A few days ago, you may have noticed a couple of League of Legends news snippets about a certain controversy involving the LEC and an entity called NEOM. This post is intended to give some background behind the recent drama and also provide a space for future updates.

Here’s the story so far (give it a few seconds to load):

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1AEWvoGMAHpZiLbemzMcODrShLZdM7vZSYWluP4_uzgQ&font=OpenSans-GentiumBook&lang=en&initial_zoom=3&width=660&height=500

Who or what is the LEC?

The LEC is the League of Legends European Championship – it’s the European professional league for League of Legends, the MOBA [multiplayer online battle arena] developed by Riot Games. Before COVID-19, LEC matches were being held at the LEC studio in Berlin, Germany.

NEOM Logo

What is NEOM?

NEOM is a planned autonomous region in northwest Saudi Arabia that was established by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as part of his Saudi Vision 2030 plan. The name itself is a portmanteau of the prefix “Neo” and the Arabic word for future, “Mostaqbal”, and stands for “New Future”.

Here’s the description of NEOM, straight from the fact sheet:

Essentially, it’s a 100% Saudi-backed vision for a futuristic utopia. According to the project’s FAQ, the region is expected to house 1 million residents and contribute $100 billion to the Saudi Kingdom’s GDP. It’s an ambitious project to say the least.

Why does it matter if the LEC partners with NEOM? Who cares?

There are a few issues here.

The first is with the land reserved for NEOM. One tribe, the Huwaitat, faces eviction after residing in the area for generations.

A member of the tribe (and an outspoken critic of the NEOM project) named Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti was gunned down by security forces after streaming a video of police attempting to enter his home. The Saudi human rights group ALQST accused Saudi authorities of attempting to cover up the killing – and arresting a number of tribe members opposed to the NEOM project – by bribing high-ranking officials to take part in a “propaganda exercise” that would involve disowning Abdul Rahim.

Abdul Rahim

The other issues stem from the fact that the NEOM project is the brainchild of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and more specifically the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – reportedly the person who gave the order for the killing of Washington Post columnist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.

It follows that a partnership with NEOM is a partnership with Saudi Arabia.

In addition, Saudi Arabia holds one of the worst human rights records for LGBTQ+ individuals and their version of Sharia Law [religious law derived from Islamic principles] criminalizes same-sex sexual conduct, punishable by death or flogging.

As Jacob Wolf of ESPN writes, “several people working for the LEC or its teams are parts of the LGBTQ+ community, with commentator and analyst Indiana ‘Froskurinn’ Black and MAD Lions community manager James ‘Stress’ O’Leary speaking out Wednesday.”

@Slasher on Twitter said it best:

Riot’s LEC, donning a pride flag logo right now, has just announced NEON, a new city backed by the regime of the Saudi Arabian government, as its title sponsor. the same regime that persecutes and kills LBGTQ members with human rights abuses https://t.co/LWq4heyuU1

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) July 29, 2020

Did teams know about the partnership? Why didn’t they do anything about it?

A recent ESPN article by Jacob Wolf went into some detail about this. Apparently, at a meeting consisting of LEC staff and representatives from every team, the NEOM partnership was “briefly” mentioned amid other business announcements. Ultimately, teams aren’t given the power to cancel or alter league-wide deals.

So you can look at this one of several ways: either the teams didn’t notice, or they didn’t think the partnership was a problem, or they didn’t do any due diligence into NEOM, or they attempted to halt the deal but were shut down.

Why doesn’t/didn’t the LEC on-air cast air grievances about (*insert Tencent, China, the CCP, Uighurs, or other recent Riot Games scandals here*)?

This series of tweets by @sjokz might offer some insight:

I feel like a hypocrite all the time when I can’t stand up for everything I believe in. Be it because I’m not brave enough, I don’t think I’m informed enough, because it messes with my mental health and anxiety, because I consider my career

I’m not afraid to admit that.

— Eefje Depoortere (@sjokz) July 31, 2020

But what is for damn sure is I fight the good fight and put my head on the line a whole lot more than any of the nameless twitter users who have non stop harassed me and my colleagues.

— Eefje Depoortere (@sjokz) July 31, 2020

Anything else?

Most of the stuff that I added to the timeline were taken from several Reddit threads below. These people did the real investigative work.

• LEC Welcomes NEOM as Main Partner for the Summer Season (@Lulullaby_)
• Lec on-air team declined to go on air until neom deal was revoked (@cutewhaleee)
• According to Veteran the LEC teams could have vetoed the decision to bring on NEOM as a sponsor. They didn’t. (@projectLol)
• Rioters Speak Out After Today’s Internal Meeting (@JunkyGS)