Donating 2014 LCS fines to a good cause

Riot·Jun 12, 2015·8 votes·38,368 views

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.

142 Comments

StormboliJun 12, 2015157 votes

Thank you CLG for funding this charity.

Stalins MustacheJun 12, 201510 votes

#FREELG

AstronekoJun 12, 20153 votes

No thread is safe

Zero IchimonjiJun 12, 201529 votes

Of all the organizations to donate to...couldn't you donate it to someone who helps EVERYONE? Why does it HAVE to be only gay people? Today's world...

SafenJun 12, 201510 votes

What organization helps everyone?

Zero IchimonjiJun 12, 201520 votes

http://www.childsplaycharity.org/

By everyone, I mean not discriminatory based on gender (or lack thereof) or sexual orientation. Gay-only charities are just as discriminatory as a white-only one would be.

BigBIackCrocJun 13, 20156 votes

"childs play" "CHILDS" pretty sure children do not make up everyone but okay, i think all have the right to their own opinion but you seem like a homophone now going out of his way to protect his integrety

AsphodelNextJun 13, 201511 votes

lol, homophone

TBJackJun 13, 201537 votes

No, they aren't. LGBTQ charities like this exist because they people they help are at higher risk of depression, suicide, harassment and violence than other demographics. Your argument is similar to complaining about the fact that disaster relief funds don't go to mowing suburban lawns.

TanayJun 12, 201518 votes

Today's world? Um excuse me, but Today's world is helping to prevent suicide and helping people feel comfortable in their skin. I agree with the Trevor Project, but if you don't (which is obvious), why would you criticize Riot for doing a good deed? Because you had a different idea? This may be me venting from this awful comment, but maybe Riot is funding the Project to prevent people from being hurt from the likes of you and your insensitivity. I find your comment awfully immoral and you need to think before you post something this horrid on a public site, don't be taken by surprise when you get all this backlash in your mailbox.

MimiroJun 13, 20158 votes

I don't think he's saying he disagrees with the fact that LGBT youths are being bullied... the point he is trying to make is that those aren't the only ones... kids everywhere are bullied regardless of sexual orientation and instead of just trying to save LGBT youths why not try to help all of them? Zero is just trying to say that it would have been better to donate to a charity that helps all youths who are bullied not just one that focuses on any one group...

Who gives a damn if a kid is short, tall, fat, scrawny, gay, straight, black, white, has a f*cking lisp, wears glasses, or anything in between. Bullying needs to stop...

acrid56Jun 13, 20154 votes

Riot made a good choice in charity, though i do agree that it is slightly discriminatory, considering all teens are equally as important. Remember, as the human race we should care about more than just one division of people, but at the same time we get too quickly distracted by the greater suffering of one group and forget almost entirely about the rest. Homosexuals are humans too, and they deserve help. However, providing exclusive charities is the wrong way of doing things. What we need to work on is stopping charity discrimination. The Trevor Project exists because many charities discriminate against homosexual or queer people. That is the problem that needs to be fixed.

Completely aside from that, Riot choice of charity was at least well researched and i have all confidence that the money will be used correctly.

Euijin SongJun 12, 201543 votes

AWESOME! So proud of Riot!

TheHotSalesmanJun 12, 201537 votes

A worthy cause to donate towards. Proud of you Riot.

Fawkes LamentJun 12, 201518 votes

Thank you based Nick Allen. Much love for this decision. Looking forward to more smart decisions made by you guys. Thank you for continuing to do your best to cultivate an amazing community.

TheGrandAllianceJun 12, 201514 votes

Now before you start name calling me into Oblivion... out of all the Charities out there..... this one......

Granted the $$$ amount is rather small so high expectations are limited however I fail to understand the cost/benefit of 30,000$ to a charity that expeditures are mostly human resources (paying staff to engage) vs capital expenditures. A donation to this charity in other words only lasts the duration of the $$$ whereas a capital expenditure (like building someone a house or scholarship) will last for years to come.

If someone wants me to explain this logic further I be happy to do so with more factual argumentation.

madeyemooneyJun 12, 20155 votes

I would love to see them send out scholarships.

AsphodelNextJun 13, 20155 votes

Whatever building they build will likely require human resources expenditures to staff it. The problem of depression isn't like the problem of homelessness or other problems related to lack of resources, so it's not like you can build a house for one person and just give it to them.

It would cost a lot of money to set up a scholarship(one that won't just run out in a few years), and it would only benefit the recipient. Also, competing for said scholarship is probably difficult for depressed LGBTQ youth, and having a panel choose a recipient would be fairly difficult. Consider that you could change someone's life by giving them $2000, or they could have a good talk about their feelings and how to deal with their situation that would help them much more.

I think that, if we're talking about capital expenditures, what would be more effective would be setting up more programs like Trevorspace. Essentially, rather than investing large amounts of capital into a relatively small number of people, invest a large lump sum into something that benefits the community. However, supporting said investment requires human resources expenditures, for development and support.

So, the fact that they're spending on human resources doesn't mean they're a bad charity. They've already made capital expenditures(setting up a help line, Trevorspace, etc.), and now support those through human resources in addition to those related to running the charity.

Honeybadger2198Jun 13, 20152 votes

they may not build building but they save lives sure buildings are nice but lives are better

TheGrandAllianceJun 13, 20152 votes

{quoted}

they may not build building but they save lives sure buildings are nice but lives are better

No my point is that if you are saving a life who someone who wants to live vs someone who may end up dying by their own hand in the end even after the best of intentions... the cost/benefit is limited therefore. Perhaps I should have refined my original post but the idea of "a building" was a hastily constructed logic device simply to suggest possible alternatives.

A better suggestion therefore is water... and access to sanitation which is still a major problem of third-world countries causing many otherwise "preventable deaths".

Lint WizardJun 14, 20153 votes

TheGrandAlliance, I get the impression that you do not understand what it's like to be suicidal. If someone contacts a suicide hotline, that person wants to live. He or she is fighting as hard as anyone ever has in this world to stay alive but can't do it alone. If it helps, think of it as a deadly spider bite. Would you really argue against funding the supply of antivenin?

Also, anyone can die by their own hand regardless of suicidality. I'm not sure why the lives of the healthy are worth more to you than the lives of the sick. They are all human beings doing their best to survive in a challenging world.

Beyond The MoonJun 15, 20151 votes

OMG that had me laughing xD sadly i cant reply to his comment :(

PiggySaysWhatJun 14, 20156 votes

Your Logic is sound.

Your Empathy is not.

OfallingJun 13, 20156 votes

That is an excellent point.

I think most people have a favorite charity. Personally, mine is Charity: Water [sic]. I feel like once everyone has THE most basic human need, then we can focus more on other things, like sick children getting iPads. Which is how i feel, but is also an oversimplification.

Still, I like this charity a lot. But you raise a good point. If they built community centers (I wish I had such a thing in my area) that'd be cool, and more lasting.

But the problem is, one group can only do so much. And they're all valuable. They all do good. It's hard to say one charity is less deserving of funds than another (barring malfeasance and misuse of funds) once you see the effects. One life saved because this money went to hiring another person to be able to heelp someone (and also make rent) someone is great.

Getting into pure mathematics of the benefits; of how many people helped/saved is a very convoluted philosophical debate, and a hard argument to make due to the nuances of how funding has to bee used.

BattlepadJun 15, 20151 votes

Hi GrandAlliance,

I'm no expert in this, but let me explain to you what a service based charity is for.

In the grand scheme of things, big city center and metropolis, have LGBT Community center or even YMCA to foster some good community and support the people in needs.

However, when you talk about suicide/crisis hotline; you can't have community center everywhere. When you are talking about "capital expenditure" and profitability, having a community center in a remote town to support 1 person, not so great heh?

A charity like this, a service-based charity, in its current form, enable in the cheapest way possible, to reach every single person in need across the United States, because having access to a phone is usually easy. It also enables the person to do it anonymously without having to go through that LGBT center door if he doesn't want to be seen by his peer.

Your logic is fine, that any charity should look into not fishing for someone, but teaching them how to fish, so it's sustainable; but when we are talking about service based life-crisis topics; you just need that one person who can answer the phone and prevent the worst to happen. Sadly, your capital expenditure, in this case, doesn't do much.

However, they do get involve into human expenditure, they don't only support the youth in crisis, they also work with other organization and school to make sure that the alleviate the root cause, not just threat the symptoms.

Hope this helps you understand this with a different point of view; again, not an expert, it's only my 2 cents.

Slick SauceJun 16, 20151 votes

"In the grand scheme of things, big city center and metropolis, have LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender) Community center or even YMCA (Young Men's Christians Association) to foster some good community and support the people in needs."

Lol

crabbinJun 12, 20158 votes

[deleted]

Stalins MustacheJun 12, 20157 votes

…why would some random guy on the internets opinion bother you…do you actually consider this bullying because to me its trolling and you feeding into it and letting it get to you.

crabbinJun 12, 201517 votes

Because I lost a friend of mine years ago to bullying after a long battle with depression as well. This is something I take pretty seriously. It's nice to know nobody gives a shit, though.

OfallingJun 12, 201520 votes

I give a shit. People who think words don't have an effect on people are ignorant, plain and simple. Suicides from bullying show they do.

And at the very least, that someone doing such things wasn't banned is poor customer service and creating a negative atmosphere in the game. Clearly Riot can do more to fight harassment.

OfallingJun 13, 20151 votes

I can't seem to reply to you for some reason, Honeybadger2198. But hopefully this will suffice.

I never said the "quote" you used. I used the word ignorant. Ignorance is a thing literally everyone alive is guilty of. No one knows everything. There's no shame in admitting ignorance. There is shame in not admitting it (something I, like everyone else, am also guilty of).

I didn't say they, or you, are stupid. Maybe it was late and you were busy and that's why you misquoted me. Many balls in the air and whatnot. But if you want to try to rebut me again, please do it properly.

WindShottieJun 14, 20152 votes

Or you can just find a new hobby? Riot provides a free game to millions upon millions of people. That is all they are expected to do, and all they have to do. The fact that they are already such an involved company is amazing, and the things they do as a company is just insane. For you to sit there and tell a company how they should operate in a demeanor that is basically making demands, I'm pretty offended. You enjoy a free service that they provide and you sit there and say it's not enough? You can disable chat, you can mute players, you can block all communications with any of the other players at any time, the fact that you can DEMAND they do MORE is astounding. "Clearly Riot can do more to fight harassment." Any more than the already extensive tribunal system they've spent money and time developing and players would complain about getting banned over trivial things. No company is Perfect but Riot is pretty close when it comes to balancing player and game health, so you really need to calm down and take a moment to realize at some point the player needs to take action for themselves and use the tools Riot has given them.

OfallingJun 12, 201518 votes

I wanted to address you directly, Mr. Autocratic Facial Hair.

Guess what? Words hurt. As Deathcap Veigar illustrated, they come with powerful associations and connotations for many people. I don't care about the opinions of random strangers as such, but when someone calls someone - not just me - a faggot, it illustrates that the world is still hostile to me. That's not the best thing to be reminded of.

And I'm lucky. I never experienced too much harassment for my sexual preferences. Many have experienced people screaming that word at them while hurling things, or worse. That does give the word power. It's not a matter of "letting" something get to you. It's a matter of your brain associating it with a negative experience, in a manner you have no control over.

Try having some empathy.

And even if you do dismiss the seriousness of the issue, shouldn't the guy still be banned? He's still creating a negative environment for people, no matter how trivial you may find it. I wouldn't want to log in to a game, something I do for fun, to be harassed.

Matthus AureliasJun 12, 20152 votes

Does blocking someone not prevent them from communicating with you? It would be a pretty unfortunate oversight if blocking them didn't work :(

PyXLsJun 13, 20158 votes

How about this? Let's take the time to thank Rito for donating the money to a cause that ** IS** relevant to LoL. As someone who attained a series of bans and reports due to negative attitude and toxicity (mostly relating to killing oneself), it took a while to get out of that hole. For ranked queues, instead of going in with a negative attitude, I talk to my entire team in champ select just to break the ice so that we can communicate better within the games I play. Through this, I don't care if a player is disabled or is another ethnicity. It all comes down to learning to communicate together instead of splitting your team apart.

Good job Rito for this choice and I hope to see what the future donation endeavors will be like!

SenstraeJun 13, 20157 votes

Riot, this means a tremendous deal to me, probably more than you know. Several years back I was among the LGBTQ youth who had been kicked out of home, and I seriously considered suicide twice. Thankfully, I made it through this low point of my life relatively unscathed, as proven by these words I write today. But the horrible reality is... not everyone makes it. Here's hoping that we can help build a future where that is no longer the case.

I love you guys, the work you do, as well as your dedication to honesty and openly discussing these issues within our community. Thank you so much for everything.

SwaggbeansJun 13, 20156 votes

I feel like the fact that they are donating the money in general is great. They could've easily kept the money to themselves.

And being a gay player, I'm happy they're focusing on the LGBTQ community. Children growing up have it so hard and sometimes have no one to go to.

Kudos Riot.

SquirrellyOtterJun 13, 20155 votes

I personally like those statistics that actual bullying gets more reports than swearing.

I also approve of the consideration put into the charity selection and the final choice. One earlier comment didn't appreciate the fact that LGBTQ youth face far more bullying and rejection from peers and family than "normal" teens.

Heck, I'm not square with my family's religion and THEY have bullied and rejected me on that alone and it's pushing me towards the brink of insanity myself. And I only have to live with them four months out of the year nowadays. If I had to live with them full-time now like I (obviously) did as a teenager with my new ideology, I would be in a really bad spot. Yet, I still would be better off than some LGBTQ teens out there.

So yeah. No one deserves to be bullied, whether you're LGBTQ or straight/cis/whatever, or whether you agree or disagree with your parents on morality issues (like how to treat LGBTQ folk), or whether you're a feeding silver 5 scrub in League (me) or best-mid-world (Faker, probably). No one, end of story.

Just so happens that LGBTQ kids don't have a lot of support, and this charity is working to address that. Kudos to the Trevor Project for their work, and kudos to Riot for supporting them.

NariilJun 14, 20154 votes

As a gay man who suffered through exactly what this charity fights against, thank you, Riot. Just because something doesn't happen to you personally, doesn't mean it's not a problem...

TheGrandAllianceJun 14, 20151 votes

{quoted}

As a gay man who suffered through exactly what this charity fights against, thank you, Riot. Just because something doesn't happen to you personally, doesn't mean it's not a problem...

That is not the contention here. It is a pick or choose situation here that is which one would be "best" if such a concept could be applied therefore.

NariilJun 14, 20152 votes

As Riot said, they wanted to donate to a cause that they and the league community relate to, harassment and discrimination. For their cause, they definitely did pick one of the "best" to donate to, because said group is targeted extremely commonly. So, I don't see with their criteria what the problem of their choice of charity is. The fact that Riot is donating this to charity at all should be celebrated, but instead people complain about the choice. My advice would be if you aren't happy with it, go donate to a charity you would prefer, and let Riot donate as they see fit.

TheGrandAllianceJun 14, 20151 votes

{quoted}

The fact that Riot is donating this to charity at all should be celebrated, but instead people complain about the choice. My advice would be if you aren't happy with it, go donate to a charity you would prefer, and let Riot donate as they see fit.

Well it is more of it appears to be a PR stunt then any serious effort.

Fine LCS players lots in 1 month fundraising effort
Give to "Charity": Take credit for all the "Epicness" you are doing

Why was there no corrective actions in spring but yet now all in summer?....

Indeed it is so...

NariilJun 14, 20152 votes

This is money from last year, actually, as it says above. They took extra time, as they say, to try to pick the right charity to donate to. And it is a charity, I don't know why you're putting it in quotes. Even if they are donating for PR reasons, they're still donating to charity. Whatever the intent, it's helping people. Donating in general could be said to not be a 'serious effort' when one could say, go out in person to volunteer for a cause, but money helps too. I personally know people who have had their lives saved by this organization, and I'm glad they're getting this support.

K6KillzUJun 12, 20153 votes

Cheers to rito for this. I just have a few words to put in that many may disagree with

First off i really understand where this is coming from and ya riot wants to help these people who are so emotionally affected by harassment and discrimination and im totally cool with that. But and this is a big but, there honestly are much better causes to where this money could have been spent.this money could have gone to helping millions of refugees or child slaves. ya thats a pretty big issue and donating this sum of money to groups like that seems small so it would seem reasonable to donate to something like this but i tend to disagree.

Ya I dont understand the whole emotional effect because ive never been put in a position of discrimination and all and i dont know what its like to be in that position nor do i know what its like to see my best friend die because something like this never happened. But i also think its not wrong for me to say you people dont know what its like for a family living off scratch on a refugee camp or a poor little 8 year old whos working maybe more than 12hours a day and is only getting paid less than ten US cents a day and is expected to survive off that.

Thats all i had to say. Hope rito takes this into consideration but cheers to the good cause it was used on anyway :)

madeyemooneyJun 12, 20155 votes

I'm sure they considered that. However, think of it this way:

Get the idea that it only caters to the LGBTQ community. If you were to call them today, said you were straight and just needed someone to talk to then I bet you that person would still talk to you, not because you're straight, but because they care about PEOPLE.
One life saved is a LIFE saved. Who is to say this group that saves lives is better than that group. They both do wonderful things.

Now I'm not saying anything about the organization they donated to. Donating the money to any charity is absolutely wonderful. It saves lives as well as sheds a better light on the gaming community. Let's be honest. We don't have the best image. So, no matter who they give the money to it helps someone somewhere.

fifteyJun 14, 20152 votes

If my name is Trevor do I get anything?

fakeFetusJun 14, 20152 votes

Riot I love that you are doing this - more Pro - "sports" groups should donate to charities. Secondly this forum is sadly incredibly telling about the quality of our community. Sorry peer's of mine, but this is still a club filled with hateful and childish little boys. I'm going to go ahead and reference the second post(which has been downvoted a little) By Zero Ichimonji "Of all the organizations to donate to...couldn't you donate it to someone who helps EVERYONE? Why does it HAVE to be only gay people? Today's world..."

This is foremost ignorant an educated adult or teenager should realize the idiocy of this statement. Discrimination and concept of minority populations aren't a difficult concept. Secondly especially within the world of video-gaming (again read the comments on this forum if you think i'm wrong) we have a terrible issue of both sexism and homo -phobia, as well as many other forms of discrimination based of race and other biases. In short I appreciate what you(Riot) are trying to do, I feel that direct statements like the ones you are making here might help some of our communities less compassionate members.

Little AlphonseJun 15, 20152 votes

Not sure if this is encouraging or discouraging the violation of LCS rules?! In order to provide more of "free, confidential and secure crisis intervention and suicide prevention for LGBTQ youth," more fines should be issued. And in order to issue more fines, the teams must go ahead and break more rules. About how to spend those fines, i do not have the right to decide, but I think Nepal is a better direction to go. Amumu

Smooth GunshotJun 13, 20151 votes

I think it's awesome that Riot is donating the fine money to charity, and I have no problem with supporting the LGBTQ community with help like crisis and suicide prevention, but it seems a little bit weird to me that so much focus is put on that community. With less than 3% of the US identifying under that category, I feel like the money would be better used if given to an organization that helped EVERYONE, not just that 3%. It's not like they're the only ones who have depression problems or anything along those lines, and as a straight guy I feel like a lot of the time LGBTQ people get a lot more attention than everyone else to make up for not getting attention or support in the past, and that isn't really equality.

NariilJun 14, 20152 votes

LGBTQ youth have the highest rate of suicide of all youth in America, because even now in 2015 there are a lot of people out there who look down and abuse because we're different. There's a lot of attention right now not only because of that, but there's a large push for equality and rights- which kind of pushes the whole community into the spotlight.