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Social Impact

Humanitarian Relief

Whether it's aiding those affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, providing relief to communities impacted by COVID-19, or providing resources and support to those impacted by natural disasters worldwide, we are deeply committed to supporting humanitarian relief efforts around the world. Players and Rioters are at the heart of these efforts, demonstrating their resolve and passion through volunteer work, fundraising, in-kind donations, advocacy, and so much more. 

Humanitarian Support for Ukraine 

In response to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, Riot committed $1,000,000 to support humanitarian efforts in the region and immediately activated in-game fundraisers across League of Legends, VALORANT, Legends of Runeterra, Teamfight Tactics, and Wild Rift to support relief efforts in the region. In just one week, players around the world came together to raise $4,400,000. 

Together we raised a total of $5.4M - 100% of which has been donated across three nonprofits assisting with humanitarian aid efforts in Eastern Europe:

  • International Medical Corps 

  • Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders

  • Polish Red Cross

The International Medical Corps (IMC), a global humanitarian aid nonprofit dedicated to providing emergency medical services, healthcare training, and development programs to those affected by disaster, disease, or conflict, has been long time partners to Riot in humanitarian aid and disaster relief, supporting over 19 disasters across 15 countries to date. With the crisis in Ukraine, IMC was one of the first responders in the area, and many Rioters stepped in to lend a helping hand, not only through fundraising and donations, but directly with on the ground efforts as well. 

Ukrainian and Eastern European Rioters worked together to create a “Learning & Integrating Through Gaming” initiative for displaced Ukrainian children and teenagers living in Poland, with the primary goal of helping them learn the local language, meet new friends, find a sense of belonging, and integrate into the local community in creative and fun ways. Participants attended art classes, learned Polish, created their own cosplay costumes, and played team-based video games together.

COVID Relief

From 2020 to 2021, Players and Riot donated over $7 million to COVID relief around the world.

This includes over $2.5 million raised during the League of Legends in-game fundraiser and Mid-Season Streamathon. In fact, players from 68 countries and regions (including a single person from Bahrain—we see and thank you!) donated to COVID relief. The average donation was under $20—proof that even the smallest efforts can add up to something really impactful!

Thanks to players’ generosity we were able to purchase hundreds of thousands of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the United States, save neighborhood PC Cafes in Asia from bankruptcy, and support over 400 global organizations working to rebuild for the most vulnerable in their communities.

Our Korea office supported the Korean Medical Association by making protective gear for medical staff. They recruited a factory that could make approved protective gear and provided 20,000 pieces of medical gear including operating and isolation gowns.

Our Dublin office provided PPE supplies to hospitals and nursing homes in need. Rioters in both Dublin and Los Angeles volunteered their own time and resources to produce and distribute over 6,500 3D printed face shields.

Los Angeles, where we are headquartered, was hit particularly hard by the pandemic. 

  • In order to help the most vulnerable in our community, we—along with our co-founders Marc Merrill and Brandon Beck—donated $1.5 million to purchase PPE equipment and provide meals to the food insecure shortly after our city was locked down.

  • In partnership with Tencent, we donated PPE and medical supplies to Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, including: 10 ventilators, 100,000 KN95 masks, 100,000 disposable ear loop masks, and 10,000 isolation gowns.These supplies were distributed across Los Angeles County hospitals, making their way to wherever they were needed most. 

  • We donated $200,000 to the Rams-ABC7 virtual telethon, raising funds for LA United Way and the LA Food Bank. These organizations were able to serve an additional 600,000 people over the course of a month with the money raised.

  • We also provided economic relief to local restaurants and food vendors through our Pay-It-Forward COVID Relief program. By pre-purchasing large amounts of store credit, we helped our favorite eateries weather the financial hardships caused by the pandemic. 

As the pandemic continued to grow heading into 2021, we continued to support impacted communities by using our platforms to encourage life-saving vaccinations. We collaborated with the White House and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to share accurate vaccine information. Our public service announcements reached over 1.5 million unique viewers across our esports broadcasts for the League of Legends Championship Series and the VALORANT Champions Tour. 

We also worked with our network of content creators across North America to share information on how to get vaccinated with their viewers. We created a medical skin bundle featuring Nurse Akali, MD Kennen, and Surgeon Shen, three of our League of Legends champions, for creators to give away as a part of our #VaxedTogether campaign on social media. These efforts were specifically called out by the U.S. Surgeon General as important in the fight against vaccine disinformation. 

Working with ImpactAssets, we donated $500,000 to stop the spread of COVID-19 through various initiatives around the U.S. The money went towards raising vaccine awareness, building trust, and advancing equity in healthcare. With support from the Social Impact Fund, Stop the Spread helped establish over 30 vaccination sites in areas that lacked adequate access.