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Los Ratones support player Rekkles has returned to scrims with his NLC team following a video published by esports critic Thorin last week.
Rekkles took a break for five days after Thorin published this video, titled, ‘Rekkles is a narcissistic diva and a terrible teammate’ on February 5th 2025. This is described by Thorin as a video following deep investigation into Rekkles career, where he spoke with some of Rekkles’ former teamates, coaches and people in orgs about him.
When Rekkles saw the post about this video, he said it gave him ‘extreme anxiety’ and proceeded to take a break for five days.
During this time, Los Ratones founder Caedrel stood in for Rekkles as support in scrims. Their team Los Ratones are competing in the 2025 Arozzi NLC, the UK and Nordics League of Legends tournament.
Thorin also later published this video, ‘The Rekkles Retrospective’, on February 7th.
Many in the League and esports communities of course commented on the situation, with the community largely rallying around Rekkles on social media.
Now Rekkles has commented publicly on the situation and returned to scrims.
Rekkles ‘much better now’ after taking break following Thorin video
In the video below, published yesterday (February 10th 2025), Rekkles said: “The first thing I want to say is that I did not watch the trailer or the video and therefore I will not answer any questions about it. The reason why I want to have it like this is because to get back on track mentally, I think I think it’s important I don’t talk about the past, basically.
“I want to be in the now and in the future, because Los Ratones is f****** amazing and I have a great coach and great teammates, and we’re in the middle of our split, and we have important matches this week and I just want to give it my most and focus on that instead.
“We have really important games this week in our playoffs run, games that will decide if we have a chance for EMEA Masters or not, and if we qualify to finals and go to the [NLC Winter 2025 finals] Nottingham event, and these things are really important to me.
“I haven’t been that well, as most of you know I skipped three days of scrims, and took some time just to get back on my feet.
“I don’t think I was completely destroyed or anything, but I am happy that I managed to get some time off, because I think if I just kept on playing and kept ignoring what was happening, then I would have had a harder time moving on and focusing on what is ahead.”
Rekkles
“So I haven’t been that well but I’m much better now, I would say, due to taking a small break. I wouldn’t say I’m good right now either, but I’m getting better and I think with time I will be fine.
“I need time and space so please bear with me as I get back into League. Maybe I’m a bit more quiet than usual because my energy is lower than usual, so it’s going to take some time to get back to like 100% again.
“Maybe I’m at like a solid 50% now, which is pretty good all things considered, I would say.”
Rekkles continued: “Basically my plan to get good again, to feel good again about myself, is to take a break after this split. Right now there’s not really time for it, so the days that I took before were more like, how would you say, just to survive. It wasn’t to feel good again, it was more just to not break apart.
“So hopefully after the split, with a proper break I can feel like 100% again in the future.”
Rekkles also thanked his community and teammates for their support, and especially to Caedrel for his support and standing in for him.
He also spoke about the upcoming World Autism Awareness Day on April 2nd, and the fact that this is around the time of the anniversary of his [Rekkles] autism diagnosis interview with Caedrel.
“So I just had this idea that it could be interesting to do some kind of like video or talk when the anniversary is here and the World Autism Awareness Day is here, and just talk about everything,” Rekkles said. “I think that could be could be interesting, it’s just kind of a side note not really related to this, but I when I was reflecting about how I’m feeling right now and how I have been feeling and how I will be feeling, I came to the conclusion that I’m not feeling as bad as you might think. And so much of that is due to how much better my mental state has been after my diagnosis, and how many more tools I have to work with, and how much more aware I am of what I can and cannot do.
“So that’s that,” Rekkles concluded at the end of his video. “Let’s play a game.”
‘This is about the truth of what is right and that crusade rages on’ – Thorin in his latest Substack newsletter
About a week after publishing the video on Rekkles, Thorin published a newsletter, titled ‘My Crusade’.
In this, Thorin explains the thinking behind why he produces certain content.
“If the lie will always be present then so too must the truth,” he writes. “In an industry which grinds up the pure-hearted to extract their passion my crusade is to expose the black truths others run from.”
You can read the full newsletter below:
For clarity, you can also see Thorin’s initial tweet on the Rekkles video below:
Thorin also did an episode of Summoning Insight with The Ruddy Sack coach YamatoCannon where he spoke about the Rekkles video:
So apparently Rekkles is a bit of a ‘diva’. So what?
Opinion by Esports News UK editor Dom Sacco
I watched Thorin’s video on Rekkles apparently being a ‘diva’, and if what he says is true, I can’t say I find it that surprising given there are already plenty of difficult personalities in esports, and plenty of divas in football and other sports too.
I didn’t think Rekkles’ apparent behaviour was that bad, and I found some of it (like apparently throwing a strop/staring at a wall for a few hours, or buying 20 pink wards in one match because his coach told him he needs to buy more pink wards) mildly entertaining.
There will be personalities like this in sports and esports, there will be clashes between players and org staff, and things will spill over now and then.
I think I actually like Rekkles even more now, with how he’s handled this situation and how, if true, he’s not afraid to do what he wants.
Sure, if true, it might not have been entertaining for some of his past teammates or coaches, but from an outside perspective it is, in my opinion. I’m not downplaying what some former teammates or coaching staff may have gone through, but my personal view is I would’ve like to have seen them settle things with Rekkles privately, or publish their own views on the matter. At the same time, I understand why they would choose not to.
Equally, in hindsight, I would’ve also liked to have seen Rekkles at least watch the video and address some of the things in it, too.
In my personal view, from what I’ve seen with how Rekkles is in Los Ratones scrims, and the time I interviewed Rekkles eight years ago, he comes across as a nice guy. The community has largely stood behind him for a reason.
I’m glad Rekkles is back and carrying on with Los Ratones in the NLC, for the good of the league, his team, and for himself too. It’s good to have him back scrimming again.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
