How separated are "Riot Esports" and "Riot Gamedesign"?

I don't follow news around the esports scene very closely. However, I do follow red posts and other things like that around gamedesign, and when a friend of mine told me about some, let's just say "questionable", things that Riot has been up to concerning their esports schene, it sounded like a completely different company than the Riot I've come to like and respect. So what I'm wondering is basically the title. How independent are exactly the people doing esport stuff from the rest of Riot?