What's in a Name: Riot Games

by Justin McElroy on Aug 31st 2009 2:27PM

We've had a good time with the League of Legends beta, so we asked the guys at Riot Games how they came up with their name, as well as the title for their spiritual DotA successor.

On Riot Games: "We chose the name Riot Games because we thought it sounded a lot cooler than the other names that we came up with and it pretty accurately reflects the image we want to portray – we're a bunch of young guys who work hard, play hard and love to have fun. And yeah, the domain was available for a reasonable price ..."

On League of Legends: "We came up with League of Legends because we believe it accurately characterizes the diversity of characters in the game and sounds 'epic.' Everyone wants to know if we picked the acronym on purpose ... we're always surprised people need to even ask that question – of course we did!

-- Marc C. Merrill, President of Riot Games

Liked this story? Be sure to check out the What's In A Name archives.

Tags: league-of-legends, riot-games, whats-in-a-name

Reader Comments (8)

These stories are always an instant click for me, but this one wasn't fantastic. Riverboat gambling with Gabe Newell has yet to be topped!

Riverboat gambling with Gabe Newell will never be topped.

If it weren't for being on top, it'd be an instant non-click for me. I'll voice what I expect is an unpopular opinion and just say that while an industry insider is real interested in this type of thing, personal opinion is I couldn't care less. I would expound further, but it'd likely come off as more assholish and patronizing. Might be too late anyway :P