- Employees of Riot Games staged a walkout on Monday, demanding that the company eliminated its forced arbitration policy.
- Around 100-150 employees were in attendance, joined by several local supporters, and backed by hundreds of #RiotWalkout posts on Twitter.
- The protest raised issues around Riot Game’s company culture and handling of sexual harassment cases.
An estimated 100-150 employees of League of Legends 
publisher Riot Games staged a walkout on Monday to protest the company’s arbitration policies. This appears to have been the first walkout at a major games studio.
Past and present Riot employees, friends, and social media followers showed support for the movement with a #RiotWalkout hashtag on Twitter. An unknown number of Riot employees in Dublin also participated to show solidarity with their colleagues in the United States.
“My employer, Riot Games has the potential of being one [of] the best places to work in the games industry. Practices such as Forced Arbitration, which Riot enforces against employees in the US (but not other countries where it’s illegal AF) deny that potential.” tweeted one employee who changed his profile name to End Forced Arbitration #RiotWalkout.
Some employees brought signs with statements like, “If you silence one of us, you silence us all” and “Be the company you say you are.”
Game Workers Unite, a volunteer group that advocates for unionizing the video game industry, attended the walkout as well.
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Sentiments around the walkout carried a common thread that Riot had a habit of sweeping sexual harassment under the rug, forcing victims to “talk it out” with their attackers and the fact that forced arbitration is illegal in several states outside of California, where Riot is located.
Riot issued a statement assuring employees that they would not experience retaliation.
“We support Rioters making their voices heard today. We have asked all managers to make every accommodation to allow Rioters to participate during the 2-4pm window, including freeing up meeting times. We respect Rioters who choose to walkout today and will not tolerate retaliation of any kind as a result of participating (or not).
“While we will not make a change to our policies while in active litigation, last Thursday we announced that we’ve made the call to pivot our approach. As soon as active litigation is resolved, we will give all new Rioters the choice to opt-out of mandatory arbitration for individual sexual harassment and sexual assault claims. At that time, we will also commit to have a firm answer on potentially expanding the scope and extending this opt-out to all Rioters. We are working diligently to resolve all active litigation so that we can quickly take steps toward a solution.
“As we have been for the past week, we will continue to listen to Rioters regarding their thoughts on arbitration and we’re thankful for everyone that has taken the time to meet with leadership about this issue.”
Since late 2018, five current and former Riot employees filed lawsuits against the company alleging discrimination including violation of the California Equal Pay Act. In April, Riot filed a motion to prevent two of these cases from going to trial, citing the company’s arbitration rules.
Under Riot’s current policies, anyone filing a sexual harassment or discrimination complaint are required to settle the matter under arbitration, denying the claimant a trial by jury. Frustration among employees was further exasperated by Riot’s reaction, as well as an exposé published by Kotaku called “Inside the Culture of Sexual Harassment at Riot Games.”
Riot responded to Kotaku’s article with a formal apology and hired a new diversity lead, but employees were concerned that several men accused of sexist or inappropriate behavior were allowed to keep their positions.
Google employees staged a walkout in November for similar complaints against the company’s handling of sexual harassment cases. As of February, Google ended its forced arbitration policy.
