League community outraged at Riot for altering 100 Thieves emote

Riot Games has modified an emote from an esports organization that will be released to League of Legends players in late August.

On August 12, Riot unveiled the custom emotes created by professional teams in its premier League of Legends esports leagues. The emotes feature a combination of artwork showcasing the respective esports team and humorous designs inspired by popular memes.

In order to mock their opponents after executing a successful play, 100 Thieves opted to design an emote featuring a gesture commonly used by players as they walk away from a major outplay.

Despite the design not being included in the game, Riot has made changes to the emote in its PBE release, resulting in what some may consider a less offensive gesture. This alteration was discovered by SkinSpotlights, a social media account and YouTube channel dedicated to showcasing cosmetic items for League and Wild Rift.

100T Akali Emote was altered a bit, 1st is updated, 2nd was the old one pic.twitter.com/8y8ENz7gEO

— SkinSpotlights (@SkinSpotlights) August 15, 2024

There has been no confirmation from either 100 Thieves or the developer regarding whether the design was altered from its initial announcement or if it was simply an earlier iteration of the design.

Despite the frustration expressed by League players, they believe Riot has altered an emote they cherished, leading some individuals to publicly criticize the developer as “Cowards”on social media.

This is not the only controversy surrounding the emote rollout. Riot has decided to reintroduce the controversial bait ping as an emote, inspired by Team BDS and their cosmetic design that prominently showcases the ping’s hook shape.

A previous emote featuring only the hook was removed from League of Legends due to players using it in a manner deemed unacceptable by the developer.

The main motivation for Esports teams to create captivating designs was the 30% share in gross revenue from individual emote sales offered by Riot. These emotes were made available on August 27 and are priced at 350 RP, which is equivalent to a little over $3.