Riot Implicitly Confirms the Issues Facing T1 and Professional League of Legends Have Yet to Be Resolved
On the evening of November 25 (Vietnam time), many viewers were shocked to find that the DDoS situation was still ongoing despite the conclusion of the 2024 season. Specifically, Doran, after joining T1, has continuously faced this issue while playing solo ranked. As a result, the reigning LCK champions have been unable to practice despite trying to queue for matches multiple times.
Riot themselves have shown how helpless they are. Recently, on the HackerNews forum, a surprising post caused quite a stir in the IT community. Specifically, the post offered a bounty of around $100,000 (2.5 billion VND) for anyone who can find a solution to the persistent DDoS issues in League of Legends.
Among the listed missions, “DDoS attacks targeting specific players” and “Choosing to disconnect certain game matches” were the highest rewarded tasks. These tasks may have been added to an earlier post by Riot regarding bounties for hackers who discover system vulnerabilities, including security, Vanguard, or server bugs.
Does T1 Influence Riot’s Decision?
In reality, T1 is considered the team most affected by DDoS. Throughout 2024, T1 has had to publicly address DDoS issues at least twice during press conferences. The team has sought solutions, but all efforts have been in vain.
Moreover, if T1 continues to struggle against DDoS, it will affect Riot’s image and professional League of Legends, including the LCK organizers. This reveals a significant weakness in protecting the interests of teams and players. Furthermore, if professionals are affected by DDoS while playing, then regular players will also face disruptions, which naturally leads to a negative perception of League of Legends or Riot.
However, it is hard to predict whether this “bounty” approach will be effective, as the longstanding and increasingly complex issue persists.