Phreak quits social media after getting “death threat”

David “Phreak” Turley, a former caster and game designer for League of Legends, decided to step away from social media for an undetermined period of time after receiving “death threats” from members of the League community.

The whole thing started when Riot made controversial adjustments to League of Legends’ ping mechanism. Riot decided to eliminate scoreboard pings, which let players highlight the death times of their friends, as well as inventory items and ultimate durations, as part of League of Legends version 13.19. When the changes were first announced, fans were furious, and many have expressed their disapproval of the changes.

When Phreak addressed players’ concerns about the communication changes by advising them to just type in the chat that their champion had their ultimate ability, fans’ anger found a new target. The League’s community is already infamous for being hostile, Phreak established himself as the team head by defending Riot’s modifications in his videos. Because of this, he became a simple target for trolls and hostile community members. The 36-year-old has been exposed to extreme toxicity and has even been threatened with death.

Phreak quit social media

Throughout his career, Phrase, a former League of Legends caster, covered hundreds of games, including some of the greatest international tournaments like the League of Legends World Championship and Mid-Season Invitationals. In December 2022, he departed from League of Legends esports casting to become a full-time game designer at Riot Games.

He has been quite active on several social media sites throughout the years, frequently sharing in-depth analyses of every game patch. He instantly established himself as the face of the Riot balancing team with his patch breakdown video. It appears that the 36-year-old gaming star has had enough with social media after one of his videos exposed him to a tonne of toxic behavior and made him the target of all the criticism the League of Legends community may have for changes.

He declared that he would “more or less immediately” stop using social media, blaming the rise in toxicity for his decision and justifying that the odd encouraging comment wasn’t worth the constant death threats.  Phreak may return to social media at some point, but it would be beneficial for him to take a break from the negativity for now. As soon as the news spread on social media, players and fans defended Phreak’s decision and denounced those who were bothering the former caster.

Header: Riot Games