League of Legends developer Riot Games continues to be in the news for all the wrong reasons, this time thanks to a new lawsuit accusing CEO Nicolo Laurent of sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and wrongful termination.
The lawsuit, as reported by the Washington Post, was filed with the Los Angeles County Superior Court in January by former Riot executive assistant Sharon O’Donnell, who joined the company in 2017 and was fired last July.
In the suit, O’Donnell claims Laurent subjected her to numerous sexual comments, inviting her to travel with him and to work from his home when his wife was away, asking if she “could handle him when they were alone at his house”. When O’Donnell declined, Laurent is alleged to have become hostile, limiting her workplace responsibilities and eventually having her fired after she reported the incident to Riot’s HR department.
According to the filing, “[O’Donnell] believes that by this conduct Laurent explicitly and implicitly conditioned job benefits and the absence of job detriments on [her] acceptance of sexual conduct.” Laurent is also alleged to have made demeaning comments focussing on O’Donnell’s gender, criticising her “abusive tone” and saying she should be “more feminine.”