Below average leaders managing some of the best talent in the industry - Artist Riot Games Employee Review

3.0
29 July 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Benefits - Healthcare - Pay - Amazing coworkers - Amazing talent

Cons

Poor leadership experience at the top. League was a huge hit at the time and was more or less an indie startup. The same guys who were the interns, artists, engineers of league early seasons, mediocre by today's standards, are managing teams without actual experience to back it up. They're either painfully aware of this or fooling themselves. Both create horrible paths of toxicity, where vocal employees are quickly exited or silenced, or belittled. Complete dead weight who take credit as much as possible, shut anything down that's not their initiative, leave early, and are the loudest voice in the room. It's extremely easy to take credit for someone else's work due to the culture of 'default to trust'. Pretty easy to push that if you're outright lying about what value you provide. What makes a leader at Riot isn't shipping product or creating, it's if they have a checkmark by their name that says if they took Riot leadership training or not. Or if they're friends with another leader. God help them if Riot ever has layoffs because they'll have a huge wakeup call if they ever go to another studio. If they could trick said company's HR first I guess. Another odd thing is that failure is rewarded more the higher up you go. A leader who tanked two teams wasn't fired but only 'downgraded' to yet another department(probably with the same pay). Mostly due to him being friends with the owner. Meanwhile core employees quickly get exited or fired, sometimes to the detriment to the team they're on, if they step slightly out of Riot culture or suggest anything that could be seen as unsavory. It really creates an odd double culture of fun and games, and keeping your head down and just do exactly what leadership says. Riot can be a great place. The talent they've hired is outstanding. They need to REALLY trim the fat because there's a large amount of useless running amok in leadership roles. Maybe you guys should have yet another meeting to talk about it? I think there's change brewing but it'll be too late to even mean anything unless the actual leadership wake the hell up and actually do something instead of yet another overly complicated power point presentation.

Explore other reviews about Riot Games

5.0
21 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Passionate co-workers who are all hyper talented, amazing fringe benefits, work/life balance, dedicated managers to help you with your career, and passionate players to serve.

Cons

Egos are rewarded you have to be really good at self promotion, the company is so big that you can feel lost if you don't invest in networking often, layoffs happen at Riot now

4.0
1 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Player focus, some of the coolest games on the planet, Riot does a great job of creating an environment where people can succeed and thrive

Cons

Crunch is on the rise, fiscal discipline on exploration is still too loose, lots of layers of management

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