Riot Video games has quickly disabled League of Legends (opens in new tab) character Neeko after she unexpectedly developed the power to rework 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 immediately.” Her passive potential allows her to take the type of an allied champion: Whereas disguised she will make use of fundamental assaults, however will revert to her pure kind if she takes any injury.
That is the way it’s presupposed to work, anyway. However a brand new bug was just lately found that gave Neeko the power to rework right into a tower—particularly, a Nexus Obelisk, a kind of turret that possesses the best structural injury output within the sport. In line with the LoL fan wiki (opens in new tab), they’re really 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 reworked 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 rework into one in all these one-shot loss of life fortresses, instantly and wherever on the map, throws the sport into full imbalance. It is mainly the LoL equal of Anakin Skywalker’s large 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 mistaken.
Some League gamers on Reddit have been shocked that this might occur in any respect, provided 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 assume every part 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 put up from 2015 (opens in new tab) breaks it down intimately: Nearly every part within the sport shares fundamental, underlying traits, though their complexity varies broadly.
“The phrase ‘every part is a minion’ is kind of true nevertheless it’s nearer to saying one thing like ‘every part is an object’ fairly than ‘every part is a lane minion’,” RiotXypherous defined within the put up. “Lane minions are literally fairly difficult, given they’ve a mannequin, animations and an AI—one thing that the essential minion object would not have (relying on which one is getting used, I feel they’re all idle cubes.)”
Some gamers have instructed that the issue is perhaps so simple as a failed or mistaken entity sort verify, however the truth that Neeko has been disabled for greater than 24 hours means that the issue is extra severe than a easy scripting error. After all, the timing is not supreme both: November 24 is the Thanksgiving vacation within the US, a significant vacation that sees most companies within the nation shut down for an extended weekend of meals, booze, and (I feel, 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 should 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 turn out to be 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 nicely.
There is no 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.