Credit: lolesports/ Riot Games
Mentioned in this article
- Rick Fox said that he will stay with Echo Fox amidst a fight to remove a shareholder who used racist comments towards him.
- Fox previously said that he planned to depart the team following the comments and threats to his family.
- In mid-May, Riot Games directed Echo Fox to remove the investor within 60 days or face potential consequences in the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS).
Echo Fox 
founder and co-owner Rick Fox has decided to stay with the team following racist comments from an investor, he said this week on a podcast, reversing an original decision to depart the organization.
“My initial exploratory decision of leaving the organization I started—because I personally cannot support or be a part of something where there’s an individual in the organization that is blatantly as racist as this person is, or that is also threatening my family. I don’t want to be a part of that,” said Fox on The GG Podcast. “I’ve decided over the last few months to change that approach of leaving.”
“For me, I think it’s important not only when there’s injustice in society, that we not only point to it, that we not only expose it, that we not only put a light on it, that we don’t stand for it,” he continued. “But at times, if you don’t pick up the fight yourself, there’s a chance that that situation or that individual may go on to hurt others—may go on to continue to think that it’s OK to conduct themselves that way. And so I made the decision that I’m going to fight […] to get this person out of Echo Fox, to get our company in a situation where it moves forward.”
In April, Echo Fox confirmed reports that “a limited partner” of the organization “used a racial epithet towards individuals both verbally and via email.” In a statement, the team said that it “had made various demands to the investor” including dissociation from the company. Racist comments were reportedly used both towards Fox and former Echo Fox CEO, Jace Hall.
“For me, I think it’s important not only when there’s injustice in society, that we not only point to it, that we not only expose it, that we not only put a light on it, that we don’t stand for it,”
Fox had emailed all major Echo Fox stakeholders in mid-April, Dexerto reported, sharing his “intention to exit the Echo Fox organization as a shareholder and participant as soon as I am able to facilitate a transaction to do so,” citing the “recent outrageous and abhorrent display of pure racism made by a significant Echo Fox shareholder as well as threats to my family.”
Riot Games conducted an investigation, and in mid-May, League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) commissioner Chris Greely “directed Echo Fox to take appropriate corrective action within 60 days.” He added, “If Echo Fox does not take action by removing any individuals whose actions violate League rules and agreements within the required time period, the League will take formal action that may adversely impact the future of Echo Fox in the LCS.”
Related Article: Update: Echo Fox Working With ‘Highest Level of Urgency’ to Meet LCS Demand of ‘Corrective Action’
In a statement, Echo Fox confirmed that it was working to excise the investor from the company, and hoped to do it sooner than Riot Games required. “We are working with the highest level of urgency to remove the investor from the Echo Fox organization,” read the statement. “Our internal timeline has always been shorter than the one announced yesterday by Riot Games, with whom we have been in close communication.”
Dexerto identified the investor as Amit Raizada, a shareholder in Rick Fox’s Vision Venture Partners. Raizada told Dexerto that he did use a racial epithet in an email with Hall, but denied doing the same with Fox. A former business partner of Raizada’s, real estate manager Michael Gortenburg, told Newsweek that such outbursts were common during their time working together.
