Martin Shkreli owns a pro League of Legends team under the alias ‘pharmabro’

Martin Shkreli, a controversial figure in the pharmaceutical industry, owns a League of Legends team named after his company Gödel Systems. His alias as the team owner is ‘pharmabro’.

In May 2022, Martin Shkreli was released from prison after serving a 5 year sentence. His antics within the pharmaceutical industry before his arrest earned him the title of ‘pharmabro’.

He’s held onto that title and made it into his alias as a League of Legends team owner. Gödel Gamers, named after and sponsored by Shkreli’s tech startup by the name of Gödel Systems, is a team that was formed in January 2023.

After failing to make it through the NACL qualifiers with a roster headlined by League of Legends streamer and content creator davemon, Gödel Gamers dropped their entire roster and signed a new set of players. And, unlike the previous roster, there’s LCS-level talent on the new team that gives them a very real chance of qualifying for North America’s Challengers League.

Martin Shkreli signs a potentially strong League of Legends team

This isn’t Shkreli’s first foray into League of Legends esports. Back in 2016, he signed a League of Legends team and attempted to put together a roster that could qualify for the LCS according to a report from Dot Esports. This report also shed light on Shkreli’s efforts to put together a European team in 2015, one that also failed to qualify for high-tier competition.

On top of all that, his time with both teams came with a set of allegations that he didn’t properly pay coaches and staff.

Now that he’s out of prison, Martin Shkreli has jumped right back into investing in esports. He’s directly sponsoring Gödel Gamers with the goal of getting a team that can make it to North America’s Challengers League. What’s more, the Gödel Gamers roster is stacked.

This team is complete with management staff, a head coach, an analyst, and a roster of starting players comprised of 3 top-tier collegiate players and two pros with a great deal of high-level competitive experience.

Zheng ‘Tony Top’ Fen has been on the verge of getting into the LCS for years, with time spent on the academy teams for Golden Guardians, Evil Geniuses, and Dignitas and is also well-known for a high level of individual play in solo queue.

Meanwhile, Ethan ‘wallflower’ Wilkinson was previously known as Iconic when he was Golden Guardians’ starting jungler for an entire year. These two veteran players combined with some fresh collegiate talent makes Gödel Gamers a team to watch out for.

Martin Shkreli kept his name off the team announcement, choosing to go by the alias ‘pharmabro’ instead. However, backlash from the community has caused this roster to walk away from the sponsorship.

It was explained that the team members were all looking for a way to pursue their pro LoL aspirations with the help of some extra money at their back, but they’ve ultimately decided against continuing the sponsorship.

Head coach Jido explained their reasoning in his Twitlonger. “After talking to the players, we all came to a decision to break the ties with Godel. Due to how much controversy this has, it will probably hinder the players’ chances of making it to an academy team or moving up. We didn’t want something outside of the 5 players and staff’s control to be in the equation of a negative public perception towards us.”