The Full Story

Riot Games is another major video game development company, being the creator of one of the largest online competitive games, League of Legends. A few video game news sources such as Kotaku have done deep dives into Riot culture finding it to be in line with “bro culture” which is largely popular with tech/video game companies of this magnitude. It’s worth noting that most of the female interviewees have requested to be anonymous due to fear of losing their careers or retaliation; apart from any disparagement agreements (D’Anastasio, 2018).
 

Other news sources have looked directly at the leadership of Riot Games and the lack of women being hired into other leadership positions despite being just as qualified as their male counterparts. Many of the higher executive level employees including Riot Games CEO, Nicolo Laurent, hire women only into assistant positions. Many female employees have gone against this hiring practice including Laurent’s former assistant, Sharon O’Donnel, citing gender-based discrimination and harassment that took place at Riot Games (D’Anastasio, 2021).