Kurtis Lau Wai-kin (Chinese: 劉偉健), better known as Toyz, is a Taiwan-based Hong Kong esports personality and YouTuber. He is a former professional League of Legends player, best known for winning the Season 2 World Championship as the mid laner for Taipei Assassins. Following his retirement in late 2015, he transitioned to several coaching and managerial roles for esports teams in Taiwan before switching his focus to his YouTube channel.
| Toyz | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) Lau in 2020 | |||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||
| Born | Lau Wai-kin 9 June 1992 | ||||||||||||
| Nationality | Hong Kong | ||||||||||||
| YouTube information | |||||||||||||
| Channels | |||||||||||||
| Years active | 2014–present | ||||||||||||
| Subscribers |
| ||||||||||||
| Total views |
| ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Esports career information | |||||||||||||
| Game | League of Legends | ||||||||||||
| Playing career | 2011–2013, 2014–2015 | ||||||||||||
| Role | Mid | ||||||||||||
| Coaching career | 2014, 2017–2019 | ||||||||||||
| Team history | |||||||||||||
| As player: | |||||||||||||
| 2011–2012 | CrossGaming | ||||||||||||
| 2012–2013 | Taipei Assassins | ||||||||||||
| 2014–2015 | Hong Kong Esports | ||||||||||||
| As coach: | |||||||||||||
| 2014 | Fnatic | ||||||||||||
| 2017–2019 | G-Rex | ||||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 劉偉健 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 刘伟健 | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Lau was arrested by Taiwanese police in late 2021, on suspicion of trafficking marijuana. He pled guilty to drug trafficking charges the following year and was sentenced to 4 years and 2 months in prison. He unsuccessfully appealed the sentence.
Career edit
After starting his competitive career by playing for the amateur team CrossGaming in 2011,[1] Lau was recruited by Taipei Assassins in April 2012, with whom he went on to win the Season 2 World Championship.[2][3] Although he was successful while playing for Taipei Assassins, in June 2013 he was forced to retire from professional play because of carpal tunnel syndrome.[1]
In 2014, he coached for the European team Fnatic during their run in the 2014 World Championship,[4] which ended in the group stage.[5] However, Lau returned to professional play in 2015, forming the Hong Kong Esports team together with former Taipei Assassins teammate Wang "Stanley" June-tsan.[6] Lau left Hong Kong Esports on 14 October 2015, after making a lengthy post on his Facebook account accusing the team's CEO, Derek Cheung, of match fixing on September.[7]
On 12 September 2016, Lau founded Raise Gaming to compete in the Elite Challenger Series (ECS), the secondary league of the League of Legends Master Series (LMS), with the goal of qualifying for the LMS. Under Lau's coaching the team placed first in the 2017 ECS Spring regular season and second in playoffs. The team qualified for the LMS after defeating Team Yetti in the promotion tournament. When the team rebranded to G-Rex on 15 September 2017, Lau stayed with the team as a coach, before becoming the organisation's Director of Esports in mid-2018. He left G-Rex at the end of 2019.
Notable tournament results edit
| Date | Event | Placing | Final game | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-04-30 | NVIDIA Game Festival 2012 |  2nd
|
Taipei Assassins | 1–2 | World Elite |
| 2012-05-29 | Go4LoL Pro Asia Season 1 |  1st
|
Taipei Assassins | 2–0 | World Elite |
| 2012-06-17 | StarsWar 7 | 1st
|
Taipei Assassins | 2–1 | World Elite |
| 2012-07-15 | IGN Pro League Season 5 Taiwanese Qualifiers | 1st
|
Taipei Assassins | 2–0 | Corsair |
| 2012-09-01 | Season Two Taiwanese Regional Finals | 1st
|
Taipei Assassins | 2–0 | Corsair |
| 2012-10-13 | Season 2 World Championship | 1st
|
Taipei Assassins | 3–1 | Azubu Frost |
| 2012-11-17 | 2012 Garena Premier League Season 1 | 1st
|
Taipei Assassins | 3–1 | Singapore Sentinels |
| 2012-12-02 | IGN Pro League Season 5 |  3rd
|
Taipei Assassins | 0–2 | Fnatic |
| 2013-04-21 | 2013 Garena Premier League Spring | 1st
|
Taipei Assassins | No playoffs | |
| 2013-05-19 | NVIDIA Game Festival 2013 | 3rd
|
Taipei Assassins | 2–1 | OMG |
| 2013-05-26 | All-Star Shanghai 2013 – Mid Lane Skill Competition | 1st
|
Toyz | 1–0 | Misaya |
| 2013-08-29 | 2013 Garena Premier League Championship | 2nd
|
Taipei Assassins | 0–3 | ahq e-Sports Club |
| 2015-07-26 | 2015 League of Legends Master Series Summer | 2nd
|
Hong Kong Esports | 0–3 | ahq e-Sports Club |
Awards edit
In 2019, the Hong Kong government awarded Lau with the Medal of Honour for his contributions to esports in Hong Kong.[8]
Arrest edit
Taiwanese police in Taichung arrested Lau on suspicion of trafficking marijuana on 29 September 2021.[9] He subsequently pled guilty to drug trafficking charges on 16 June 2022[10] and was later sentenced to 4 years and 2 months in prison.[11] He appealed his sentence in 2023, but his appeal was denied.[12]
References edit
- ^ a b Wong, Tsui-kai (17 November 2014). "Toyz' story: Kurtis Lau wants to take HK Esports to the world championship of League of Legends". Young Post. South China Morning Post Publishers. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
- ^ "Taipei Assassins Crowned League of Legends Champions". IGN. 16 October 2012. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
- ^ Parkin, Simon (6 July 2014). "A league of their own". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
- ^ Kulasingham, Nilu (8 September 2014). "Fnatic picks up Toyz as a coach for the Season 4 World Championship". onGamers. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
- ^ "League of Legends World Championships week two round-up". PC Gamer. Future plc. 28 September 2014. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
- ^ Chen, James (26 November 2014). "Hong Kong Esports Reintroduces Toyz and Stanley to Competitive Play". LoL Esports. Riot Games. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
- ^ Cheung, Karen (30 October 2015). "Local League of Legends gamer leaves eSports team; suggests manager fixed tournaments". Hong Kong Free Press. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
- ^ 大紫荊勳章 [Grand Bauhinia Medal] (PDF) (in Chinese). 2019. p. 41. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 July 2021.
- ^ Biazzi, Leonardo (30 September 2021). "Former League pro arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking". Dot Esports. Retrieved 2 October 2021.
- ^ Popko, John (20 June 2022). "Season 2 League of Legends World Champion Toyz pleads guilty to drug trafficking charges". InvenGlobal. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
- ^ Chien-you, Tseng (24 November 2022). "實況主Toyz賣大麻菸彈下場出爐！法院依六個毒品罪判4年2月". United Daily News (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Retrieved 24 November 2022.
- ^ Mclaughlin, Declan (7 December 2023). "League World champion's prison sentence appeal denied". Dexerto.