Riot Games On Pride, Representation, And Making The Company A Better Place For Queer People
Riot Games has had a tumultuous history in recent years. While it has enjoyed continued success with League of Legends, Arcane, and its myriad other products, behind the scenes it has also been subject to controversy regarding its toxic company culture, one that it has a responsibility to improve. I don’t work for them, so it’s impossible to say if enough is being done.
It’s also doubling down on Pride celebrations this year, with a selection of free content being unleashed across League, Runeterra, Teamfight Tactics, Valorant, and more, including cosmetics that seek to represent all identities across the queer spectrum. We’ve also seen LGBTQIA+ artists produce gorgeous pieces of work to mark the occasion.
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As pride month enters its final week I caught up with Jake Street, game design manager on Teamfight Tactics and Riot Inclusion Group (RIG) lead for the Rainbow Rioters that works to serve LGBTQIA+ employees and players. He’s played a big part in producing queer content across Riot’s library for years now, so I wanted to delve into the steps that have been made for better representation and culture within the studio.
TheGamer: Riot’s plans for Pride across your selection of games are quite extensive, and it seems like the biggest crossover event Riot has had since the launch of Arcane. What made you want to go all out for the occasion this year?
Jake Street: We are really excited about the ways that we levelled up Pride this year, but I also want to call attention to the awesome cross-game work that we launched for Pride 2021 as well!
One of the big changes to Pride for 2022 was our publishing efforts to raise awareness around the campaign, as
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