Riot raises funds for LA fire relief efforts with vaulted LoL skin, latest VAL bundle

As firefighters in Los Angeles County finally seem to be making serious progress containing the wildfires that swept through multiple California neighborhoods, Riot Games is pitching into relief efforts through cosmetic sales in VALORANT and League of Legends.

Beginning on Jan. 22 and running until Jan. 30, the EX.O bundle in VALORANT will see sale proceeds go to the Riot Games Social Impact Fund, which Riot says “will then direct funds to organizations aiding natural disaster recovery in Southern California and around the world.” Along with the VALORANT fundraising period, a concurrent fundraiser will come to League, where the Firefighter Tristana skin will be unvaulted from Jan. 23 to Feb. 5. Proceeds from sales of Firefighter Tristana will also go to the Riot Games Social Impact Fund.

The EX.O skinline is VALORANT’s latest, featuring a neon, cyberpunk aesthetic and a very cool katana melee weapon, as well as skins for very popular weapons like the Vandal. It’s fairly pricey, but knowing the money will go to a good cause might tip the scales for some players.

For League players, Firefighter Tristana might be a bigger prize relatively speaking. The skin was released all the way back in 2010 and is much more difficult to get for players today, with some websites going as far as selling accounts with access to the skin (along with other classic skins that are no longer available or difficult to find).

Riot’s U.S. headquarters is only a few miles from evacuation zones for the devastating Palisades Fire, so to say the cause is close to home for the developer is an understatement. In a blog post about the fundraisers, Riot also detailed how it ran campaigns in which the company tripled charitable donations from Rioters to organizations helping relief efforts in the LA area, as well as used the Riot campus and “volunteered our teams to support recovery efforts,” including providing generators to fire stations and donating meals.

“Recovery doesn’t end when the fires are extinguished,” Riot said. “Rebuilding communities takes time, and this crisis—so close to home for our headquarters—has inspired us to strengthen our commitment to natural disaster relief and prevention on a global scale.”

As of Jan. 16, reports have suggested the L.A. wildfires have cause an estimated $250 billion in damage and economic losses.