Controversial FTX CEO bad at League of Legends

A new report suggests that FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried isn’t very good at League of Legends, despite having played more than 1000 games.

A surprisingly extensive report from Financial Times has dived deep into the League of Legends account of FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, revealing the now-bankrupt crypto company’s head honcho might not be the challenger some might expect.

The FT report, which spans more than 2000 words, breaks down the history of Bankman-Fried’s relationship with the game, including details of investor meetings with the former billionaire where he apparently played the game.

Bankman-Fried reportedly played the game during a meeting with Sequoia Capital, a venture capital firm who’d backed FTX before its collapse. One investor recalled “[Bankman-Fried] was playing League of Legends through the entire meeting”.

Unfortunately, it sounds like he probably wasn’t doing a great job of playing the game during that meeting. According to Korean League of Legends stat tracking website Your.gg, Bankman-Fried reached a top rank of Bronze II, and had a win rate below 50 per cent with most champions played.

FTX was a major sponsor for professional esports team TSM, which competes across a number games including League of Legends. Picture: Edelson / AFP

For those not in the know, League of Legends is split up into nine ranks for competitive play: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger, in that order. Iron through Diamond ranks also have sub-ranks within them denoted by Roman numerals, starting at V on the bottom end and finishing with I at the top end.

Suffice to say, a rank of Bronze II isn’t particularly impressive, especially for somebody who’s played well over 1000 games in ranked play. Granted, being Bronze or even Iron isn’t inherently a bad thing, not everybody who plays League of Legends has to be good at it, but given that ranked games tend to last anywhere from 15 minutes to well over an hour depending on the players, that’s a big time investment to be kind-of-okay at a game.

Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange, FTX, recently faced a devastating collapse, bringing the 30-year-old’s net worth from $23 billion down to zero and forcing the company into chapter 11 bankruptcy. Prior to the collapse, FTX was a key sponsor for esports team TSM, which has been known officially as TSM FTX outside of League of Legends and Valorant competitions, where sponsorship restrictions prevent the use of the name.

League of Legends has a thriving competitive scene, with hundreds of millions of players around the world every month. Picture: Riot Games

In related news, players interested in a little taste of the game could opt to pick up the recently-revealedLeague of Legends Nerf gun, which costs $250. It’s a little pricey, but hey, at least it’s not $23 billion. It’s a monster of a toy, coming in at over 90cm long, and is a pretty solid replica of League champion Jinx’s signature weapon, Fishbones.

Riot Games also recently came under fire after it was revealed that a new League of Legends LGBT character would be censored in some regions. The new character, K’Sante, was set to be the first gay Black champion in the game, but countries with legal restrictions on the depiction of LGBT+ people would be allowed to change or omit certain aspects to “fit into the local culture”.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.