Recently, Garena Philippines unexpectedly announced adjustments to the ranked mode on the League of Legends server in this country, related to the fact that the entire Cyber Games system in the Philippines has temporarily ceased operations in response to the campaign to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The mechanism for demoting Ranked will be temporarily suspended until May 2 due to the closure of all Cyber Cafes.
All Unlimited Galaxy items (Lux, Mordekaiser, Malphite, Xerath, Mega) will also have their sales period extended until May 31.”
As is known, in League of Legends, there has long been a mechanism for demoting ranks if players do not participate in ranked matches for a long period. Meanwhile, in the Philippines as well as many other Asian countries, internet cafes, Cyber Games, and crowded gathering places have been instructed to temporarily cease operations in order to minimize the risk of spreading the disease.
In reality, not every gamer has the ability to own a personal computer or a good enough laptop to play games at home, so the closure of Cyber Games also means they will not be able to play games for quite a long time. While completely agreeing with the government’s announcement, the general sentiment among League of Legends gamers in the Philippines and many other regions still has a bit of worry about their accounts being demoted due to not logging into the game for too long.
Understanding this sentiment, the Philippine League of Legends server decided to temporarily suspend the rank demotion feature until early May. This means that during this time, gamers on the Philippine server, even if they cannot log into the game, will still keep their ranks intact without being demoted to a lower rank.
This move has received tremendous support from the gaming community in the country. Clearly, in the context of the pandemic situation becoming increasingly tense, alleviating one worry is a good thing; Garena’s action is also a message of encouragement that gamers can confidently follow the government’s directives without worrying about their ranks being affected anymore.
