Riot Video games has quickly disabled League of Legends (opens in new tab) character Neeko after she unexpectedly developed the power to remodel into an enormous tower that may kill enemy gamers in a single shot.
Neeko is definitely a shapeshifter: Her character bio (opens in new tab) says she “can mix into any crowd by borrowing the appearances of others, even absorbing one thing of their emotional state to inform buddy from foe straight away.” Her passive capacity permits her to take the type of an allied champion: Whereas disguised she will make use of primary assaults, however will revert to her pure type if she takes any harm.
That is the way it’s purported to work, anyway. However a brand new bug was just lately found that gave Neeko the power to remodel right into a tower—particularly, a Nexus Obelisk, a sort of turret that possesses the very best structural harm output within the recreation. Based on the LoL fan wiki (opens in new tab), they’re truly designed as a defensive homicide machine: They’re positioned close to spawn platforms to maintain enemy gamers from spawn tenting them.
This clip, from League streamer Vandiril, fairly clearly demonstrates the issue:
And right here it’s from the opposite aspect of the coin—a participant consuming a one-shot kill from a remodeled Neeko:
Nonetheless not mounted, huh? Thanks for this nice expertise @riotgames @Vandiril pic.twitter.com/4Hks3wWkKmNovember 22, 2022
As you may think, the power of 1 character to remodel into considered one of these one-shot dying fortresses, instantly and wherever on the map, throws the sport into full imbalance. It is mainly the LoL equal of Anakin Skywalker’s massive showdown with the younglings: There’s simply no protection in opposition to it.
Due to that, Riot was compelled to disable Neeko whereas it tries to repair no matter went fallacious.
Some League gamers on Reddit have been stunned that this might occur in any respect, on condition that Nexus Obelisks aren’t characters, however mounted turrets. “How is that even a doable bug?” Rumbleinthejungle8 (opens in new tab) requested. “The sport’s code should be an actual mess for that to be doable. I suppose all the pieces being coded as a minion is not only a meme.”
That is a reference to the truth that extra than simply minions are coded as “minions” in League of Legends. This Reddit submit from 2015 (opens in new tab) breaks it down intimately: Nearly all the pieces within the recreation shares primary, underlying traits, though their complexity varies extensively.
“The phrase ‘all the pieces is a minion’ is kind of true however it’s nearer to saying one thing like ‘all the pieces is an object’ moderately than ‘all the pieces is a lane minion’,” RiotXypherous defined within the submit. “Lane minions are literally fairly sophisticated, given they’ve a mannequin, animations and an AI—one thing that the essential minion object does not have (relying on which one is getting used, I believe they’re all idle cubes.)”
Some gamers have urged that the issue could be so simple as a failed or mistaken entity kind test, however the truth that Neeko has been disabled for greater than 24 hours means that the issue is extra critical than a easy scripting error. In fact, the timing is not very best both: November 24 is the Thanksgiving vacation within the US, a significant vacation that sees most companies within the nation shut down for a protracted weekend of meals, booze, and (I believe, I am Canadian so not super-clear on the main points of the ritual) soccer. In order that’s another excuse why this Neeko Obelisk enterprise may take somewhat longer than regular to repair.
No matter all that, the Neeko bug is yet one more instance of the challenges confronted by live-game builders, who need to cope with a gentle stream of updates which are always altering characters, worlds, and gameplay. It is the character of the beast: In October, Blizzard needed to disable Bastion and Torbjörn (opens in new tab) in Overwatch 2 due to equally overpowered glitches of their ultimates, and two weeks later shut down Mei (opens in new tab) as a result of she’d change into just a bit bit extra cellular than she was meant to be. Riot was additionally compelled to drag the plug on Valorant’s new hero Harbor (opens in new tab) simply final week, as a result of his final had gone screwy as effectively.
There is not any indication at this level as to when Neeko will return to motion. I’ve reached out to Riot for extra data on that entrance, and can replace if I obtain a reply.