Following the public outcry that arose when League of Legends developer Riot Games tried to strike a deal with NEOM, the company is now establishing a global ethics committee to prevent future controversy. The developer, a subsidiary of Tencent, is no stranger to scandals, having previously been called out for gender discrimination and sexual harassment, as well as racially insensitive remarks made by an executive in the wake of the Black Live Matter protests.
On July 29th, Riot Games fell once more on the wrong side of the public eye when it agreed to a sponsorship deal for the League of Legends European Championship with NEOM, a Saudi Arabian state-sponsored city project funded by crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Salman was recently accused of ordering the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and the country is infamous for its numerous civil rights violation and its horrific treatment of LGBTQ citizens, who have reportedly been punished through such gruesome acts as public whipping and castration. The news of NEOM's sponsorship of the LEC was met with outrage from fans, and some League broadcasters even refused to work until the deal was called off, which it was only 16 hours after it was announced.
As reported by ESPN, Riot seems keen to avoid such controversy in the future. The company will be establishing a new global deals council and an ethics committee to ensure that worldwide relations are smooth. This restructuring comes with an internal deal tracker that will provide complete transparency across Riot Games when it comes to businesses and governments that it partners with in the future. Dylan Jadeja, president of Riot, told employees on a business call that "the intent is for all of us to have a voice to raise a flag and for that to be followed through on," emphasizing this newfound focus on transparency and communication.
To that end, CEO Nicolo Laurent outlined the process by which the NEOM deal was reached and how communication throughout the company was mishandled. According to Laurent, he and several other executives received a visibility email soon after the deal with NEOM was proposed, but since none of them explicitly approved or disapproved of the partnership, Riot's business development team pushed forward with it. Laurent emphasized the importance of working with government entities in general and doubled down on his desire to increase Riot's presence across the globe, including in Saudi Arabia, even as he apologized for the communication breakdowns that led to this deal.
This is far from Riot's first scandal and it probably won't be the last. League of Legends continues to pull in large numbers of fans and players, and even without NEOM's money, this year's LEC will likely still be a success. But as Riot falls into controversy after controversy, one has to wonder how far is too far. The new global deals council and its accompanying ethics committee are both solid steps in the right direction, but they're coming after the company has taken an awful lot of steps backward. It may be impossible for Riot to ever redeem itself completely, but in the end, only time will tell.
Source: ESPN