Earlier this month, Riot Games surprised fans when it announced some unusual changes to League of Legends. The changes in question were made to the character Gragas. Despite having been in the game for more than 15 years, the developers decided to censor some references to alcohol, in order to comply with the ratings requirements in various regions. This sparked some backlash from the player community, who questioned why the changes were being made universally, rather than in one specific region. League Studio head Andrei van Roon has now announced that some of these changes are being walked back.
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“Hey folks— we did some more digging into the Gragas ability name changes. Looks like we can go lighter on the adjustments overall while still being EU compliant. We do need to update the ability description (remove ‘drunkenly empowered’ and adjust ‘guzzles down brew’). We also need to tweak his in client bio slightly. We don’t need to change the ability name though, or his bio on Universe, so we’ll be sticking with ‘Drunken Rage’ and his overall bio,” van Roon wrote in a post on X/Twitter.
It sounds like this is a fair compromise that should make most people happy. League of Legends will continue to remain EU compliant without any changes to the game’s rating, and the overall changes are smaller than originally announced. Censorship has been a very touchy subject in the gaming industry for the last 10 years or so. Even when the developers are trying to be clear and candid about why changes are happening, it can still result in frustration and negativity from a game’s community. And that’s not even taking into account the bad actors that leap on anything remotely controversial to try stirring the pot.
Gragas was first added to League of Legends back in 2010, and has become a fan favorite. The character’s passion for beer has been a staple of his character since the beginning; Gragas doesn’t just love to consume alcohol, he also likes to brew beer himself. It’s understandable why some fans might have worried about this aspect of the character being toned down or removed altogether after all these years. From van Roon’s post, it sounds like the developers have to be a little careful about their phrasing, but it seems nothing is actually changing as far as the character is concerned.
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It’s worth noting that none of the proposed changes to Gragas were ever going to impact the actual gameplay in League of Legends. This wasn’t a nerf, or any kind of alteration that would have had an impact on the way the game is played. At the end of the day, fans were just passionate about keeping the heart of the character intact, and it seems they’ll be getting their wish!
How did you feel about the previous changes to Gragas? Are you happy the developers walked back a lot of the alterations? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!
