A woman named Stephanie claims that the latest League of Legends champion Seraphine is based on her. This is said to relate to both visual and character aspects. She explains that she had a relationship with a Riot Games employee for a while, who wanted to impress her but took it too far. However, the developers themselves deny the accusation.
What does Stephanie claim? On Medium.com, Stephanie published a post titled “The Problem with Seraphine.” There, she talks about her past with the Riot employee, with whom she spent about 3 months, but also about the similarities between herself and Seraphine.
In this context, the player emphasizes that she is not thrilled to now be part of League of Legends. She is said to no longer enjoy the MOBA, primarily due to the new champion.
She describes the entire situation as very stressful:
- People who do not know Stephanie at all are reaching out to her and pointing out the similarities with Seraphine.
- Additionally, there is already a lot of pornographic material related to Seraphine.
- The heroine is also controversial: people complain and get upset about Seraphine almost daily.
She feels disturbed by the many similarities in her privacy and is not happy that a large corporation is making a lot of money off of her.
What does Riot Games say about it? In an official statement, Riot denies Stephanie’s allegations. They emphasize that the character Seraphine “is not based on a real person,” including not on Stephanie.
The former Riot employee, with whom Stephanie had a relationship, is said to have left the company more than a year ago. He also worked in a department unrelated to character design.
Similar appearance and love for K/DA and cats
Stephanie continues to hold her allegations even after Riot’s statement. Although she does not believe that Seraphine was created solely based on her, she contests the claim that she is not based on a real person at all.
She sees this as justified by the fact that the developers themselves revealed via Twitter that Whiskies, a Riot employee with pink hair, may have served as inspiration.
What does Stephanie point out as similarities? For her similarities, she presents several points in her blog post:
- The very similar name
- The visual similarity. Before her first meeting with the Riot employee, she dyed her hair pink, just like Seraphine
- Her love for the virtual band K/DA. Seraphine shares this as well. The champion has already sung their songs on social media and even got a performance in the song MORE
- She herself wrote an essay about the relationships between the LoL factions Piltover and Zaun. The story of Seraphine also revolves around these two factions
- Her rebellious phase. Before the first meeting, she moved to a completely new city and focused on her first job. Seraphine is also considered an optimistic character who is determined to pursue her dreams
- Her love for cats. There is also a picture showing both characters and their pets in similar positions
Where do the similarities come from? Stephanie explains the strong similarities by stating that she had a brief relationship with a Riot employee in early 2019, whom she only refers to as “John” in her post.
Riot employee allegedly used Stephanie as a template
What kind of relationship was it? Stephanie is said to have met John in March 2019 through Tinder while she was at several job interviews. According to Stephanie, they communicated for several months, played LoL together, and occasionally met.
The relationship ended in May/June. Everything moved too quickly for Stephanie, and when she wanted to take it slower, John allegedly broke off contact.
Hints about her and Seraphine: However, Stephanie reports that John made many suggestions during LoL matches. These included remarks like “we should implement that in the game” when she made jokes.
John then invited Stephanie to the Riot headquarters. There, he reported that the essay she wrote about Piltover and Zaun had been read by several Riot employees.
Additionally, she was shown an illustration of herself, in which she was drawn as a new skin for K/DA-Ahri.
John is also said to have promised her that there would be a surprise related to K/DA on her birthday. That is on September 19, which is the day Seraphine announced via Twitter that she was collaborating with K/DA.
What happens now? As Riot has already stated, there has been contact between the company and Stephanie’s lawyer. The facts are to be clarified there.
The situation between Stephanie and Riot Games is not the first criticism aimed at champion Seraphine. Her abilities have already caused trouble, as many saw them as a clone of the champion Sona.
There have also been plenty of discussions about the character’s appearance, behavior, and lore. The flamboyant woman with purple hair and self-doubt does not fit for many into the harsh world of Runeterra.
The criticism has even gone so far that players find her too brutal because, according to her story, she has transformed other champions into magical earplugs:
LoL champion Seraphine causes new trouble – fans find her too brutal
