Many League of Legends fans are excited for the Heartsteel skins to finally be available in-game with their debut single having released, but some are unhappy with the way the official League Twitter account has “objectified” the band members.
Heartsteel brings a boy band to the League of Legends universe, one that’s got a ton of personality and a hit single to boot.
Between marketing that has band members chatting in a Discord call and social media shoutouts that come across as the League account’s managers being “thirsty” for the characters, their marketing for the band’s debut has definitely hit home with its target audience.
However, some feel uncomfortable with the way in which the official League of Legends Twitter account has talked about their own characters, to the point where some feel the band members are being “objectified.”
League fans taken aback by “thirsty” official Twitter account
It’s safe to say that Heartsteel has been a success. With the official music video garnering over 6 million views just over a day after it was uploaded, the boy band has already grown a fandom.
However, tweets from the official League of Legends social media account have gone too far for some fans, to the point where many feel as if Heartsteel’s band members are being “objectified.”
The official LoL Twitter account has been spotted replying to tweets from fans and saying things like “added to the folder” in reply to NSFW fanart and actively admitting to “thirsting for fictional characters.”
While these tweets have been a hit with the audience that likes this sort of content, others feel as if the objectification of these characters shows a “double standard.”
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“I have no problem with them releasing sexy male champions but for the OFFICIAL league account to go out of their way and post some blatant fanservice is kinda weird. If it was kda, this wouldn’t be acceptable.” claimed one Reddit user. For context, K/DA is an all-female K-Pop group made up of League characters that predates Heartsteel’s debut.
However, one tweet in particular has caught people’s attention:
In reply to a tweet saying, “c*nt was served,” the official account replied, “on a silver platter,” agreeing with the fan. While many of the replies to tweets of this kind joke about the main account being “horny” and clearly like making jokes about it, there are others who are clearly uncomfortable.
And, though there’s an argument going on that there are double standards and that doing this with members, official League accounts thirsting over new characters isn’t exactly new.
For example, amid the Briar feet controversy, one of the official LoL accounts changed its Twitter header to be Briar’s feet while other accounts joked about the fetishization of her feet. All while the devs explained why her feet were such an important part of her character design and a fake foot cover-up caused a community uproar.
Regardless of the discourse, there’s clearly an audience that loves the way League’s social media account promotes new content, but also an audience that feels they’re going a bit too far to promote their characters.