A PAX West panel adds to the current Riot Games controversy

The League of Legends community is lashing out against a PAX West panel held by Riot Games that included a period meant exclusively for women and non-binary participants. The discussion took place over Reddit and Twitter and engulfed discussion forums over the Labor Day weekend, with the tension continuing into the week.

Riot had a multi-day presence at PAX West, including a two-day viewing party for the NA LCS semi-final matches. On Aug. 31, in room 613, according to the event’s official description, Riot hosted “a variety of sessions to support women and non-binary folks who are interested in getting into games professionally,” with presentations given by women from Riot. The day began with one-on-one resume reviews and feedback, and continued into game design discussions.

When League of Legends fans saw the exclusive sessions and review block, they began to ask questions on social media. Riot Games recruiter Mel Capperino-Garcia clarified the policy in response to those questions.

“Please note: until 2:30 room 613 is only open for women and nonbinary folks. We welcome all to join the room after 2:30,” she wrote.

Riot Games re-ran the panels that were temporarily closed to male attendees on their instagram account, allowing people to view the panel without attending.

The community response was swift and loud, with multiple front-page threads on the League of Legends subreddit on the same day as the panel and continuing through the rest of the Labor Day weekend. Much of the League of Legends community derided the policy as sexist and a poor response to culture problems. The negative reactions to this decision have ranged in severity, from large-scale questions about the panel’s purpose to personal insults directed at Riot employees. Even prominent community members publicly disagreed with Riot’s decision, including G2 Esports analyst and content creator Kelsey Moser.

“I don’t oppose and occasionally support career outreaches that target women in gaming,” Moser tweeted on Sept. 1. “Events with a career in gaming bent that exclude men reinforce an archaic idea that women cannot coexist with men professionally. It is not the solution.”

Employees at the company aren’t afraid to defend the decision to host an exclusive panel for women and non-binary people, however. Daniel Z. Klein, a systems developer at Riot Games, responded to the initial wave of concern on Aug. 31 with a series of posts on his original social media, beginning with the below tweet and continuing as a thread.

Klein argued that the PAX West policy was not sexist, due to the distribution of societal power in the gaming industry.

“Systemic sexism and racism exist and the intersection of bigotry and power dynamics,” he said in the first part of his Twitter thread.

In further tweets, Klein used the terms “manbabies” and “overgrown toddlers” in response to angry players on social media. Klein also responded to a Reddit thread about his tweets on Sept. 1, writing:

I haven’t deleted a single post and stand by every word I said. This thread is the reason women and non binary people need space away from people like you. It’s fucking terrifying. Anyone takes even the smallest thing away from you, you get violently angry.

I really really hope someone here will make the connection. The behavior r/lol is demonstrating around the pax room thread comes from the same place that enabled the toxic behavior at Riot. This entitlement to always be catered to and be the most important people in the room even when others are be excluded and hurt is the root cause for sexism in our community.

LPL color caster Indiana “Froskurinn” Black tweeted in favor of the policy the same day as Klein, saying that “not every woman or non-binary person needs these spaces to find their voice and feel comfortable using it — but some do. That’s their purpose, to pull more minorities up to feel entitled and heard.”

The controversy continued to boil in reaction to these responses. Some players in the community have gone beyond just criticizing the policy and have shifted toward targeted, sustained online harassment and abuse. Polygon spoke to members of Riot Games, who wished to remain anonymous, about the internal reaction to the outcry. Employees were asked not to respond to Reddit threads regarding the PAX West panels, according to our sources.

In the evening of Sept. 1, Riot released a brief statement via Twitter, reading, “to help recruit women into gaming, we held PAX workshops for women and non-binary people. We’re proud of that and stand with Rioters at PAX. Regarding conversations about this, we need to emphasize that no matter how heated a discussion, we expect Rioters to act with respect.”

The ongoing PAX West firestorm is part of the larger controversy around Riot Games’ internal culture, which Kotaku kicked off with a report that consulted 28 current and former employees of Riot Games. Just before PAX West, Riot responded with a post entitled “Our First Steps Forward” that contained an apology to the reported mistreatment of employees, plans to hire new culture, diversity and inclusion staff, as well as conduct upcoming reviews of Riot by external consultants.

Ultimately, the issue continually circles back to the original question of the degree of sexism in Riot, as raised by Kotaku’s report. Was the contentious PAX West panel’s policy a direct response to the concerns raised by employees, in order to bring women and non-binary women into the field? If so, will panels and opportunities meant for women and non-binary fans effectively tackle the root problems at Riot?

Due to the nature of Riot Games’ community outreach, the hostile workplace alleged by Kotaku’s sources extended beyond the office and into previous conventions, which may explain attempts by Riot to provide a space where female Riot employees could work with women and non-binary fans. Meagan Marie, a woman who worked as a community programs specialist, wrote about her experience at Riot Dublin in 2014 on Tumblr, including the following notes about working with conventions and cosplayers:

My biggest concern with Riot – putting my own experiences behind me – is the inappropriate and sometimes predatory behavior that some staff exhibited towards fans. [...] I regularly witnessed lewd comments about women passing by at events, discussing their level of attractiveness, whether someone would sleep with them, and guessing if they were the age of consent.

Several times I heard male employees bragging and sharing intimate details about hooking up with players at events, including a cosplayer we worked with in an official capacity. Several male colleagues even asked me to “hook them up” with cosplayers. [...]

During one event, a first-time cosplayer came to our booth crying because someone had commented negatively on her weight in relation to the character. Another coworker and I consoled her for nearly 30 minutes, and she left, feeling much better. After she left, a fellow Rioter called her a “fatass” and asked why she would try to cosplay the character she chose. I was in shock but told him how inappropriate that was to say about our fans, especially those passionate enough to make and wear costumes. Cosplayers have also been called “tr*nnies” and “attention whores” by Riot employees at events.

In meetings, I was told that we shouldn’t put cosplayers on stage to play League live, because they are mostly women, and therefore not very good at the game.

Further examples of disrespect include when I argued that we shouldn’t let a cosplayer in blackface on our stage for a parade, keeping in mind that Riot is a global company. I was repeatedly called racist by my colleagues, who tried to convince me that it was an acceptable practice and I was overreacting.

While the issues at Riot clearly weren’t settled — “Our First Steps Forward” is, by its very nature, a sign of the start of a company’s efforts — the PAX West panel incident inflamed the conversation to its boiling point. Sources at Riot Games told Polygon that the company is now looking into security measures for upcoming conventions, partially because of the most extreme comments on social media platforms. Riot also recently upped security around their LCS events, and conventions are raising security across the board, in the wake of the recent shooting at a Madden NFL esports tournament in Jacksonville, Florida.

But Riot Games appears committed to taking more steps toward creating a diverse and inclusive workplace, including working on further programs to bring in more female and non-binary employees. The “First Steps” post explains that the team is “starting to develop a plan with substance,” and that “Rioters have told us that the steps we have taken thus far aren’t enough, and we agree.”

As Riot proceeds with these company culture changes, the company may have to contend with the League community’s reactions and responses — which have turned out to be more extreme than Riot may have expected.