Riot co-founder's deleted tweet insults pros, says IWillDominate

Olivia Richman Published 30/08/2019

Despite deleting the tweets, Riot Games co-founder Marc Merril has made headlines for being controversial once again.

Professional League of Legends player Christian “IWillDominate” Rivera took to the popular social media platform to take a jab at Riot Games after he saw a seemingly innocent tweet from Merril.

“Never stop being a good person because of bad people,” Merril said.

“Yeah just sucks when the bad people work for the company that your career is based off of,” IWillDominate responded.

When he saw IWillDominate’s insult, Merril responded with less than grace.

“Grats on having a career revolving around the free game we made,” Merril replied.

This tweet was deleted soon after, which seemed to add even more fuel to the fire. IWillDominate tweeted that Merril should “man up” instead of being “embarassed” by his deleted tweet.

“The fact you made a free to play game that ended up being lucrative and had people base their careers off it DOES NOT devalue them as people as much as you’d like to believe it does,” IWillDominate said.

That’s when IWillDominate brought up Riot Games’ recent workplace woes. Riot Games has been under fire for months for their allegedly sexist work environment and how they have handled lawsuits that came from gender discrimination accusations.

“You just settled a multimillion dollar sexism lawsuit against your company. Open your fucking eyes and get off your high horse,” IWillDominate tweeted at the company’s founder.

But that isn’t the only thing that Riot has recently done that made headlines. The developers have also participated in China’s increased surveillance of their country’s gamers, which hasn’t sat well with fans at all.

IWillDominate takes issue with Mark Merril

After raving on Twitter, IWillDominate continued the discussion on Merril’s tweet on Twitch earlier today. He called the tweet an insult not only to him, but other streamers and competitive gamers who play League of Legends.

“So he’s insulting all the pros. And this just gives you their fucking mindset, right. It’s like ‘Bitch, you wouldn’t be anything without me,'” IWillDominate said.

While some fans agreed with Merril that the free-to-play title did give many people a career, others, including esports journalist Duncan “Thorin” Shields, were more focused on Merril’s attitude. Thorin tweeted that the statement echoed the company’s overall mentality.

“Wonder why head Rioters felt entitled to physically abuse employees. Oh. Could imagine this being both an internal slogan and something they whisper in your ear as they invade your personal space,” Thorin said.

Olivia Richman

About Olivia Richman

Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.

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