We're less than two weeks away from the most colorful time of the year. Pride is right around the corner, and that means it's time for League of Legends to start the celebration of all things queer with a few unlockable rewards like emotes like Pride-themed emotes and icons. There's also going to be a new backdrop image featuring everyone's favorite LGTBQ+ League of Legends champs.
Sadly, not everyone is a fan of Pride, nor do they keep up with the latest lore for their favorite Champions. As happens every year, some are accusing Riot of suddenly making a particular champion queer. To get ahead of the annual backlash, Riot producer Alex Quach has a very simple message for bigoted players: don't assume every League of Legends character is straight.
"Q: Why did you change XYZ?" Quach asked in a rhetorical Q&A session on Twitter. "A: We didn't. You assumed straightness."
Indeed, everyone in the new character backdrop has long had their queerness confirmed by Riot. K'Sante famously arrived as openly gay (except in some countries), while other characters like Graves and Twisted Fate had stories published about their relationship. Vi and Caitlyn's relationship is only just getting started in Netflix's Arcane, Nami is in a polyamorous relationship with a man and a woman, and Leona and Diana's relationship status is probably best described as "it's complicated."
There are a few notable exceptions on this poster, such as Varus and Rell, but Quach went on to say that the image isn't representative of every queer character in League of Legends. "This is a specific selection," he wrote. Quach also confirmed that this colorful new background will be available along with the associated icons during the 2023 Pride event window.
League of Legends' Pride event arrives with Patch 13.11 on June 1.
It's not just League of Legends fans finding out their favorite character is queer. Resident Evil Village fans recently discovered that the towering Lady Dimitrescu is gay, with scriptwriter Antony Johnston writing, "The only thing about men that makes Lady D horny is their blood."
Zelda fans might have also been introduced to their very first gay character in the recent Tears of the Kingdom release. An older gentleman named Calip (who players might remember from Breath of the Wild) writes rather fondly of a hunk named Tauro and admits that he embarked on a research expedition just to be closer to him.