How did Tolkin’s career go?

• The player Tolkin is considered one of the best German top laners. He tingled through a total of 8 different teams from 2016 to 2020 and made a name for himself in that time. He describes himself as the “record holder of the Prime League”, but was “hard stuck” there, i.e. stuck in the German league.
• Tolkin never made it to the big leagues, the LEC, in his career. While other German players like BrokenBlade, PowerofEvil, Upset or Amazing managed to make the jump to the “big teams”, playing in the USA or even flying to the Worlds, Tolkin never made this jump. However, he has apparently long since come to terms with this and enjoys seeing himself as the “CEO of the playoffs”.
• In December 2020, he finally ended his professional career after 2 years with “mousesports”. The YouTube video of his farewell is the most successful of his career (via youtube).

What about the jump to the LEC? The problem for someone like Tolkin who plays successfully in lower leagues is the enormously young average age of pro players in LoL: for the most part, players enter the pro leagues at 18, 19, 20. For those who haven’t made the jump to the pros by then, the window is actually closed. Especially since many players are already thinking about retiring from the professional game at 24, 25. Faker, who is still playing at 26, is already considered an exception.

Tolkin takes off as a caster and twitch streamer

Here’s what he did after that: Tolkin remained connected to LoL: He started working for the German company “Freaks 4U Gaming.” The Berlin agency specializes in LoL and works with Riot Games to organize the German Prime League. On December 22, 2022, Tolkin announced he was starting there as a “ContentCreator/Influencer” (via twitter).

Tolkin was apparently ready to turn over a new leaf in his life, moving from gamer to caster. As a “color commentator,” he commented on Prime League First Division games in 2022, for example.

Tolkin has had great success in his role as content creator: On Twitch, he became the second largest German LoL streamer, behind NoWay4u.

Tolkin plays LoL on the side in a counter team of sorts

This is the strange twist of fate: Tolkin had finished with professional LoL, but joined a team of German Twitch streamers in January 2021 to form a sort of hobby LoL team:

• The team is called “No Need Orga.” Originally founded in 2013, the team lay dormant for a long time until it was revived in September 2020.
• The team consists of 5 of the most successful German Twitch streamers, who play “competitive LoL” in the 2nd league on the side.
• They have no coach and little structure – almost like a counter team.

This team, which actually played without much ambition, managed against all odds to win the 2nd division in Germany in 2022 and is now, in September 2022, playing for promotion to the 1st division.

Tolkin must resign for making it to the relegation stage

This is the consequence for Tolkin: Tolkin had to quit his job at Freaks 4U on September 1, 2022 now. The rules of Riot do not allow him to be an employee of a company that works together with Riot Games and play in Division 1 at the same time.

The rules for Division 1 are much stricter than those for Division 2; they explicitly apply to the relegation between Division 1 and 2 as well.

Anyway, the 5 Twitch streamers of NNO seem to be facing a tough decision:

• Because their streaming clashes with life as a “serious, competitive LoL player”.
• Riot Games’ rules clash with their Twitch streams, their advertising deals, but also – as with Tolkin – their employment relationships.

Other members of the team have also already noted that their current work on Twitch and in the LoL scene will soon be incompatible with Riot Games’ rulebook:

• Botlaner Broeki, for example, is currently associated with the “Prime League” team Eintracht Spandau.
• other team members have advertising deals that would no longer go so.
• NoWay is one of the biggest Twitch streamers in Germany. It’s hard for him to limit himself there, too.