Regarding Rioter Departures

For those of you who may have missed all of the drama, a certain RiotNasus quit / got fired from Riot Games this past weekend. His twitter was full of unsavory stuff about the departure, fans of his were ablaze with curiosity, and rumors started to spread ( such as the faux pastebin conversation ). This left Riot, and summoners, in a bit of a weird position. Marc "Tryndamere" Merrill has issued a statement about Rioters leaving the company and, essentially, that they have better taste than to blab about why someone left or the situation with Rioters leaving the company.

As those of you who have been around here for a while know, we consider ourselves part of this amazing community – not above it – and we always do our best to communicate openly and honestly. That’s why so many Rioters post on these forums, play games of League of Legends with the community, and – in many cases – are recruited from the community. In fact, we actively encourage every Rioter to build a relationship with you by asking them to simply be themselves; and because Riot is made up of talented people who love games, it’s no surprise that they’re pretty easy to like and relate to. 

The cloud around that silver lining is that these relationships make it tougher on everyone when Rioters leave the company. With hundreds of Rioters globally, and with pretty clear rules forbidding chaining people to their desks, it's an unfortunate but inevitable reality that some of these people with community ties will occasionally leave Riot. 

We wish everyone who leaves Riot well, whether the decision's mutual or not. It wouldn’t be right for us to detail the reasons for any specific exit because such statements could make a huge legal mess of the situation, hamper the Riot alum's ability to find a new gig and frankly, really wouldn’t be the right thing to do. We thus believe it’s in everyone’s best interest to give a departing Rioter privacy and respect, even in situations where there are rumors or accusations flying around and where it would be tempting to set the record straight – we’re just not going to go there.

We hope that the League of Legends community can support us in this by avoiding rumors and gossip, and instead wish our alums good luck in their future endeavors. With this transparent approach comes risk however, and most companies make the decision that the risk of encouraging these types of relationships outweighs the benefits. We disagree. Everyone at Riot LOVES being able to connect with you to hear your thoughts, bounce ideas off you, listen to your feedback and even share in your pain when things don’t go super well. Please help by demonstrating your support, patience and good faith in this belief that even though some of the faces at Riot may change, this core passion never will. 

Thanks for your support and understanding.

Marc

- Tryndamere, President, via the official forums.






P.S RiotSerif seems to no longer be with Riot, :(.