Pros: The people who work here are incredibly passionate about video games. Many employees eat, sleep, and breathe League of Legends or other PC games, and the "player perspective" that Riot has as a result of this truly allows us to connect with our players (customers) on the deepest level. An incredibly open, laid-back culture. Things aren't sugar-coated, and you have to have thick skin to work here, but what this means is that if you're doing something that isn't working or is at odds with the culture, you're able to course-correct quickly. "Gamer" humor is injected into most company-wide communications, which helps add to our mantra of "not taking ourselves too seriously." Cross-disciplinary teams are the norm at Riot, and this is one of the most remarkable things about working here. As QA, I have direct access to Design, Engineering, Art, and UX, and can talk to any of them with ease on a daily basis. It prevents scenarios where things are worked on in a vacuum and "tossed over" the wall for QA to check. We're redefining what it means to have test-driven development, and the result on the holistic product quality shows. There's no shortage of work to be done, and if you're a go-getter, you can rise quickly at Riot if you're delivering results and solving perceived problems in ways that add player value. I've been here for quite some time now and have seen people get hired in at very junior-level positions rise to management and product owner roles by identifying problems and working their butts off to solve them.

Cons: As with any company, dominant personalities tend to control most of the decisions that get made at Riot. Once people have established you as someone "junior" on your team, it's difficult to reverse that perception in a way that allows for increased career opportunities. A mantra of many successful companies is to "hire well, fire quickly." Riot has the first part down, but is slow to fire unproductive/unmotivated employees, especially since many Rioters tend to be friends with each other to some degree on their respective teams. It often comes down to 2-3 superstars carrying the load for the team while others are content to do the bare minimum and skate by.

Pros: Lots of exposure to amazing opportunities and fast-paced growth. Allows employees to do what they're good at and passionate about. The very fast pace allows for rapid feedback. A fantastic product line where feedback is extremely important and dictates the direction of new ideas and workflows. Very good about recognizing those who excel and contribute meaningfully.

Cons: Increases in responsibility aren't necessarily concurrent with additional pay. Some cultural issues regarding secrecy. Potential problems with scale due to explosive growth of employee base.

Pros: - Riot provided housing that was right next to the office (a five-minute walk). - Weekly lunches with important people from all across the company; got to meet people like LCS casters, executive sound producers, directors of engineering, project managers, etc. - Worked on important project(s); treated like full-time (gave presentations in front of the whole company, had 100% say in any type of planning meetings, got whatever benefits full-time Rioters got). - Met amazing people; everyone is willing to help if you just ask. - Work-life balance is encouraged; they didn't want me to be stressed out, so they made sure I played games and took breaks. - Lots and lots of swag.

Cons: The internship program is not structured very well in terms of managing interns. According to most of the interns, Riot was very slow at getting back to them about how the interview process was going, and even later giving out the job offers. Some interns even talked about how their manager didn't know what to do with them. Most of the events were pretty good, but other companies do it better. There needs to be a dedicated team that focuses on hiring interns, ensuring everyone has something to do, and setting up intern events.