Riot Removes House Finishers from League of Legends Due to Epilepsy Concerns
Riot has announced that they have removed house finishers from League of Legends as a response to an issue raised by a player suffering from photosensitive epilepsy. The finishers, which are awarded to players who complete a certain amount of missions, involve a small animation that can trigger seizures in photosensitive epileptics.
Photosensitive epilepsy is a form of epilepsy where seizures are triggered by visual stimuli such as flashing lights or moving patterns. Riot has dealt with this issue before, as the ending animation of the Odyssey game mode in 2018 also triggered seizures in affected players.
The player who brought attention to this latest trigger mentioned that they are forced to ban certain champions, such as Lucian and Lux, whose animations utilize flashing lights, in order to avoid seizures during the game.
When the issue was reported, the community requested that a toggle be added to remove all potential triggers. However, Riot responded by stating that they didn’t have the time or resources to implement the toggle. Despite the frustration and risk, they decided to ship the finishers without a toggle.
With photosensitive epilepsy affecting one in 4,000 people, there could be up to 30,000 players at risk from this issue. Although Riot currently shows unwillingness to add the toggle due to resource limitations, they may consider implementing it in the future to prevent this from happening again.
This is not the first time Riot has addressed epilepsy concerns in their game. In 2017, they quickly fixed an issue with the Super Galaxy Gnar skin that was triggering seizures upon release.
We hope that Riot will take the time to make a positive change for the minority group of players affected by photosensitive epilepsy.
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