Olivia Richman 
League of Legends fandom has reacted with outrage after yet another emote from an esports team has been censored by Riot Games, with Team BDS’ upcoming Pengu emote.
League of Legends has been introducing emotes designed by popular esports teams for players to use in-game to show off their fandom. One of the latest ones was BDS’ Pengu, which featured a rimmed pink hat with the BDS symbol on it and a fishing pole with a golden hook in its flipper. The adorable emote had caught a lot of fans’ attention but some behavior surrounding the emote has caused Riot to change its design.
Now, angry League of Legends fans are asking for BDS’ Pengu to be reverted to its original design.
Why was BDS’ Pengu emote censored?
Riot Games censored the Team BDS Pengu emote due to potential references to hanging.
The BDS Pengu emote was recently changed to feature a fish on the end of the hook, rather than the hook itself. This is because players were using the emote to threaten their teammates to “kill themselves” since the fishing pole and hook resembled a noose with certain gestures.
After the new emote design was revealed, some players stated they were no longer interested in buying it. Apparently the addition of the fish just wasn’t appealing to them since it took away from the original design’s meaning; which suggested that players got “baited.”
What was once seen as a Bait ping replacement has now lost that meaning; after all, Pengu has already caught the fish. This isn’t the first time that an esport-related custom emote was censored.
Fans call League of Legends developers overly sensitive after censoring Akali emote
An emote featuring Akali was changed ahead of Team BDS’s emote receiving the same treatment.
100 Thieves‘ Akali emote was also changed quite recently. It previously had Akali squinting with her thumb and pointer finger inches apart, mocking the masculinity of other players. This was changed to her putting her hand behind her ear, another unpopular decision.
League of Legends players felt slighted since they had purchased the emote originally to be toxic in-game. Others, however, pointed out that it was their “immature” behavior that caused Riot to stop the trolling with a censored version of the emote. This caused League of Legends fans to call out Riot for being overly sensitive and for not predicting how players would act.
Apparently, fans didn’t learn their lesson after the Akali emote change and Riot was forced to change yet another emote being used for evil.
