Riot employee claims company told her to take down swimsuit picture, reached out to by HR afterward

A current Riot Games employee has detailed an issue seemingly regarding further gender discrimination at the company.

Riot Lydia, a software engineer on VALORANT at Riot Games, tweeted that Riot had expressed dissatisfaction at a swimsuit picture she had posted of herself on social media, making her take the picture down. 

In a follow-up tweet, she noted that a member of human resources at Riot had reached out to her to discuss the issue. Riot has not yet publicly addressed the controversy, which has spread quickly across multiple social media platforms. Lydia noted in the original tweet that there appears to be a policy preventing employees from complaining about issues like this.

Yesterday, an Axios report detailed that a lawsuit regarding gender discrimination at Riot Games beginning in 2018 that was planned to be settled for $100 million had been approved by a California judge. As detailed in a press release when the settlement was agreed upon last year, Riot employees that identify as women who worked at the company between November 2014 and December 2021 will be entitled to a collective total of $80 million, with $20 million being used for legal expenses.

An outside independent organization will also watch Riot to ensure that changes are being implemented. The California court will continue with the next steps as the year progresses.

This settlement follows an original $10 million settlement proposal in 2019 that was denied by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. A document obtained by the Los Angeles Times detailed that employees that were victims of gender discrimination could be entitled to up to $400 million.

Dot Esports has reached out to both Riot Lydia and Riot Games for comment.