Just when we thought that faith in humanity was warranted, we received news that no, it is to be relegated to myth.
Case in point: Fnatic’s AD carry, Elias “Upset” Lipp, and his wife being forced to confront disgusting statements from notorious community members: top laner Adam “Adam” Maanane in 2021, and Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng in 2022.
What’s the situation?
After qualifying for the 2021 World Championship, Fnatic suddenly lost their starting AD carry, Upset, as he went back to Germany to tend to an undisclosed family emergency.
Despite aspiring to reach Worlds since 2016 and suffering heartbreak as he failed yearly, he chose to leave Worlds when he finally reached it, 12 hours before playing his first game.
In theory, it should have highlighted that the family matter was urgent and extremely serious. However, under massive community pressure, Upset’s wife, Paula Leal, revealed the reason on April 21:
Bc I was abused, he don’t say anything bc he want to protect me, but the right ppl in his work know. Now everyone is happy? I’m done with all this, how everyone is so disgusting. I’m dealing with double pain here and we’re doing our best. I can’t believe this community https://t.co/C9fLEolheP
— Paula🌸 (@Paulaeal) April 21, 2022
Where it went wrong
Some community members did not get the memo and instead threw slander and made jokes about what they assumed was the situation.
It all started when former teammate Adam “Adam” Maanane changed his summoner name to “Lonely Wife UwU” and said on Twitlonger: “Between us, there is absolutely nothing legal in Upset's departure and his departure is totally unjustified (at least until he says why he really left BECAUSE until today, Upset just left to join his girlfriend because she felt bad to be alone, and maybe I'm wrong who knows?”
Adam’s actions have led to mockery towards Upset and his wife and, in her case, death threats. Although he has apologized for the situation since then, the damage was done.
One would think that a line was already crossed, but leave it to Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng to make matters worse as he blundered (understatement, by the way) when addressing the situation on Trash Talk in a chat with former Fnatic mid laner Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer:
One would have wished it would have stopped there, but it did not.
That, and the following reaction from the community, was the one incident too many. When Mrs. Leal revealed what happened to her, the couple’s secrecy made enough sense to wonder: was it worth it?
Why neither of them owed explanations to anyone
Although Doublelift has somewhat backpedalled from the situation upon Mrs. Leal’s disclosure, he did not outright apologize for the damage dealt in the process. As such, he has missed the mark.
Meanwhile, some people in the community have absolutely missed the mark, as if competition was more important than life somehow. Others have tweeted more inane things that would make one investigate the possibility of buying a brain at 50% off to replace whatever is in their braincases.
At least, people on Twitter have been overall supportive to the couple when they addressed the situation, but some of the responses to Upset’s tweet are downright deranged. For those looking to dig into this, Upset’s tweet goes this way.
Morons wanting details about the abuse that was serious enough for warrant this kind of action this is where parts of the community are at Just amazing
— Elias Lipp (@FNC_Upset) April 21, 2022
There are more important things than competition or work, and the reason behind Upset's departure from the 2021 World Championship was unarguably one of those.
