Schalke 04 defends decision to bench player for being toxic in League solo queue

Schalke 04 Esports has come out and defended its action to suspend its League of Legends jungler Ismaïl “Isma” Boualem. The organization made the initial decision just hours before the team’s first match in the EU Masters 2022.

Schalke had not provided any clear reasons for this exemption at that time and it was Isma himself who tweeted out the org’s motivation behind the decision.

Isma explains that he was called up by Schalke’s head of esports and told about his benching just hours before the EU Masters match. The head had pointed to Isma’s toxic behavior in solo queue as the main reason behind the benching.

After this decision was announced, many League professional players and members of the community came out and criticized Schalke’s decision. Some termed this punishment as an exceedingly harsh one on the player. On the other hand, some even said that Nyro, the Challenger Katarina whom Isma had been toxic to, is a similarly toxic player and should also get banned.

Responding to all these reactions, Schalke has finally addressed this issue directly. In its official statement, it said that an insult in League might hold “different weight than it does in the world where we Schalke 04 operate.” 

But they also clearly state that such behavior is not acceptable. “We don’t stand for hate and toxic behavior. Everybody at Schalke – player, manager, staff, employees, board – is asked to internalize that. We’ve also put it down in a mission statement,” Schalke said.

The organization stated that it has worked against racism, antisemitism, and discrimination for a long time and is still learning to tackle them. It ended its address with strong words, saying “Things we say online have a very real impact on people. This is real life and things we say matter. Please Keep that in mind.”

Isma’s suspension has not favored Schalke’s League team in any way. The jungler’s benching forced top laner Lennart “Jaeger” Warkuss into the role while substitute support Bastian “EliteJoint” Ahrens now plays as a top laner. 

Unsurprisingly, these changes proved to be disastrous and Schalke lost back-to-back matches in the EU Masters tournament.

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