Riot Games hacked, League of Legends, VALORANT, and other titles affected
'No indication' that player data or personal information was obtained
It’s been a rough start of the year so far for Riot Games, the developer of popular titles such as League of Legends (LoL), League of Legends: Wild Rift, VALORANT, Teamfight Tactics (TFT), and Legends of Runeterra.
A week after the huge controversy around LoL’s season-opening cinematic, the gaming company announced on Saturday (21 January) that their ‘development environment had been compromised via social engineering attack’.
Earlier this week, systems in our development environment were compromised via a social engineering attack. We don’t have all the answers right now, but we wanted to communicate early and let you know there is no indication that player data or personal information was obtained.
— Riot Games (@riotgames) January 20, 2023
Riot said in the tweet that there was 'no indication' that layer information such as passwords, user names, and personal information that taken.
However, since it was the development environment that had been hacked, this may affect upcoming patch releases across Riot’s titles such as LoL, VALORANT, and TFT.
The first game to be affected is LoL’s scheduled patch 13.2 release on Thursday (26 January), which may also be delayed. This patch includes the long-awaited Ahri art and sustainability update (ASU) and the Lunar New Year skins. Ahri’s ASU may be delayed to Patch 13.3, scheduled on 8 February.
The League team also said in a tweet that the incident “may impact our delivery date for Patch 13.2”. However, they promised their players that the team was “working to stretch the limits of what we can hotfix,” so that the important tested balance changes can still be rolled out.
Heads up, players. This may impact our delivery date for Patch 13.2. The League team is working to stretch the limits of what we can hotfix in order to deliver the majority of the planned and tested balance changes on time still. https://t.co/DJ8qAKSdQi
— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) January 20, 2023
Riot’s Head of League Studio, Andrei “Meddler” Van Roon also replied on the original Riot Games thread that nothing will be cancelled, but those that can’t be hotfixed — such as Ahri’s ASU, will be moved to a later date.
The TFT team also said that patch 13.2, which would contain “Monsters Attack!” balance changes, will be affected. However, the team promised that they will implement a hotfix for the “most meaningful” changes needed.
13.2 was focused on further balance updates for Monsters Attack! This issue may impact our ability to release the full scope of balance changes planned, but we’re working to implement the most meaningful of those possible through a hotfix at our scheduled patch time. https://t.co/ur9IuR7aF4
— Teamfight Tactics (@TFT) January 20, 2023
It’s unknown to what extent the dev teams of the rest of Riot Games titles were affected, with Riot Games admitting that they “don’t have all the answers right now”, but asked the players for patience during the investigation.
Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.
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