Blogger Stephanie wrote up a lengthy post on her website yesterday, detailing the unnerving similarities between her and League of Legends‘ newest superstar champion, Seraphine. According to the post, she believes that the character is inspired by her likeness following a brief relationship with a Riot Games employee. Riot immediately dismissed the claim, but the resemblance is undeniably striking.
Seraphine’s release ignited the fanbase across the board, sparking discussion concerning the similarities between her and Sona, an already released champion, as well as the questionable ethics of Seraphine’s social media presence. Controversy over Riot’s work culture is a reoccurring theme in the company’s last few years, but it’s still unclear whether this is a repeat of the same old song-and-dance or a genuinely unfortunate coincidence.
On her blog, Stephanie explains in detail the situation as she sees it. In early 2019, she entered a brief relationship with a Riot employee she refers to as “John” for the sake of anonymity; they only met in person twice, keeping the bulk of their interactions online through messaging and playing League of Legends together.
John ended contact with her after three months, and a year later, Seraphine popped up onto Stephanie’s timeline. The surface-level similarities are obvious – the name, the appearance, the drawings, the cat – but it goes deeper than that. According to Stephanie, John alluded numerous times to ways in which he could include her in the game itself through his connections. He mentioned that he wanted her to voice act for a secret upcoming project, and suggested that he had influence over K/DA, who just took on Seraphine as their newest member.
Riot denies any intentional similarities between the two, stating that “Seraphine was independently created by Riot Games and was not based on any individual. Additionally, the former employee [Stephanie] is referring to left Riot more than a year ago and was in a department and role that has no input whatsoever into the creative design process.” Many cite that Jeevan Sidhu’s (one of Seraphine’s designers) wife Riot Whiskies as being the inspiration for the champion, as can be seen through her recent cosplay.
Stephanie has come under a lot of heat since posting, and rightfully preempted the reaction many would have. “I’ve tried to think of every criticism or reason someone could call me crazy, but my reasons for believing this all add up to the point that I don’t really mind if a few people are awful to me online,” she writes in the initial post. She released another statement on Twitter yesterday, responding to both the vitriol thrown her way as well as the cosplay, reiterating that she doesn’t think Seraphine is “100% based on me.”
Without definitive proof, it’s impossible to say whether or not Seraphine is inspired in any capacity by Stephanie. The similarities are undeniable and numerous enough to cast doubt on it simply being a crazy coincidence, and Riot historically struggles with accusations of sexist work culture.
Coincidence or not, it’s clear that she has been deeply negatively affected by the whole situation. Stephanie writes with a lot of sympathy in her blog post, clearly having taken great care to broach the subject in a careful way while also keeping others out of the inevitable fire to come. The tale of League of Legends fans harassing people is not a new one, and the original piece should be read in its entirety before jumping to any conclusions.
League of Legends is out now on PC.
![\"IT電腦補習](\"http://itteacheritfreelance.hk/test/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/logo2-2.png\"){kind=logo}
www.itsec.hk
www.itsec.vip
www.itseceu.uk
Leave a Reply