In what has only been a matter of hours since the initial announcement, Riot Games have ended the controversial partnership between the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) and NEOM, the Saudi Arabian future city. The partnership between the professional League of Legends esports league and the Saudi state-sponsored development received massive backlash from across the community, including various members of the LEC broadcast team.
Riot Games released the statement acknowledging it had done wrong by the community, stating: "As a company and as a league, we know that it’s important to recognize when we make mistakes and quickly work to correct them." The Los Angeles-based developer pledged to do better in the statement, saying: "While we missed our own expectations in this instance, we’re committed to reexamining our internal structures to ensure this doesn't happen again.”
The former partnership, announced yesterday, was considered controversial for reasons tied to the fact that NEOM is a Saudi state-sponsored development headed by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman. Prince bin Salman has been accused of multiple human rights violations including the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Fans and LEC staff also highlighted Saudi Arabia's persecution of the LGBT+ community and the attempted eviction of the Howeitat tribe from their historic homeland which will be the location of the cyber city.
The LEC, currently played online due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, intended to use NEOM branding on the in-game item of Oracle Lens to promote the future development's aspirations to become the biggest esports hub in the world. There are currently no League of Legends servers for the Middle East region, though Riot Games did host a three-day event in the Saudi capital of Riyadh last year.
Over the past few years, Riot Games have partnered with many organizations including Louis Vuitton, Mastercard and State Farm. Advertisements are currently present in broadcasts of the LEC and other regional leagues.
With esports becoming more popular in the mainstream, there is bound to be intersection between it and global politics as evidenced by the Blitzchung controversy last year. Companies that produce popular esports titles like Riot Games and Blizzard must be more vigilant with how their actions can have strong political implications that can be highly unfavorable. While it is good to see this particular partnership end prematurely, there needs to be considerable reflection by Riot on how the political optics of it were never considered and how this may have long-term effects on its relationship with the LEC staff and the wider community.
League of Legends is available now on PC.
Source: Riot Games