Riot Games employees have staged a walkout protest

A walkout has finally happened.

Over 150 “Rioters” gathered at a parking lot at the Riot Games office premises in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon to express their disappointment with the company, reported Kotaku.

The message of the Riot walkout was clear — to end forced arbitration inside the company. Armed with placards and a megaphone, speeches were made to encourage everyone to speak up against the League of Legends developer.

"I reported and he got promoted" #RiotWalkout pic.twitter.com/ShWB9IulYN
— Upcomer (@Upcomer) May 6, 2019

Employees also used social media, such as Twitter, with the #RiotWalkout hashtag to speak about the issue, while organizations and gaming personalities also joined in to express their sentiments.

Mel-Capperino Garcia, associate program manager at Riot Games, tweeted that it was “unacceptable to just do a ‘talk out’ with the company about forced arbitration and sexual harassment“.

Today myself and several of my co-workers are standing up for what is right, just, and fair in regards to Forced Arbitration and Sexual Harassment. Its 2019, and forcing anyone to sit in a room with the company/person who did this and "talk it out" is unacceptable. #riotwalkout
— Mel Capperino-Garcia (@Riotswimbananas) May 6, 2019

Game Workers Unite stands in solidarity with all Riot Games workers participating in today's walkout, to protest sexual harassment and Riots attempts to prevent sexual assault lawsuits via forced arbitration. ✊????✊????✊
— Game Workers Unite ✊????✊????✊???? (@GameWorkers) May 6, 2019

History being written & the future being changed. I applaud the #riotwalkout today, & those taking risks to gain a collective seat at the table that defines their workplace. It shows with emphasis that our industry can not go back to ignoring the workers. https://t.co/eNNDgKWgWt
— Rami Ismail (@tha_rami) May 6, 2019

To be fair, Riot Games hasn’t been staying silent. The developer had released a statement earlier on May 3 on its plan to resolve this issue, stating that the company would give all new Rioters “the choice to opt-out of mandatory arbitration for individual sexual harassment and sexual assault claims”.

“As soon as current litigation is resolved, we will give all new Rioters the choice . At that time, we will also commit to have a firm answer around expanding the scope and extending this opt-out to all Rioters,” said Riot.