Tyler1

Tyler Steinkamp, better known as Tyler1, is an American online streamer and League of Legends player.

In 2014, Steinkamp achieved Challenger (the highest rank in League of Legends) and 13th overall on the North American ladder.

He was infamous among other high ranking players for his skill in playing the character Draven, but also for his toxic behavior.

He verbally abused teammates and intentionally lost the game after perceived slights from his teammates.

This behavior eventually led to permanent bans on 22 unique accounts over several years.

Steinkamp later increased his toxic behavior in order to draw in more viewers.

Steinkamp first gained notoriety when he was indefinitely banned from League of Legends in April 2016 for his toxic and disruptive behavior toward other players, earning him the nickname "The Most Toxic Player in North America.".

In April 2016 he produced a video compilation of his toxic behavior with a promise to reform.

The video received over 2 million views on YouTube.

His Twitch channel increased from around 5,700 followers to over 92,000 followers by the end of the month.

His improved behavior quickly lapsed but his following continued to grow, prompting high profile and professional players such as Meteos and Doublelift to publicly condemn his behavior.

On April 30, 2016, Riot Games employee "Riot Socrates" announced that due to "a well-documented history" of verbal abuse and player harassment, Steinkamp would no longer be allowed to own a League of Legends account, adding, "this dragged on too long, but we want you to know when the rare player comes along who's a genuine jerk, we've still got your back."

Going forward, Riot would ban any account he played on, even if he had not yet broken any rules.

After becoming banned, Steinkamp continued to try to play League of Legends, but as soon as he publicly streamed himself playing, Riot Games would quickly discover it and ban his account.

He also tried playing in his free time, repeatedly creating new accounts and climbing the competitive ladder before those too were discovered and banned.

Unable to play League of Legends, Steinkamp was forced to branch out to other games to entertain his viewers, such as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

He also hosted non-gaming streams such as cosplaying as Bob Ross and teaching his viewers how to cook.

Despite the ban, Steinkamp's following continued to grow, and he withdrew from university to focus on online content creation full time.

In November 2017, Steinkamp hosted an online League of Legends tournament called the Tyler1 Championship Series (TCS).

A parody of the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), Steinkamp streamed in front of a green screen to images of LCS stadiums and a commentators' desk.

The tournament peaked at over 200,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch and was viewed by professional players and LCS casters.

The winning team was awarded $10,000, funded from Steinkamp directly and without any sponsors.

In August 2017, Riot Games community manager Phreak announced that Steinkamp would not be unbanned as some of his recent accounts had been penalized for verbal abuse.

However, in October Riot Games employee Aaron "Sanjuro" Rutledge made insulting remarks about Steinkamp in the official r/LeagueOfLegends Subreddit's Discord server, saying Steinkamp looked like a "homunculus" and that he would die "from a coke overdose or testicular cancer from all the steroids."

The company responded saying "what was said is NOT okay, and we take it extremely seriously", apologizing to Steinkamp and to the League of Legends community.

Steinkamp responded to the incident saying, "It really sucks that some people still hold a grudge... and refuse to acknowledge I've changed."

A few days later, investigative esports journalist Richard Lewis reported that Rutledge no longer worked at Riot Games.

Fans began bringing "#FreeTyler1" signs to LCS games, which Riot Games later prohibited in the summer finals.

Soon after, Steinkamp announced on stream that he received an email from Riot Games that his ban would be lifted at the end of the year if the accounts he played in the last month were "clean" of abusive behavior.

He was unbanned in 2018 after an appeal.

His first stream after reinstatement peaked at over 382,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch, which broke a non-tournament record on the site.

Steinkamp is currently one of the most popular online streamers.

In January 2018, Steinkamp was unbanned.

Tyler's first stream after he became unbanned in January 2018 peaked at over 382,000 viewers, breaking the record for the most concurrent viewers for an individual streamer on Twitch set by Faker in 2017.

This record was broken a month later by Dr DisRespect's first stream after returning from a 2-month hiatus, although due to conflicting media reporting and technical issues with Twitch, sources disagree whether the record was actually broken.

Today, Steinkamp is one of the most popular online streamers.

He estimates he earns more than $300,000 each year from merch alone, and estimates he has earned over $5 million in total during his streaming career.

He has won the "Best League of Legends Streamer" award at The Streamer Awards in 2022 and 2023.

On April Fools' Day 2018, Steinkamp produced "A Day in the Life of Tyler1," a parody of his life in front of a green screen.

In June 2018, during an angry rant about recent changes to the game, Steinkamp admitted he was addicted to League of Legends, prompting other members of the community to share their addiction stories and share advice from Riot Games employees.