Who is RATIRL? Founder Of L9 and Disco Nunu
Most seasoned League Of Legends players have previously encountered other in-game players rocking the L9 tag or generally having L9 in their name. If you're sleeping under a rock and don't know what the tag is all about by now, L9 is a controversial club of infamous high ELO boosters, mostly originating from the EUW region. In this article, however, we'll take a deep look at their most infamous and popular member, RAT IRL.
The entire L9 and RAT IRL himself are notorious for being very toxic in-game, as well as intentionally feeding if something goes wrong or if they dislike somebody on their team. Despite that, most L9 players are renowned for their skill and most of them are challenger or grandmaster players at least.
Their most recognizable and popular members are Ap0calypse, RATIRL, and Obsess but there are many other high ELO streamers that are affiliated with this club. To put things into perspective, Fnatic's current jungler Selfmade was heavily associated with L9 before joining the professional League Of Legends scene. However, in the following article, we will be focusing on RATIRL's League Of Legends career and how he became so notorious in the community.
Who is RATIRL?
RATIRL first diamond and challenger in season 4 on fresh unranked accounts with a 90%+ emerged on the high ELO League Of Legends scene after reaching high win rate on his Twitch jungle.
As his name suggests, RATIRL is a Twitch OTP and his Twitch became a trademark jungle boosting pick over the years. Reaching high diamond and challenger with absurd win rates at the time was no small feat, given that master and grandmaster didn't exist yet.
Additionally, the old client in season 4 had a feature that allowed players to spectate high ELO matches live and many people watched him play Twitch jungle at the highest level. RATIRL's gameplay alongside his toxic persona attracted many fans who wanted to be just like him, and he slowly gained notoriety in the community.
Together with Ap0calpyse and a few other toxic high ELO players, he created the L9 (Low-nine) club that was a platform for boosting and occasional win trading in high MMR. In the next couple of years, RATIRL got permanently banned on numerous accounts for extreme toxicity to other players in chat. In most instances,
RATIRL would write extremely racist and offensive messages that often got exposed on stream as he was mostly playing in high ELO. He also insulted and disrespected other streamers and content creators as well, most notably Dekar who he had a Twitter quarrel with as well. Nevertheless, he managed to reach 1000+ LP occasionally, proving that he is a very skilled player despite his attitude. He was often seen on pro players' streams absolutely dominating the game, which grew his fan base even more as a result.
RATIRL's Playstyle
As we previously mentioned, RATIRL is best known for his Twitch gameplay, particularly in the jungle role. He popularized Twitch as an aggressive assassin-like jungler who was before seen only as a scaling ADC.
His Twitch jungle playstyle is extremely offensive and straightforward, usually ganking lanes as soon as he's done clearing the first red buff.
Additionally, he can be often found lurking in the enemy jungle, where he'll fight the opposing jungler and steal his camps to further push his advantage in game. Generally speaking, his playstyle is aggressive and unpredictable, making him a scary opponent, and he was often referred to as the best Twitch player in Europe.
There is a very popular clip in which RATIRL invades the opposing red buff as Yi toplane and 1v2's the enemy jungler and toplaner with his ghost ignite strategy. Last but not least, he can be also seen playing Xerath mid occasionally, as his kiting skills nicely transition into hitting skillshots with a midlaner such as Xerath. Last but not least, he sometimes plays Cassiopeia, as her kit is similar to a mage-ADC which compliments RAT's skillset.
He won a one-on-one duel with Perkz who is considered to be one of the best midlaners in the world, with Perkz praising RAT's Cassiopeia gameplay on stream throughout the game.
There is a very popular clip in which RATIRL invades the opposing red buff as Yi toplane and 1v2's the enemy jungler and toplaner with his ghost ignite strategy. Last but not least, he can be also seen playing Xerath mid occasionally, as his kiting skills nicely transition into hitting skillshots with a midlaner such as Xerath.
Overall, his skill is on par with some of the best junglers in EUW and there is no doubt that RATIRL is mechanically very gifted.
That being said, some criticism on his gameplay stems from the fact that he'll often troll and throw the game if things don't go his way. He is the type of player who'll either hard carry the game or just intentionally feed to get it done, so he can try hard carrying again which can be seen through his in-game names that often referred to him 1v9ing. Generally speaking, people who are matched with him are often frustrated because the game's outcome often depends on his mood.
Ap0calypse and RATIRL also introduced the Disco Nunu strategy in which they'll run it down mid and feed until the game is over. All in all, while RATIRL is a very gifted player, he has a problem with his toxic attitude and mentality that held him back over the years.
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L9 - The notorious boosting organization
Moving on, we'll take a look at L9's history and how it progressed over the years to become a global brand of boosting today, as it's tightly related to RAT IRL's presence in the community.
RATIRL
First and foremost, L9 (Low-nine) was founded by RAT IRL and Obsess, two Challenger players that created a club with the intention to feed and troll high elo streamed games to gain notoriety and clout in the community. Interestingly enough, their idea proved to be a success, and EUW solo queue players were eager to be affiliated with the most toxic group on the server.
People were attracted to the idea of trolling every high elo player that wanted to take the game seriously. The notorious Ap0calypse and Selfmademan also joined L9, and those four members together would eventually propel this group to global success.
One of the major things that differentiated these players from random trolls on the server is that their in-game skill is unmatched by any other troll on the ladder. They could intentionally feed a game, going 0-20 on Disco Nunu or River Shen, and 1v9 the following game if they felt like it.
It's always a coin flip with these players, and the outcome of the game would often depend on their current mood. You could say that these players were good enough to singlehandedly decide the winner of every game.
As we said, RAT IRL was a Twitch god in Europe, but his skill was also recognized in NA where he played in high elo with other streamers, most notably I Will Dominate.
Ap0calypse
Ap0calypse, on the other hand, is best known for his pre-rework Mordekaiser gameplay. He reached Challenger in season 4 playing exclusively Mordekaiser top/jungle and he was the #1 Mordekaiser in the world at the time, according to LoLSkill.
That was a big accomplishment at the time, as Mordekaiser was heavily underplayed in the community and people often overlooked his competitive potential. Despite his skill, Ap0calypse is best known for his extreme toxicity and threats he often said to his teammates if they underperformed.
There is a popular montage on YouTube that has over 800k views at the moment, accurately depicting his toxic personality, but showcasing his sleek Mordekaiser skills as well.
He's also known for doing drunk streams if he reaches the donation goal of his stream, which sometimes even ended up with him vomiting in front of hundreds of viewers.
Similar to rat RAT IRL, Ap0calypse's face and name were unknown for the longest time, until his pictures and personal information leaked on the internet. Ap0calypse is rarely seen today though, as his favorite champion got a rework and he's now mostly found playing Janna or Zyra in the support lane. Most players that encounter him say that he has reformed and that he's not nearly as toxic as he was a couple of years ago.
Obsess
The third player who we'll discuss is Obsess, best known for his jungle Camille, Sejuani, and Nidalee gameplay. Unlike the previous L9 members we've discussed, Obsess is not as nearly as toxic or controversial, but he is still a founding member of the group.
Fortunately, he channeled his talent towards a better goal than soloqueue flaming, as he's an active eSports players since 2017, currently being a full-time player of Mouseesports gaming.
Selfmade
The last original member of the club we'll discuss is perhaps the most well-known member as far as his involvement in the competitive scene goes, and that man is Selfmade. Formerly known by his IGN Selfmademan, Selfmade is a Challenger jungler for well over 5 seasons, who hasn't been as toxic or dubious as Ap0 or Rat, much like Obsess.
Another similarity between the two is that Selfmade is also an active professional player, originally stepping onto the pro scene in 2018 with MAD LIONS.
He was perceived as one of the most talented European junglers and he moved to SK Gaming in 2019 where he continued to impress with his stellar performances.
That move will prove to be a stepping stone in his career as playing in LEC gives you a lot of exposure to other pro teams. While the rest of SK looked shaky, Selfmade solo carried the games, picking up 7 MVP awards even though the team won only 9 games over the course of the split.
A move to one of the top teams in the world was inevitable, and in 2020, Fnatic parted was with Broxah and recruited the young prodigy. His Fnatic career is very successful at the moment, as he's considered to be their best player along with the ADC veteran Rekkles.
Another interesting factor is that he has also reached rank 1 in June 2020 playing primarily jungle Graves and Lee Sin. His involvement and correlation to the L9 organization is often jokingly mentioned, with Fnatic's YouTube team even making a video titled L9 Selfmade returns.
Another popular member of the club worth mentioning is ScrubNoob who is best known for his Challenger Rengar gameplay and in-game toxicity.
He was often seen griefing other streamers he disliked, most notably inting Voyboy's and Imaqtpie's games. Furthermore, there is a well-documented clip of him verbally harassing a popular streamer named Shiptur because he accidentally invited him into his in-game lobby. Additionally, he had a long int-list that was comprised of other players he would troll if he played on the same team.
Despite his behavior, he received praise for his Rengar skills from several high elo streamers and pro players, most notably Sneaky and I Will Dominate. Nowadays, he's a pretty popular streamer, having over 100k followers on Twitch.
Conclusion
It's safe to say that the story of the entire L9 organization is a fascinating one. It is a testament of how anyting can go viral and trending on the internet, given how a club created as a joke became a signature club of toxic players on any League server.
Even though the 4 original members went separate ways, L9 continued to grow as a brand and as an idea through the investment of RAT IRL who works as a booster in the organization himself. He and other members who stuck with the idea of L9 becoming a global brand created a boosting/coaching platform that is popular enough to have its own clothing brand today.
That platform employed many high elo players who can now make a living off playing their favorite game and boosting other players from lower ranks. What initally started as a joke turned into a lifestyle for thousands of gamers around the world that proudly put L9 next to their name today.
Where is RATIRL now?
At this point, you might be wondering where the type of player like him ends up, and that would be a good question to ask.
Given his history in eloboosting, getting permanently banned on several occasions, and saying extremely offensive things to his teammates, it would be rational to expect that his League Of Legends career failed miserably. However, that is not the case in this situation.
Around mid-2019, RATIRL decided to fully reform his behavior and focus on his Twitch streaming career as well as making full-time YouTube content. While the majority of his fan base was initially attracted to his edgy persona that simply has no place in League nowadays, he does have a lot of fans that simply enjoyed his gameplay and personality when he isn't trying to lose games and insult other people he's playing with.
He acknowledged that and started making content and streaming full-time while trying his hardest to reform and stop being toxic towards other players in-game. Around July 2019, he started using a microphone when streaming as well which further pointed out his charismatic personality. Day by day, his fan base grew, and he became one of the most-watched LoL Twitch streamers, having almost 400k followers on Twitch at the time of writing.
He regularly hits over 1k concurrent viewers on his Twitch streams, with those numbers reaching and exceeding 10k on a good day. Additionally, he regularly gets over 100k views on every single one of his YouTube videos, while having almost 150k subscribers at the moment.
The majority of his content is revolved around getting fresh level 30 accounts to challenger playing the best smurf champions and stomping low ELO which was his specialty since season 4.
Nowadays, he does it without the toxic chat and with a dedicated audience that loves to watch him play League. All in all, it has been quite a journey for RATIRL, who today makes a living doing League full-time, which is a delightful thing to see given his toxic past. It further proves that anyone can change for the better and that good things come to those who focus on improving themselves.
What does RATIRL Look like? The face of RAT IRL
A question people constantly ask is, what does RATIRL look like in real life?
Well, no one really knew what RATIRL looks like in real life until very recently when another famous twitch streamer IWD (IWillDominate) also known as Christian Rivera leaked a Snapchat sent from RATIRL on his stream, because we believe in anonymity we have decided on not including the image in the article, however it is very easy to find it yourself with just a few google searches.
Whether RAT IRL will do a face cam stream one day or not is totally up to him, but I am sure we are all eagerly waiting for it to happen, so if you're reading this Anton, it's about time!
RATIRL Playlist
If you are reading this article, you are most likely familiar with the RATIRL sound, it consists mostly of high tempo psy-trance and electronic music.
If you haven't been living under a rock the past few years and not heard his famous outro song on his YouTube channel, we did a favor and embedded it here below, you can even go to the YouTube video for the song and read the comments where everyone is commenting RAT IRL related comments.
You can find his whole playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z90WpYdOKrM&list=PLy6N_9yB8Qwy6LL0J7zLUyW8XNX-BPeDl
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The RATIRL special.