Nien leaves CLG and Toxicity against Pros

(An emotional Nien during his interview with Ongamers.)

by Jeremy Heimann

     The big news of the day is Zach ”Nien" Malhas stepping down from CLG. In an interview with Travis Gafford, Nien included under performance to his own standards, toxicity towards him on forums and social media, and undisclosed family issues as his reasons. What percentage each of these reasons play in his choice is unknown. Nien is the type of person that will put others before himself, and he wants to see his team succeed.
     He also doesn’t plan on playing this split, although the possibility of his return to CLG was left open if they couldn't find someone that could fill his shoes. This was his own decision and not forced upon him by the CLG empire.
    The involvement of the community and its passionate fans does concern me. We lack the ability to control others actions, but we can improve on our own.The power of one has been proven to be a working method. The method is started by one not spreading hate - then another joins in and change begins. Change has to start somewhere and that somewhere is inside of all of us. Nein is just an example. If we don’t want to lose other pros to similar reasons then we need to squash that parasite now.

What do other pros think?

Josh Atkins ‏@NintendudeX
I hope the community learns a valuable lesson about how devastating hate toward a player can be to a persons mental health after this.

Mitch Voorspoels ‏@SkumbagKrepo
You will never be able to teach moron's/douchebags to give proper/constructive criticism so don't even try. At the same time there is no point in taking their comments seriously. It's very hard sometimes but the only way to keep going with a sane head.

Marcus ‏@LoLDyrus
@CLG_Nien this community is a double edged sword I disagree with you stepping down but if it's for the better I wish you the best of luck

Hai Lam ‏@Hai_L9
I think this is a pretty big case of where the community sucks ass, trashing on a player until he retires is pretty rough. I think the general opinion of the community towards players is wrong, aka hating on Nien and or praising players that I disagree with.

Søren Bjerg ‏@Bjergsen
Really sad to hear about Nien. Unfortunately I think the community played a big part in crushing his confidence. Stay strong man!

**Travis Gafford's original interview for Ongamers can be found here: CLG Nien announces his decision to step down from starting roster.

Potential Replacements for Nien:

By Joshua Kon 

#1. Link moves to top, Shiphtur becomes new mid for CLG - this is the one option that will have CLG fans drooling, as Shiphtur (at some points in this split) has shown he is the best mid NA.

#2. IkennyU - from the Blue Caster Minions that won the Riot Collegiate Championships from UW.  A top challenger rank and no real team, he may find his way to CLG.

#3. ZionSpartan - a strong top laner from Coast, he may be offered the position.

#4. Innox - if EG loses to C9 Tempest, you may see Innox be offered a position from CLG.

#5. Ackerman - this is a potentially a great pick up if XDG pulls off a miracle off against LMQ! Doubtful, but if not on an LCS roster after this weekend, the opening with CLG may fit perfectly for the top laner from Royal Club's 2nd place team.

#6. Maknoon - way out in left field - he has been streaming non stop and could easily make a transition to a good CLG team. Very doubtful though!

EU SUMMER PROMOTION TOURNAMENT - Thursday, April 24th

There is only one match Today and it's LCS-relegated MILLENIUM vs challenger NINJA IN PYJAMAS. Currently, NiP is favored by over 70% of the voters at lolesports. This particular incarnation of NiP...(Lemondogs in Pyjamas)...has a lot of familiar talent, including Zorozero, Mithy, Nukeduck and Freeze. (You may not have known this, but NiP's symbol is not a ninja shuriken - it's a picture of a revolving door.) Stealing back a slot in the LCS from the ailing Millenium is possible, but whether their roster can stay in one piece after the post-relegation shuffle remains to be seen. However, no matter their shirt color, these guys are all LCS worthy.  

LCS Fans - Get pumped up for Braum, the Heart of the Freljord!

Braum is 'The Interceptor,' putting himself between his teammates and danger and taking the blows for them. He has an interesting skill set with some slow and stun capabilities, but his biggest advantage seems to be his shield. This sounds like the kind of champion who will produce #BIGPLAYS with clutch saves and he should be a lot of fun to watch. 

LCS eSports Question of the Day:

Curse Voice is a third-party add-on to League that allows for team voice chat, but its overlay also includes Champion Ultimate and Jungle timers. Some players love the idea while others feel this is an unfair advantage over people who don't install it. So our Question of the Day, LCS Fans, is: 

Curse Voice...Good or Bad?

And here's what you had to say:

‏@ArronDempers wrote: Bad. Curse seem intent on monopolizing the league scene as far as they can, even in comms. Not a good thing for growing scenes.

‏@ste_coolname123 wrote: I don't need a client to tell me ultimates cd as long as I can follow the action/simply ask teammates, and I think lol is one of those games which should be chat-less so, not even a bit interested in oral communication.

‏@D3nn0s wrote: I don't know.. I like the ult timer of allies but that's it. But I agree with people who say Riot must implement it so either everybody has it or nobody has it. The automatic timer (even tho you have vision) is a terrible thing imo..

‏@Chef_Lu_Bu wrote: haven't used it. I'm not a fan of, as I understand, it keeping track of things like camp spawns and such. I think that memorization of spawn timers is something indicative of a skill-cap. Not every player can FADC in street fighter, and the game doesn't do it for you, because you're supposed to learn it on your own.

‏@Konman81 wrote: I think its good because it is forcing players to get better about timers... Watching diamond games players already time everything.

‏@the_grimmia wrote: It's not like timers are hard to remember. Buffs are five, drake is six, and baron is seven. It's math. Use a calculator rofl.

‏@DungOhBeetle wrote: Jungling since start of season 3, getting the timers wasn't hard for me, people complaining about static timers is moot. I think the only problem is it third party software, if riot patched in auto timers people would still bitch and moan, but at least it would promote some strategy around objectives for those who don't strategize at all in the game.

‏@JamesConnor wrote: I think in the sense of pushing Riot to integrate systems like this into the game, it's good. Dota does fine with voice in game

‏@SearchThisCity wrote: Regardless of the whole spawn timer debate, its a very solid and reliable communication system, its better than skype!

‏@Gregorok wrote: Curse voice is good, doesn't really give unfair advantage. One could only wish that Riot would have done it themselves.

‏@PyunTaeFoo  wrote: I think the idea is great, but not releasing it in full limits teams, if you have it you have an advantage and if you don't, well..Knowing timers is just gonna tell you when dragon or baron respawns, it still won't save bad players from bad rotations. Koreans play in windowed mode and keep timers in a wordpad, this is basically the same except you don't have to manually enter it.

‏@Fighter9363 wrote: Its good with all the timers and stuff and the chat thing when you can talk with your teamates is awesome!

‏@spdivr1122 wrote: Good. All it does is give you ult timers and baron/dragon time if you had vision. Nothing else.

@GoonLvOver9000 wrote:  the voice comms part is golden, the timers are broken and bad for the game