In the League of Legends, the group stage of the LoL Worlds starts today. Riot clearly states how to handle “sensitive topics” like Hong Kong during broadcasts: Personal beliefs should be kept to oneself while on air.
Today marks the beginning of the group stage of the LoL Worlds. The best teams in the world are entering the League of Legends World Championships, which have been ongoing in Berlin since October 2.
No politics, no religion please
This is the message from Riot Games: LoL eSports director John Needham has publicly addressed this with a clear message:
Players and casters should keep their personal views on topics like politics, religion, or similar matters to themselves and not express them when they are in a Riot broadcast.
These topics are incredibly nuanced, require a lot of attention and understanding – this does not work over a live broadcast.
Therefore, all casters and players are urged to refrain from discussing such matters live.
It is further stated that there are employees and fans in places like Hong Kong. They do not want actions on Riot platforms to lead to escalations there.
LoL is supposed to be a positive force in the world that brings people together. This may seem naive, Needham admits, but that is Riot’s hope.
Here are the reactions: There are two major trends:
- Some say “Good, I want to see the game and nothing else.” They defend Riot, stating they are acting correctly and not taking a stance.
- Others say, however, that one can see from the statement that Riot is caving in to “China” and the sponsor Tencent.
The esports journalist Rod “Slasher” Breslau presents it as a “paid statement from Tencent”.
There won’t be a Blizzard situation at the LoL Worlds
What this is about: This needs to be understood in the context of Blizzard. Here, a statement from a Hearthstone player caused a stir. He shouted “Freedom for Hong Kong” in a Blizzard live stream on Twitch.
Blizzard heavily punished him for this. This led to a wave of outrage – but Blizzard has since relented.
LoL wants to avoid falling into such a situation from the outset. They have taken measures to do so.
Recently it became known, that interviews will be pre-recorded, among other things so that such moments can be edited out before they are broadcast.
Why is the topic currently so big? The topic “Hong Kong” is particularly current and sensitive because China reacts negatively when Western companies position themselves against China and for the protests in Hong Kong. The basketball organization NBA just had to experience this.
This has led to a kind of “over-cautiousness,” so that Western companies sanction their employees or other representatives when they express themselves in this direction.
At the LoL Worlds, teams from Mainland China and Hong Kong are participating. Therefore, this is a topic that particularly affects LoL.
