be something that was "one of a kind, never before done." He called it "A Day in the Life of Tyler1," and if you head on over to YouTube right now, you can enjoy this odyssey for yourself.
He's considered one of the highest earners on Twitch
Twitch streamers can make money from the platform in a few different ways. The first involves the platform's partnership program, which gives streamers a cut of ad revenue for the ads that run on their channel. The next is tips, which viewers offer up to streamers who they feel deserve more money for their entertainment. And the last is sponsorships, where streamers can work with outside companies to promote products or services in exchange for money.
Tyler1 is considered one of the highest earners on Twitch, and if you take a look at his subscriber count, you might be inclined to agree.
As of February 2018, Tyler1 had around 30,000 subscribers on Twitch. Subscriptions cost $5 per month, and Twitch pockets 50% of that amount. All in all, that's $75,000 a month that Tyler1 is pocketing before taxes, and that's just from being a Twitch partner. That amount doesn't include the tips he's bringing in or any sponsorship deals he negotiates. So there's a very good chance he could be pulling in a whole lot more than that.
His account is apparently muted in Overwatch
We've already gone into great detail about Tyler1 and his history with League of Legends. He developed quite the reputation for being an enormous troll in that game, and again, as we've discussed, it wound up getting him banned for approximately two years.
But would it surprise you to learn that Tyler1 was also disciplined by Overwatch? According to Tyler1 himself, that's exactly what happened. His account on Overwatch was muted for a period of 10 years, which means that he can't interact via voice while he's playing.
What makes this particular situation super interesting, though, is the fact that Tyler1's mute doesn't appear to be connected to any bad behavior in Overwatch itself. His fans speculate that Overwatch may have taken action against his account due to his reputation from League of Legends. If Blizzard did indeed mute Tyler1 because he misbehaved in another game, that means someone from that company went out of their way to take action on his account — scrutiny that someone who isn't a popular streamer probably wouldn't be under.
Tyler's girlfriend is also no stranger to bans
What can we say? You just know when you've found that special someone. That perfect match you gets you and who likes the same things you do. Like getting banned from social platforms, for instance.
Tyler1 is not single, ladies, sorry. He's taken, and his girlfriend goes by the name Macaiyla online. The two seem to have a lot in common. They met each other at Twitchcon, they both enjoy life in front of the camera, and — at one time — both enjoyed causing controversy by acting out and saying ridiculous, terrible things.
In Macaiyla's case, she's now had two Twitter accounts banned after scrumming with users on that platform. After the second ban, she told users on Tyler's subreddit that she was "not going to make another account at this point." It also didn't help that she jokingly tweeted a bomb threat to a New York City school, which probably put her account under far more scrutiny.
When you're made for each other, you're made for each other.