While I do agree that the backstory doesn’t match the result, I find it a bit disingenuous to mention Kai’sa and neglect cases that go against the description you made of the usual female Champion and say they’re all the same.

Case in Point: Illaoi, Poppy, Taliyah, Tristana, Lulu and other do not match the description.…

Not remotely suprising. A quick look at the female characters in LoL itself tells you tons about their mindset toward women.

Also, because in their view, straight white men really are just better, so it’s not a surprise that they encompass 80% of developers and 95% of leadership.

Or to acknowledge that things you enjoy should change to be more inclusive to people who aren’t exactly like you.

Since it invariably is going to come up, I don’t understand how people can scream “this is a witchhunt” or “people are too sensitive” or “this is SJW nonsense”

Since it invariably is going to come up, I don’t understand how people can scream “this is a witchhunt” or “people are too sensitive” or “this is SJW nonsense” when time and again big gaming/tech companies have proven to be navel gazing, bro-clubs who alienate anyone who isn’t a straight white male.

It’s not…

Thank you for this very thorough and detailed reporting. This seems the result of several different toxic cultures (Business, Gamer, Start-Up, etc.) all intersecting and building on one another. Very disappointing...

Pops popcorn in anticipation of reading Kotaku commenters’ (aka kinja’s worst and most toxic commentariat) knee-jerk responses.

Can’t read it all now but reading the first third and skimming the rest, this is an excellent feature, Cecilia. It blows my mind that many people are going to read this and think it just exists to push some kind of agenda.