League of Legends news » Donating 2014 LCS fines to a good cause

When we established the LCS ruleset and asked teams and players to agree to abide by it, our goal was to create and protect an esports league that operated on respect, fairness and competitive integrity. Despite the memes, it was never about collecting hefty fines from teams. We simply wanted to establish a professional ruleset that all teams stuck to, and where we wanted to disincentivize future breaking of the rules.

When the 2014 season kicked off, we told you that we would be donating all fines collected to charity - and now we’re here to complete the circle and report back on exactly how we decided where to send the money.

We know it’s taken us a while. Choosing a worthy destination for the money raised was a difficult task, which is why we took some extra time over it. We knew we wanted to select a cause that felt appropriate and meaningful to the players, teams and fans that make up our LoL esports audience...and that’s a wide group.

For the first major donation, we wanted to see the money collected from the 2014 make a difference to one cause. When we sat down and thought about what was meaningful to us as a community, one cause resonated with most of us - the fight against harassment and discrimination.

For all of us who gather together as a player community, we know how important pursuing a welcoming and harassment free online environment is. It’s important that we do everything we can to combat bullying wherever we find it. It’s one of the reasons why Riot is constantly striving to find new ways to support a positive player experience. It’s also one of the reasons the LoL community has reacted so strongly against in-game harassment by voting to punish those who make games unpleasant for others. We expect pro gamers to be the best possible examples of good sportsmen and to set a good example with their in-game behavior. Even though the majority of the fines didn’t come as a result of negative in-game behavior, it seemed only right that the fines should mirror our ongoing efforts to create a welcoming environment for all players inside and outside of the game, regardless of where or who they are.

We decided to donate the 2014 LCS fines of $31,850 to The Trevor Project - an organization which provides free, confidential and secure crisis intervention and suicide prevention for LGBTQ youth. We loved the organization’s approach to creating a safe and inclusive environment for everyone through suicide-prevention phone, IM and text messaging services as well as TrevorSpace, the largest social networking community for LGBTQ youth all over the world. We support their commitment to stamping out bullying and discrimination wherever it comes up, and we admire their transparency as an organization.

Suicide prevention and homophobia is something that the LoL community feels strongly about too. When we looked at in-game reports, we found that games that included the word 'faggot' in their chat log received 165.84% more reports than games that included the word 'fuck'. Likewise, you were swift to punish players who encouraged others towards suicide in the heat of the moment - games that included 'kill yourself' in their chat logs received 225.65% more reports than games that included the word 'fuck'. As a community, you find these words hurtful and unacceptable and so do we. We know that harassment and its consequences goes beyond just words in a game - and that’s why the work of organizations like The Trevor Project is so important. We hope that this money will be able to boost their work creating a safe and inclusive environment for all of us, regardless of sexual orientation.

We’re a diverse community with many passions, and while we’re unable to contribute to all causes that we believe in, this isn’t the end for how Riot as a whole plans to support charities and non-profits. In fact it’s just the beginning. We’ll share more news on our developing philanthropy and charity approach within the next few months, but until then we’d love to hear your feedback on our chosen cause and your ideas for how we can approach fine donation in the future.

Regardless of who or where you are, every player is welcome on the Rift. Until we can say the same of the wider world, we’re happy to support this cause and offer our small contribution in celebration of an incredible 2014 season that brought us all together - as gamers, esports fans and equals.