For a long time, the League of Legends community has been buzzing with information suggesting that Riot Games and Garena are in a state of “cold war.” Many reports indicate that Riot is currently no longer interested in the League of Legends player community on the Garena server and will take over once the contract between the two parties ends. The discord between Riot and Garena is also evident through factors such as the new Riot game titles (League of Legends: Wild Rift, Legends of Runeterra, VALORANT) being published by VNG rather than long-time partner Garena.
Recently, the League of Legends community has uncovered new evidence showing the deteriorating relationship between Garena and Riot. Specifically, at this time, patch 11.18 has officially been rolled out to players across all servers worldwide. However, when users on the Garena server want to see the full patch notes on Riot’s site, they are automatically redirected to Garena’s page. The issue is that this page currently only has version 11.17 (for League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics), and the patch notes for version 11.18 have not been updated at all.
Additionally, players on the Garena server have noted that to access the patch notes for 11.18, they must use a VPN to reach Riot’s website overseas; otherwise, all other attempts will redirect them to Garena’s page.
In reality, update versions in some regions are often applied at different times, as in Vietnam, the client frequently updates to the new version later than those in Korea, Europe, or China. However, when information about a new version is released, there is a demand for players to learn more, and the aforementioned issue makes it difficult for many players in Garena’s region to keep up with new information compared to the rest of the world. Typically, they can only update this information through patch update news from PBE on news sites.
It is clear that, alongside the controversies surrounding Riot’s choice of game publisher in Vietnam and numerous questions regarding VCS’s inability to attend the 2021 World Championship, the “strained relationship” between Riot and Garena continues to affect the gaming experience of players, as they are completely unable to access the latest update information. Moreover, using a VPN can also bring about many risks, ultimately hurting the gaming community.