League of Legends, one of the longest running and most popular and played video games in the world recently introduced its first Black gay character K’Sante.
League is a phenomena as one of the most played video games across the world. Since its release in October 2009, League has been free-to-play and is monetized through purchasable character customization. The game is available on the Microsoft Windows and macOS platforms along with a mobile version and has spawned tournaments, numerous spin-off games and merchandise.
League’s gamers take on the role of champions in teams to work together to achieve objectives, and each has a backstory composed for them by the game’s writers.
Known as the Pride of Nazumah, K’Sante was revealed this month, in time to coincide with the ongoing 2022 World Championship. He joins the roster of top lane champions as a tank with an expectedly high skill cap. K’Sante, a desert warrior, hails from an oasis city located on the southern outskirts of the desert in Shurima. From the trailer, fans were given more hints about these lands, inspired by the Middle East and Africa.
Riot Games previously revealed in their LoL Pls dev vlog that he and his people, unlike the rest of the region, do not worship Azir. “My ancestors built Nazumah, away from the Ascended and other would-be rulers,” he says in the champion teaser, referencing this fact.
A close-up shot of the items on his desk reveals a large, lion-like monster that he fights in the arid lands, the same pages that we saw in LoL Pls, with additional sheets showing more mobs taped to the wall.
The two hints about his sexuality are found in his title — Pride of Nazumah — and in the title of the teaser, “The Hunter’s Pride.” The word “pride” has been used to signify the LGBTQ community’s solidarity, identity, and visibility worldwide.
“League of Legends” has had gay characters before. It has had Black characters before. But its latest champion, K’Sante, who is advertised in trailers alongside Lil Nas X, is the first to have his sexuality so prominently featured in the game. The marketing rollout has left some players suspicious of the developer’s intent and fearful that it could attract ire from the game’s famously toxic community — though K’Sante’s contributions to the gameplay have been warmly received.
Lil Nas X gave a performance at the Opening Ceremony during the Worlds Finals on Nov 5, an event that was hosted and promoted by Riot Games.
For the first time, Riot Games employees were allowed to bake a champion’s sexuality and race into his story and gameplay details right from the start. K’Sante is a West African-inspired tank who comes with unique devastating powers that help him target foes effectively. Riot employees told The Washington Post that they designed him to be an anti-imperialist monster hunter who is very prideful.
Owned by Chinese conglomerate Tencent, Riot has been reshaping its internal policies on diversity and inclusion as it seeks to grow its already notable position in the video game and entertainment industry. The studio has been entertaining ambitions for a whole franchise universe: “Arcane,” its Netflix TV series set in the world of “League of Legends,” launched last November, to immediate success. Riot has also bolstered its game offerings beyond its flagship, “League of Legends,” publishing the first-person shooter title “Valorant” and card game “Legends of Runeterra.”
K’Sante marks an evolution in “League’s” approach to characters’ race and sexuality. Previously, Riot often included a tidbit confirming a champion’s sexuality in out-of-game lore, or coyly worked it in in some regions’ version of the game and not others’. “Arcane’s” main characters seem to be queer, but their sexualities haven’t been explicitly confirmed.
A sampling of fans suggests the character is already popular.
Olutope “Aegmox,” a 21-year-old student in Williamstown, New Jersey, who declined to share his last name for privacy reasons, said that before K’Sante was added to the game, there were no Black champions in the top lane position. He said that he felt that the “League” community could be racist (the player base is widely known to be very toxic) and he was wary of their reactions if too much emphasis was placed on K’Sante’s race, rather than just his abilities as a champion. He liked the nods to K’Sante’s Ghanaian heritage, which he said he could relate to because he is Nigerian.
“He is literally just like me, a Black West African male. I’m just not gay,” Olutope said, adding that he liked K’Sante’s abilities, too. “I feel like African Americans have the lowest player count in ‘League.’ So I think the addition of some more Black characters like K’Sante could make them feel like they have an identity.”
“I’m excited to give life and voice to K’Sante and make history portraying the first LGBTQ black Champion Warrior,” he wrote.
Oparei is a British actor who has appeared in Sex Education, Game of Thrones, Dredd, and Doom. Most recently, he portrayed Boastful Loki in Marvel’s Loki series.
K’Sante will be released in League of Legends patch 12.21, which will likely be in November.
