Today Engage for Good awarded League of Legends players the Golden Halo Award in Consumer Donation/Crowdfunding for their overwhelming support of local nonprofit organizations through our Dark Star Cho’Gath campaign. In total players raised over $6.1 million for 21 different nonprofits around the world thanks to our partnership with GlobalGiving.
It’s the highest honor for corporate social initiatives in North America and, because of League players, Riot Games has the honor of standing alongside previous winners like Microsoft, Google, and Disney. It’s a humbling experience to see how players around the world rallied together to give back to their communities.
It Started with a Wish
Dark Star Cho’Gath wouldn’t have been made a reality—or even a concept—without Bryan, a League player who visited Riot in 2017 through The Make-A-Wish Foundation. His wish was “to meet the creators of Riot Games and create a skin with them!”
A Cho’Gath one trick, Bryan’s wish was to help design a skin for his favorite champion. After spending a day at Riot HQ in Los Angeles, Bryan not only acted out what he wanted for the skin’s unique back animation, but performed the clarinet on Cho’Gath’s theme song.
At the end of our work with Bryan, we knew the end result was too good to keep to ourselves, so we made the skin available to players for a limited time and donated all proceeds from its purchase to over 20 nonprofits around the world, with each organization receiving a minimum of $10,000 (USD).
A History of Charity
League players have a long history of doing social good. In 2010 players who purchased the Urf Warwick skin on April Fool’s Day donated to the Save the Manatees Club. The next year, after Japan’s devastating earthquake, they raised more than $162,000 for the Red Cross. In 2012 their purchase of the Jaximus skin went to the Make-A-Wish Foundation in honor of Joe, a League player who visited us earlier that year.
Their social good wasn’t focused purely in North America. Players in Oceania teamed up in 2015 to donate proceeds from Cosmic Reaver Kassadin to local charities. In 2017 the global League community raised over $2 million for BasicNeeds, Learning Equality, and the Raspberry Pi Foundation through the purchase of Championship Ashe. Just last year Dutch players who donated blood with Sanquin (the official blood supplier of the Netherlands) received the Blood Moon Thresh skin.
League players, and gamers as a whole, can do incredible things, and we’re so happy to give them the chance to do just that.
Looking Forward
Every time we work with players to donate to charitable organizations we learn something new and try our best to improve upon our previous efforts. The Dark Star Cho’Gath campaign was the first time players could give back to charities in their own area, and it certainly won’t be the last.
Jeffrey "Kushnood" Burrell
제프리 버렐 님은 사회공헌 총괄이자 라이엇 게임즈 사회공헌 펀드의 책임 디렉터입니다. 라이엇 게임즈의 5개 게임에서 진행한 게임 내 모금 행사, 라이엇 게임즈 사회공헌 펀드에 의한 기금 및 보조금 지급, 내부 직원 모금 행사 및 봉사 활동 등 모든 사회공헌 및 지속가능성 관련 활동을 감독합니다. 제프리 님은 노스웨스턴 대학교의 켈로그 경영대학원에서 경영학 석사 학위와 하버드 케네디 스쿨에서 행정학 석사 학위를 취득했습니다.