Talking trash has been a part of competition since the beginning of time, but with the advent of online and competitive gaming, toxic behavior seems to have been taken to the next level. It seems that even professional esports players aren't above it, and in some cases, walk a line that could be considered questionable. One instance of this occurred when professional League of Legends player Hampus "promisq" Abrahamsson told another player in ranked play that he hopes they "get cancer."
During ranked match play on April 15, while Adam Harney (@EragonUK) was hovering over one champion, Abrahamsson began messaging Harney to tell them that they would ban the character, or "run it down," a term for quitting on the match. Feeling the conversation going toxic, Harney then asked "What's your issue?" to which Abrahamsson then replied with "hope u get cancer thats all."
Abrahamsson has been with multiple esports teams, including his current one Astralis. After being made aware of the comments from Abrahamsson, the team put out a statement to state that they were "handling the matter internally," and that they "condemn such behavior." At the time of this statement, no action on Abrahamsson's status with the team has been made public. Abrahamsson himself has not responded to the matter personally, as his last tweet was posted on April 9.
Abrahamsson has been playing League of Legends professionally since 2015. He has since bounced around through a number of teams before landing with Astralis in 2020. Astralis failed to make the playoffs in his first run with them.
There's always some added pressure in ranked play for any game, but there's a line between "competitive" and "toxic." While one would think this would only be encountered by the casual player, this is another instance of a professional showing poor decision-making. While Abrahamsson obviously crossed a line, his online persona depicted in his tweets shows a bit more of a harsh personality. It should also be mentioned that part of the conversation might be missing as the image cuts appear to either miss a block of text or were cleared.
With the 2021 LEC Season over for Abrahamsson and Astralis, having failed to make the playoffs, the situation isn't a good look for the professional and is an issue that Astralis is going to have to deal with soon. Harney mentioned that he wasn't going to post the conversation until the cancer comment, which shows the moment of going too far.
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