For every League of Legends player, the name associated with their account is not just a preference, but may also be based on their inspirations or a fleeting idea when creating the account. For professional players, these names can even be their “brand” when ranking. For example, “Hide on bush” from Faker has become a legend and is enthusiastically “copied” by many League of Legends players as well as players from other games.
However, recently, Riot made a very important announcement regarding these account names. Specifically, starting from November 20, 2023, an update will be released by Riot, and all account names across the entire Riot system (including League of Legends, League of Legends: Wild Rift, VALORANT…) will be synchronized. At that time, players will need to spend 10 USD (about over 240k) to purchase a name change card and will only be able to change their name within 30 days from when Riot implements the update. The new name will include a Riot ID and a tagline number.
One noticeable point is that these new names can completely overlap, as the tagline number will be fixed and cannot be changed. This means that any player who is a big fan of Faker could take the “brand” name associated with Faker’s career. Because, as long as the tagline number is different, all overlapping names will be accepted. At that time, there will no longer be a genuine “Hide on bush” since you will have to closely monitor to remember Faker’s tagline number. Other familiar names like “MIDKING” (from ShowMaker) or “S 15 6 13” (from SofM) will also have their own “knockoff” versions.
Many League of Legends players as well as players from other Riot games have been extremely upset with this new policy. In fact, many voices have directly accused Riot of trying to “monetize” players in many negative ways: “This is the worst change in League of Legends history, do you have a problem?”. Notably, with this adjustment, players will also no longer be able to purchase name change cards using Blue Essence.
Indeed, Riot’s policy is leaving many issues as it forces gamers to give up their favorite names, or accept many “knockoff” versions. Of course, community opposition may sometimes compel Riot to reconsider, but as of now, the publisher has not made any further announcements regarding the matter.