Riot co-founders returning to the front lines of game development

Riot co-founders Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill are leaving the world of management and heading back to the front lines of game development. 

Writing in a blog post, the pair said they're clamoring for a return to the early days when they could spend their time thinking about how to turn League of Legends into a hit.

"When we founded Riot eleven years ago, we spent virtually every waking hour of the day (and night!)  thinking about how to make League of Legends as great of an experience as possible," they wrote.

"As League started having success however, Riot Games grew from those humble beginnings where we could feed the whole team with a handful of pizzas to now having over 2,500 Rioters across 20 offices around the world.

"That growth had lots of benefits: our capabilities improved, our reach broadened, and we could deliver League of Legends and eSports to more players than ever before. But it also meant the majority of our time was allocated to 'managing' the company rather than creating incredible experiences for players."

For the duo, it was an unfortunate side effect of League's success, but now they'll be winding back the clock and jumping back into the trenches for the company's next chapter.  

In their absence, Riot president Nicolo Laurent, CFO Dylan Jadeja, and CTO Scott Gelb will work together to handle the day-to-day running of the studio.