Riot hosted their MSI 2021 Esports Media Preview Event today, and reporter Travis Gafford was kind enough to share it with the rest of us. Although the focus of the presentation was about League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, and Valorant, we did get one big piece of news for Legends of Runeterra: Pride cosmetics are coming next month!
Quote From David Higdon, Global Head of Esports Communications Starting May 17 and lasting throughout the month of June, join riot and the LGBT community in celebrating Pride month. Inclusive games mean a better experience for everyone. And while we can't march in person this year, we can certainly celebrate in-game. All of our games including League and Valorant will have pride content such as emotes, player cards, and more. A live blogpost with more information can be found riotgames.com on May 17th.
As you can see, LoR is slated to receive an animated emote and a rainbow-colored guardian. It is implied that we will also share a series of Poro-themed player icons with Wild Rift. Unfortunately, it appears like that adorable Leona + Diana emote may be limited to LoL and TFT. It's also unclear if any of these cosmetics will be free; Runeterra veterans may recall that both the Rainbow Poro guardian and emote were given away for free last June to celebrate International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia ("IDAHOTB").
You can watch the full preview event in the embedded video below.
Are you excited to hear about these cosmetics? Share with us below!
Comments
and how does this affect the gorgonites?
Riot Games, celebrating the LGBT community with one hand, while taking Saudi money and sponsorships with the other ( LoL LEC deal with NEOM).
This is not born out of a deeply-held belief, this is a publicity stunt. Riot, stop pandering, and focus on making good games.
That NEOM deal was canned when it was announced due to internal backlash against the execs. Please stop bringing it up, you just sound like a broken record.
But really, look at the PEOPLE at Riot Games. The people are the reason we're able to celebrate like this. Yeah, there could be some financial incentive for the company and it does look great in the public's eye, but doesn't that also just advertise it's a great group of people?
Sure, they have their management issues with scandals happening as of late, but Riot has some really fantastic people working there and they shouldn't be shit on because you got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.
Regardless of what management may hold with their beliefs, Rioters have spoken up and agreed to celebrate pride.
A broken record? I read almost every comment on news stories, and I hadn’t heard of that deal. Probably because it was LoL and not LoR. But still, I don’t feel like anyone is spamming the comments over it.
Corporate acknowledgement of social issues is a complex subject. I’m probably slightly more on Flux’s point of view than Taznak’s, but I appreciate the perspective and that it was brought to my awareness. And comments like this are a relief, since I came here expecting to see a repeat of last year’s complaints about gay emotes.
Riot celebrates Pride Month in the west, where it's popular, and does not celebrate it in China, where it's not. Half of major US corporations do exactly the same. Supporting an initiative where it's popular and profitable to do so, and keeping quiet where it's not, sounds to me like shrewd corporate marketing.
Not trying to piss on anyone's cheerios; just saying we don't need a corporate sponsorship to celebrate pride month.
Isn’t it punishable by death in areas outside of the west? That sounds less like shrewd corporate marketing and more knowing the demographic and knowing most people will either be homophobic or might not even use the cosmetics in the first place out of fear
It is not. There's a struggle for certain LGBT rights that they don't have but it's a country by country basis. Just as the extent of LGBT rights change from country to country in the West. In China there are no laws banning same sex couples or making being gay illegal, but they cannot marry or receive benefits that married households can (much like America did until quite recently. In fact many Asian, African, and Indochinese countries are a lot more friendly to LGBT people than western European.
Also a lot of history of there being absolutely no restrictions to homosexuality until Western imperialism came along. There's this idea that West=good and everything else =bad but that's really just propaganda. Homosexual rights were actually pushed hard by the early socialist agendas in the late 1800's. Imperialism and capitalism began associating homosexual rights with communism and cracked down even harder on homosexuals. The terrible policies adapted by Britain such as chemical sterilization and death penalty for gay people were as much as an anti-socialist movement that used religion to justify it's crack down on these people.
Anti-gay rhetoric was often an imperialist excuse for occupying and abusing other cultures, citing their acceptance of homosexuality as sinful and savage. The hardline anti-gay rhetoric that spread in the middle east has it's roots in imperialism.
So in short, no. Western countries are not automatically friendly to LGBT communities and non-Imperialism based countries are not anti-gay and often have more rights afforded to the LGBT communities. Believe me, you are a lot more safe being transgender in Thailand than you are in Alabama.
Arcade Hecarim month,
Let's Go!
<3