Riot Games Co-Founder Named President of Gaming
Riot Games co-founder and former CEO Marc Merrill has been named the studio's new president of games, Merrill announced via Twitter on Thursday.
In his new role, Merrill will oversee all of Riot's games at an executive level, including League of Legends, Valorant, Teamfight Tactics, Wild Rift and Legends of Runeterra. He'll also head up the games Riot currently has in development, from the fighting game codenamed Project L to the unnamed MMO set in League of Legends' Runeterra — plus any other unrevealed titles Riot's cooking up.
Going to take a few weeks to meet with the teams and make some plans, but we’ll be back with more info on what you can expect from Riot GAMES soon(™). Until then, see you all on the Rift(s)!
— Tryndamere (@MarcMerrill) February 18, 2022
In addition to co-founding Riot Games, Merrill served as the company's CEO until 2017, when he and fellow co-founder Brandon Beck became co-CEOs. He stepped down from that role later that year, but continued to work on projects at the company, including the League of Legends 10th anniversary event, where Riot Games debuted Valorant. He also played a role in building out Riot's entertainment division, serving as a producer on the Netflix series "Arcane" based on League of Legends.
"After years of growing Riot's capabilities & teams, I'm excited to focus more fully on Riot's Games," Merrill tweeted. He said he "can't wait" to join the studio's many developers working on "super secret projects!"
"Going to take a few weeks to meet with the teams and make some plans, but we'll be back with more info on what you can expect from Riot GAMES soon."