Recently, a post titled: “Riot Made Me Change My Name Because of Coronavirus” became a “hit” on Reddit due to its interesting and somewhat… ridiculous content. The author shared the story of his struggle to keep his League of Legends nickname that he has used for 6 years, after being forced by Riot to change it because the nickname was the same as… the name of the virus that caused the Covid-19 pandemic: Coronavirus.
This guy mentioned that he has been playing League of Legends for 6 years, and during that time, he always used the nickname Squid Corona. In which, Squid refers to the squid, his favorite animal, while Corona is… his real surname.
At the beginning of 2019, this player purchased a name change card to make it shorter to Corona. And everything was fine until the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. This disease is caused by the Coronavirus, and ironically, the player named Corona has the same name as this virus.
Since then, Corona has become a name of interest in the game, as in each match, he received comments from both teammates and opponents like: “impressive name”, “great name choice, bro”…
“Worse” still, some players even reported him for allegedly making a joke out of the epidemic, and eventually, Riot Games sent a notification requiring him to change his account name, citing that the name was inappropriate.
Corona did not accept this, as it was not just a name change, but it was also his real name, so complying with the request to change his name felt like he was denying his heritage.
Over the course of 2 weeks, this player communicated with the Riot Games support department, and always received the response: “You must change your name if you want to continue playing League of Legends.”
Extremely disappointed, he took to Reddit to “vent” and seek help from the community. He even criticized Riot Games for behaving as if they were insulting a name that belongs to his family, and Corona truly felt offended by this.
Not only did he complain on Reddit, but this guy also shared that he had written a series of heartfelt letters to Riot in hopes that they would allow him to keep this name.
Fortunately, Riot Games eventually responded, stating that the nickname Squid Corona would be kept intact and not forced to change.
This absurd story has attracted significant attention from the gaming community, garnering over 2,700 comments on Reddit. Indeed, the pandemic is not a joke, but anyone who hears this unfortunate player’s story can’t help but laugh, “Why like squids? No wonder he’s unlucky.”