League of Legends Seraphine Controversy Explained
The newest League of Legends character is a pop star and online influencer named Seraphine, but a lot of people aren’t happy with her or Riot Games.
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The newest Champion revealed by Riot Games for League of Legends is Seraphine. The K-pop star and virtual influencer recently popped up on social media with her own accounts. Like real influencers, she posts selfies and offers all sorts of comments on her social and professional life. It’s a highly meta marketing campaign, but so far it’s not really paying off for Riot Games. Seraphine, perhaps like some real-world influencers, is now at the center of a major controversy.
The reveal of League of Legends’ Seraphine was already met with some criticisms, as fans claimed she was too similar to another Champion, Sona. Fans accused Riot Games of spending more time on Seraphine’s marketing than on her actual character kit. It’s a valid criticism, since Seraphine does have a lot in common with Sona, and Riot Games appears to be taking the strange marketing route of playing with parasocial relationships – and putting a lot of effort into it.
The Seraphine reveal capped off a difficult week for Riot Games, and these League of Legends controversies just keep stacking up. Then, on October 10th (just in time for World Mental Health Day), the Seraphine account tweeted things like “I can’t find the confidence I need” and “maybe I need to be the one to ask for help.” Understandably, people were upset and began calling Riot Games out on social media for seemingly taking advantage of real-world mental health issues.
While People Are Mad About Seraphine In League Of Legends
The tone-deaf tweets didn’t stop there, however. Seraphine also asked, “Could you give me some encouraging words? I need something to believe in right now.” It’s a bold move to have a fictional character suffer from mental health issues, and then vapidly tweet about it on World Mental Health Day while asking real people to compliment her. And, all the while, Seraphine uses keywords that are commonly used by people who actually suffer from mental health issues.
Obviously, people were quick to criticize Riot Games and League of Legends. When so many people are actually suffering from mental health issues, it’s probably not ideal to cash in on that for a marketing campaign. This Seraphine backlash also comes after Riot Games formed an ethics committee after its NEOM partnership controversy, which adds just a bit of irony to all of this.
So, just how many controversies can Riot Games survive? Apparently a lot, since the controversies continue to add up while League of Legends is still profitable. This Seraphine backlash is just the latest self-created problem Riot Games has faced. It remains to be seen if this controversial marketing campaign for Seraphine will ultimately pay off, although it isn’t looking too good right now.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/league-legends-seraphine-controversy-riot-games-fake-streamer/