Popular League of Legends streamer Ashkan “TF Blade” Homayouni, most famous for his global quest for rank one on the leaderboards, has been released by Team Liquid.
Today Liquid co-CEO Steve Arhancet released a heartfelt video on Twitter regarding the mutual separation of the organization and TF Blade. TF Blade was “integral” to the Team Liquid community, according to the organization.
TF Blade, who was also a substitute top laner for Team Liquid’s main and academy roster, has been one of the most successful League players in solo queue to date. He reached Challenger, the highest rank in the game, on several different servers worldwide including North America, Latin America North, Europe North East, Europe West and Korea.
Although TF Blade’s impressive accomplishments in solo queue haven’t been without controversy. Earlier this year in March, he said that he felt “genuinely targeted by Riot” after he was banned from Korean solo queue for supposed toxicity.
In July earlier this year TF Blade was removed from the League Partner Program (LPP) because he failed to make the “necessary improvements” required to keep him in the program, according to Riot. His status is set to be reviewed next year for potential reinstatement.
But this doesn’t take away from TF Blade’s talent, since he’s considered to be one of the best players in solo-queue. Although the 21-year-old didn’t play a professional game for Team Liquid since he joined the organization in 2018, he played in several Twitch Rivals and Championship tournaments organized by fellow streamer Tyler1.
Earlier this year, TF Blade was removed from the League partner program following verbal harassments against his solo queue teammates. The streamer showed an email from the Riot Games Creator Support Team that discussed the ruling. After being placed on probation in March, likely for comments made while ranking up in Korean solo queue, Riot believes he failed to make the “necessary improvements” expected from League partners. TF Blade’s behavior will be reviewed again in June 2021 before potentially reinstating his LPP privileges.
“They can’t just come accusing me of being this guy that hasn’t improved his attitude and he’s toxic,” TF Blade said. “They haven’t even said why I got banned and they’re just accusing shit. I just don’t like to be accused.”
After following up with the Creator Support Team and asking for examples of toxic behavior, the Rioter explained that “there is no one game, no one moment on stream, no one message on social media” that they’ll point to because these incidents “go back over several months.”
