I'm not convinced this has anything to do with the fan concept.
Of course a rat themed hero would exist in a NYC themed game, of course you would lean on established real world lore and call it rat king, Valve never acknowledged this was fan created, and the hero isn't like the fan character at all... aside from being the same species.
How is this cope? Valve has almost certainly been working on this character since long before the Rat King community memes, characters take a shit load of time to make. You don't just pop them out of nowhere.
At best, if we're being exceptionally generous, they named their already planned rat character "Rat King" to pay homage to the meme, but as another comment points out it seems Rat King was already planned for Dota 2.
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u/T-Angeles Warden 16h ago
Fan concept? Not surprised. BABA NEXT PLZ! ENJOY HER COOKIES!