Two Riot Games employees start after defending a PAX

League of Legends developer Riot Games has been dealing with allegations of a sexist work environment, anonymous sources confirmed to Polygon and Kotaku.

Systems designer Daniel Klein and communications associate Mattias Lehman were known to be outspoken on social media within the game's community. Most recently, this discussion has been controversial and continues to be controversial. Klein told The Verge: "I was fired for violating our social media policy." It's still not clear if Lehman was fired or if he quit.

Many employees at Riot have come forward Kotaku published an expose early in the last month of the year, the company's sexist culture is a priority at meetings, denying women promotions, and making uncomfortable innuendos in professional settings. In tweets, Tumblr posts, and medium posts, their voices are discussed with their management.

Riot issued a public apology at the end of August saying "we're sorry it was so long for us to hear you" and that working on fixing its culture was "a top priority."

There are multiple pieces to the ever-unfolding story. First Off, Employees are Leery of the Law Firm Seyfarth Shaw, which some suspect is the outside law firm mentioned in the public apology that Riot brought in for an external investigation of its corporate culture. Seyfarth Shaw has a union-busting reputation many on social media expressed fears that results from the external investigation will not be in favor of the employees.

Then, there's the controversial PAX West. Riot received major backlash for making some events open to women and non-binary people, barring men from attending. Male viewers could still rewatch the panels from Riot's Instagram account, but the policy was vilified by League fans on Reddit and elsewhere.

Klein was one of the Riot employees who spoke up in the PAX West decision and explained it to Redditors who voiced their criticism. The rift between Klein and League players widened as he called some of them "manbabies" in statements.

Klein elaborated and even went as far as commenting on the toxic culture of Riot Kotaku report in a comment that thousands of downvotes:

I really, really hope someone here will make the connection. The behavior is manifesting itself in the PAX room thread of the same place that enabled the toxic behavior at Riot. This is one of the most important people in the world, and they are the most important people in the world.

Lehman's Twitter bio says he's a feminist and a Black Lives Matter supporter. Lehman has spoken in support of Klein and called out people threatening and harassing him. He's also writing a Medium post about Riot's corporate culture, as spotted by Polygon.

Their departures echo what happened in July when Guild Wars developer ArenaNet fired two of its employees for negative interactions with Guild Wars players. ArenaNet president Mike O'Brien had their interactions as "attacks on the community." ArenaNet employees told The Verge that their employ had let them down, allowing the internet to judge them.

Riot responded in a statement to The Verge:

These departures are independent from our efforts to evolve our culture. Our culture continues to be a leader in Diversity & Inclusion. We will always encourage Rioters to share their perspectives, and we will fully support Rioters to further our Diversity & Inclusion initiatives. We are committed to making real, positive change in culture and internal advocates are a crucial part of making that happen.

Update September 7th, 2:34 PM ET: This article has been updated with a statement from Daniel Z. Klein.