A new update was introduced to the League of Legends test server on Nov. 21, and players have noticed a bug the team used to make a meme. It’s a response to a meme made by fans to mock live balance design lead Phreak for his argument regarding ping restrictions.
A player shared a screenshot of a livestream made by Riot designer Phlox to showcase changes brought by the latest PBE patch in a Reddit thread from Nov. 21. The screenshot shows a message displayed when a summoner tries to use a bugged item on a few champions like Ornn, Rengar, and Neeko. It reads a lengthy and formal message that refers to a copypasta created by the community.
The copypasta was made as a response to Phreak’s arguments on ping restrictions, where they said players could communicate more the text chat rather than pings in some cases.
In a response where he explained why Riot restricted the use of pings in the game, he said players could type “Karthus ult” instead of pinging it as an example.
A player reacted to this statement with a ridiculously formal message: “Dearest Karthus, // I hope this finds you well. We seem to have found ourselves in a dire situation at the bottom lane. Please consider casting your ultimate ability to assist us as I do believe Lee Sin has come to dive our tower. // Sincerely, Your bottom lane,” the user wrote. It was then used by other fans through social media.
The message shown in the PBE copies the template. The team addresses players in the lengthiest manner just to notify the item used is bugged. It’s meant as a mockery of the meme made to undermine Phreak’s latest response to the community’s criticism.
It reads: “Dearest [champion name], We seem to have found ourselves a small bug with this item. Please consider recalling and purchasing an upgrade in the shop as we do believe that it would be most beneficial to your further success. Sincerely, Riot Games.”
The latest changes on pings have been controversial in the League community. Phreak left social media on Nov. 15 due to toxicity and death threats, with fans blaming him for his official responses to controversial changes made in the 2024 preseason due to being insufficient.
This message has stirred many reactions from fans, and they widely differ. “Unlike most of the other people in the thread I think this is probably at least somewhat of a good thing – it shows that Riot is very clearly acknowledging the problem exists so hopefully we’ll be having a solution for it soon,” wrote one of the top-voted comments. It’s still unclear whether this message will be patched soon.
