Riot changes LoL emote after fans raise concerns over unintended George Floyd connection

In the wake of one League of Legends emote being changed due to toxic connotations, Riot Games has made more changes to another emote’s name after its original title was perceived to be an unintended reference to a major event in American history.

The new emote featured K’Sante wearing a breathing mask with his eyes closed, which isn’t too suggestive on its own. The original name of the emote, however, caused a firestorm of complaints from the League player base, forcing the developers to change the name.

Supposedly, the emote was going to be called “Lemme Breathe,” which led to immediate backlash with fans since it could easily be connected to the events of July 17, 2014, when a black man named Eric Garner was taken down by police in New York.

In the arrest video, Garner can be heard saying “I can’t breathe” to the police multiple times, as he was placed in an illegal chokehold on the ground. In a similar case, a black man named George Floyd was also killed during an arrest in which he uttered the same statement, “I can’t breathe.” As a result, many players believe this emote could be used in a malicious manner.

The emote’s name has, however, been switched from “Lemme Breathe” to “Cope’Sante,” which is a better reference to the copium meme that has circulated around the internet. Most people say that people are on copium when their team is struggling to win but still believe, and should be a decent emote to spam when pulling off an improbable comeback on the Summoner’s Rift.

This isn’t the only emote Riot has had to change, either. When the LCS and LEC dropped their own team-branded emotes, 100 Thieves and Team BDS had to change their designs to essentially censor any suggestive content that could be taken the wrong way. The decision was widely criticized by the player base, and now, they’ve had to smooth out any issues before they get worse.