League fans furious at decision to remove Summoner IDs

Declan Mclaughlin
Morgana angry

League fans are angry in response to a recent Riot Games announcement over the switch from Summoner names to Riot IDs.

Riot announced on October 16 that it is sunsetting the Summoner name in favor of Riot IDs for League of Legends players to streamline its system across Valorant, League of Legends, and its other titles.

The developer also said it is changing for lore reasons, as Summoner is now an outdated concept from an old version of League’s backstory and “doesn’t synch” with League’s new history.

While the change seems small, it has managed to rile up the player base, as some players are furious with the changes.

“This is dumb and stupid and cringe,” one social media user said.

Others were upset with how this impacts the process around changing their names, because the switch to Riot ID will no longer allow them to change their in-game name as often.

“Losing unique summoner names so anyone can impersonate others because the # won’t be enough sometimes to notice right away, and if you want to change ,you can’t use Blue Essence anymore and will have to pay 10$ to change or use the free one THAT HAS 1 YEAR COOLDOWN,” another user said.

The general consensus seems to be that this change seems unnecessary on the surface and will cause players who prefer to change their name often to jump through more hoops. League players who waited years for Summoner IDs to become available just so they could claim them also feel cheated to some extent with the upcoming change.

“I waited 2+ years for the ign Myra to become available. I feel a deep connection to it obviously. If it was just some bullsh*t everyone can have it means nothing,” NRG League manager Myra Davis said.

What the League Summoner ID changes mean logistically

The change will be implemented on November 20, 2023. Players will be able to change their Riot ID on that day if they want to, but will then have to wait an entire year before they can do it again for free. If players want to change their name sooner, they have to purchase an additional name change for about $10 on in-game currency.

For League players uncertain if their Summoner ID is different from their Riot ID, they can hover over their profile picture in the LoL client and see it listed in the pop-out.

Once the change goes through, League players will have the same Riot ID name and number layout as in Valorant and other Riot titles.

About The Author

Based in Indiana, Declan McLaughlin is an esports reporter for Dexerto Esports covering Valorant, LoL and anything else that pops up. Previously an editor and reporter at Upcomer, Declan is often found reading investigative stories or trying to do investigations himself. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Indiana University. You can contact him at declan.mclaughlin@dexerto.com.