The editor of the lolesports.com website has announced that he will no longer be working for Riot Games. Frank “Mihri” Fields has been in the role since July 2013 and has very often been the public face of some of the websites bigger failings.
Despite it aiming to be the hub of content and coverage when it comes to competitive League of Legends play, the site’s restrictive guidelines and requirement to serve up a steady diet of work designed to market the eSports side of Riot’s business, has led to many enthusiasts believing the site lacks any real credibility.
There has been much speculation that the decision for Fields to leave his position wasn’t voluntary. The editor has certainly angered the community and professional players in his time at the helm, although it must be acknowledged it doesn’t take much to generate controversy in the eyes of Riot Games or the League of Legends fan base. Breitbart reported how Fields had previously had to make a public apology for comments in a weekly power ranking article that had offended some of the players mentioned in it.
The announcement of his departure comes after history seemingly repeating itself. March 24th saw lolesports.com publish their Spring Season awards for best players and coaches, which received a negative reaction from a lot of independent experts and commentators on the game. The list was subject to some sardonic tweets from leading expert Christopher “Montecristo” Mykles and prompted eSports historian Duncan “Thorin” Shields to release a video critique outlining exactly why the process was flawed.
This prompted some Riot staff members to highlight that the selection process didn’t just include their editorial team but also other (unnamed) journalists and professional players. This quickly led to further embarrassment when multiple professional players publicly responded by saying they’d not received any information about the awards and hadn’t placed any votes.
With independent journalists seemingly unwilling to reveal the way they voted, this has led to a lot of criticism about how the awards were handled. The announcement of Fields’ departure coming so soon after the awards has led people to believe the two are linked, although there has been no clarification if Fields is leaving or was indeed shown the door. Given Riot’s approach to these matters there is unlikely to be any statement regarding the matter unless Fields, a man who once declared himself to be the voice of God, allows his ego to get the better of him. Watch this space.
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